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Regardless of your overall favorite rule-set, there may exist a spell-casting system that matches your tastes better.
I am interested in getting peoples opinion on this
Also if you are like me and prefer different systems for different campaign styles,genres etc list you best choice in each one
or explain why you prefer your home-brew spell system
In example:
D20-ish fantasy: Fantasycraft
Generic: Gurps Fantasy
Post-Apocalyptic: Desolation
etc etc
=]
Ars Magica, hands down.
D20-ish fantasy: D20 variants (D&D 3.x, Pathfinder, etc.; possibly using alternate rules from Unearthed Arcana and other sources)
Generic (fantasy): see above or HERO System; possibly even 1st or 2nd Ed A&D or BECMI D&D
Gritty fantasy: HERO System or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Historical fantasy: Ars Magica
Superheroic: HERO System (Champions)
Cyberpunk: Shadowrun (without magic for a "classic" cyberpunk campaign) or Alternity
Generic (sci-fi): Alternity or HERO System
Post-apocalyptic: Alternity, HERO System, or RIFTS, depending on the desired feel/tone of the campaign
Space opera: Alternity (Star*Drive)
1) Mage: the Ascension, but you need moderately sophisticated players. Including the advanced rote rules works well to give it a nice classical fantasy feel.
2) There was a 'power word' system that someone I knew cobbled together. I think that they based it off of Ultima, like the video game.
3) Non-magic magic system 1: the nanotech system from 5th Ed Gamma World works great for a sort of wild/natural magic system.
4) Non-magic magic system 2: GURPS magic not so much, but GURPS psionics? Great for retooling into a magic system.
Hero game systems; can make your own which is cool; so my fav
then the Spellmaster lists from Rolemaster
the Rifts.
my favorite three.
I quite enjoy the spell system in Castle Falkenstein.
Mechanically, it was mostly a 'words of power' style spell assembly system with a system to "collect" magical energy up until you had enough to cast it.
Setting-wise, different spellcasting organizations owned different ancient texts which allowed them to cast a certain type of spell, so you'd have to choose the right societ if you wanted to cast healing spells versus casting illusions.
There was an old small-press game called Infinite Domains that I always thought was pretty nifty. (Although the caster-martial disparity was very obvious in that system.)
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My favorite is probably Grim Tales by Bad Axe games, its D20 but uses a spell burn system and magic can be very painful to cast.
I also like the palladium system especially Rifts.
Warhammer Fantasy roleplay is cool as well, you can blow up or other fun things.
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Personally, I like the Monte Cook's WoD (d20) magic System, and secondly like the WotC Unearth Arcana, either Recharge Magic or Spell Point System.
MC's WoD system essentually let you build a spell (quickly), but was still limited by level, time, resorces, and risk. More similar to 3E Epic spells and Seeds than Words of Power.
Spell Points basically gave all Spellcasters Power Points, and I loved it.
Recharge Magic essentually gave a form of unlimited spellcasting, similar to 0 level spells, but also drained the caster of the ability to use that spell, (and similar spells sometimes) for a set amount of time, mitigated by their caster level vs the spell level. The closer the two are, (or the higher the spell level you are casting) the longer you have to wait to do so again.
1. Artesia: Adventures in the known world (Do damned near anything, but with real character and relatively robust mechanics)
2. Mage: The Ascention (Do damned near anything with cool flavour but rules which change every time you read them. Cool backlash system)
3. WFRP 2nd ed (Cool flavour, but very limited range of effects. Very cool backlash system)
and I have heard good things about The Dresden Files RPG
About Rulemaster fantasy..I haven't heard a lot,could you enlighten me?
Would it be a good choice for a home-brew fantasy world that keeps evolving?
Is it rules-light?
In what ways is it different in spellcasting to GURPS?
@ J.S.: about GURPS.How come you prefer making another system rather than using the official one?
My favorite is systems where spells build up like the role master system. PCs must first learn how to create flame before they can throw fireballs.Regardless of your overall favorite rule-set, there may exist a spell-casting system that matches your tastes better.
I totally agree.That is why I am asking more questions about Role-master.
PS: And if a system builds up the spells AND shares some logic with free-form spell-casting we might have something great in brewing(or terribly bad...)
There was an old small-press game called Infinite Domains that I always thought was pretty nifty. (Although the caster-martial disparity was very obvious in that system.)
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I was intrigued and googled it.A gameboardgeek entry came up
Can't find it anywhere else,any ideas?
I love the spellcasting system of shadowrun 3rd edition.
You can throw low level spells all day long, conjure force one spirits like they are nothing, astrally project for fast communication and a wide variety of things.
Once you gain some serious karma you can channel really powerful spirits so that missiles and bullets bounce off of you, taking out an entire lone star police station is nothing and your sheer power level is almost unstoppable(until the drain hits!!)
The drain is what keeps shamans in check and makes the whole team needed. The spellcasting system is great because you never forget your spells, healing is available to all casting classes and there is a distinct difference between mages and shamans in flavor but not power level.
Shadowrun. When it first came out I remember being impressed that someone had finally created a system that could recreate the sorcerers duel in The Sword in the Stone.
Though a good second is the original Deadlands system of using poker hands.
Hiya.
Powers & Perils ( http://www.powersandperils.org ). An old game ('84, iirc) put out by Avalon Hill. Several different "flavors" of magic (wizardry, 'druidical', shamanism/spirit, 'nature/fey', and 'evil-nasty-fey').
Your knowledge of magic gave you a higher base chance to succeed in casting spells, but your skill in an actual spell could significantly increase that chance. Each of a spellcasters spells was treated more or less like an individual 'skill'. You could, for example, be a 23rd level magic-user ("Magic Experience Level"; MEL 23), but having only cast the spell Music two or three times in your life, your EL ("Expertise Level") in it may only be 1. Meanwhile, the 6th MEL hedge-wizard may have cast Music hundreds of times over his life, giving him a MUCH higher EL...perhaps 8 or 9. The higher EL spell would be more effective when cast by the lower MEL caster.
Oh, it's all "spell point" based, btw. One very cool thing about the system is that Wands and Staves can be of the 'D&D' type (casting a certain spell or spells), but most have a specific flavor. This allows them to cast spells 'like d&d', but also allows any caster that knows those spells to cast those spells himself more efficiently (increasing EL and decreasing mana cost). In P&P, a "wizards staff" is a *significant* weapon when in the hands of a wizard; it is much more than simply a length of wood that lets him cast "Fireball". :)
For my second magic system; I also really like Earthdawn (1st ed is all I've played). I LOVE the idea behind threads and weaves, and binding magic items to ones' self to get more 'in tune' with it's abilities, etc. Very nice flavor!
^_^
Paul L. Ming
About Rulemaster fantasy..I haven't heard a lot,could you enlighten me?
Is it rules-light? (emphasis added)
In a word: No. Rolemaster is extremely mechanistic and, one could very easily argue, unnecessarily complicated. The basic notion of diving magic up into three categories (essence, channeling and mentalism) is inherently reasonable and interesting and it basically corresponds to the approach found in d20 concepts like Midnight (by FFG) of having hermetic, spiritual and charismatic magical traditions. But the dizzying array of classes, the sheer volume of skills, the inflexibility of a system in which there are 20 armor types and hundreds (if you add them all up) of pages of attack resolution tables... Rules light is not a word I would ever dream of using to describe it.
I should mention that I own a pretty ridiculous number of books for this system, actually, and I've played it a lot. And enjoyed it a fair bit, but looking back, I'm just kind of astonished. I guess my entrance to it was through Middle Earth, but upon reflection, it's a particularly poor way of representing that kind of setting.I honestly can't say I'd recommend this to anyone as a game system, certainly not for its magic system.
However, YMMV.
I haven't found a lot of magic systems I really love, but my perspective is from that of a gm, and trying to deal with players tromping over my adventures and villains using magic.
Shadowrun is one of my favs, but it can be a little over powered.
The warhammer games (both 2E and 3E) have an interesting magic systems. I like the miscast effects.
I'm not overly experienced with the magic system in BRP, but it seems alright.
The Conan rpg has kind of a cool variant of the generic d20 magic system.
Barbarians of Lemuria has a really fast, flexible and flavourful little magic system.
I've never been a big fan of the magic system in D&D it gets way over the top by the end.
I have Kromosome(from the Amazing system engine line)
I was wondering if their magic system was any good(kromosome was a biopunk standalone)
From what I can see they didn't make a 'proper' fantasy world book...'For fairie queen and country' is Victorian age (with magic) and Magitech is the only rpg I've seen resembling 'Tales of the Realm' a comic series from the short lived Crossgen company
Anyone played with their magic rules?
I've played multiple incarnations of D&D, Earthdawn, Rolemaster, among others. I've not played anything with the Amazing system engine (which is surprising, considering I've at least dabbled with dozens of games).
However, I've recently been playing a card-based RPG called UNTOLD (untoldthegame.com), and it's "magic" system is simply brilliant!
A character's "level/hp" is basically his Untold Point (UP) value. He uses part to put certain cards into play (such as Race, Aspects which are Body/Mind/Soul, and other Powers), and then leaves a certain amount of UP as a "Swap Buffer".
If a character has "Investiture of Oaze" in play, that gives him access to quite a few "Hot Swap" powers that are all spells, such as "Healing Touch" or "Fireball". Each round, a character has similar actions to Pathfinder (Free, Move, Standard, Full), and if he has the actions available and the UP in his Swap Buffer, he can play any of those spells.
So, our hero could cast "Fireball" as long as he has the UP for it. The UP, by the way, isn't "spent" like a spell slot or Power Points. Instead, you take damage directly to your UP, and so as your character is injured, your ability to act is reduced. But if your Swap Buffer is still high enough, you can play "Fireball" over and over, no spell slots or points. Magic-using characters aren't limited to a 15 minute adventuring day that they are in most other games!
Some Powers have a limit. For instance, you can only be healed by "Healing Touch" once per day per target healed. This limits the healing somewhat, but that's part of the challenge!
The default setting is called "Splintered Serenity" and is a post-apocalyptic setting where the dimension barriers between the Earth, a clockwork realm, and a magical realm have all been weakened, and so things bleed over.
It's really cool!
BTW: The game company is Ignitus Innovation and you can even get some of their products in PDF form at their site, RPGNow, Paizo, and some others!