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Magic

Why Magic Destroys Perfectly Good Games
Keeping Magic Magical
Getting Beyond Spellcasting
Magic and Warfare (Shadwolf)
The RPG Mage vs. the Literary Mage

Why Magic Destroys Perfectly Good Games

"Magic" in a gaming system is defined as a sort of black box device which is implemented for story purposes, with little or no logical explanation as to why it's there or how it works.  It's been taken for granted in the overtired fantasy milieu that there is this force called "magic" that allows weird things to happen for no reason, but it also exists in other environments.  In cyberpunk we have nanites that can make laser beams shoot out of someone's ass.  In spacefaring campaigns there are transporter devices and beam weapons that somehow track accurately at distances of 12 light years, and ship drives that allow FTL travel with crackpot explanations.  Psionics are another popular form of magic in RPG settings, where psis go beyond seeing whether the card has a picture of a star or a box to perform feats like unpowered flight and making Green Lantern-type energy manifestations.

In any form, the inclusion of magic into a game system invariably breaks all sense of balance.  This is because any black box device by definition has no real-world analogue, or even a well-thought out theoretical basis, and is thus devoid of any observational data for the hapless designer wishing to implement it.  All he has are some ideas he can steal from other writers who also lacked hard data, combined with some crap he might pull out of thin air.  Therefore, the effects of magic are limited to whatever arbitrary values the designer wishes to assign to various effects, within the constraints of practical technology if the game is computer-based.  Because game content designers tend to be largely incapable of approaching realistic balance even within the arena of hand weaponry, it comes as no surprise that any magic system that appears is rife with game-destroying balance errors from day one.

This problem, like almost every problem related to RPG design, becomes exponentially greater in the realm of the MMORPG.  Any error on the side of weakness in magic will be publically and loudly addressed over the web and NNTP, while any error on the side of overpowering advantage will be exploited to hell and back by the ruthless client until (and if) the problem is "fixed" with a patch, followed by more whining.

Another problem is the way that magic is approached by a typical RPG designer.  Having resigned himself to the idea that magic just makes things happen for no good reason, he cannot stop himself from turning magic into an all-inclusive overwhelming technological advantage.  Magic becomes air superiority, rifled barrels, and force fields, all in one package.  Small wonder then that almost every character in any MMORPG is considered gimped unless he is a mage to some extent.

The only solution for this is constant vigilance and hardcore balancing.  It also helps if your basic game design and mechanics are modeled around a no-magic environment, so you can at least get that part right before you try to balance in a magic system.  Remember that magic wasn't included in the original Dungeons and Dragons until Eldritch Wizardry.  This was the correct approach.  The ensuing generic and boring magic system was a result of a lack of imagination, not a flaw in the overall design process.

Keeping Magic Magical

One of the big reasons that "magic" is always exploited heavily in any RPG setting is that anyone can be a mage.  If the mage is obviously the super-class that can turn the laws of nature (and game balance) upside-down, why would you not want to be a mage?  This is particularly true in the great crucible of RPG flaws, the MMORPG.  At least in a pen and paper campaign, you can assign arbitrary penalties for characters who wish to use magery (i.e. GURPS' "Magical Aptitude" and "Unusual Background" costs), and in a smaller scale CRPG you can toss out the assumption that most of the world is not made up of mages, and therefore it's okay for the protagonist party to include a few.  But in an MMORPG, everyone wants to be a mage, and there's no way under the current models to say they can't be.  Asheron's Call made a go of it with their research system and spell economy, but ignored the axiom that all people suck, and so before beta was out formulae were everywhere, nobody cared about the economy anymore, and they were back in the same boat.

In the MMORPG, it's hard to justify a rarity of mages to your players.  They all pay the same subscription fee, don't they?  Say that magic is only available to a tiny number of people who "have the gift," determined randomly.  Now the guy with the account that doesn't include someone "with the gift" is hosed.  Either that or he just keeps rerolling and killing off characters until he winds up with a mage, and then you have the same situation as before, except now people are yelling at you on forums about your "stupid time-wasting system."

The common response to this problem is to simply assume that magic will be used by anyone who wants to be a mage, and try to keep it on par with the other class types available.  This destroys the allure of "magic" and turns it into just another way of killing the bad guy.  If magic is better for killing the bad guy than an arrow, then archers will just be mages instead.  Magic becomes a commonplace activity, and the use of magic is just another tool, no different from an axe or a plow.  To me, this is tragic.

A game that seeks to limit the number of players who choose to be mages often goes down another route that's even stupider:  the weakening of mages to the point of nonsurvivability.  This is sort of akin to the D&D concept of a mage's life:  low level mages can be killed by having someone sneeze on them, and they can cast one pathetically weak spell before they go back to cowering behind the fighters.  The tradeoff in D&D is that your mage may eventually become a god on earth if he lives long enough.  This is not a consideration in an MMORPG, since (a) you can't really die anyway, and (b) eventually everyone will get to high level.  Therefore, the MMORPG version of this is to make the mage weaker at every stage.  This leads to players dropping their subscriptions, and more importantly, nobody being a mage.

There is one solution that seems possible to me, a way to make mages relatively uncommon while not hamstringing them into comas.  It involves requiring a quest of sorts in order to become a mage in the first place, i.e. you cannot start as a mage.  I thought of this while drawing up design specs for a radically modified Sphere shard that I never finished, and as of yet I haven't had a better idea, so here it is, in summary:

All characters start out roughly the same, with no magic.  No magic is ever available to them with the possible exception of minor shamanistic magic (healing, far sight, maybe watering the plants).  In order to become a "mage," a character has to undertake a very dngerous quest which he is expected to die on.  If he manages to make it through the quest, he winds up at the place where you become a mage (secret mage academy, alternate dimension full of alien mages, underground genetics lab, radioactive meteorite, whatever).  Assuming the character still wants to become a mage, he can... he loses a bunch of his other stats and such, maybe the ability to use certain kinds of gear, etc. etc., in effect trading in his moderately high-level character for a weak low-level mage.
Of course, this is not a solution in itself:  magic still has to be balanced to some degree, you have to ensure that mages can't immediately go from mewling newbie to god overnight, and ideally the quest to get mage status should be dynamic so a quick and easy solution can't be spammed all over the web one day, ruining the intent of the exercise.  However, if successfully implemented and maintained, this system might, for the first time, allow someone with a mage in an MMORPG feel like he has actually accomplished something, as opposed to hitting the right buttons at creation time.

Getting Beyond Spellcasting

The most excellent Uncle Figgy presents outlines on 7 types of possible magic in an RPG setting:

The limitations of information technology and the dynamics of selling games preclude the use of Intuitive and Inborn magic.  Intuitive magic is too random and too hard to simulate using formulae a computer can understand, and Inborn magic is too unfair to impose on a game full of subscribers who will be pissed if their account contains only magicians with terrible abilities, or no magicians at all.  Of the remaining five categories, only Alchemy and Spellcasting have been implemented into the traditional RPG model, because they are the easiest to implement:  you do this, and this happens, all the time.  But can the others be implemented in such a way as to enrich the game experience?  Possibly.  Of the remaining choices, though Ritual Magic remains the most promising for a smooth gaming experience.

Sympathetic Magic can be considered more of a magic system modifier than a system in itself.  However, it winds up being a modifier to material component requirements.  This can help out senseless reagent systems, but usually it turns out to be more trouble than it's worth to try and get enough of the right kind of feather so you can cast your Winged Travel spell.  If used, use it sparingly so as not to bog down the magic system.

Contagious Magic is not really useful for a computer-based RPG.  You would need to implement countless new mechanisms for doing things like ripping some hair out of the giant's head so you could curse him, stealing a used hankie from another player to put into your voodoo doll, etc.  However, it can be a useful black box for the developer when dealing with criminals.  Assume that once the criminal is imprisoned, a lock of his hair (or whatever) is taken.  If he is wanted again for a crime serious enough to merit the expense, the local law enforcement agency may employ the services of a "finder" who uses the cell sample to dowse for the criminal and help track him down.

Ritual magic brings to mind a ring of druids chanting for a few hours to make it rain.  It's a little broader than this, actually, and one can include ideas like Ceremonial magic into the category.  From a real-time game perspective, it doesn't seem very exciting to sit around and watch your avatar chant for a long time.  However, the possibility of ritual magic can add a new dimension to mass combat against NPC's with ritual magicians.  "Wow these guys are tough today... holy crap, there's a ring of priests back there behind them chanting!  Flank them!"  Ritual magic can also be used to expand the possibilities of noncombat activities, like consecration/desecration of specific sites, divination, or just making the crops grow better.

Using ritual magic to modify many "buffs" that currently exist as short casting time spells, you modify their use and the mechanics of player dynamics.  For example, a blessing that temporarily raises a character's abilities by a small amount can require a ritual, instead of merely popping off a quick spell when you see the critter charging your way.  Blessing has to be premeditated.  In this way, a player ritual mage becomes immensely valuable to a group on a mission.  Ritual magic is also apropos for various support and preparation magics useful in battle.  Need a mist to limit sight range to cripple the enemy's archer superiority?  Have someone call the Dragon's Breath for you.  Need to stop critical bleeding long enough to get the guy to a medical specialist?  Ritual.  The long casting times of rituals are perfect for such effects, and is a perfect way to limit the personal power of mages in straight combat while exploring new avenues of ability.

It should be noted that item enchantment magics should also be performed as rituals, with significant investments of power in many cases.  However, in order to prevent unbalancing effects and economic problems, these enchantments should be (a) limited in power, and possibly further limited by the ability of the wielder, and (b) of limited duration.  No one should have to tell you what happens when you allow characters to manufacture permanently enchanted weapons without hindrance.

Magic and Warfare (Shadwolf)

Obviously, real life battles did not involve magic, but stop to think what would have happened if they did.  Archery replaced javelins because it was more effective.  Guns replaced arrows because they worked better.  A fireball seems a whole lot more effective to me than an arrow.  Why then would you have this older technology around when it was obsolete?  The answer to this is that mages are rare and anyone can learn to use a bow.  Unless you have some way of keeping every single player from making some kind of mage variant, however, this argument fails.  How about the ability to summon creatures behind the enemy flank?  Or the ability to feed an entire army with magically summoned food?  If magic is to be used in any sort of viable yet interesting world, it must be limited.

In personal combat, this is doubly so.  Asheron's Call annoys a lot of people, but it is the logical progression of magic as a technology.  If chainmail is lighter and stronger than brigandine, everyone who needs armor will try to buy that.  If all armor is not as effective as a buffed robe, everybody will be a mage.  If there is any one combination that is superior, everyone will use that combination.  Add to this the idea of a world in which the most profitable job is killing things and there is an endless supply of stuff to kill (stuff that doesn't get any smarter), then this is what people will do.

The RPG Mage vs. the Literary Mage

Some people like the idea of being a mage in a game because they want to be Gandalf, Merlin, or any number of horrible fantasy pulp wizards that come to mind.  However, they ignore the literary role of the wizard in these books (except for the really horrible ones).  Gandalf used magic maybe a total of what, 4 times during Lord of the Rings?  Merlin barely used any at all in any iteration of the Arthur legends.  They did not run around tossing fireballs at everything that came their way.

The literary mage is often more plot device than protagonist.  There are a tiny handful of them in the world, and although everyone somehow knows that wizards are insanely powerful and are not good targets for a random mugging, the wizards don't just run out and take over the world with their powers.  Generally, the literary wizard is a source of bizarre arcane knowledge, moral and ethical guidance, and the occasional ass-saving spell.  Yet because of the Grandfather Clause of Stupidity and the lack of imagination on the part of the average gamer, almost all player character RPG mages are just fighters in different clothing, using magic missiles instead of arrows, warding spells instead of armor, and summoned daemons instead of hired mercenaries.  Ho hum.

The literary mage, unfortunately, is not a very good model for any but the most hard-core roleplayer to choose as an avatar.  People have ever-shortening attention spans, and are not entranced by the idea of subscribing to a game so that their wizard can spend all his time in the library.  Given the fact that most so-called computer RPG's are almost entirely about killing things, they want to be out there killing things.  They also don't want to hang around with a party of fighters who do all the killing, providing motherly ethical advice all the time and firing off one spell every week.  In order to cater to this class of mage player, computer RPG developers (and pen and paper RPG writers) have turned the mage from a bizarre mystical figure full of arcane wisdom to a lightning-lobbing siege engine.

Unfortunately, due to the precedent set by all RPG's since the original Dungeons and Dragons, this is what everyone expects from the mage.  They want to be more powerful than everyone else on the planet, of course, but they conveniently forget that literary mages have strange restrictions placed on them.  They remember, for instance, that Gandalf can kill a mighty Balron single-handedly, but they ignore the fact that he was not allowed to harm lesser creatures like goblins, who were part of the "natural order."  They remember that Merlin was the secret power behind the throne of Camelot, but they forget that he really didn't do all that much aside from facilitating destiny (furthering the plot).  Wanting every possible advantage and none of the drawbacks of a character type is part and parcel for the typical gamer, even more so for the computer gamer, since the computer is an abysmal tool for any concern outside powerleveling.  The result is the cookie cutter generic mage, the character that people will play if fireballs do more damage than arrows.

Is there any way to return the mage to his literary role in an MMORPG setting?  probably not at first glance.  The only ways to make the MMORPG mage more akin to the sagelike literary mage are:

There are some middle roads as well, but they also fail to be satisfactory to the typical fast food gamer mentality: The last point may seem like it has some viability, but in practice it fails horribly.  Using like affects like, a mage would be able to comfortably beat monsters with magical abilities, but would not do very well against, say, a mundane barbarian.  The problem is that the no-magic fighter is better than the mage against primarily magical opponents because he himself isn't affected by magic as strongly!  You can try to tweak this a lot to make it work, but the best case scenario effectively segregates your world's hunting areas, i.e. mages go here, fighters go here, and now your world is effectively smaller for all players.  This also tends to lead to bad loot situations where a fighter may be well-suited to go through a small pack of goblins, but the daemon the mage is killing is going to have the cool loot.

In conclusion, unless you completely rule out player character mages in any uncontrolled environment like an MMORPG, you will never approach an analogue to a heroic myth mage.  The only thing you can do is try to limit player accessibility to magical powers and then work on balancing the class types, so at least the mages will be relatively uncommon.