NaGaDeMon / RoleVember 2019 - Magic
I've mentioned Ukiyo Zoshi ("Tales of the Floating World") earlier in this sequence of posts. It was the series of multiform LARPs that I ran wth Dave Chandraratnam back in the late 90s at game conventions in Sydney. These were the games we were solidly booked out for...
...where we'd have sessions of 6 players in the first session (because that was the maximum team size that the conventions expected)...
...then a few extra players in the second session due to word of mouth...
...then two full teams in the third session (10-12 players) and we'd split GM duties...
...then then a player from the first or second session would step up for GM duties, when we'd have 14+ players (divided into three groups of 4-5, each with their own GM)...
...and by the tenth session of the convention we'd have half a dozen GMs, and 30 odd players...
...good times.
I've already indicated that I'm recycling some of the faction ideas from those games, but there's another idea from those days that has popped up in many of my designs since then. I'm sure I've mentioned it a few times on this blog, but it's been one of those ideas that hasn't seen complete implementation.
Connection. Conduit. Capacity.
The idea is pretty simple.
To start working simple magics that sense the universe and provide you with loopholes to exploit, you need to connect to the world around you. Connection.
To advance to more complex magics, you need to link to the world around you, you need to eel it flow through you, and transform it as you channel the energies of reality back into the universe. Conduit.
To create the most powerful effects, you need to have mastered the ability to exert the very essence of your soul into the wider world. Capacity.
At the simplest level, "Connection" is a measure of how many energy sources a mystic may be attuned to at any one time. For a magic system that is designed to reflect the various mystic traditions found across the world this means that energy sources might include geomantic energy nodes, the faith of believers, a carefully structured workshop, mentally focused chanting, rare components, the breaking of taboos, meditation, moments of celestial alignment, sacrifice, or a variety of other energy sources that might be traditionally associated with magical arts.
Similarly, at the simplest level, "Conduit" is a measure of how many of those energy sources may be activated simultaneously.
Finally, "Capacity" is a measure of how much energy a mystic can store within themselves, and therefore how much power they can contribute into a magical effect without needing to draw on outside forces.
Each has a flat value. Connection must always be higher than Conduit, and Conduit must always be higher than Capacity.
A latent psychic or mystic capable of sensing the forces of the supernatural, but little more, might have a connection of 1, but no conduit or capacity. If they improve their sensitivity, they might improve their Connection score. In this game, the first connection gained by a mystic will be their desire for change in the world, focused on a specific community to whom the mystic belongs. They don't need a book for this, it might be considered a fundamental divine spark inherent in a certain percentage of the population.
A hedge wizard, medium, alchemist, herbalist, or similar "lesser" mystic, might earn that title with a Connection of 2 and a Conduit of 1 (but no Capacity). They might improve their sensitivity and their range of potential power sources by improving their Connection score. They might increase the power of their effects (and the things they are capable of crafting), by increasing their Conduit score. But they'll need to increase their Connection before they can increase their Conduit. In most cases, a book of magic will have been encountered by these individuals. Such a book provides the mystic's second point of connection, and their initial conduit point.
A true mage earns the title once they have a minimum Connection of 3, Conduit of 2, and Capacity of 1. For the purposes of this game, a familiar turns a "lesser" mystc into a true mage, the union between mystic and familiar automatically adds a single level to each of the magical ratings. The familiar acts as a transient source of power (+1 Connection), a channel through which mystic energies may be diverted (+1 Conduit), and a battery from which true magical potential may be drawn (+1 Capacity). A true mage may boost any of these ratings, as long as they maintain the pattern of "Connection>Conduit>Capacity".
Improving these is a factor of character experience. So a character could feasibly spend all of their advances on Connection points to maximise their ability to access magical energy wherever they are. If they decided to maximise their Conduit score, they could only do this with every second advance (because they'd have to alternate between Connection and Conduit increases), this would still give them a high versatility of potential energy sources, but would allow them to empower their effects at the highest degree. If they decided to maximise their Capacity, they could only do it every third advance (cycling through the three values as they were each increased), such mystics might not be as flamboyant as the others, but their staying power and ability to cast magic under adverse circumstances would give them a hidden edge. (Of course this doesn't include the advances that a character might spend on their mundane skills and abilities.)
The catch with improving Connection will be the acquisition of magical books or practices describing new (or different) ways to connect to the energies underlying reality.
So this basically means that "latent" mystics don't need to have read any books, by they might have absorbed the knowledge from one, or might have learnt the lessons by word of mouth from someone who knew a basic knack of connecting. "Lesser" mystics will have augmented their inherent connection with the knowledge of mystic power from at least one additional source, and if they have read more than one book they may have refined their knowledge to a degree that they are able to create mystical effects of their own design by mixing and matching effects from different "books" of magic. True mages will have been catalysed by a familiar, and are able to transcend the effects of the books they have learned from, this is done by forcing their own soul onto the reality around them.
There are bits of this that certainly aim in the direction I want them to... but there still feels like a bit of work that need to be done to make the whole system more intuitive and elegant.
...where we'd have sessions of 6 players in the first session (because that was the maximum team size that the conventions expected)...
...then a few extra players in the second session due to word of mouth...
...then two full teams in the third session (10-12 players) and we'd split GM duties...
...then then a player from the first or second session would step up for GM duties, when we'd have 14+ players (divided into three groups of 4-5, each with their own GM)...
...and by the tenth session of the convention we'd have half a dozen GMs, and 30 odd players...
...good times.
I've already indicated that I'm recycling some of the faction ideas from those games, but there's another idea from those days that has popped up in many of my designs since then. I'm sure I've mentioned it a few times on this blog, but it's been one of those ideas that hasn't seen complete implementation.
Connection. Conduit. Capacity.
The idea is pretty simple.
To start working simple magics that sense the universe and provide you with loopholes to exploit, you need to connect to the world around you. Connection.
To advance to more complex magics, you need to link to the world around you, you need to eel it flow through you, and transform it as you channel the energies of reality back into the universe. Conduit.
To create the most powerful effects, you need to have mastered the ability to exert the very essence of your soul into the wider world. Capacity.
At the simplest level, "Connection" is a measure of how many energy sources a mystic may be attuned to at any one time. For a magic system that is designed to reflect the various mystic traditions found across the world this means that energy sources might include geomantic energy nodes, the faith of believers, a carefully structured workshop, mentally focused chanting, rare components, the breaking of taboos, meditation, moments of celestial alignment, sacrifice, or a variety of other energy sources that might be traditionally associated with magical arts.
Similarly, at the simplest level, "Conduit" is a measure of how many of those energy sources may be activated simultaneously.
Finally, "Capacity" is a measure of how much energy a mystic can store within themselves, and therefore how much power they can contribute into a magical effect without needing to draw on outside forces.
Each has a flat value. Connection must always be higher than Conduit, and Conduit must always be higher than Capacity.
A latent psychic or mystic capable of sensing the forces of the supernatural, but little more, might have a connection of 1, but no conduit or capacity. If they improve their sensitivity, they might improve their Connection score. In this game, the first connection gained by a mystic will be their desire for change in the world, focused on a specific community to whom the mystic belongs. They don't need a book for this, it might be considered a fundamental divine spark inherent in a certain percentage of the population.
A hedge wizard, medium, alchemist, herbalist, or similar "lesser" mystic, might earn that title with a Connection of 2 and a Conduit of 1 (but no Capacity). They might improve their sensitivity and their range of potential power sources by improving their Connection score. They might increase the power of their effects (and the things they are capable of crafting), by increasing their Conduit score. But they'll need to increase their Connection before they can increase their Conduit. In most cases, a book of magic will have been encountered by these individuals. Such a book provides the mystic's second point of connection, and their initial conduit point.
A true mage earns the title once they have a minimum Connection of 3, Conduit of 2, and Capacity of 1. For the purposes of this game, a familiar turns a "lesser" mystc into a true mage, the union between mystic and familiar automatically adds a single level to each of the magical ratings. The familiar acts as a transient source of power (+1 Connection), a channel through which mystic energies may be diverted (+1 Conduit), and a battery from which true magical potential may be drawn (+1 Capacity). A true mage may boost any of these ratings, as long as they maintain the pattern of "Connection>Conduit>Capacity".
Improving these is a factor of character experience. So a character could feasibly spend all of their advances on Connection points to maximise their ability to access magical energy wherever they are. If they decided to maximise their Conduit score, they could only do this with every second advance (because they'd have to alternate between Connection and Conduit increases), this would still give them a high versatility of potential energy sources, but would allow them to empower their effects at the highest degree. If they decided to maximise their Capacity, they could only do it every third advance (cycling through the three values as they were each increased), such mystics might not be as flamboyant as the others, but their staying power and ability to cast magic under adverse circumstances would give them a hidden edge. (Of course this doesn't include the advances that a character might spend on their mundane skills and abilities.)
The catch with improving Connection will be the acquisition of magical books or practices describing new (or different) ways to connect to the energies underlying reality.
So this basically means that "latent" mystics don't need to have read any books, by they might have absorbed the knowledge from one, or might have learnt the lessons by word of mouth from someone who knew a basic knack of connecting. "Lesser" mystics will have augmented their inherent connection with the knowledge of mystic power from at least one additional source, and if they have read more than one book they may have refined their knowledge to a degree that they are able to create mystical effects of their own design by mixing and matching effects from different "books" of magic. True mages will have been catalysed by a familiar, and are able to transcend the effects of the books they have learned from, this is done by forcing their own soul onto the reality around them.
There are bits of this that certainly aim in the direction I want them to... but there still feels like a bit of work that need to be done to make the whole system more intuitive and elegant.
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