[MUD-Dev] Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface)

[coder at ibm.net]

On 15/10/97 at 09:37 AM, Derrick Jones <gunther at online1.magnus1.com> said:
>On Tue, 14 Oct 1997 coder at ibm.net wrote:

>> Ahh.  My preference has idealised magic making being almost entirely
>> silent and stationary.  The main requirements are great concentration and
>> will power, with the physical aspects coming in as minor supporting roles
>> as aids to the first two.  The intent is for a truly expert mages to be
>> able to cast any magic without visibly moving a muscle.  More minor mages
>> will require greater assistance to their concentration via physical
>> motions, words, and other patterning forms.  Thus the neophyte may dance
>> and scream and wave his arms to achieve the proper conceptration and form
>> for a particular magic, a more expert mage may merely stagger a few
>> similar steps, mutter to himself, and gesture with his hands, and the
>> trhue expert may do nothing at all to cast the same spell but blink, if
>> that.

>Yes, the minor incantations would require but little thought on the part
>of the expert caster.  (the attention vs. mastery code is still way down
>on my TODO list)  I am toying with the idea of shrinking casting times
>and giving a percent chance to hide spell casting from the room based on
>the skill of the mage and the magical knowledge of the observers... Maybe
>a set of adverbs to coincide with the 'cast' command, so that a mage
>might try to cast quickly 'fireball'/cast quietly 'fireball'/cast
>powerfully 'fireball'/cast carefully 'fireball'...But as I said this
>section is weeks away from my full attention so any ideas are still
>sketchy at best.

Hmm.  My intention, tho I haven't worked out the details, would be to have
a basic algebra of magic, based largely (well, in spirit) on Bartle's
Waving Hands, but also making it open-ended (ie allowance for suppression
of compleated spells for alter modification/addition).  I have a strong
suspicion that it will be that algebra that will make magic a real toy in
its own right.

>On a side note, I think I'm becoming a big fan of adverbs.

One of the early rules for budding writers:

  Go through your text and cross out every second adjective.  Repeat.  Now
cross out 2 out of every 3 adverbs. 

Niven I think, but also popularised by Hubbard, Clarke, and hurm, unghh,
dammit, I forget.  Adverbs tend to make for clumsy reading as they tend to
back-reference.

>> Should mages be something distinct from other character types?

>No they shouldn't, at least not normally.  That's where I run into
>problems.  Remember that I'm trying to keep the vast majority of violence
>out of certain areas (mainly to create a safe haven where the players are
>safe from PK without any artificial game constructs).  On one hand I
>can't let mages go around torching the place with dozens of unarmed
>warriors running around (its easy enough to confiscate their weapons at
>the gate), but the real world doesn't provide me with any effective
>defence against magical attacks.

An easy handling would be to have the process of magic have reactive
effects, as well as to have the process of magic be isolatable,
detectable, and locatable.  Consider wards of the form:

  Anything attempting to cast or form magic within certain bounds will be
attacked by demons, hit by fireballs, etc.

Fairly simple, easy to justify on either religous grounds or as a prior
mages Great Work.  Don't want such a heavy handed approach?  Make it a
slight faulty spell/ward that only attacks/triggers sometimes, with the
variance either being percentage or key based dependant on whether you
want to supress all magic of a certain type, or merely to discourage it.

>One approach I've concidered is to make mages distinct from other
>characters, because in reality they are (magic in my world is an innate
>ability that is honed over the years.).  Perhaps some test to find the
>innate ability in travelers to see if they pose a magical risk.  But how
>do you treat a wandering mage at the gate to such a town?  Give him a
>pill that represses his abilities?  Deny him entrance?

Have a spell across the gate that bars entrance to all mages who do not
accept the accompaniment of an imp that monitors their every move, and
which summons unpleasnatries on them should they, err, stray.  I could
also see creatively using geases.

>Or maybe I'm approaching this whole problem from the wrong direction.
>Perhaps there could be several areas within the town catering to the
>different classes (areas where dispel magics have eliminated _all_ magic
>from functioning, area where weapons are banned, etc). A known mage
>wandering into Warriors Alley would just be asking for trouble, while a
>bullying warrior in Mages Square without any weapons will be an equally
>easy target...

Which would also work.

>> Note: I'm taking a number of large risks here, among which are going for a
>> high magic world.  High magic changes almost all the rules.

>Yes it does.  You can't think on linear terms when dealing with magic,
>nor can you draw in help from real-world experience.  One rule stays the
>same: If there is even the slightest design flaw, it will be found and
>exploited.

Yup.  That's why I want an algebra.  it provides for flexibility and
unpredictability on a player level, without removing the utterly
predictable scope on a game design level.

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