Comments on: My Biggest Mistakes: The Woes Of Piety & Magic http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/the-woes-of-piety-and-magic/ Expert tips and how-to's on every aspect of creating and running exceptional campaigns. Fri, 10 Sep 2010 02:27:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=9265 hourly 1 By: 500xp http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/the-woes-of-piety-and-magic/comment-page-1/#comment-2312 500xp Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:01:46 +0000 http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/?p=1075#comment-2312 [...] ... My Biggest Mistakes: The Woes Of Piety & Magic | Campaign MasterySome mistakes you (hopefully) only make once; the mistakes that I've blogged about so far as part of [...] [...] … My Biggest Mistakes: The Woes Of Piety & Magic | Campaign MasterySome mistakes you (hopefully) only make once; the mistakes that I've blogged about so far as part of [...]

]]> By: Mike http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/the-woes-of-piety-and-magic/comment-page-1/#comment-1124 Mike Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:29:53 +0000 http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/?p=1075#comment-1124 Thanks, guys. For now, the problem is sorted - but I'm always interested in other ideas! Thanks, guys. For now, the problem is sorted – but I’m always interested in other ideas!

]]> By: Rafe http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/the-woes-of-piety-and-magic/comment-page-1/#comment-1123 Rafe Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:15:25 +0000 http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/?p=1075#comment-1123 Mike, re: <i>I wanted a system where each spell was designed like a formula – plug in values for range, character points of effect, etc, multiply them all together, and what pumped out the end was a cost in “Mana” – effectively a points pool of available magic, similar to Endurance; look that value up on a table and you got the skill roll needed to successfully cast the spell.</i> You really ought to take a look at the Magic Burner book for Burning Wheel. Of course... you'd have to be playing Burning Wheel for it to fully work. Regardless, you'd likely be interested in the Art Magic portion of that book. ... or True Sorcery by Green Ronin for d20, which is modeled after the Black Company Campaign Setting magic system, which is the best for d20 (says I). .-= Rafe´s last blog ..<a href="http://rpgbehindthescreens.blogspot.com/2009/08/abstract-wealth.html">Abstract Wealth</a> =-. Mike, re:

I wanted a system where each spell was designed like a formula – plug in values for range, character points of effect, etc, multiply them all together, and what pumped out the end was a cost in “Mana” – effectively a points pool of available magic, similar to Endurance; look that value up on a table and you got the skill roll needed to successfully cast the spell.

You really ought to take a look at the Magic Burner book for Burning Wheel. Of course… you’d have to be playing Burning Wheel for it to fully work. Regardless, you’d likely be interested in the Art Magic portion of that book. … or True Sorcery by Green Ronin for d20, which is modeled after the Black Company Campaign Setting magic system, which is the best for d20 (says I).
Rafe´s last blog ..Abstract Wealth My ComLuv Profile

]]> By: Loz http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/the-woes-of-piety-and-magic/comment-page-1/#comment-1119 Loz Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:49:40 +0000 http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/?p=1075#comment-1119 Re : your Champions magic use. Me, too... House rules are absilutely essential in Champions. It's extreme flexibility can be *so* easily abused by power-gamers. My solution : standard "schools" of magic spells (Fire magic, Illusion magic, etc) with pre-defined spells. Base power level is pre-calculated. Which allows to pre-calculate Area-of-effect, max range, END cost, Multipower reserve costs, etc. This is made possible by saying "Mages have Maximum pts in this power of XX." and defining spells at the max ceiling. (you have to define the ceiling for each game power), and if players start at lower power levels for budget reasons just pro-rata down the pre-calculated values (in seconds). Game balancing : a)Three "levels" of super-being are allowed "Hero", "Veteran hero" and "Very Powerful hero". Each has its own set of power-ceilings of XXpts in each game-power (it's not as much work as it sounds, really. Excel is your friend.... and it's printable as handouts). This is a minor note at the end of each definition. b) Some advantages are defined as being "combat enhancers" (area-of-effect, autofire, Armour-Piercing, double Knockback, etc). These diminish power ceilings 1 Damage Class per (+1/4) level of advantage. Thus An armour-piercing, Area-effect, autofire bone-shard explosion is ...basically not very powerful.... which, for game balance, is as it should be. Morals of this story: Make up a rules system before defining your spells. Take care to include game-balancing rules. Write your system down in Excel (PC handouts!). Keep notes on all powers and add new spells to schools of magic as good ideas appear. Ditto all PCs powers copied/regrouped into "schools" themed by origin/source of powers. Tips : 1) Print out the schools of Magic (or Cyborg powers or Psionic sub-categories or whatever)and allow players looking for Character ideas to browse. 2) Extend the power-ceiling to movement powers, perception powers, etc... and you have a system for balancing hero-teams. I sub-define Attribute maximums for Movement powers/Perception powers and Defensive powers into "Categories" of heros (Speedster, Standard, Light Fighter, Heavy Fighter, Brick)(Excel is your friend...) and that help Players define their Characters without me having to say "Sorry you've over-run my conceptual limits to hero power-levels for your type of hero...". Champions is calculation heavy-enough without me having to force players to scrub out 40% of their calculations and start over... 3) Excel IS your friend : In Excel I've automated Character Sheets for Champions that make absolutely sure there are no budget miscalculations.... and zap those tedious budget re-checks. Plus, you can Cut-and-paste-and-file-off-the-serial-numbers... new name, new image.... and hey presto another NPC. "Prior prep prevents poor performance" :) Re : your Champions magic use. Me, too… House rules are absilutely essential in Champions. It’s extreme flexibility can be *so* easily abused by power-gamers.
My solution : standard “schools” of magic spells (Fire magic, Illusion magic, etc) with pre-defined spells. Base power level is pre-calculated. Which allows to pre-calculate Area-of-effect, max range, END cost, Multipower reserve costs, etc. This is made possible by saying “Mages have Maximum pts in this power of XX.” and defining spells at the max ceiling. (you have to define the ceiling for each game power), and if players start at lower power levels for budget reasons just pro-rata down the pre-calculated values (in seconds).
Game balancing :
a)Three “levels” of super-being are allowed “Hero”, “Veteran hero” and “Very Powerful hero”. Each has its own set of power-ceilings of XXpts in each game-power (it’s not as much work as it sounds, really. Excel is your friend…. and it’s printable as handouts). This is a minor note at the end of each definition.
b) Some advantages are defined as being “combat enhancers” (area-of-effect, autofire, Armour-Piercing, double Knockback, etc). These diminish power ceilings 1 Damage Class per (+1/4) level of advantage. Thus An armour-piercing, Area-effect, autofire bone-shard explosion is …basically not very powerful…. which, for game balance, is as it should be.

Morals of this story:
Make up a rules system before defining your spells. Take care to include game-balancing rules.
Write your system down in Excel (PC handouts!).
Keep notes on all powers and add new spells to schools of magic as good ideas appear. Ditto all PCs powers copied/regrouped into “schools” themed by origin/source of powers.
Tips :
1) Print out the schools of Magic (or Cyborg powers or Psionic sub-categories or whatever)and allow players looking for Character ideas to browse.
2) Extend the power-ceiling to movement powers, perception powers, etc… and you have a system for balancing hero-teams. I sub-define Attribute maximums for Movement powers/Perception powers and Defensive powers into “Categories” of heros (Speedster, Standard, Light Fighter, Heavy Fighter, Brick)(Excel is your friend…) and that help Players define their Characters without me having to say “Sorry you’ve over-run my conceptual limits to hero power-levels for your type of hero…”. Champions is calculation heavy-enough without me having to force players to scrub out 40% of their calculations and start over…

3) Excel IS your friend : In Excel I’ve automated Character Sheets for Champions that make absolutely sure there are no budget miscalculations…. and zap those tedious budget re-checks.
Plus, you can Cut-and-paste-and-file-off-the-serial-numbers… new name, new image…. and hey presto another NPC.
“Prior prep prevents poor performance” :)

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