Saturday Morning Adventure Dev Diaries #6: Magic
In today's Saturday Morning Adventure dev diary, I discuss my plans for the magic system in SMA.
In the video games that inspired this entire project, magic tends to work quite differently to D&D. Sure magic can be used in combat, using set spells to create certain effects. But outside of combat there is usually no need for ruleset to govern the magic, so it tends to be narratively hand-waved. Characters seem to just create various effects on the fly using their own prowess and knowledge without necessarily following a set formula. This vibe of having magic more like a skill than bunch of set effects someone can create is really something I want to come through in SMA.
The mechanical inspiration for my proposed system comes from listening to The Adventure Zone, an actual-play podcast that's just fantastic. In one season of TAZ, they used the RPG system "Monster of the Week". In Monster of the Week, magic users have access to two options: the "Use Magic" move and "Big Magic". It's a nice little system, which I'll try to summarise breifly.
The Use Magic move can be used instantaneously by casters to create a bunch of minor effects, such as damage, healing, or remote viewing. To draw a sloppy and largely inaccurate comparison, the Use Magic move handles most things that spells of 5th level and lower would in D&D. The user selects their desired effect, and makes the equivalent of an ability check in the game to determine the outcome. The outcome ranges from the exact effect they want, the desired effect with some drawback, or total loss of control of the magic. If the player wants to use an effect other than something on the supplied list, they must resort to Big Magic.
When it comes to Big Magic, players can describe pretty much whatever effect they want to create. Then, the GM chooses from a list of requirements, like a long casting time, needing weeks to research the spell, using rare ingredients, or requiring a Use Magic move. Once the requirementsput forward are met, the described effect occurs. Notably, Big Magic doesn't necessarily require an ability check to create the effect, though, ability checks may be needed to meet the various requirements put forward by the GM.
I find this system used in Monster of the Week really appealing. For one its pretty simple, the whole system fits into just a couple of pages - a far cry from the dozens of pages of spells in the 5e Player's Handbook. It's also quite free, and works to encourage creativity on the player's part.
So where does this leave us with SMA? Well I want to include some sort of rules for quick fixed abilities that magic users can pull out in combat. These will be handled by the ability system I'm going to include, which won't just work for magic but for all combat abilities. I'm also going to include some rules for using magic like any other skill in the game for a variety of effects, mirroring parts of the Use Magic move from Monster of the Week. I also do want the bigger, more grandiose magic to be possible in the system, so I'll either include some separate rules for that or find a way to fold it into the same system as using magic like a skill.
If you follow me on twitter (@DillTheHerb) you may have seen me tweet out that I accidentally deleted an entire dev diary just as I finished it about a week ago. This is the dev diary that got wiped. It's currently 2am, and I just finished rewriting the whole thing from memory as best I could. This information doesn't matter at all, I just wanted to complain about it some more.
In the video games that inspired this entire project, magic tends to work quite differently to D&D. Sure magic can be used in combat, using set spells to create certain effects. But outside of combat there is usually no need for ruleset to govern the magic, so it tends to be narratively hand-waved. Characters seem to just create various effects on the fly using their own prowess and knowledge without necessarily following a set formula. This vibe of having magic more like a skill than bunch of set effects someone can create is really something I want to come through in SMA.
The mechanical inspiration for my proposed system comes from listening to The Adventure Zone, an actual-play podcast that's just fantastic. In one season of TAZ, they used the RPG system "Monster of the Week". In Monster of the Week, magic users have access to two options: the "Use Magic" move and "Big Magic". It's a nice little system, which I'll try to summarise breifly.
The Use Magic move can be used instantaneously by casters to create a bunch of minor effects, such as damage, healing, or remote viewing. To draw a sloppy and largely inaccurate comparison, the Use Magic move handles most things that spells of 5th level and lower would in D&D. The user selects their desired effect, and makes the equivalent of an ability check in the game to determine the outcome. The outcome ranges from the exact effect they want, the desired effect with some drawback, or total loss of control of the magic. If the player wants to use an effect other than something on the supplied list, they must resort to Big Magic.
When it comes to Big Magic, players can describe pretty much whatever effect they want to create. Then, the GM chooses from a list of requirements, like a long casting time, needing weeks to research the spell, using rare ingredients, or requiring a Use Magic move. Once the requirementsput forward are met, the described effect occurs. Notably, Big Magic doesn't necessarily require an ability check to create the effect, though, ability checks may be needed to meet the various requirements put forward by the GM.
I find this system used in Monster of the Week really appealing. For one its pretty simple, the whole system fits into just a couple of pages - a far cry from the dozens of pages of spells in the 5e Player's Handbook. It's also quite free, and works to encourage creativity on the player's part.
So where does this leave us with SMA? Well I want to include some sort of rules for quick fixed abilities that magic users can pull out in combat. These will be handled by the ability system I'm going to include, which won't just work for magic but for all combat abilities. I'm also going to include some rules for using magic like any other skill in the game for a variety of effects, mirroring parts of the Use Magic move from Monster of the Week. I also do want the bigger, more grandiose magic to be possible in the system, so I'll either include some separate rules for that or find a way to fold it into the same system as using magic like a skill.
Magical Abilities
I'm going to build this system in a similar way to the Banes & Boons system in the RPG Open Legend. Open Legend is a free RPG, and I'm always baffled by how little exposure it seems to have. It's really neat, check it out for sure. In short, there are banes and boons in Open Legend that can be afflicted in a variety of ways using different stats.
I want to do something kind of like this, but more in a way that a player would actually build an ability by choosing an effect, choosing damage, and working out a resource cost or something similar.
I actually want to build a lot of the progression system in SMA similarly to how Open Legend deals with character progression, but I'll elaborate on this more in the dev diary on abilities and progression when I write it.
I want to do something kind of like this, but more in a way that a player would actually build an ability by choosing an effect, choosing damage, and working out a resource cost or something similar.
I actually want to build a lot of the progression system in SMA similarly to how Open Legend deals with character progression, but I'll elaborate on this more in the dev diary on abilities and progression when I write it.
Magic as a Skill
This system will handle most out-of-combat uses of magic. Does the necromancer want to get over a wall? They make an ability check to summon a tower of bones underneath their feet. The battlemage is preparing for an upcoming fight? They cast a temporary magical enhancement on their weaponry. The party is interrogating a kobold? The wizard beguiles their mind, forcing them to tell the truth. Basically the key idea here is that magic is treated just like any other skill in the game, like Athletics or History. When the player can think of a way to use their skill to overcome an obstacle, they make an ability check.
Hearing this, you may be asking "but surely the breadth of potential magical applications would make other skills less appealing by contrast?". Which is certainly a valid concern, and would in fact be the case if it wasn't counterbalanced somehow. So that's exactly what we'll do. Using magic in this way will either have some minor resource cost, have greater consequences on failure, or just be more difficult via having a higher ability check difficulty class.
The key thing here is that anything that a player attempts to do using this system should be possible for a suitably skilled individual to do anyway. That wall from before could be scaled by an adept climber. The battlemages weapons could be honed and sharpened by a smith. And lets not talk about what happened between the kobold and the party paladin.
The key thing here is that anything that a player attempts to do using this system should be possible for a suitably skilled individual to do anyway. That wall from before could be scaled by an adept climber. The battlemages weapons could be honed and sharpened by a smith. And lets not talk about what happened between the kobold and the party paladin.
Rituals
The Rituals system will cover the more grandiose magic, the actions that would be impossible otherwise - raising the dead, teleporting vast distances, summoning elder gods, that kinda thing. It's more or less the same idea as Big Magic from Monster of The Week, but I think I'll probably end up giving a slightly more solid mechanical backing for the costs of the spell. That or I'll actually show some restraint and not overdesign it to hell.
In Closing
As with most things I write in these dev diaries, a lotta these ideas may well change significantly later down the line. This is the general shape I want for the magic system though
I'm not yet sure how to deal with using magic abilities outside of combat, or skill magic within combat for that matter. I have never been more annoyed with a video game than when a certain unnamed title wouldn't let me use a basic heal spell outside of combat, so I definitely wanna avoid that sorta issue. However, at the same time I dont really want a mage using the combat fireball to try and blow down a door or something. And what if a player wants to use a creative idea they've had in the middle of combat? Well there's plenty of time to work all this stuff out, and I've got plenty of RPGs to read and learn from before then.
If you follow me on twitter (@DillTheHerb) you may have seen me tweet out that I accidentally deleted an entire dev diary just as I finished it about a week ago. This is the dev diary that got wiped. It's currently 2am, and I just finished rewriting the whole thing from memory as best I could. This information doesn't matter at all, I just wanted to complain about it some more.
The next dev diary will probably be on the ability system I mentioned and character progression in general, but im also writing one on my plans for action economy of SMA right now so I guess we'll just see whatever is finished first. Whatever it is, I hope to see you then!
Like in combat the necromancer is surrounded by the enemy and needs to get out of their reach before they can hit him. He could summon a pile of bones to move him out of their reach, and would be difficult terrain for them to climb like a pile of gravel or sand. I would say as it takes place of a move action it thus would be a move action to do this, that's my take one it. Also i think i will try out this in my new modern setting i am trying to run online right now.
ReplyDeleteAlso you could use exhaustion as a way for a draw back to casting too much, and replace the concentration system within the 5th edition book with it. so a failed use results in a constitution save vs the dc of the spell or the difficulty of the skill check you were trying to do. This would result in one level of exhaustion which one point can be recovered after a short rest current system or all if you use the option that a short rest is one day. A long rest ether way would net you all the points
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a really solid suggestion, thanks for the input. Exhaustion could certainly serve as a good way to avoid out-of-combat magic getting too powerful compared to other skills, or as a possible cost for ritual magic. Using it as a cost for magic within combat sounds more like something I'd have as an optional rule though, I'm not sure if it fits with the whole JRPG combat vibe I want for SMA.
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