Re: Olympia: opinions on magical research

From: skrenta@cbnewsg.att.com (Rich Skrenta)

Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1992 18:11:33 +0000

srt@aero.org (Scott "TCB" Turner) writes:
> Caveat: I know next to nothing about the current implementation of the
> magic system.  My feeling is that magic should be awesome and
> fantastic - but also difficult to learn, difficult to control, and
> dangerous.

I agree here.  Many players know that I dislike "battle magic",
and think magic should be powerful, but obscure and indirect.

> (1) Specialization should be at the skill level, not the spell research
> level.  That is, there should be a variety of magical skills: Weather Magic,
> Necromancy, Summoning, Fire Magic, Water Magic, Earth Magic, Wind Magic,
> etc., etc.  Using these skills would then research spells, which could
> then be cast.

I like this, since it combines the best of both systems.  However,
it really makes it a time consuming enterprise to become a powerful
wizards.  That is a good thing, but I don't want to make it too
hard.

Perhaps if I also made it easier to study up the individual spells,
learning magic would be challenging but not take an insane amount
of time.

> (3) There should be some costs involved in casting spells.  Probably
> this should be monetary, but I'm fond of a system where there's a
> small chance you can kill yourself using magic

Someone suggested that the cost be in hard-to-find items, to
promote exploration.  For instance, Heal requires a mallorn leaf,
obtainable only on island xxx.

--
Rich Skrenta

References

Re: Olympia: opinions on magical research
srt@aero.org (Scott "TCB" Turner)
Thu, 30 Apr 1992 17:28:13 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Olympia: opinions on magical research
srt@aero.org (Scott "TCB" Turner)
Thu, 30 Apr 1992 17:28:13 +0000