What Makes a Great Magic System?

[Michael Cule]

Originally Posted by Shostak

Not at all, if having different mechanics for different types of magic makes playing a given system really satisfying. Having different mechanics does lead to a sort of cosmological issue for the GM: are there different types of magic, or just one type that is misunderstood (yet somehow succesfully utilized) by some/most/all practitioners? It could be cool whether the answer is yea or nay. That probably is subject for an separate thread.

Well, if the GM resolves 'it's all the same in the end' then he's pulling a deception, a bait-and-switch on the players and giving them duff information. I think that what the players will want is a universe where they can have some sort of handle on what is going on and how their characters will exploit it. A world where they can meaningfully experiment with, expand and refine magic not just repeat what previous generations did. One of the things I find wrong with NUMENERA is that the magic is just there: it's quite incomprehensible to the players though their characters may have theories. They can't refine it, just collect it and use it.

One possible counter example might be a world where the powers of evil (Satan or whoever) are behind all magic. It's all sinful and damns your soul no matter how beneficial the effects are. The GM might be justified in holding that back in a game that is about that discovery, a game of accumulating horror. But not otherwise.