SORCERY

From: Burton Choinski (burt@ptltd.com)
Date: Thu 02 Sep 1993 - 16:22:41 EEST


Graeme A Lindsell Notes...
%% > The second is a speculative one about sorcery. With reference to
%% > Burton Choinskis Sorcery with studies system, does anybody have
%% > objections to this in principle? There are some problems with it from a
%% > practical point of view (its very incompatible with existing sorcery),
%% > but I want to know what I liked the basic idea a lot but had problems
%% > with the implementation, as I thought that Burtons striving for purity
%% > of implementation made it very incompatible, and was inappropriate in
%% > other parts. I also thought that it could benefit from being combined
%% > with the Paul Reilly Presence system.
%%
%% I thought his striving for needless compatibility created certain
%% flaws. :-)

  My original idea with it was to be as compatible with the existing
  Sorcery spells as possible. Going with that assumption forced certain
  constructions and organizations that were somewhat forced at best and
  a hack at worst.

  Given my druthers I would rather rebuild all the sorcery spells from the
  ground up, first by figuring out a list of what can be manipulated
  and a list of forms of manipulation. Once those lists were there I would
  have a level platform to work from. The effects of various combinations
  might have some RQ3 analogs, most would not. And many combinations would
  have little use.

  The tricky part is determining effect for each manipulation. Some
  manipulations should have a greater "cost" to use, either by decreasing the
  amount of what can be manipulated or by increased the mana to do so.
  I can see animate taking more "energy" then "form" since more work must
  be done. I can see sorcery taking a very logical, consistant use of
  magical power. Spirit and Divine need not be logical or consistant since
  heym you are dealing with fickle spirits or gods. :)

%% Ditto about Presence, and I believe it has been suggested to Burton.
%% The system may have evolved since it was last posted: would Burton like
%% to comment?

  It was interesting, but the "presense" idea seemed too much like having a
  fetch. I liked the three-way difference in RQ3...the Shaman has his
  fetch and spirits, the Priest has his/her god and essences of his god
  (cult spirit spells), and the Sorcerer cuts out the middleman and just does
  it himself (but must put more work/mana to get the same effect).
        -- Burton

0,,


This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Sat 05 Jul 2003 - 20:29:35 EEST