David Eddings

[hector]

This is primarily aimed at the settings of The Elenium and The Belgariad, since those are the series that I've read, but obviously Althalus and Elder Gods discussion is fine too . So yeah. The Elenium seems like a pretty easy, and a pretty good fit for this system. The use of magic in the system is almost entirely plot driven. It's almost never in the form of overt attacks, it rarely involves any kind of healing, and in general could probably be handled by SA expenditure.

The Belgariad, on the other hand, is a far more interesting beast magic wise. Magic can do many, many things, but only if you know exactly what it is that you want to accomplish and follows the laws of physics (mostly) - if you try to lift a two ton boulder, you'll probably just find yourself buried up to your shoulders instead. You can create things, but once created, a thing cannot be annihilated. People who can use magic can tell when it is being used and, if close enough, by whom. People who can use magic will never experience ageing (other than greying hair, and then only if that's how they feel like they ought to look).

I get the feeling that the magic here should be able to do whatever the user wants it to do - so long as he knows how to get the desired result. If changing the weather, then a knowledge check about how the weather works; if healing a man's wounds, then a healing check. If assaulting a target directly, then an aim check. So, thoughts?

[higgins]

I have to admit my ignorance here and confess that this is the first time I've ever heard of Mr. Eddings.

That said, did you just suggest not one, but TWO magic systems that could basically be incorporated into Song of Steel WITHOUT adding additional rules!?

Okay, there's the question of who gets to use magic and who doesn't, but otherwise I'm pretty much blown away by this. I never even considered these concepts. Granted, I never even considered using magic in the first place as that is clearly outside the scope of the core game, but that's beside the point. I'm very much intrigued how something like this would work in practice.

[hector]

I reckon you'd need an edge in both of them. In the Belgariad, there's also witchcraft and demon summoning (talking to the spirits to gain effects and summoning demons), both of which would require additional skills but are otherwise perfectly doable. The ability to use Sorcery (the main kind of magic shown in the series) would be a Major edge, just because of how powerful it is. The gods can all use Sorcery, and can perform feats that would be impossible for any human Sorcerer. Sorcery is the force they used to create the world. Gods are functionally immortal, but there are two objects in the world that can harm them - the two orbs representing the two competing destinies of the Universe. Gods cannot heal naturally - they shouldn't need to. This means that when the evil god is burned by one of the orbs in the backstory, his face is still burning, and still in just as much pain, thousands of years later when the series itself is set.

In the Elenium, on the other hand, magic is open to any who pray to a god for it, so long as that god is willing to provide it. The Elene's "one true god" doesn't typically provide magic, but then no one's sure if anyone has asked him. The Styric gods will typically provide magic so long as you pray to them. Prayer and worship are where the gods get their power from; it's really, really hard to kill a god, but there are two ways that could work. The first one, proven to work, is using an artefact called the Bhelliom, while the second is to kill all their worshippers. This might not kill the god in question, but it causes them great pain. There is no divine healing of wounds - a god can pull it off if he or she intervenes directly, but that's more down to them knowing more about human anatomy than we do and essentially performing surgery. Magic can cure diseases and poisons though.

As for his work, I should warn you that he's very, very formulaic. I don't consider that a bad thing, because while the plots may be formulaic, that makes the characters instantly memorable, and he does have a knack for writing good dialogue.

[Agamemnon]

I confess, I am not familiar with his work either, though what you describe reminds me of a sort of system I kicked around a while back, working on a similar kind of idea as the Miracles / acts of faith thing from TROS back in the day, letting a character expend points from his Spiritual Attributes to attempt to cause miracles.

I considered a similar system for rare-but-powerful plot-driven sorcery at one point or another, with the notion that the act of casting spells wasn't something even the most dedicated sorcerer would do without the most dire need. Maybe I'll brush the concept off and see if I can write something up, once we get the core stuff out of the way.