LibriumArcana.Games

What fantasy magic systems do you find particularily interesting/cool? A few of my favorites.

1) Jack Vance's for the feel. Magic is a craft, not a science, and little is new in the last days of the Dying Earth. Magic has an exotic, ancient feel but is not uncommon in the last days of the Earth.

2) The Warrens of Magic in the Malazan series. Otherworldly realms, sometimes inhabited by gods, each aligned to a particular power. Magicians can use the power of their warren and powerful ones can travel to other locations through the warrens.

3) The Earwe series by R. Scott Bakker. Magic as analogy to power of words and ways of thinking. The contrast between the Analogies of Anagogic sorcery, the logical constructs of Gnostic Sorcery, and the mysterious magic of the Pukke.

Eddings. Will being the force that you draw upon (energy from everything in one description), and a Word being the release (or a gesture, if you're a certain person). Very well rounded, simple, and with some nice safeguards.

Though it wasn't explained indepth, I liked the Magic System from the Shanarah series by Terry Brooks.

Depended entirely upon the weilder for it's level of power, the stronger the person, the more powerful the magick was, and carried with it a price for overuse (As seen in the advanced aging of Allanon in the Elfstones of Shanarah.)

The magic in the (amazing) comic The Red Star. Military science fiction, with magic, in a parallell of the the Russian revolution. If anyone hasn't read it, I would highly reccommend it.

Spells are called 'protocols', sorcerers or 'warcasters' are integrated into the military, and the magic and technology rely on each other. I'm doing a terrible job explaining, you'll just have to take my word...or go read it! This is the website, and here is some sample art.

I kinda enjoy the Slayers magic system.

The one in DnD is kinda cool in its own way...

The spellpoint alternative is also quite interesting...

Personally: I just say that magic rules regardless, unless it's faerie magic...

Mage will forever and always have the best magic system. It allowed for a highly flexible application of power while not having yourself bound up with often counterintuitive spells and 'memorization' schemes.

Mage will forever and always have the best magic system. It allowed for a highly flexible application of power while not having yourself bound up with often counterintuitive spells and 'memorization' schemes.

I don't know anything about the magic system in Mage personally, so I couldn't comment.

Dakarne wrote:

Mage will forever and always have the best magic system. It allowed for a highly flexible application of power while not having yourself bound up with often counterintuitive spells and 'memorization' schemes.

I don't know anything about the magic system in Mage personally, so I couldn't comment.

................

Okaaaaaay. Then why did you post if you are not capable of commenting?

Okaaaaaay. Then why did you post if you are not capable of commenting?

I was hoping you could enlighten the ones (like me, and maybe a few other members of this board) who know jack shit about how the system works. Sound fair?

Then why in the name of green apples didn't you just ask him to?

Then why in the name of green apples didn't you just ask him to?

Forgot to put it in...

I'm only human.

Dakarne wrote:

Okaaaaaay. Then why did you post if you are not capable of commenting?

I was hoping you could enlighten the ones (like me, and maybe a few other members of this board) who know jack shit about how the system works. Sound fair?

Then you ask that relatively simple question. Otherwise it looks like spamming, and I practice a policy of meeting spam with disproportionate bodily harm. It's good to be king.

Mage's system revolves around dividing reality into nine chunks.

Space(Correspondence), Mind, Spirit(Dimensional Science to the techies), Matter, Energy(Forces), Time, Entropy(Holds all of probability), Prime(Fundamental magical energy), Life.

By learning the tricks of any given chunk or 'sphere', you can modify it. By learning more than one, you can tie them together into compound effects. Prime 2, for example, allows for the creation of new 'Patterns' from thin air, by using up Prime energy. Tied to Matter 2(Simple patterns of matter), and Correspondence 2(Anything hand sized over great distances), you can create a business card on your partner's desk from your house.

You can literall tailor anything as your props and actions for spellcasting with enough effort, and do nearly anything with the right level of enlightenment and patience.

Then you ask that relatively simple question. Otherwise it looks like spamming, and I practice a policy of meeting spam with disproportionate bodily harm. It's good to be king.

Sorry for it looking like spam...

And thanks for the info Nitram.

The D&D system is based off of Vance's system and to me it feels like a poor cousin.

I also like the Black Company system, where sorcerers tend to have different areas of specialization, can become quite powerful, and work magic on the fly as well as have nasty tricks prepared.

I prefer my magic system, which goes by the unoriginal name "mana".

One which is worth mentioning...

HADOUKEN!!!

Overkill much?

Dakarne wrote:One which is worth mentioning...

HADOUKEN!!!

Overkill much?

It's just a single spell, which is about on par with a Netherese attack spell. Well, less, really, since you can survive point blank of Hadoken and you need to be a Pit Fiend on it's home turf to survive Polaris' Pulse. Not really relevent to a 'magic system.' discussion.

Okay then, I just thought it worth a mention...

For systems, I think the Harry Potter and the (insert rest of title here) System works pretty well, to say that it's a combination of something akin to "The Force" mixed with Incantations. Useful for pretty much anything, unlocking doors, killing people, torturing people, slicing people apart, and pretty much everything you could think of. And it has no "Limit" to how many you can cast per day, and lacks a discernable "Mana" system, making it one of the most versatile magic systems because of how much you CAN cast your spells. Only thing required is the right skills and training, and a connection to magic.

EDIT: Oh yes, and you need a Wand as well for some reason...

SirNitram wrote:Mage will forever and always have the best magic system. It allowed for a highly flexible application of power while not having yourself bound up with often counterintuitive spells and 'memorization' schemes.

I can't beleive I forgot the Spheres....definatly one of the best magickal systems I've come across in either RP or fantasy.

For me, the runic based "probability" magic from Deathgate has always been one of the most interesting concepts. It's a pity that Weiss and Hickman made a point of not exploring/explaining it in a comprehensive way.

For me, the runic based "probability" magic from Deathgate has always been one of the most interesting concepts. It's a pity that Weiss and Hickman made a point of not exploring/explaining it in a comprehensive way.

Probably to keep "Mysticism" to surround the whole thing...

I've found that things are infinitely more interesting and capture the attention more if they're incomplete...

I'm going to have to add the magic systems of Earwa, from The Prince of Nothing to th list. Sorcerers have the ability to percieve the onta, the nature of reality. Sorcery is the art of altering reality, which tends to be on the brute force side since humans are limited beings. The mechanism is by the utterance of words while thinking another phrase which fixes and clarifies intent. The three known schools of magic are:

The Gnosis, the most powerful kind. It operating system is based on logic and reason. If anagogic sorcery is poetry and the Puske is based on intent, it is philosophy.

Anagogic sorcery, which is like poetry. It shapes reality through metaphor and simile with phantom dragon heads breathing fire, clouds shooting lightning, and castle wall like wards.

The Puske, magic done by blind magicians so they focus on onta. It doesn't leave a mark, but is loses power because of the increased difficulty of its practitioners have with dealing with the world as it is.

I'll have to interject one of my own magic ideas in here...

Not a particularly complex system, and not particularly powerful firepower wise...

It just has the odd side-effect of being very bloody interesting to the onlooker, while at the same time being actually quite bland in appearance, which is kind of the way it's considered an 'interesting' magic system.

I like D&D's, specifically as seen in Forgotten Realms and Planescape. As I grew up with video games, I had always thought the "x pool of mana, z spell costs y mana," system was always the norm. The concept of knowing specific spells and preparing even more specific spells per day was alien to me, and though it took awhile it grew on me.

I tend to prefer FR and Planescape's relatively high-magic, to the point where it affects things normally taken for granted. In a no- or low-magic setting, for instance, death is death and you're dead, something which isn't always a given in FR or PS. Especially since you have the Fugue and petitioners, respectively.

(Actually, that leads me to an off-topic question: FR is by and large PS-compliant, but how do the Fugue, Kelemvor, and the FR afterlife fit into the PS die, go to most fitting Outer Plane, become petitioner system?)