And now over to George in the Weather Room. George what's the mana level today

[BeUrgaust]

So I have this idea for a campain world, but I don't know how to model its effects. Here's the idea mana levels act like barometric pressure with highs and lows and like the weather where highs and lows meet you have unstable mana areas. In these 'mana storms' only the insane would cast spells, and casting spells would probably leave you insane. They'd have an adverse effect on the wild life and would randomly physically change the people into monsters. The only resolve to this change would be to search out a group of nomadic magic users who always follow the wake of these storms on the high mana side or to get used to being a monster.

[Ndreare]

I like the Idea. I played a game once were the mana level changed from day to day. The game started at mana level 1D6 (low) for the weekly base, then on each day I would roll to see how the "Weather" changed relitive to the base. on a 1-2 the Mana droped a level, on a 3-4 it stayed the same and on a 5-6 it went up 1. But on a weekly average I would roll again every week. This allowed fot the full range but still kept it in forseable ranges.

The players Could make a Lore: Geomany and Ley Lines roll to predect the weather in the future at -5% per day ahead they were trying to see.

PS: This was a RIFTS game so the mana levels were based on Ley Line activaty. the local area rather than having Ley Lines would be at the following levels.
1: Very Low: Magic is Reduced to SDC
2: Low: Magic operates at Rifts world default
3: Average: Magic gain the bonuses of being at/neer a Ley Line
4: High: Magic gains the bonus of being "Neer" a nexus.
5: Very High: Magic gains the bonus of being in a NExus.
6: Light Storm: Magic Works as if their is a Enhanced/Super Nexus
6+: True Storm: This is your typical Ley line storm only a complete moron would actualy try to cast.

In gurps this could be done as
1: No Mana: Cast again another day
2: LowMana: Magic is hard to use and recover -5 to skills & Recover ST does not work.
3: Average Mana: Follows the normal magic rules
4: High Mana: Even non-mages who know them may attempt to cast spells.
5: Very High Mana: Any one can try to cast spells All success are Crit all Failures are Crits.
6: Mana Storm: All Spells Suffer Critical Falure, however if you make your roll you still get the spell effect you want. You just have to live with it. Even a roll of 3 will generate a Critical falure to go with your spell effect.

[Cmonkey]

Unlimited Mana has an option called 'Variable Threshold' which is somewhat similar to this idea. When I use Umana, I use the Variable Threshold option. You may want to look at that for possible ideas.

If you're looking for a scientific analysis of weather paterns translated into mana levels, I'd suggest you start by finding a weather generator that allows for user input, so you can customize it's output. Do a google search for 'weather generator' and you should find several.

If you're looking for a simplistic model, how about something like this Random fluctuation table:
3-4 : Very High Mana
5 : Storm
6-7 : High Mana
8 : Storm
9-12 : Normal Mana
13 : Storm
14-15 : Low Mana
16 : Storm
17-18 : No Mana

How often you roll on the table is up to you, but weather patterns rarely change on a day to day basis, so perhaps roll 1d6 to determine how long until the next fluctuation roll? Also, weather changes based on position on the Earth and millions of other variables. Therefore, you could reasonable apply modifiers to either the d6 or 3d6 roll, based on what region of the game world you're in.

For example, the Great Desert in Yrth is suppossedly the location of the backfire that caused the banestorm, so it is reasonable to assume that there is no d6 roll here, and the 3d6 roll has a +8 to it (best case scenario, you'll have normal mana).

Storms in and of themselves could be as detailed as you'd like. They can range from random bonuses (+/- 1d6), to having special charts (such as the calamity table from Umana) to roll on if someone attempts to cast a spell during a storm.

-Edit - fixed typo

[Akicita]

You may want to search the Pyramid archives on this one. IIRC, Charles Wheatley did an article called Mana-pulations that went over this.

[BeUrgaust]

That's great but I need a few more CP's to increase my Wealth level before I can subsribe to Pyramid.

[Almafeta]

Oooh. Lovely idea.

[Qoltar]

This would be a cool idea if YRTH ever made it to Tech Level 7 or 8.

...but still had the mana thing gloing on.

Competing television networks on Ytarria trying to compete as to who get the Mana forecast the most accurate could be an amusing campaign. Also imagine halflings in business suits negotiating deals with elves in Tredroy.

- Ed Charlton


Yeah - its a bit of NECRO, but I noticed someone else browsing at this old thread and I got curious based on the title of it.

[Maz]

Isn't there some suggestions in either Magic or Fantasy as well?

[sn0wball]

Also, this gives climate change a whole different meaning ...