Caltrops - Rants





	[quote name="Damocles"][quote name="laudablepuss"] Here's the deal (from an article I read by Gary Gygax <b>FABIO OMG THIS MAY BE TOO GAY FOR YOU DON'T LOOK!</b> in Dragon magazine years and years ago): Powerpoints/whatever is a system of magic that assumes that the power that fuels each spell comes from inside the magic-user himself. The more he casts, the weaker he gets. Memorization/spell components is a system of magic that assumes the power for each spell is external to the mage. The mage is unlocking the latent power in natural things or tapping a source of power from another plane or some shit. The point is that the mage acts as a conduit for this external energy, he shapes it and releases it. "Memorization" ends up being an arbitrary limit imposed to prevent mages from BLOWING UP THE WORLD or something. Gygax had an explanation that rationalized it, but I can't remember what it was. I may actually still have the article somewhere, I'll take a look.[/quote] That's why Shadowrun did it best. You drew on both internal and external resources- internal for normal stuff, external for spells that are simply too taxing to do without help. (Whether from expendable gimcracks, various magical focii, rituals, or pooling together in magic circles of various types). It also didn't rely on "saving throws" or any bullshit like that... if the spell wasn't travelling through physical space, and most didn't, you couldn't dodge it unless either a)you were a mage that could counter it or b)a mage was covering you. Spells travelling through the astral plane got you <i>from the inside out</i>. (Which made for nicely gruesome magic, as it should be.) It sucks, by the way. Neocron, AO, Matrix Online... where the FUCK is the Shadowrun MMORPG that should be owning all of these? Shadowrun is by far the best system I've seen for integrating magic and tech and storytelling and combat and hacking and everyfuckingthingelse, and would make for the best MMORPG ever. Yet MS is sitting on the rights. Morons.[/quote]