Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watmath.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!jagardner
From: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Limiting Magic
Message-ID: <12303@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 2-Apr-85 10:30:48 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.12303
Posted: Tue Apr  2 10:30:48 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Apr-85 00:55:33 EST
References: <1179@reed.UUCP> <26000002@siemens.UUCP>
Reply-To: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 41

In article <26000002@siemens.UUCP> steve@siemens.UUCP writes:

>By the way, I have a really neat magic system, but it has one flaw that
>the obvious solutions won't really fix:  a magic user can go off and spend
>some huge amount of time making an arbitrary number of potions or enchanted
>swords or whatever and then carry huge amounts of magic with him.  Any
>suggestions on "realistic" reasons why magic users cannot do this, that don't
>restrict the ability to make a few potions or swords or whatever?

There are several easy solutions to this.  Encumbrance is the first;
after all, think how few bottles of pop you can carry with you, even
if you have a backpack or a pack horse.  Make potions the size of a
large (750 ml) bottle of pop, and you limit MUs simply on encumbrance.

Another simple fix is to say that magic items give off some magic
radiation that is somewhat similar to radioactivity.  (This is what
is picked up by a Detect Magic spell).  Too many magic items in one
small area is similar to too much Uranium 235 crammed together; you
get critical mass and the whole thing blows up.  Extremely experienced
magicians are sometimes able to build magic "dampers", similar to
lead shields.  Thus, high level MUs can carry a little bit more because
they can block out SOME of the radiation.  There is always a little
radiation that leaks no matter how effective a damper you have, so
you can't have an infinite supply of stuff with you.

A final simple fix is the opposite of the previous one.  Instead of
giving off radiation, magic items leech energy (manna) from the
surrounding environment.  (The "manna" concept is used in several
stories by Larry Niven, e.g. "What Good is a Glass Dagger?")  The
magical properties of the items depend on a constant supply of manna
being absorbed.  Too many magic items in one place drain the local
manna; then, like plants without water, all the items die (lose their
magical potency).  In the Niven stories, the manna in an area never
came back once it was used, so flagrant use of manna in a particular
region exhausted that region forever and magic would never again work
there.  An interesting situation for a campaign...a world on the edge
of manna depletion, trying to survive reality.  Images of a Swords and
Sorcery Morrow Project spring to mind...

			Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo