#7. Talk About Magic

I've been working on my daydreaming and delusions, and mark you, when you take these things seriously it's a long way to go. Take magic, for example. I know the concept itself is fantastic, but when you dig this thing it's not as simple as it sounds. So here's what I've got, with some help from TV Tropes article "Functional Magic":

- The classic JRPG kind of magic. As a JRPG fan, this is the most familiar kind of magic system to me. You just learn, and you can just spam 'em as much as your Magic Point (MP, sometimes SP or PP, whatever) allows. It's the easiest sort of stuff to use in videogames, but then, if you want some more "realistic" idea of fantasy world, it's hell of a way to put this into the settings. Who would want to pick up sword and charge when you can just spam fireballs? Fictions elaborate this with more plausible backgrounds, such as "Magic is all about inherent talent" or "It takes like hell to learn magic."

- The good ol' Vancian magic, a.k.a. Dungeons & Dragons kind of magic. D&D has a rather interesting approach in magic (to Eastern audience like myself, at least) since it uses "fire and forget" kind of magic. You memorize magic A, you use it, and it's gone. Rince and repeat. This makes magic a lot more strategic, as well as balancing the concept of magic with being almighty and handy yet risky to use carelessly. For some reason I have the idea of Magic the Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh kind of trading card games have similar system. Discard and draw, perhaps. It's still interesting to adopt Vancian magic in videogames, but that isn't really appealing to more causal gamers. Sometimes the idea of "forget what you just took like eight hours to read in one go" gets mocked, as in the first book of Discworld series.

- A variant of Vancian magic. The idea is to store magic not in your head but somewhere else, and when needed you get magic out of the substance and into you head, or just blast 'em directly. In D&D spellbooks, wands and staffs are mostly used in this fashion, unlike the more popular idea of "the must," as in Harry Potter. It is still used for a means of using magic, since it justifies the use of magic by non-magic kind of people. Too bad not many JRPGs go for this idea, except for those "cursed" equipments that cling up to the character's body.

- Cult magic, or as I would prefer to call, Call of Cthulhu kind of magic. Anyone can cast magic, sometimes as easy as cooking, but then, anyone can go mad from knowing too much, and apparently the world doesn't give a shit. Magic in CoC is initially concealed from public and used among cultists and mythos beings, but once the investigators get their hand on one of it they can attempt to use in anywhere, anytime. At the cost of some magic points (which doubles as your mental stamina, as in, you faint when it hits zero) and your sanity. The more you meddle with magic, the more you slip from slippery side of mental health. Did I mention that most initial use of magic gives you Mythos skill points, which gnaws off your upper limit of sanity? On the brighter side, magic in CoC is worth trying, since it really is strong, from punching people unconscious with invisible forces to downright summoning great ol' Cthulhu and his whole family. High-risk, high-return. Full stop. It might be clever to integrate in videogames, especially in horror games. In non-horror role playing games, I guess not so much.

- A more "realistic" variant of magic, which have appeared a lot in history around the world. When you hear "arcane" in magic, this is the real McCoy. The basis is that, magic is nothing more than the right action and right ritual in right time, right place, with right knowledge. Back in history, way before scientific method was invented, this was how people researched and learned stuff, and this is how knowledge was made and passed down. With some good imagination this would make some awesome magic sequence, but it's a tragic thing it's not cut out for videogames. Chanting and time-consuming sequence is more of a cinematic events, not actual gaming system.

Correct me if I got wrong on these stuffs, I'm still learning and peer review is one of the best method of education. End transmission.