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From: hakanson@orstcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: MARVEL COMICS GREATIST MISTAKE
Message-ID: <28500014@orstcs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 14-May-84 18:04:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: orstcs.28500014
Posted: Mon May 14 18:04:00 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 31-May-84 19:30:48 EDT
References: <1082@qubix.UUCP>
Organization: Oregon State University - Corvallis, OR
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Nf-ID: #R:qubix:-108200:orstcs:28500014:000:3104
Nf-From: orstcs!hakanson    May 22 14:04:00 1984

<you can't eat just one>

I am not criticizing anyone, but I *am* offering another opinion:

I for one have never played with a referee who ignored the casting times,
ranges, or durations of AD&D spells.  I would be extremely disappointed
in a referee's competence if he/she ignored these rules, since these rules
keep things from getting out of hand.  For example, it's simply fair for
it to take ten minutes to an hour to conjure an elemental.

Now remember, I am no great fan of the AD&D system, as my previous articles
have intimated.  But I have had some terrific adventures in the system, and
none of them depended on ignorance of these particular rules.  However an
example of a rule which *is* usually ignored is the use of dice to determine
when in melee combat a character's attack "goes off."  This is entirely too
cumbersome and unrealistic -- the most workable method of AD&D melee combat
I have seen is for the two opposing parties to each roll a d6 for initiative,
the party having the highest roll going first in all their attacks.  This
streamlines the process of combat, seems very fair to all concerned, and has
been extremely workable.

Oh boy, here's another chance to spout off about Magic World.  In a previous
response, I gave a mini-review of this Chaosium Basic Role-Playing-based
FRP game, in which I praised the combat and experience systems.  Now, I will
briefly describe the magic system.  Instead of exhaustively listing all the
possible spells as in AD&D, in MW they have a smaller number of basic spells,
with new ones being invented occasionally.  The notion of levels of spells
is implemented by allowing any spell caster to specify (ahead of time) the
number of levels of power (POW points) he/she will put into the spell.  It
takes a certain number (usually one) round per level to cast the spell, and
duration is usually dependent on the energy expended.

Each spell caster (and anyone can attempt to cast a spell) has a percentage
chance to successfully cast each spell.  As in weapon and other skills, the
percentage can go up after an adventure in which the caster successfully uses
the spell.  Since all characters are limited in the amount of POW points they
have (it's an attribute like Strength, Intelligence, etc.), the mage-type
characters in the Magic World system need some advantage to make their
abilities better than the ordinary run-of-the-mill character.  This is done
by allowing Mages to construct at great expense a staff which can store POW
points, thus allowing them to cast more levels of spells than the unaided
spell caster.  Mages usually get to start at a higher percentage on new
spells than the non-mage character, as well, and I believe it is possible
for them to increase their POW points by defeating opponents in what's
called a "Power vs Power" situation (non-mages can increase POW in the
same way).

All in all, I find Magic World to be a very realistic and yet very playable
FRP gaming system.  Anyone else out there care to comment?

Marion Hakanson			CSnet:  hakanson@oregon-state
				UUCP :  {hp-pcd,tektronix}!orstcs!hakanson