Magic Power Point Presentation

When it comes to the mechanics of magic in a role-playing game two options rise to the top of the list as far as importance. The first is the number of points with which a character has access to for the casting of spells. The second as discussed last week is the time it takes to cast the spell. The points portion of the mechanics can be broken down into several factors that must be considered and balanced. It can be difficult to discern what to deal with first. There is the need to determine the number of points required to cast each and every spell. There is also the number of points to which any single character will have access. It makes sense to determine the spell costs first. Doing that requires starting with the low-end costs and building up to the more costly and thus more impressive and powerful spells, but how to weight them?

The cost of one spell compared to another should be based upon many different factors. These factors can include how long the effect of the spell lasts, how far the effect can be cast away from the spell caster, how large of an area the spell affects, and just how powerful is the effect? What determines how powerful or impressive a spell is? Does it depend on game factors like damage? Is it more powerful if it affects multiple people? Does it matter if it is flamboyant or a spectacle to see? Is it a matter of how much it bends reality and defies the known laws of physics? Is it about the way it can change the playing field and alter the storyline? This last is hard to quantify. Death is a game changing matter when it comes to the players, the protagonists of the story. How does a powerful spell affect the setting if too many can cast it?

Once at least a rough baseline is set for the cost of spells then a look can be taken at how many points to which a single character or player should immediately have access. Factors for consideration include how many spells in rapid succession should a player be able to cast? This will also require knowledge about the other types of characters available so that the spell cast does not run out of options long before his companions. How powerful is a starting spell caster? How should they progress in power? Both of these should be compared to other character types as well, to maintain fairness and promote players to choose a spell caster. From a points standpoint there is an advantage to having more than one spell caster in the player party. Leaving points aside are there other advantages to multiple casters?

Mood: eclectic.

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The Strength of Magical Times

The use of magic in role-playing games has an additional requirement, beyond those discussed already, that must be dealt with in the mechanics to give it a sense of realism. Stick with us, even if you're not a gamer, because this has as much to do with creating the setting and the effect of magic on that mood, and the mood of any scene or scenario where magic is involved as it does games, numbers, or rules. As with so many other situations this requirement for magic and verisimilitude involves time. It's not just about creating an air of reality though; it's about dynamics and the implications that are spawned by setting out the rules, the physics, of magic and what is involved in its use. The mechanics are a factor of time because magic takes time, how much dependent upon the dictates of the setting which of course are set out in the rules.

In our more realistic setup for magic the ability to cast a specific number of spells per time period is off the table. Instead magic points are used, with each spell requiring a certain number of points to cast. It takes time to regain these points. How quickly they are used is more important game-wise than how long they take to recharge, but for fiction writing the significance is about the same unless magic only takes as long as the time to cast it--there is no need to figure it takes anything more than will and knowledge. The time required to cast spells and the recharge time can affect the pacing of your timeline if not the pace of the story. Often there are also methods by which a spell caster can gain and use additional points, such as rituals with multiple members, and sacrifices. Both of those right there add flavour and mood to the magic, and impact the setting.

There is yet another option for gaining magic points that involves an external source. Some settings have places of magic such as locations where mystic temples were built, lines of magical force that criss-cross the globe called ley lines, and places that are just plain magical whether because of a bleed-over from another dimension, the influence of magical beings like faeries, or at the decree of deities. Beyond that, these locations and others may have increased magic at specific times of the day, month or year, or when certain celestial alignments come about. These places and times can cut short the time required between spells, and allow for stronger spells to be cast than normal. All of these of course change the dynamic of the story or the game without even getting into the nitty-gritty of them. The exact mechanics and number crunching flow from the story elements.

Mood: relaxed.

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Role-Playing Game Run Down

As a writer, and therefore an editor I have cultivated a sense of judgment on various levels of what I read and watch. I put this to use as reviewer for the Bob's Reviews site. Likewise, whenever I set out to create a new product I use that critical eye to look at what is out there in the market and target concepts, methods, and procedures that could do with improvement. Familiarity with products in particular veins improves that sense of what could be done different or better--the two are not always exclusive with better being a matter of taste in some instances. I have a great familiarity with one product that I look to speak about specifically today and as long as it takes to cover the concepts I wish to discuss. That product is role-playing games.

Kevin Siembieda is famously known as saying that "RPGs are, after all, part novel, part text book, part instruction manual, part art book and all imagination." That's a good covering of the main facets of role-playing game books, but as far as games and their design goes it is not the entire story, not as far as I am concerned here. The games themselves are part collaborative story telling, part acting, part strategy, part chance, and all game. A lot of the time people gravitate to one of those more than the others, sometimes one or two. It all depends on the game, the personal goal in playing, and a likely host of other decisions and desires held in balance. A good game system, that is the core rules and setting, should offer many possibilities in each of those elements of the game.

One area where a game might fail, or not measure up is in the balance between strategy along with numbers and dice, and the art of telling a story. This can be a matter of one getting in the way of the other and bogging things down or hindering the smoothness of game play. The purpose of rules, and dice, known as the mechanics of the game, is to provide a framework upon which to tell the stories, set up the scenarios, make it a game rather than just writers or actors collaborating. There is a level of simulation involved, simulating physics, simulating character or psychology. How much it feels like a simulation or how much verisimilitude it doesn't or doesn't have is a frequent failure point for RPGs. There are a number of ways this can happen. Tune in next time for more.

Mood: declarative.

Music: Voodoo Medicine Man by Aerosmith and Harvester Of Sorrow by Metallica.

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Onward in the Corners

Here it is 2010. Can you believe that? Even a month into the year it's still hard to wrap my head around it. Is there another year yet to come that has received a lot of fictional press? I don't know any--I'm ignoring supposedly real apocalypse dates. Not only is 2010 a new year, but also more than that it's a new decade. Somewhere along the line I'm sure that I will post something about the future of books or writing and multimedia together or similar. It won't be the first time and as long as things keep changing and evolving in the world it likely won't be the last. Some of the articles I intend to write this year are not very dark or horror oriented but don't let that get you down. Some of them I will take special care to make dark and horror-filled.

One of the first topics I want to tackle will be in a sort of pseudo-series. I do not know how many weeks it will take or if I'll do them all at once or not. They are focused on role-playing game writing and use. The main thrust of these will be about the artificial quality of some rules that games have, and ways of avoiding that, hiding it, or otherwise minimising it. I also want to take a look at the ubiquitous and attention hogging vampire. This was a number of ideas, spawned by recent movies and a novel I have knocking around in the back of my head, to really make vampires something to fear again. Before I get to that though we need to look at how they are portrayed now. I also have to cover a bit about some of the myths that have fallen by the wayside and some that are only partially explained.

Back to that idea about the future of writing and the possible changes, I would like to write an article or two further getting into this whole idea of deleted and alternate scenes as well as side stories. The thing about this idea is it is only new in that--especially in the case of side stories--they existed separately before and now they can co-exist. The important part of this topic that I want to get to is about using the bits that exist in the story to set the mood, or to contrast it. How do you set that up? How does the full version change things? Are those changes present elsewhere and just quietly inserted? Of course any of these kinds of ideas could be full-blown articles all on their own. I hope you'll stick around to see.

Mood: optimistic.

Music: Music: Big Guns by Skid Row and Snakebite by Alice Cooper.

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13 Nights of Hallowe'en: Night #6 Dead Silence

While tonight’s movie is a more recent release it
is not hard to classify it as a classical kind of horror. It hearkens back to an earlier time in horror. At the same time it is a modern film. The movie starts, as some of the most interesting ones do, with a local legend. There is even a nursery rhyme associated with the legend. This is another movie that is not a remake of anything and has no immediate point of comparison. Don’t let the director’s name be a red herring, or the front of the box promotional text. James Wan is indeed the writer/director on “Saw”. Wan has two more movies beside “Saw” and tonight’s movie, “Dead Silence”. Don’t let “Saw” influence expectations for this movie; it can only lead to frustration. This movie taps into a different vein of horror.

“Dead Silence” has the best kind of examples of what moviemakers are doing right with CGI and green screens. There is a lot of negative talk about CGI in horror movies. They say it disrupts people staying engaged in the movie. Bad effects aside, they say the CGI makes them remember it’s a movie every time there is a scene that would be impossible without it. This is somehow worse than other effects. “Dead Silence” has CGI scenes that people will not notice until the bonus features tell them otherwise. Parts that seem completely normal in the movie were not fully real. Another great thing done in “Dead Silence” is how the supernatural is bound by rules, which is always fun. It is a great way to create tension and anticipation, by actually keeping the audience in on things.

Mood: creaky.
Music: How Can I Live by Ill Nino off of Freddy Vs. Jason Soundtrack.

All Up in the Air

Just a note about last Friday (if you missed the addendum): It was reported that 150,000 people (not just motorcycles, since some ride two people) descended upon Port Dover, a town/area of normally 6,000 people!

I spent the weekend, and a couple days around it, in game writing mode. Most of it was work on my fantasy role-playing game, though maybe as much as ninety percent of it will be useful in any other game I decide to write. First off I was working on information dealing with sound and how far away sounds of certain levels can be heard. I started with a borrowed chart from somebody and then I went to town tweaking it and making it my own. The biggest change I did was to remove the effect of sounds that lessen the distance something can be heard. Then I detailed rules how to add those "distractions" back in.

The fantasy game's setting made for a couple out of the ordinary additions to be made to these sound rules, particularly where distance is involved. The sound chart only covers up to certain distances. The reason for this is the curvature of the planet makes the sound essentially travel off into space, if it's loud enough to breach that distance. That is for horizontal sounds. Once you look at vertical distance the sky is the limiting factor, or rather the air. Past a certain point the air is too thin for sound to travel any great amount of distance. Of course once you run out of atmosphere then you get no sound at all because a vacuum doesn't carry sound.

The second thing I was working on—and still am chugging away at—is the weather in games. Here I have breakdowns of things like wind speeds, amounts of precipitation—that being rain or snow—a look at temperatures around my fantasy world, and numerous things that the Game Master can roll randomly. Specifically for the fantasy game I even have monthly norms and a multiple year weather cycle. Some of this fantasy-setting information is on the wonky side compared to the real world, but there is a method to the madness, and such oddities can and will have a social impact on the game.

Mood: level.
Music: Walk Right Back by The Everly Brothers and Last Train To Clarksville by The Monkees.

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