<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft --> <!--X-From-R13: "[nggurj D. Eurnuna" <punbfNpelfgny.cnynpr.arg> --> <!--X-Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 21:47:36 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 199809260447.AAA29072#crystal,palace.net --> <!--X-Content-Type: text --> <!--X-Reference: 3.0.5.32.19980925204625.0082f5b0#earthlink,net --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:chaos#crystal,palace.net"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg01251.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg01253.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg01251.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg01254.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#01252">Author</A> | <A HREF="#01252">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#01252">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: "Matthew R. Sheahan" <<A HREF="mailto:chaos#crystal,palace.net">chaos#crystal,palace.net</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Sat, 26 Sep 1998 00:47:29 -0400 (EDT)</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> pretty much everything i see around that's intended to be an "advanced magic system" amounts to a spell programming language with magicians as mana hackers. it occurs to me that this is really laying the bones of the system pretty bare to the players, and is dissonant with many fantasy themes (ones where magicians are, knowledge-wise, children with candles in a very big, very dark room -- as opposed to technically super-competent magickal engineers a la Zelazny's Lords of Chaos). where the injury really comes in here, though, is that is turns magickal R&D into all D, no R. there's no room for creating an effect that no one even knew was possible before. and how cool is _that_? so what i'm kinda thinking of is something where maybe you have a set of tokens that can be permuted in a very large number of ways. say, a set of symbols that can be given different colors, sizes, spatial relationships, accompanying incantations/gestures/items, what-have-you. easy to make the final result set here very large. if want, you can keep everyone from using every effect by restricting access to a given symbol, color, etc. then you distribute some basic spells in the form of instructions, but let people play with the system all they want. (that's research.) then populate some of the rest of the result set. no need to fill in the whole thing; just put in enough easter eggs to keep life interesting. you can always pop in more effects and explain it as shifts in the mana continuum or some bleeding thing. of course, to foster the proper atmosphere, you need some way of keeping spell research from being some big buddy-buddy hugfest where once someone knows how to achieve an effect, everyone knows. one way of doing that is the occasionally cited method of making a spell less effective the more it's used by anyone. (that would provalue "maintaining" your spells by making minor variations on them to get onto a magickal frequency that isn't worn out.) or you can just create a strong PvP competitive environment by other means, where it's against your best interest to give away your trade secrets. one thing i like here is that it's possible for research to be dangerous in a non-contrived way -- just because you might not be sure that that symbol set you've put together doesn't mean "extra-heavy fireball, maximum range 1 foot". ;) chiaroscuro </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <ul compact><li><strong>Follow-Ups</strong>: <ul> <li><strong><A NAME="01273" HREF="msg01273.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Travis Casey <efindel#polaris,net></li></ul> <li><strong><A NAME="01255" HREF="msg01255.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Caliban Tiresias Darklock <caliban#darklock,com></li></ul> <li><strong><A NAME="01254" HREF="msg01254.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Caliban Tiresias Darklock <caliban#darklock,com></li></ul> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <UL><LI><STRONG>References</STRONG>: <UL> <LI><STRONG><A NAME="01248" HREF="msg01248.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Andy Cink <ranthor#earthlink,net></LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01251.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01253.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01251.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01254.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#01252"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#01252"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><STRONG>[MUD-Dev] Re: FPL: Another embeddable bytecoded scripting language</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="01265" HREF="msg01265.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: FPL: Another embeddable bytecoded scripting language</A></strong>, The Arrow <a href="mailto:arrow#trelleborg,mail.telia.com">arrow#trelleborg,mail.telia.com</a>, Sat 26 Sep 1998, 15:54 GMT </LI> </ul> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01242" HREF="msg01242.html">[MUD-Dev] FW: [MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></strong>, Peck, Matthew x96724c1 <a href="mailto:x96724#exmail,usma.army.mil">x96724#exmail,usma.army.mil</a>, Sat 26 Sep 1998, 02:14 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01248" HREF="msg01248.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></strong>, Andy Cink <a href="mailto:ranthor#earthlink,net">ranthor#earthlink,net</a>, Sat 26 Sep 1998, 03:51 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01251" HREF="msg01251.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></strong>, James Wilson <a href="mailto:jwilson#rochester,rr.com">jwilson#rochester,rr.com</a>, Sat 26 Sep 1998, 04:39 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01252" HREF="msg01252.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></strong>, Matthew R. Sheahan <a href="mailto:chaos#crystal,palace.net">chaos#crystal,palace.net</a>, Sat 26 Sep 1998, 04:47 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01254" HREF="msg01254.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></strong>, Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Sat 26 Sep 1998, 05:45 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01255" HREF="msg01255.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></strong>, Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Sat 26 Sep 1998, 05:59 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01273" HREF="msg01273.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></strong>, Travis Casey <a href="mailto:efindel#polaris,net">efindel#polaris,net</a>, Sat 26 Sep 1998, 19:22 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01296" HREF="msg01296.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: let's call it a spellcraft</A></strong>, Vadim Tkachenko <a href="mailto:vt#freehold,crocodile.org">vt#freehold,crocodile.org</a>, Sun 27 Sep 1998, 07:12 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>