To Avoid That Lonely Feeling
Commenting on my own blog seems a little sad, so I’m just going to split off a new entry.
Meta did what I was hoping for, through taking the provocative stance I took: he smote down my oversimplified argument and gave me good reasons to avoid blowing off magic as simply special-case extensions of the abilities and weapon skills systems.
Complete truth be told, I have never played a magic-user as a primary character in a single game ever. I need help!
I’m enjoying the conceptual stretch of the magic and engagement system. I see a lot of my stance/balance systems only applying to melee-range combat. Engagement adds so much to game mechanic realism (avoiding the conceptual dissonance of bow & arrow usage in hand-to-hand range).
I am largely ignorant of a common, quality implementation of engagement.
- Does the aggressor (i.e., the guy who types “kill X”) get to determine the initial fighting range?
- What is required to adjust the combat range? Is it a roll on agility? Something else?
- Is there a mechanic to switch weapons quickly, or is this handled automatically with characters permitted to equip both a range weapon and a melee weapon?
- How is a knife handled versus a spear?
- Is fleeing from battle handled range-by-range, or is a successful “flee” absolute and immediate?
As far as the magic goes, I think the most compelling argument is the diversity of “offensive” spells, with debuffing and buffing being viable companions to a “burn” or “freeze” type of effect. I saw the whole system being made up of various forms of burning and freezing. This would make magic a trivial gadget in the game.
I love the idea of “charging up” MP rather than some static concept of mana or some other depleting scarce resource that is slow to recharge (or never recharge). I’ve always wanted to see a combat magic system in which a total amount of “available force” is allocated across spells and enchantments, with the caster retaining the ability to withdraw one effect to replace it with another.
How practical? No experience to say.
By the way, I’m all about responsible synthesis and alchemy (have I ever seen this implemented to my liking?), so I definitely see a skill-set for this. Perhaps in the way of blending in scarce resources to produce stat bonuses on weapons, and such.