[Magic] Colleges And Prerequisites: What Are They?

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by scc

As an example what's stopping someone from trying to cover the world in a sheet of fire in such a system?

All the freeform / improvisational magic schemes I've seen have limits to difficulty, time, power, area, etc. Just because there's not a rigid list of predefined spells with no variation allowed doesn't meant a mage can actually effect any and all spells that he can imagine or describe in words. Certainly, if the system were that characters could simply enact anything their player chose instantly, with no effort or chance of failure, you might have gods, but I haven't seen a system that works that way.

Mechanically, I'm only familiar with MtA via the GURPS 3e version, which is the original inspiration for Realm Magic in 4e Thaumatology. Are all Realm mages god, in your view?

The most famous limitation in MtA is "Paradox". The universe gets annoyed by "vulgar" magic, which is anything that doesn't seem at least superficially natural, or "coincidental" as the terminology goes. A sheet of fire covering the world would certainly be vulgar, and presumably a typical mage can't soak that much Paradox.

Since we're talking about gods, another touchpoint would be Nobilis. The characters there really are supposed to be gods, or at least demigods. They're embodiments of a particular "Estate", a concept or word, whether that's "Energy" or "Happiness" or "Cats". They can command their Estates as they see fit, and the actual game term for their actions is "miracles", which need not be plausible or conform to mundane physics. But they're still limited by a action economy, Miracle Points, and of course the opposition of equal or greater enemies in their conflict with similar abilities. Normal humans are mooks, probably even less effective than in oWoD, but the godlings still aren't completely unfettered. It seems like a playable game, not just the six-year-old form of roleplaying ("I shot you! You're dead! No I'm not!").