black
blue ___/\___ green
\ / \ /
/ \
Yellow /_\ /_\ red
\/
white
Bah, no amount of editing is getting this ASCII to look right.
time
movement/motion/gravity/inertia
containment/capacity
support
carrying
part-of/attachment
map-adjacency
light
odor
noise
vapor
state (solid, liquid, gas, plasma?, ooze?)
size
shape
mass
viscosity
thixotropicity
temperature
color
translucence
reflectivity
plasticity/ductility/malleability
cuttability
pourability
burnability
frangibility
sharpness
hardness
evaporability
toxicity
causticity
locks
ciphers
First some background. In the game I'm working on I want magic to manipulate the fundamental stuff of the world model and allow players to create some emergent effects. Like some other games the magic system lets you combine and apply symbols/functions. Think of it as a mini programming language against the API of the world model.
For example, you could say light is a fundamental property and have symbols that manipulate it. At the same time you could say 'shadow' is a fundamental…note the goal here is not to simulate real-world physics accurately but to create a 'game physics' that interfaces well with the game mechanics, is discoverable by players, and flexible/deep enough to create some cool behavior.
Anyway, the question is – what would be some fundamental properties?
Things like the elements come to mind – fire, earth, air, water. I suppose forces like gravity and electromagnetism are others.
Does anyone know of resources and/or work already done for this kind of thing?
I found an interesting thread on spell effects at Mudlab, http://mudlab.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=... , and I thought for sure there was a thread like this already at one of the mud forums but I couldn't find it.