DESIGN: The Physics of Magic

[coder at ibm.net]

 From one of our better known members:

 From: yospe at hawaii.remove.this.edu (Nathan F. Yospe)
 Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.admin
 Subject: DESIGN: The Physics of Magic
 Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 14:20:12 -1000


Well, having recieved a couple of requests for this, here are a couple
of magical universe models:

Model 1 -

Fielded planes overlapping, each possessing influence over the others

Four planes: Physical, Mental, Magical, and Animistic

Physical is broken into the following elements, which can be harnessed
and drawn into a being who uses them -

Speed      - imbued in all objects in motion, and fed by the -power-.
Strength   - imbued in all objects that lend or counter motion, also
             fed by -power-.
Immutivity - imbued in objects that cannot be moved, such as armor.
             fed by -substance-.
Integrity  - imbued in objects that can survive degradation of
-substance-.

Armor, for example, would be formed of objects with high immutivity
and _very_ high integrity. A weapon should be inbued either with speed
or with strength, or possibly both. Speed attempts to counter
integrity, stregth to counter immutivity. -power- can be gained by
draining some source of -substance-, such as is done by men to food.
-substance- is extracted from the physical field by special
constructs. Plants are the only common forms of these constructs.

Mental is broken into the following elements:

Percived (the eye) - imbued in all senses, natural or otherwise,
                     the font of awareness. Precognition, mind
reading, and
                     the awareness of the universe.
Projected (the hand) - imbued in all controls of aspects of the
                     mental plane. Can decieve the eye, or the center.
                     Disguise, projective telepathy.
Concieved (the source) - can create projections into the physical
plane,
                     or alter parts of the physical. Teleportation,
                     telekinesis, and telecreation are all aspects of
this. Invested (the center) - alterations to the mental plane itself.
Focus, control,
                     thought and reason, and self healing on the
physical plane.

Magic is broken into the following elements:
polar opposites, cancel each other on contact.
Water/Fire - The creative and destructive magics; both are chaos.
Earth/Air  - The stagnant/permanant and the changeful/mercurial; 
             both are transience.
Light/Dark - The purity and the absense; both are order.

A chaos and an order will mix to form an ancience.
Water + Light - Hope (Birth Magic) (Females Only) - includes healing
Water + Dark  - Pain (Blood Magic) - self sacrifice here... includes
absorbtion
                of another's wounds, and sympathetic - a wound for a
wound Fire  + Light - Strength (War Magic) (Males Only) - non flame
projectives... 
                beams and blasts and raw magic.
Fire  + Dark  - Terror (Control Magic) - similar to blood magic, but
the blood
                is of another. Extracts a price from its user in the
fullness of
                time.

A chaos and a transience will mix to form a change.
Water + Earth - Growth (Soil Magic)   - all magic relating to plants
Water + Air   - Cloaking (Mist Magic) - teleportation, false
projection, etc. Fire  + Earth - WorldBirth (Lava Magic) Fire  + Air  
- Burning (Flame Magic) - All actual fire spells require air.

A transience and an order will mix to form a finality
Light + Earth - Animation (Life Magic) - includes necromancy, which
lacks the
                negative connotations of the traditional version.
Light + Air   - Cleansing (Lightning Magic) 
Dark  + Earth - Ending (Death Magic)
Dark  + Air   - Sleep (Time Magic) - slowing of time, preservation...
an instant
                becomes an eternity.

A combination of three becomes a universal. These magics are the
domain of Demigods and Demons.

+ Water + Earth + Light - Creation
- Water + Earth + Dark  - Old Death
+ Water + Air   + Light - Blessing
+ Water + Air   + Dark  - Dreams (as in inspiration)
- Fire  + Earth + Light - Decay
- Fire  + Earth + Dark  - Damnation
+ Fire  + Air   + Light - Cycle of Life
- Fire  + Air   + Dark  - Dreams (as in nightmares)

As for the dreams... the two sleeping dreams mean placing a person
into a literal dream realm. Damnation and Hopes are similar realms.
The demigod/ demon controls the realm itself on every level. These are
not minor magics.  Old Death and the Cycle are opposites, creation and
decay as well. These  are the kind of spells that affect the land from
horizon to horizon.

No mortal may control more than two aspects of the magical field. To 
attempt to do so results in death or deification, depending on whether
the mortal has the needed degree of the life force to overcome this
sort of  magic.

Life force is imbued in all life. A person with enough life force
becomes an animist. An animist commited to the life side of the force
will be accompanied by flowering and flourishing life. Flowers in the
footsteps and poisonous water becoming pure. Life force responds to
water, air, and light as aspects of its positive side, fire, earth and
dark as its negative side. Absolute power in two of the three as both
positive or both negative guarantees the potential of assention,
though both positive creates a demigod, both negative, a demon. Even
the demigods and demons are limited  to one great magic. Mastering a
lesser magic of the neutral combination  can be overcome by other
factors that are secretly tracked (I actually have an alignment hidden
in the system, though it is used for nothing except the transition.)

Death will cast a player into the underworld, and leave them
vulnerable to the beings that feed on raw mentality and life force
devoid of body. It is possible to win back to life of ones own
volition, though this costs greatly in life force, which is hard won
while in the underworld. Magic (Life Magic) can revive a person, in
part or in full. A spirit can be summoned back into the world, though
not the physical plane, by a strong enough animator, which has the
effect of allowing the spirit in a bottle trick. There are a number of
other features to this life/death/immortality system, but the overall
result is a totally consistant magic driven world. My implementation
of  these rules extends to the point that farming is handled entirely
by the engine, for example. A single magic can be projected or
directed, and the power controlled subject to the limits of a player's
ability to channel, tap, and direct the correct aspects of the magical
field. A player can learn to cache magic, but this can backfire. Magic
eddies and flows, and a tracker can find a mage by following the
eddies created by that cache.

Oh, and if I ever am satisfied with Physmud++ and release it, I will
allow one (and exactly one) person to run this scenario on it, as it
is just one of my test scenarios, but the rules work pretty well, and
I have a small bit of landscape for it, including a few towns, a
forest, a large plain, a desert, and the dragons' run. (Dragons are
physical and magical, and have aspects of fire and air. The sentient
ones are also present in the mental plane.)

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
----------(*)                              Internet: coder at ibm.net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...