OK... I was just thinking yesterday (*shock*, *horror*!) about the supposed "real" forms of magic (note that I do not state my stance on such ideas ). Anyway - As I was saying, this "real" magic often involves the work of candles. I was thinking that game-magic might take advantage of using such a system. The system would work for more arcane types of magic, and would require a bit of setting up (therefore increasing casting time). The candles are laid out by the character in a circle around them. They are lit. Then the character draws off the power of the candles. This allows the ability to cast some intensive spells, and increase cast time to lessen the number of total casts. Other things to consider are that the candles wear down after each use. You could consider that they are used fully for really intensive spells, and only partially for less intensive spells. Another thing that could be considered is collecting the candle sets. For example, a cast is requiring several colours of candle, and the character has an empty set. They must go to different places to get different candles for this specific set. This acts a little like a quest. Any ideas people? -Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche           

Interesting idea. One interesting thing is it would make it so that spells would actually take time and preperation to cast, so the player couldn''t just shoot out fireballs. Whether that is good or bad depnds on the game I suppose.


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That is why it is only for the more powerful spells. Firing off fireballs or shooting lightning out of your anus just requires my other ''mouse symbol'' system. That is why I think it would work... Plus, it requires you to restock on used candles for recasts

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

I''m going to get flamed and killed for this, but here it goes....

It seems that most people see and expect ''real'' forms of magic to be things found in paganistic religions and cults. But when it comes right down to it, isn''t prayer its own form of ritualistic magic? Heck, if some claims are to be believed, it is the most successful type of it.

So why not have a prayer-based magic system implemented? Give deity powers to various admins around the game who go over logs of prayers when they have the time, and cross-check the player''s request with their good standing in the game. If they find the request to befit the good standing...they answer it.

To raise your standing within the game, you could do good stuff for the game, rather than yourself. Give up time to help new players get cash/experience. Defend a small band of other from an attack by high-level PK''ers. etc,etc,etc.

Of course, doing bad things will drop this rating. Possibly couple this by making magic a somewhat powerful force.

Not only does this system almost FORCE people to stop the mindless PK and get back down to the friendly society that an online game should be.



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That is an interesting way of implementing Prayer... Actually, I already have documented prayer as a magic type, but I haven''t documented Candles... yet.

You have a very true point in that magic apparently is embodied with the gods and their prayer granting is a magic within itself... I already included prayer as a magic system for a cleric and a preist (makes more sense).

Your system would be VERY difficult for admins in a MMO game, because they already have enough hassles keeping people in line, let alone granting prayers. Nice thought though

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

That is an interesting idea about admins playing as gods, although Dwarfsoft is right... it would be way too demanding to implement. And you know those admins would be getting a constant stream of prayers along the lines of "Yo aDMiNS GiMMe SWoRD oF GoBLiN-SLaYiNG +500!"

I also like the candles idea for a magic system. I''m not familiar with too many of the things some people consider "real" magic, and I''m not going to offer my views on it either (though you can probably guess ), but it does sound like something that would be interesting to see.

Dwarfsoft, since you say "only for the most powerful spells," I assume this means the candle system would draw from a previously created set of spells? Wouldn''t it be interesting to give each color candle a set of properties such that the arrangement and execution of the magic actually generated a spell as a composite of the candles'' properties, rather than simply requiring formations for certain preset spells? It would open up a lot of creative possibilities on the player''s part... and I for one really love playing around with things like that to see what I can make them do.

-Ironblayde
 Aeon Software

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Yeah Iron (I was about to call you Wav .. Oops, you guys are really confusing me ). Anyway, I was thinking of each candle having a different property, and it is almost like a predefined spell system, but because of the time that it takes to cast there would have to be greater reward. If you were going to get into battle then you may not have time to use it, so it can''t really be used for ''fast-casts''...

Basically, I would go with the symbol drawing to cast small spells, maybe even click''n''cast for the simple fireball spell, and leave candle-casting to a more powerful and widespread spell. I am thinking things like meteors, weather attacks, turning a radius to ice, burning a radius, plaguing a radius, generally I think that candles work more with a radius type look at things.

Another thing that it could be... You may be able to cast a ''heal'' spell and everything (note that I say EVERYTHING) within a radius of so much gets healed. The smaller the radius, the quicker the healing (and the longer the duration of the spell). It can also be used to cast a protective sphere... That kind of thing..

Does it make sense how all of this fits together?

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

quote: Original post by dwarfsoft
The system would work for more arcane types of magic, and would require a bit of setting up (therefore increasing casting time). The candles are laid out by the character in a circle around them. They are lit. Then the character draws off the power of the candles. This allows the ability to cast some intensive spells, and increase cast time to lessen the number of total casts.

This kind of magic could be used in preparation of magic items and summoning demons, of course. And wizards should find a quiet place to execute these spells. Maybe they could even set up a temporary "home" in some of the dungeon rooms.

That''s the kind of responses I was looking for... Daemon summoning... Hmmm.. I LIKE IT! If you can''t fight fire with fire, fight daemons with daemons ... Cool

And setting up a home could be good, but when such a cast is going on, the daemons seek out the caster. This would be an incentive for a sorcerer-type to hook up with a warrior-type. So that they have a guard for their body . This is reminding me of Katherine Kerrs books, when they have battles on the etheric plane while Rhodry (i think his name was) looks after the bodies. (I think that is what I remember of a battle between Jill and someone)

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

Add to that list communing with spirits / shae for info about a target or situation. Or the fantasy equivalent of the internet

Protection spells are good (keeps out the foo as long as the candle is burning)