Magic: Goals

Before I try to present a playable magic system it might be a good idea to talk about some goals.

Firstly, there are three stakeholders involved in the game and each of their interests needs to be protected. There are the people that want to have fun playing non-magical characters, the people that want to have fun playing magical characters, and the GM who wants the first two groups to have fun playing in their game/setting. Okay, some GMs don't give a damn about players but I don't give a damn about those GMs.

1. The Risk of Magic

Magic should not prevent the other players from having fun. In other words, you've got to have Niche Protection (1,2). Jonny Cannon took Guns (Superb) because he wants to be gun-guy, that's his cool. Sally Sneak took Stealth (Superb) because she wants to be stealth-girl, that's her cool. Any magic system has to respect the other characters' coolness. Harry Berlin can't take Magic (Superb) and expect to cast a spell that will give him a superb ranged attack and then cast another spell that will give him superb stealth.

That being said, Harry does want to have the flexibility to compete with gun-guy and stealth-girl, that's his cool. Which leads us to the next goal...

2) The Balance of Magic

Magic should be flexible and it should have the option of being powerful but there has to be limits. What those limits should be involves an interaction between system and setting. A system needs to provide the mechanism for achieving balance and the setting determines at what point that balance is achieved. A poor system would be, spend 1 FP to cast a spell. This may be fine for a low magic normals setting but not for a high magic fantasy setting. A good system should take several things into account:

1. the difficulty of magic in the setting
2. the power of the spell
3. and some price that needs to be paid to balance items 1 and 2

A low power spell in a low magic setting may have a higher cost than a high power spell in a high magic setting but either way a balance must be struck.

3) The Payoff of Magic

Everyone will want to play a magical character for a different reason. Some will just want to blast trolls with Fireballs; some will want to make pacts with dark powers, risking their immortal soul; others may want to wield arcane powers based upon their understanding of the metaphysical properties of the universe. But everyone who plays that character does so for some reason and those needs must be met.

This may not be a complete list but I think it does hit the high points. So everything that follows will be guided by these goals.

Love, Hate and FATE

What I love about FATE

It does a great job of separating the rules from the setting.

By that I mean that setting or genre details do not restrict the rules or mechanics of the game. For example, another game may say in it's rules that a Dwarf can't be a Druid or a Half-Orc must take a Charisma penalty, because that is in keeping with the setting. In FATE, while you may choose to play in a setting where the choices for Dwarves and Half-Orcs are limited, the rules are not encumbered those setting constraints. You can also choose to play in a setting where there are Dwarven druids and charismatic Half-Orcs without hacking the rules.

What I hate about FATE

While the rules may be unencumbered by the setting, they were created to serve the setting.

By that I mean that there are no rules for things that were unimportant in the setting. Spirit of the Century (SotC is when FATE became interesting) is about pulp adventures and things like weapon damage, armor, fantasy magic, fantasy races, super powers, and space combat receive little or no support in the rules. Fortunately, some people who are equally as awesome as the designers of FATE have created some equally awesome games that fill the gaps. Diaspora and Starblazer Adventures bring a lot of cool stuff to the FATE toolkit. The Dresden Files promises to fill even more of the gaps - it is going to be harder to wait the next few months than it was to wait the last three years!

In addition to the above, there are a lot of ordinary folk who have come up with their own hacks to cover FATE's shortcomings. Also, there are some other games out there that strive to give players the tools to create the characters that they want to play in the setting that they want to play in. The best of the rest is probably PDQ#, but that's another post.

So, like a lot of other people I love FATE but realize it does lack a few things. I have borrowed a lot of ideas from these people over the years and now I will attempt to give something back. First up, Magic!

Biff has landed

Well, here I am.