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Old 05-20-2009, 06:18 AM   #1
Sergeytov
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Join Date: Aug 2007
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The Lost Cause of Magic

So the other day I was running an event on a MUSH I play on, and after doing some reflection on how things went, I found a few things of interest.

My thesis, for those who want the short version, is simple: Magic isn't very magical in most RP environs I'm familiar with these days.

Magic, for the purposes of the conversation, is 'an ability or item with properties that can not be achieved via conventional technology available within the theme.' A bit crude, and it may need to be modified later, but to clarify it in example: A 'magic missile' is 'magic', a crossbow would not be. A spell that allows personal flight without any regard to physics is magic, a plane in a modern theme is not. Note: Highly advanced technology or other sci-fi things (like psionics) can be considered 'magic'. The ability to set things on fire with one's mind isn't very different than a fireball spell, after all.

1) Players will metagame magic based on what's commonly known in the playerbase. - In most cases, if there's a 'fireball' spell, regardless of how 'rare' magic is supposed to be, just about every PC knows of it. Same with 'personal flight', 'teleportation' and several other 'magical effects.'

An amusing illustration from said event that was the inspiration for this post: One of the major bits of information I was trying to get players to come up with was that a NPC had combined two 'magic' abilities in a perfectly legal way to create a rarely seen effect within the theme. I tried to give hints, give descriptive clues and such, but strangely enough no one came up with it while I was running the event. Having run similar events in the past with powers that had explicit help files and the like, I've seen PCs ID the ability used with far greater ease.

2) Magic just isn't terribly exciting - Maybe this one is from me being old and grumpy, but in my experience 95% of 'magic' is just the same old stuff over and over. Now, part of this is there's how many millennia of folklore combined with a few decades of gaming to give mechanics to these ideas, but beyond 'the source of the magic', I've seen little difference in most venues I've visited. Ironically people trying to solve the 'boring' problem bring up the next thing on my list.

3) Magic's drabness is often compensated for by overbearing power. - Okay, at least someone is trying to resolve problem #2 on my list, I will say that much. On a grand scale, the bad guy wielding a fireball is old hat, no longer interesting. So let's kick it up a notch! No more 'fireball', how about a 'core inferno' spell is being prepped. This spell, when prepped, will detonate the core of a planet. So not only can a bad guy have magic, but it's magic trying to be a bit more interesting. Sadly, after enough times of saving the world even this tends to become drab. I've seen players go 'oh no, another magic plot that threatens to destroy the world/existance/whatever.' Not exactly the desired effect.

Solutions? I sure don't have much in the way of answers. The closest I've gotten on that point is 'give magic a 'personality'', but that's just a gut instinct, nothing refined by much thought.

And so, once again, I figure my ramblings might be of interest to readers here, so here we go.
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