I'm considering adding magic to my game.

Srekel · 2003-08-22T14:50:35

I haven't really given the setting or world much thought yet, but so far I've been thinking that it should be a modern/slighly futuristic world, where people usually use guns (pistols, rifles, maybe crossbows etc) to fight. The game has a realistic damage system (the most realistic I'VE seen anyways), which has a lot of benifits but also generates some difficult design problems. Most notably, how is the character going to travel to a doctor (or someplace he can be healed) if he's shot in the leg... or whereever, really? And shouldn't any kind of damage be quite crippling during the game? It might turn into a reload-whenever-you're-damaged game, and that would really suck. There are ways to handle this, but they don't feel quite sufficient. Anyways, I've been playing Lionheart (good game, not great) and I just realized that magic isn't such a stupid idea. In fact, it's pretty cool. And it has some nice benifits. 1) The above mentioned problem can be helped by giving the player some kind of healing/ignore pain-spell. 2) Magic items are neat 3) It adds a lot of depth - a whole new way to play the game On the other hand.... 1) Maybe people who want magic doesn't like modern settings (I think this is true in a lot of cases actually, but on the other hand there's a great and popular PnP RPG called ShadowRun which really mixes magic and the modern world in a good and very cool way) 2) Maybe people who for once would like a modern RPG with cool assault rifles and maybe even cybernetic implants (not decided yet) would be turned off by magic? 3) I don't want to FORCE anyone to be a magic user because "if you don't use magic you'll die from one wound!" (this isn't true of course, but...) 4) Balancing the game will take A LOT more time and effort. It wouldn't be a problem to add it to my current design (I just have to add one more skill I think)... Lol, I don't know what my question is really, except maybe: Do you think magic would be a good or bad addition, from what you understand of the game? ------------------ "Kaka e gott" - Me Current project: An RPG with tactical, real-time combat with a realistic damage system, and randomly generated world and dialogue. [edited by - Srekel on August 19, 2003 6:39:33 AM]

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by Srekel August 19, 2003 05:37 AM

13 comments, last by Srekel 20 years, 7 months ago

robert4818

138

August 21, 2003 10:06 PM

First off I would like to say that I Love the fact that your into Shadowrun. It has to be my favorite RPG. I''ve been emailing Microsoft for a while trying to get them to produce a Shadowrun game for the computer, either single player or an MMO style RPG. It has some of the best concepts I''ve seen in alot of areas, stats, magic, melee combat etc.

Second I would like to point out that Realism needs to really be adressed as it is used in games. It seems like what I''m seeing in the discussion above is some people define realism as "relating to real life" in reality just like in a movie you want to create the suspension of disbelief. What you are striving for with realism in this sense is that you have a set of game rules that, while the player has his belief suspended, I.E. Immersion, you don''t want to do anything that seems contrary to the rules of the world in which you''ve set up. You don''t have to have a full explanation for everything in your game, so long as it fits withing your game world without seeming out of place. FFVI did this pretty well, even though in real life you''d be wondering why they were using swords when tanks and guns were available.

I''m not sure my discussion helps your question any, but I figured i''d clarify it.

Ideas presented here are free. They are presented for the community to use how they see fit. All I ask is just a thanks if they should be used.

Kaezin

158

August 21, 2003 10:17 PM

As soon as I read this post I thought of Arcanum, Fallout, Fallout 2, and Lionheart. Great games

Anyway, magic mixes fine with real world elements. Just think of Star Wars; all the Jedi powers are their own form of magic (call it the force, but you can''t deny it is magic). As for crippling wounds such as a shot leg, just make the character walk slower or whatever.

Half the people you know are below average.Trogdor the Burninator

DuranStrife

100

August 22, 2003 06:45 AM

Mixing in magic is not hard. Any given magical ability essentially functions in the same manner as any given non-magical ability.

...my long-standing project, Pentaverse, is set in a world that once reached post-modern levels of science and reason but has now fallen. I wondered for a while whether the occasional ancient weapon would ruin my RPG, but I decided that guns are fundamentally no different from any other weapon in a game.

Mixing magic into your game should be similar.

Srekel : Deus Ex uses a body-part-specific damage system, where if you get hit in the legs, you slow down, etc. It fixes this by giving you ways to heal in the field (the Regeneration ability and Medpacks).

[edited by - DuranStrife on August 22, 2003 7:46:44 AM]

robert4818

138

August 22, 2003 10:52 AM

There is a reason that science fiction and fantasy get lumped together in one area in book stores. When you get down to the nitty gritty, there really isn''t much difference between the two. (this applies to mainly hard core sci fi)

Magic in fantasy, is the same as adv technolgy, or alien powers. They both are used to explain things that can be done in the world of the book that can''t be done in real life.

You usually have a rich history going back many thousands of years. Fantastical creatures etc.

Ideas presented here are free. They are presented for the community to use how they see fit. All I ask is just a thanks if they should be used.

Saluk

127

August 22, 2003 02:50 PM

Yes, deus ex handled it well I thought. It was actually kind of fun to lose both your legs and see how much you can do without them. They made exceptions, such as you can still walk around without your legs, it''s as if your crouched. And if you lose your arms, you can still do all the actions in the game, you just have worse aim, less strength etc. I never felt like reloading just because I had less health or lost limbs (although I did make a lot of backup saves so if I couldnt handle the situation without anything I could go back a bit).

I'm considering adding magic to my game.

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I'm considering adding magic to my game.

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