Author Topic: Adding mystery back into magic: A discussion on the ideals of a magic system.  (Read 9809 times)

Offline veekie

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Don't forget about multiple possible approaches and factors.

Take a specific case of an earth elemental:
-You could directly use an Earth fundamental to animate stone directly by your will. Add Awareness to make it self motivated.
-You could use an Animation fundamental to grant motion to stone, but it'd be more a construct that resembles an earth elemental rather than something with it's full traits. Add Awareness to make it self motivated.
-You could use a Transport fundamental to yank one from the elemental plane. It'd be free to act. Add Control to tame it.

Then you need to consider, what makes Transport so special that it can grab elementals, angels and animals alike? Does it need a specification fundamental or some means of identifying what to grab? Or is it limited in some other way?
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
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Offline Nytemare3701

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Don't forget about multiple possible approaches and factors.

Take a specific case of an earth elemental:
-You could directly use an Earth fundamental to animate stone directly by your will. Add Awareness to make it self motivated.
-You could use an Animation fundamental to grant motion to stone, but it'd be more a construct that resembles an earth elemental rather than something with it's full traits. Add Awareness to make it self motivated.
-You could use a Transport fundamental to yank one from the elemental plane. It'd be free to act. Add Control to tame it.

Then you need to consider, what makes Transport so special that it can grab elementals, angels and animals alike? Does it need a specification fundamental or some means of identifying what to grab? Or is it limited in some other way?

Fundamentals should as a concept be extremely broad, but in practice be extremely narrow. The spells that modify them change the other aspect to encompass more and more traditional spells. Transport for example would start with a weight limit, nonliving matter only, etc. The spells you modify it with make it more akin to normal teleportation or calling spells.

Offline veekie

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Then before you do anything at all with the system, you'd need to establish what fundamentals exist, their extent, and range modifications or recombinations.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.