[MUD-Dev] Focus on Hocus Pocus

[David Pemberton]

Matt wrote

> Welp, time for a new thread, methinks. I'm going to briefly
> outline some of the ideas which I'm working through at the moment,
> for a 'different' magic system.

I have created a spell system for a game I make available on my web
page. What I did with Legend Weaver's spell system was apply single
"spell" words with a level. So far, the words go from level 0 to
level 4. Putting the words together creates a spell. Adding up the
individual levels in the words, gives you the spell's level. So far,
I give example of spells that go up to level 7 although higher-level
spells are possible.

Since Legend Weaver is a traditional RPG (i.e., played at a table) I
encourage players to make their own spells based on the spell words
they know. This is possible because the Game Master is given
guidelines as to the strength of a given spell level: something that
is not a possibility in a computer-controlled game.  However, that
said, I would like to put legend weaver onto a mud one day (we all
have a dream). In Legend's character creation, the character picks a
focus of magic, fighter, skill or no focus. Only a character with
Magic Focus can learn the highest level and most powerful
spells. Since the most often used spells seem to be damaged based, I
wanted to break damage into the following main categories:

  Magic

  Cold

  Heat

  Poison

  Electrical

Upon character creation, the program would determine the
highest-level spell word you can learn in a given category of
damage. Thus, the system might say you can learn up to level 1 words
in Cold, Heat and Poison, level 2 electrical related words and level
4 magic based damage words. It would also determine specific
combinations that would not work for the character (this would be
specific spell word combinations that the system is able to
recognize as valid spells). This means that each character could be
a master of only one of the damage forms and not all of them (and
the type of damage would not be known by the character until high
level). It would also mean that a character might not be able to
learn a spell just because someone else knows it (I have always
viewed magic as being somewhat unique to each person that uses it).

The ability to learn new spell words is dependent on magic based
character skills (you just could not type in a word somewhere and
use it). You would have to research the spell word and then research
the spell itself. This means that you would find a lab and actually
use character related skills to determine a new spell word (at this
point you could try for a specific word if you wanted or allow the
system to randomly determine the spell word you learn) You could
gain a spell word from someone able to teach it, but (in the case of
another player character) that character would have to know the
word, and have the appropriate skills needed to teach it to another.
Legend makes use of an idea called Synergy Bonus. In any skill you
have a base skill level plus a bonus (called your synergy bonus) in
the skill. The synergy bonus is used for advanced actions. It is
synergy bonus that allows the character to learn a spell. The key
idea here is that synergy bonus is used up. So even though you can
research a spell word, you can limit the time between learning
multiple spell words by adjusting the time it takes to get your
synergy bonus back.

Just some ideas. If you want to read more you can find the
information at:

  http://legendweaver.com/Sec5aMag.pdf

You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to read the file.

David
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