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Old 07-22-2006, 01:09 PM   #3
Fern
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Join Date: Sep 2004
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Contributive casting is something we discussed seriously several years ago, along with all the appropriate handwaving, checking for proper sphere of the contributors, many items to be held and used, lots of nifty incantations, etc. We even had spells that required the contributing team members to be standing in the proper terrain - ie swamp for a swamp gas cloud to obliterate their foes.

It looked great on paper.

However, once we modeled it out, included the delays for generating enough mana so that each person could contribute properly based on their spellcraft knowledge, the time spent to cast the spell, and all the ancillary 'costs,' it became evident that there was a lot more dead air and waiting going on than actual fun and results.

What turned out to be a total blast in theory would have turned into a total grind in operation, and would have driven casters to tears of boredom.

We tried striking several steps and requirements to alleviate this tearful potentiality and found that doing so removed the theatrical qualities that had given it the on-paper draw.

We tried cutting back on the number of players needed to power a super-spell, peeling away the onion layers one at a time, until we discovered that -without the necessities that we'd started with- we had little left of any appeal.  Might as well be one guy in a room casting magic missile for all the fun it generated...

Bottom line: what may be great fun in the design stage can lose a lot of sparkle and shine on repetition, and can introduce grind into the processes which can quickly rival that of many crafting systems.  Plus there is the truth mentioned above pertaining to new games - it may be a very long time before you'll get enough players at skill level to actually pull something like this off - if it takes two mages to get anything done, and all the game has is one.. how fun is that?

That said, I'd say it definitely warrants a serious look.  I have no doubt that someone else can take a much more intelligent approach to this than I did, and turn it into a rollicking fun success.  Just because it didn't work for Legends of Karinth doesn't mean it wouldn't work just fine for you.
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