The idea of seperate stats, such as PRE, DRA etc.. is interesting - but how would it work in practice? Wouldn't it make the magic systems very similar, but using a different stat - in the old system, sorcery, Dragon magic and spirit/divine magic were all noticeably different. Notice that I consider Spirit Magic to be justa low level version of Divine Magic as it is written at the moment. I find shamans in RQIII hideously underpowered, having only spirit magic at their disposal. If *I* were to rewrite the magic system, then I would model it on Mage: The Ascension, a system that gives you freedom, and eliminates spell lists. For an idea of how this would work, I would suggest looking at Steve Maurer's HeroQuest system, whose Hero Magic rules are very intriguing and with a little alteration would be workable as a replacement for the Rune Magic system IMHO. Another example would be the way magic works in Nick Eden's Moon Wars system. Does anyone else think this would work??
As for Fatigue being the main factor in magic, I think this is workable, and also close to what Greg currently thinks of magic (based on a post by Stephen Martin a while back - although Greg is notoriously changeable so I wouldn't bank on it). However, replacing POW with STR, SIZ, CON or VIT is silly - maybe not in Gloranthan terms (although I doubt Zzabur is a Sumo wrestler) but in game terms. Imagine the poor sod who rolls low on one of his stats and is therefore crap at fighting, general physical activity and now is bad at magic.
As a note, if I were using the Personality Traits system, then I would replace casting chance with the relevant rating in the emotion related to the spell. Frex, rather than the chance to cast Disrupt being POWx5, I'd make it your rating in Hate (or other relevant passion). Does anyone already use this???
Nikk E.
Nikk Effingham
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Lair/7556/
"If absolute power corrupts absolutely
Where does that leave God?"
-- George Daacon
------------------------------
Powered by hypermail