[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On 12:47 AM 9/26/98 -0400, I personally witnessed Matthew R. Sheahan
jumping up to say:
>
>where the injury really comes in here, though, is that is turns magickal
>R&D into all D, no R.  there's no room for creating an effect that no one
>even knew was possible before.  and how cool is _that_?

Form your magic system out of hexadecimal digits. Sixteen possible
commands, context sensitive, in a finite state tree. Ensure that each and
every possible combination of eight hex digits results in something being
done, potentially modified by whether there is a target or not, and what
sort of target it is. Add in the concept of having a material component
basis, with some way for a person to use material in the spell.

Now, when a wizard casts a spell, run a CRC-32 on the name of the spell.
That CRC becomes the spell command. Run it through the parser. Have some
sort of mana or material requirements here and there. Maybe include the
character's name in the CRC so the player can't pass it along to anyone else.

Since the language and the effect have no clearly discernible relation, you
have wizards who have no damn clue why it works, just that it does, and
theoretically four billion possible spells. By using a nonstandard
polynomial, you can make it nearly impossible for the wizard's player to
figure out what any given spell is going to do. :)

>of course, to foster the proper atmosphere, you need some way of keeping
>spell research from being some big buddy-buddy hugfest where once someone
>knows how to achieve an effect, everyone knows.  

The fun part is that while Bob knows "cast zgrvt orc" will toast the orc
when he has used the components of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme --
he's not sure which of those components is useful. By allowing components
to be merely "present in inventory" to work, everything he carries and
everything he wears and everything he holds and even everything in the room
could conceivably have an impact on the outcome. He may tell Joe "Hey, cast
zgrvt, you'll toast the gnome," but zgrvt may not work for Joe and may not
work on gnomes and may not even work unless your name is Bob. 

Man, could I be sadistic with this. ;>

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Caliban Tiresias Darklock <caliban at darklock.com>   | "I'm not sorry or 
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