Vancian Magic?

Perhaps you could use MP, but only have it recharge over time outside of battle?

I don't like the Vancian system. I prefer MP use.

I guess the flavor could be constrewed(sp?) as this: Mana is a harnessable power that the human body produces during unstressed states, which differs from one person to another. The amount stored in the body also differs between people, thus, some are born to be mages.

Would that be cool?

For some reason that made me remember the plot from Ogre Battle 64.

"Some people are born talented at mageic, for example. Some are not. But regardless everyone can train and become better at it, no matter where thier skill level is. So what is the limit on human talent? Is there a limit?"

I'd assume the limit lies in the imagination, but to roleplayers, it would be how effective they could make use of their mana in their resevoir.

Hehe, MPS (Mana per Spell).

Well, in the game in question there was a very real "Seal" on human talent. And if you shattered it, entirely possible, you turned into a demon (though they called it Ogre, must be a Japanese thing).

Though as a roleplayer, I prefer more limitations on my characters than a MP system really provides. Heck, I thought playing a D&D sorcerer was too dang easy with the spontaneous casting. Limitations breed creativity. And thinking how to work around those limitations to achieve what you need is half the fun.

This is true, but at the same time, I prefer to see people bound only by their imagination. It really kinda' adds flavor from their minds to the situation at hand.

Unless they're idiots, and prefer to say shit like "I do the Kamehameha!".

Oddly I had no real problem with such DBZ style "Ki" warriors and such until they got to things like flying at super high speeds, blowing up planets, etc. Nothing wrong with being stylized.

Only problem I have with "Imagination" is that it leads to Ertai Style Asshats.

Oh, I have no problem with "Ki" warriors, it's just DBZ kinda' defined that type of character, sorta' like how Power Rangers defined "Sentai Teams" in America.

It's just the ripping stuff from Anime shows lack of imagination to me.

Also, I don't understand what Ertai is. >.>;;;

Ertai was an asshat on Gaia who pretty much defined prickish power playing on that site. he always played some omnipotent being who came up with some BS, quasi-plausible sounding physics to prove what he was doing, and demanded everyone he played with go conform to his inane quasi-physics, so that RPing with him basically turned into him trying to write a term paper on why you don't exist, and you hving to write one on why you still do. Was no fun at all and he made himself an ass if anyone chose to ignore him, trolling them constantly, coming up with new accounts to harrass ya. Just a big pain in the ass and a shining example of why peopel shouldn't be allowed to do whatever they want to an RP.

Ew.

I should count myself lucky for never having the displeasure of running into THAT douche-bagel.

That right there is the reason why I've been wanting to create or find an easy system for running group roleplays. I love running group roleplays, but I hate power-players who are too submerged in their own need to feel superior to enjoy storyline or the roles of others.

It's something I work on too. Probably the closest I got was my Hard Mode rules.

Oooo... Do tell!

The Hard Mode Rules, as copied from my thread on Gaia, where I tired to start the project. Was too ambitious though.

The Rules of Hard Mode: All Hard Mode locations must follow said rules. It is suggested that you post these rules on the front page of your location so that everyone may see it.

1) No NPC healers outside of locations dedicated to medicine. (e.g. Hospital, clinics, some Holy Temples) There is no instantaneous magical healing via NPCs.
2) NPC’s are severely limited.
3) There are no magical forces which do your dirty work for you. (e.g. Some guy is causing trouble in your location, you can’t just Teleport him out or OOCily Ban Him. Instead you should get a PC to roll up their sleeves and toss them out, or at the very least, call the local militia to come and convince him to leave)
4) The Shoe Elves are not present. There is no set of NPCs or powers that will allow you to clean slate your location every time you go to sleep. That table they broke in the bar brawl last night is still in pieces. Get a replacement at the Black Market or from a PC. NPCs, remember, are severely limited and would be more likely to run up your PPV bill and drink your booze than repair your table.
5) Gold does not just appear in your pocket. If you want some spending cash, or a successful business, then actually charge for your services or otherwise obtain those riches.
6) Those who break the Red Flag Regulations are no longer under the protection of Hard Mode rule #3.
7) Forget about the “Unless I say so you can’t harm my character” unwritten rule of role playing, it doesn’t exist here. This is not to say that they can auto hit your character, in fact that’s a Red Flag Violation. However, if someone has you pinned down, and helpless, you cannot say that they cannot kill off your character, lop off a limb, or do otherwise lasting harm to you, just because you don’t want it to happen. If it’s really that big a deal, go call one of your friends to get their character in there to save your ass. Or next time think about calling the local militia or some friends (In Character) before it gets out of hand.

1: Stats described as "Super" shall not be tolerated. This means no superstrength with you using Harley-Davidson Motorcycles as broadswords. No Supertoughness, if someone hits you with an axe, you better feel it and get at least staggered. No superspeed, if you find yourself moving at a rate that no human could possibly match, you're probably too fast.

2: Attacks that move "At the speed of light", or at "Instant Speed", or are "Undodgable" shall not be tolerated. This means that you can't just blink some shield spell into existence the moment you are about to be hit, you have to at least have been aware and possibly preparing for it. This means you can't just "Drain the life" out of anyone within your sight regardless of what they might do to try to avoid your vampiric effect.

3: Asinine use of supernatural powers for illogical effects or justifications shall not be tolerated. Note this doesn't mean you can't be creative. It does mean you can't do things like, say you're a water elemental, thus control water, and thus can puppet (In the literal sense of the word) everyone because the human body is mostly water.

4: You are not Solid Snake. There is a limited inventory for your character; you do not have Infinite Ammo.

5: Your supernatural character is not a humanoid wellspring of mana. Eventually, even legendary figures in stories get tired, they run out of magic, or they just can't shoot their eye lasers anymore.

6: Scalability of effort. No character should be able to just wave their hand or press and button and level a building. If your Arch Magus Blow Shit Up wants to level a city block, I expect the effort to take some amount of time on his part to gather that power, cast that spell, and probably leave him dead exhausted afterwards. If you want to call in that cruise missile strike on the drug lord’s home, I expect you to RP actually getting said missile, setting it up, getting an ally to man the station while someone laser designates the target. If you want big effects, you better put in big effort on your character's part.

7: Pocket Dimensions, Bags of Holding, or other "extra dimensional" storage that allows your character to have at his beck and call, wherever he goes, a nearly unlimited stockpile, will not be allowed.

8: Mary Sues need not apply. If your character happens to be a jack of all trades, and master of all too, get the hell out of here. No one is perfect, flawed characters are encouraged.

9: Any race, ability, or item which gives you "Practical Immortality" shall not be allowed. No troll style regeneration. No unlimited slug clones that also have exact copies of your character's memories, skills, and other knowledge. No scabbard of Excalibur that makes you immune to any mortal weapon.
9b: As an addition to that rule, no armor or other protective items will be allowed that make you effectively immune to what the majority of characters would have available.

10: Precognitive and invasive powers will not be allowed. Any ability that allows you to possess, dominate, brain wash, or otherwise influence a character against their will through such blunt means is not welcome here. As well any ability that allows you to see the future, determines fate, or read the minds of those who are not open and willing subjects is also not welcome.


That's what they were. The project failed though more in part from going too far with it than any real flaw in the basic concepts I think.

Yeah. The people on gaia don't usually go for anything that could be considered "long term". I'd play under those rules, provided other players stuck around to keep me company in the RP.

I got more frustrated because I usually end up playing the Villains (I did start RPing at the table as a DM after all), and watching masterful plots and plans getting ruined on Gaia by some Deus Ex Machina coming in and waving all the world's troubles away.

Sorry. I'm not familiar with the term "Deus Ex Machina", but I think I know where you're going with that.

Comes from greek plays. In quite a few of them at the end of the play a character would usually sweep in and fix everything that is wrong. Usually a god of some sort. Became a generalized term for any sort of reset button or widget that fixes all the world's ills.

For example, the Dragon Balls in said series, since I know you're familiar with it, would be very much a deus ex machina. Especially later on when basically all they are used for is to revive/fix all the damage the villian du jour inflicted.

Ah.

Thanks for that clarification.

Haha, sorry I vanished for a couple days. I hurt myself and caught a cold at the same time and couldn't concentrate worth a damn.

Either way, The advantage of the Vancian style MP system I was considering seems... well, it seems too unpopular, so I think I'll try a dual-MP system; 'Dark' Magic and 'Light' magic uses two types of MP.

In a setting element, this makes sense, as 'Dark' magic is born from a type of Mana called 'Empty Mana', and 'Light' magic is born from 'Infinite Mana'.

Empty Mana is born from negative emotions, such as despair, rage, fury... but it isn't truly evil. After all, without hunger, you would never eat, and you would starve; without fear you would never know when to run away.

Infinite Mana is born from positive emotions, such as love, joy, and hope... but it isn't truly good. Ecstacy can distract and draw your attention away from important matters.

I'll probably also impliment a tactics-ogre style 'Can only carry so many spells with you into one battle' system, with a seperate number for Light and Dark spells.

So, are we talking, like, tabletop RPG dynamics, or a model of same? Or something more of a descriptive RP system?

When it comes to low-level spells versus high-level spells, the issue is not the power, but the spell design. Sleep and Hold Person and Web are still useful because there's not a spell that takes over for them at the higher levels. They do their job and they do it well, and I think in part because their job goes better per the level of the caster; the spell may be largely the same, but cast by a 2nd level and cast by a 18th level, it's effects can be very different. That's scalability, and that's built into the spell design, as opposed to Final Fantasy straight-out overpower numbers games. So don't knock MP systems; it's not the system's fault, it's a design issue.

My favorite magic system was always the old Mage: The Ascension improvisational magic rules. I was damn good at that; even rank 1 can be quite powerful. But the old Shadowrun system was good, too. And the d6 system, too.

Actually, the Shadowrun magic system was interesting. You had spells that you learned, ways you knew how to work magic. There aren't levels in Shadowrun, so you had to buy spells with XP, representing time spent learning how to shape magic into those forms. And you could use any of the spells you knew at any time. But each spell had a risk of drain: you rolled some stats to resist it, or offset it, but every spell could cause you fatigue (i.e. stun damage; there were two damage tracks, physical and stun). You could avoid it if you rolled well, but if you kept pumping out the magic, you'd eventually wear yourself out. You could heal the fatigue just like you healed any fatigue, with rest; the longer you rested, the more you'd heal up. Flexible spell deployment, controlled but still limited with fatigue issues.

I'm planning to make a strategy RPG, in the same genre as Final Fantasy Tactics, so as it's a console game there's no game master to fall back on to say 'That's stupid, you can't do that' or 'That's BRILLIANT! ...Dammit, you broke my encounter. *Sigh* Here's your XP.'.

Although with the world-building that I'm doing, I'm hoping to make more than just a strategy RPG with the world building stuff I have.

Worth noting is that in the setting, magic explicitly doesn't always behave exactly as it's supposed to, due to the fact that it's powered not just by 'mana', but emotion and belief... so cultures which are seperate enough use magic in completely different ways and can't use one-another's magic unless they can make themselves 'think' a little differently.

Oh, so computer game based.

Well, the concept is still sound, it's just figuring out what the dynamic ought to be. RNG based on character statistics for drain, preset spell picks, learn new spells as bonuses for gear or missions, etc. Just throwing that out there.