Developing the Advanced Magic System

 

Around 2014, there was a discussion on the Old Scratch forum (RIP), about Magic. 

The consensus was that magic, while interesting, sucked as a mechanic. The Wizard had nine Spells, but had to manage them and use them at the right time, while being somewhere between useless and a complete liability the rest of the time. People where trying to find a way to allow them to be used multiple times.

Slev pointed out that some Spells where sufficiently low power that they could be used over and over. Some where so powerful that they definitely needed to be one-shot. 

Slev also noted that, baring a handful of Spells, Mind Points where useless. The Talisman of Lore was meant to aid in casting, but all it did was give a Mind Point bonus. 

Slev had an idea. Each reusable Spell would have a “mastery” value. The caster would have to roll against this in some way to cast the spell. But they could then try to cast it as many times as they liked.

Count Mohawk crunched some numbers on this, and tweaked them. 

Then Anderas had the idea of a Mind Point cost for each cast, and Spells having discard version of the effect regardless, to ensure that weakened Heroes could cast it regardless, especially useful for the Elf and their lower Mind Points.

Slev took this more developed idea, and ran with it. He also developed the Enchanter’s Emporium range of items, that played off of these effects.

This started with a selection of books, but also the “foci”, magical apparatus to better use Spells. This fulfilled the promise in the original core set that future expansions would give the Wizard something to spend money on.

If you add up the Advanced Game’s card selection for The Armoury and The Enchanter’s Emporium, and count the usable cards by each Hero, they add up the same.

This all lead to Slev having the idea of the Arcane Spells, 21 Spell Groups mixing pairs multiples of the eight forms of magic, plus the Wizard’s Cantrips and Dwarven Runes (in case the Dwarf got the chance to cast something).  The Arcane Spells could each be affected by two Foci, and where this given an extra pip of Mastery to compensate for this, making them perfect for an advanced Wizard with a number of Foci.

Keywords on the Hero Cards meant that starting Elves could use the four original ‘Elemental’ Spell Groups, plus the Elf Spells from the Elf Quest Pack, while starting Wizards these the four ‘Philosophic’ Spell Groups and Wizardry Spells found in Wizards of Morcar and/or the HQR Wizard Quest Pack, plus the Cantrips from the Advanced Game.

Champion status unlocked the Philosophy Spells for the Elf, Elemental Spells for the Dwarf and Barbarian (should they gain Spellcraft), and the new Arcane Spells for the Wizard.

With the revised Spell Selection rules and the Spellcraft stat existing, and being modified by several cards, this ensured that each Hero would always have a selection of Spells available to them. Through the arcane Spells, the Wizard would always have multiple Spell Groups to choose from that matched their Foci.

The net result is a magic system with only a little more complication, that fixes the insufficiencies of the original design, while keeping the theme. It also opened up play and design space for the promises of the original system. We could also tie it into the skill Sytem we developed for the Advanced Game, but that’s another story.