You can make a system like this that is fun, but the system will not be fun automatically. A lot depends on what rules you use to determine what makes a valid spell, and on the interface. Time for a couple of examples.

In Eternal Darkness (a Cthulhuesque adventure/horror game for the Gamecube), spells are formed by combining two "effect" runes with an "element" rune. For example, Project+Monster is an attack spell (with element corresponding to the elemental rune you used), while Absorb+Self is a healing spell (restoring healthy, sanity, or (rather uselessly) spellpoints, depending on element). Thus, to a certain extent, the player can think "What would it mean to combine Summon+Self?" Clever players will be able to deduce the effects of some spells simply by the runes that go into them, thereby being able to use spells that they haven't "officially" been informed of yet (for each spell, there's a scroll somewhere in the game that tells you the name of the spell and the runes required to cast it).

The key thing to learn there is that the player can deduce rules for what makes a valid spell. Moreover, because there are only two runes in each spell, there's a limited set of possible combinations; thus, there are relatively few "dud" combinations that should do something, but don't. You don't want to have logical spell possibilities that aren't in the game; that just damages the internal ruleset the player is using to discover spells.

Second example: Valkyrie Profile 2. In VP2, every piece of equipment has a corresponding rune (e.g. head/leg/body for armor, and a myriad of other runes for accessories, like Strengthening, Fire, Training, etc.), a color (blue/red/green), and a position on a 4x4 grid. Certain combinations of adjacent runes of the same color unlock skills that the player can train in for use in combat. When you're paging through your vast lists of accessories and other equipment, the runes show up in the grid; if you've created a valid combination to unlock a skill, then the relevant runes turn white. This simplifies the discovery process by allowing the player to quickly page through the possible runes for a given slot, and, assuming the other slots are fixed, determine if he can learn any new skills. The actual runes that combine to form a skill don't always make that much sense, and there's something like 20 different runes and only 50 or so skills, so there's no real deductive process to learning skills; however, the interface allows for a straightforward trial-and-error approach.

The key thing here is that the interface doesn't get in the player's way. If you're experimenting with a system, you don't want to have to page through multiple windows or watch transitional animations repeatedly. The interface in VP2 is simple and to the point, thereby encouraging people to actually try to discover new skills.

This will be fun for about 2 hours until someone posts the entire spell list to the internet.

(btw, a system akin to this was used in dungeon master if you want to research how that went)

Quote:Original post by Telastyn
This will be fun for about 2 hours until someone posts the entire spell list to the internet.

By the same token, there's no point in putting any puzzles into games, since people can simply look up the solutions to bypass them.

Now, there is one concern with discoverable spells that I didn't mention earlier - namely, the concern the player feels, that if only they spent more time researching spells, they'd have a "better" gamefile. Frankly there's not a whole lot you can do about that, but some people will always feel penalized for not being willing to make an effort on a semi-optional part of the game.

Quote:Original post by Derakon
Now, there is one concern with discoverable spells that I didn't mention earlier - namely, the concern the player feels, that if only they spent more time researching spells, they'd have a "better" gamefile. Frankly there's not a whole lot you can do about that, but some people will always feel penalized for not being willing to make an effort on a semi-optional part of the game.

I certainly understand what you mean, but why not make spell discovery an ongoing process? e.g., a player must defeat a boss or complete a quest to unlock a rune or some other symbol, but they can always go back to collect them later.

I'm sorry that I can't think of the title at the moment, but I remember renting a game for the NES or SNES as a child. It had a system just like this, where you earn runes and try to decipher the semantics that would grant you a new spell.

It was absolutely tedious. So tedious it haunts me to this day. I had to speak up for the children. Won't somebody please think of the children?

Didn't Square release an RPG on the SNES that used a similar system? I think you could input a name for your spell and from the spell's name it would have specific effects. I don't remember the name of the game since I'm not sure if it made it to the US but I think it has Rudra in the title. (From a quick google search I think it might be Rudra's Treasure)