Subject: Re: Premature concerns about spell system
From: Sinister Serpent (sinister.serpent@sci.fi)
Date: Thu Feb 17 2000 - 11:17:12 EET
> > I spent weeks doing combo after combo finding new spells... a month later, > > about 10 sites could be easily found with complete spell lists and all my > > work meant nothing... > > The system is not so simplistic as you might have seen in Asheron's Call > or any other system of the similar "Dungeon Master"-orientation. To > point out some things, first of all magic is not that common-place in > Majik3D, meaning that the information concerning the existing magical > symbols is completely unknown to most players and very hard to gain. It > is also intended that the players, in this context, prefer to keep > magical information to themselves and it shouldn't be hard as the world > of Majik is QUITE large and continuous player interaction is supposed to > be something in the vein of "not so common" in this context (this is > supported by the absence of long-distance telepathic "MUD-tells" and > public discussion channels). Not to mention the communication between > players of different races might be completely impossible in some cases > due to linguistic differences etc. > > Secondly, from the beginning of the game, it is intended that the > distribution of magical knowledge is fascistically controlled by a > certain group of special hand-picked individuals, who will BE FOUND by > the most eager and anxious players who want to learn magic. Needless to > say, this means that there will be no "ancient tomes" from which every > bit of magical knowledge is picked up in a matter of hours or days. > > Third, there has been a lot of discussion about magical symbols being > "individually different" among different players at least to some > extent, which of course means that players can't "leech" magical > gestures and words from each other, they need to learn the idea behind > them first, and it will take time. > > Fourth, even though the players would gain extensive symbolic > information, > simply trying out chaotic combinations of magical symbols will usually > lead to consequences other than making a fancy puff of green smoke, and > as mortality is a Big Issue in Majik, this approach is not recommended. > Certain preparations are always needed. After having a role-playing session yesterday I had a discussion with a friend concerning magic and knowledge related to it. He had quite interesting idea about magic. Basically the idea was like this: the more common the spell is, the less affective it is. Also, it will be easier to learn and cast the spell because all the research and knowledge in the past related to it. Thus, only ONE person knowing a certain spell would mean that the spell would work at 100% effectiveness, but only one person in the world would know how to cast it. Two persons sharing a knowledge on the same spell would decrease effectiveness to 50%, four persons would mean only 25% and so forth. In other words, spells would be unique, until they would be taught to others. The reason why spells would be easier to learn when the knowledge has been shared is that more research work had been done to make these spells work better by more and more people etc. I do not know if this idea fits the world of Majik in general, any single magic system in Majik or at all, but just an idea how to make information related to magic more than valuable and not just some generic info which would end up on some WWW-pages. -- Lord Sinister - the serpent god <mailto:sinister@majik3d.org>
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