Abracadabra

I was going to write about spell components. Had the outline all typed up. But instead, I'm taking a cue from Sandy's article and having you write it. Metaphorically, of course. But, the good news is this contains only 83% less content, 155% more links and quotes, and an infinite percentage more made-up statistics.

Of course, one may see this as shameless filler brought upon by real life issues and FlatCon sucking up my spare time. But, that would be cynical, right?

Last interlude, I spoke about a long-running campaign I was in. This time, you have two games. First was a pickup game of Hollow Earth sponsored at Armored Gopher Games. Hollow Earth is a 1940's alternate reality game, very Indiana Jones pulp, except the Earth is hollow and ancient folks sort of left the area festooned with magical and psychic devices. Sort of; I either came in late and missed the back story or the GM didn't have to use that particular hook. Instead, we went to Mars. Great game, and that session along with the FlatCon session is making my current game seriously threatened to be in the 40 percent of this graph.

The GM had the sourcebook Secrets of the Surface World, which outlines how you can use magic and psionics in the game. The GM emphasized that magic exists and can work wonders, but it is subtle. One of the pre-gen characters was an elderly magician. He could do massive amount of damage, given enough time. A monster was chained to a wall, and after a minute of concentration, the magician pretty much turned the monster inside out.

Of course, the monster was chained to a wall, and a minute is many, many turns of battle. From a game mechanics point of view, the player needs X amount of successes, and rolls Y number of dice, and X is greater than Y. Of course, the magician character had other skills, so magic was one of those "last ditch" efforts when a gun or sword couldn't do the trick. Not sure how the actual rules work; the GM did a great job of bypassing rules that got in the way of the fun, and the rules themselves are remarkably well-adapted to the particular genre.

"By the power of three times three. As I will it, so shall it be." (uncovers her eyes).
"What?"
"My eyes are brown."
"Oh."
"They're usually green."
"You can do that with contacts."
"Yeah, but it suits you ... subtle, but good."
Movie: The Craft

Second is a current game of GURPS Castle Falkenstein / Steampunk, where the characters are following in the footsteps of Around The World in Eighty Days. GURPS' spell system is skill-based and is used like any other skill You have a 14 in shooting a gun, 13 in casting a Sleep spell, and 15 in biology. However, GURPS has the additional issue of mana, and this is a low-mana world. Which means that spell casting is at a -5, right off the bat. Plus there are the dreaded "negative modifiers" which decrease the spell, plus if it's a spell against someone else (like the aforementioned Sleep spell), the subject usually gets a resistance roll / saving throw. With a 3d6 roll, -5 is pretty nasty, and you quickly move from the good side of the bell curve to the bad side. All these things make the GM happy, in that spells aren't going off willy-nilly. But they make the one player whose character can actually use magic sad, because he finds it is often easier to shoot a guy than cast the Sleep spell.

"Didn't you learn anything about real magic from books?" When Fiona looked offended, BJ added, "I mean, something that worked in the physical world?"
Fiona nodded seriously. "Just one thing. It's more than I've even seen confirmed before. Watch ... . This is going to take about ten minutes, is that okay?"
"Sure." BJ poured water from the still-warm kettle into the dishpan. "I'll start these, if it doesn't distract you."
"Hey, go ahead." Fiona resumed waving her arms ... [and] finished, "OX!" and folder her arms, waiting. BJ, putting away a plate, stumbled and dripped it. The fragments skittered across the floor to all corners of the room.
"Did you do that?" Despite all that she had seen in Crossroads, BJ found this extremely hard to believe.
Fiona nodded. "And it works every time, exactly the same."
Under the Healing Sign, Nick O'Donohoe

Both games are in the "magic is hard and unpredictable and mysterious" genre, and it is that trope that prevents magic from overpowering the macro-society. And I'm reminded of the critical spell failure column where one reader balked that magic and non-magic should be balanced in most games, and the critical spell tables threw off the balance. Except in games I'm playing, magic and non-magic is not balanced. As I've said before, my games tend to take magic and make it otherworldly, not like pressing a button and watching the sparks fly. After all, magic should be magical.

But is that fun? What works great in the macro comes to a screeching halt when it's one particular person (say, a player-character) casting one particular spell and it fizzling out time after time after time. One of the rules of improv is to say "yes ... and." Don't block your fellow players; let them succeed and let their success drive the next challenge. If a character wants to swing across a chasm, you don't tell her no, you let her swing and deal with the consequences of being alone on the wrong side of the cliff. Failing spells, on the other hand, is an instant block. It's anti-climatic. It's not fun. So, what are the options?

One option is to be upfront -- say that magicians aren't effective, and you'll need to have some skills to fall back on. It works. The character who can cast spells is also a whiz at alchemy, which is a lot more solid, and has essential skills in Faerie Lore. But it robs the players of playing a pure magician. My response to that is "too bad." What I said above with the rules of improv doesn't apply during character creation, in my opinion. Saying "no" is the GM's most powerful weapon.

Another option is to make the player unique. Turn them into the fantasy equivalent of a superhero; it's Dr. Strange to the rescue. But you're no longer playing a mysterious Victorian-era game or a modern magic-noir game, you're playing a superhero game.

The third option is to make all magic more powerful. They want to play a magician, pick up AD&D. Or ramp up the current rules; low mana worlds are just an optional rule in GURPS. But again, that changes the whole mood of the game. Are you ready for that?

Finally, a fourth option is to change what spells are being used. In the GURPS game, the magic-using character picked up a Shapechanging spell, where he can spend time, spend a point of fatigue, and he has a reasonable chance of casting the spell correctly. So, he got to show off some more magic, and even got into a magical battle of wills (when your character is sneaking around an enemy castle, don't say "gosh, I hope they don't have an enemy mage" -- I gave him a few plot points and typed in "Sultan has magical Vizier" into my Scrivener notes (and I need to say that Scrivener is an awesome way to manage role-playing sessions)).

In short, problem averted, it worked out great. But, I want to hear about your magic. How do you use magic? And what do you want to hear from this article? I've been writing for over a year and have amassed over 50,000 words between the two columns (which is a NaNoWriMo novel), and I still have lots to write about (like the aforementioned spell components article). In the first column, my goal is to talk how "spells interact with life." But really, it's how spells interact with the game, and how spells interact with the scenario. So, ideas?