02-03-2020, 02:02 PM | #21 |
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Italy, Rome
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Re: Fixing Realm Magic [Thaumotology]
I don't know guys. But seems to me it's an unnecessary work to do. Nothing prevents a character to buy one realm at max level and high skill and being medio man in everything else. And still destroy your campaign. Quirks or not, having 10 spells on the fly with 150-200 energy points each is campaign breaking. Energy accumulation can go out of control pretty fast. Multiplying this for the level of the realm is not a good idea to me.
I may insist a bit too much, but I think the best bet is to Standardized parameter's cost. Everything that scales exponentially is not a good way to balance: low level, you can't do nothing. From a certain level, you are God. Something that scales linearly, won't never go out of control. And you know the level of power you can reach. |
02-03-2020, 02:26 PM | #22 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Fixing Realm Magic [Thaumotology]
And we already have that with the way most of the existing Realm parameters scale: Range scales at a -1 penalty per yard (for Regular spells); Area scales linearly with radius; Damage scales linearly with number of dice; Duration has a maintenance cost per minute; and so on. Some of those costs are excessive (I'm looking at Damage and Area in particular); but that's a problem with the implementation, not the underlying concepts.
Again: adjust the pricing of things; but there's no reason to completely rewrite the underlying mechanics to operate according to an entirely different paradigm. To be clear: my objection isn't to using Energy Accumulation per se; it's to using Energy Accumulation as a “fix” for Realm Magic, as if the thing that's broken about Realm Magic is that it doesn't use Energy Accumulation. Last edited by dataweaver; 02-03-2020 at 04:43 PM. |
02-03-2020, 04:14 PM | #23 | ||
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Fixing Realm Magic [Thaumotology]
Quote:
Quote:
After a character burns their luck they wind up their spell and play more cautiously with magic. This is something every RPM mage I've played with has done.
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
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02-03-2020, 05:18 PM | #24 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Fixing Realm Magic [Thaumotology]
If your goal is essentially “RPM, but with Realms”, Christopher Rice already has you covered: his “Alternative Ritual Path Magic” Pyramid article includes a “Path Realms” section that shows one way to apply Realm levels to RPM. It's not “fixing Realm Magic”; but it is a way of doing something like Realm Magic based off of the RPM system.
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02-03-2020, 10:30 PM | #25 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: Fixing Realm Magic [Thaumotology]
Personally, if I were going to fix the cost of effects of Realm Magic, I'd probably replace FP with skill penalties like Effect Shaping Path/Book Magic, or use the Threshold-Limited Magic system from Thaumatology pp76-82 (and in both cases, the costs would be much lower than what's given in the book).
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Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted. |
02-04-2020, 08:37 AM | #26 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Fixing Realm Magic [Thaumotology]
Effect-Shaping in Path/Book Magic gives skill penalties for parameters equal to increased energy costs. Using threshold instead of FP is a valid way of doing Realm Magic at the current costs though, and it does provide quite substantial consequences for abusing the system. Some players may be annoyed with having to wait weeks between spells though.
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02-04-2020, 07:33 PM | #27 | |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: Fixing Realm Magic [Thaumotology]
Quote:
The time required for recovery depends on how the system and the character are set up, though. Needing to wait weeks between spells is one possible setting out of the many, many possible options for Threshold-Limited Magic.
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Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted. |
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