🚀 go-pugleaf

hall@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Robert J. Hall) writes:
>
>How about this: "Mundane magic is weakened magic". If you use a spell
>over and over, it develops into an ordinary physical phenomenon and
>loses its special magical nature. Thus, each time you use a particular
>spell you have developed, it becomes weaker and harder to cast.

I'm not sure how you mean this: develops into an ordinary physical
phenomenon.  Do you mean everybody can shoot flame jets from their
fingers after a while?  If so, this obviously won't work.  If you mean
it simply gets harder to cast, though, that's a good effect.

>You could also have a property that says: "Shared magic is mundane magic."
>If a Wizard shares his particular secrets with another, then the magic
>becomes more mundane and is weakened.

True - and not just shared, but analyzed.  Thus, if you cast a spell in
front of another magician, he'll be impressed and start watching you
closely.  After another couple of castings, he might be able to analyze
the spell, thus making it "shared" even though the sharing was
involuntary.  There could easily be rules for this, such as making a
roll vs. IQ or Magic Lore or whatever, to figure out a spell.  The
first casting: no chance to figure it out.  The second that you
observe, a hefty penalty, the third, a slightly less hefty penalty, and
so on until about the eight time you've seen it is at straight IQ or
Magic Lore, maybe.

Another thing I've been mulling over is the infinite universe theory of
magic (mentioned in Bonewitts).  If there exists a universe in which
fireballs are possible, the magician is able to switch to that universe
- no one else notices the change, except perhaps another magician.  In
this new universe, everything else is identical, except that fireballs
can be magically created by those who know how.  Well, not *quite*
identical beyond that ability though . . .

What if switching to the fireball universe means some other possible
spell effect is lost?  You can't cast a spell to see through walls in
such a universe, perhaps.  So to cast such a spell, the magician has to
switch universes again.

I'm not sure where this could go, but it's an intriguing thought I share
in the hopes of sparking someone else to do something creative with it.

-- 
  - Steffan O'Sullivan		         sos@oz.plymouth.edu