Politics
darren...@hotmail.com
Having put a bit more thought into the case of a very powerful mage breaking
laws I've come up with a few more suggestions. Again this is purely world
dependant... You could have the NPCs slip something to knock him out into his
food, water, beer etc. You could have the guards use stealth to sneak up on
him, shoot him full of arrows, bonk him over the head etc... What about darts
that put him to sleep? Or any other weapon? Maybe there are areas on your mud
that prevent players from casting "They could catch him there". What if the
town leader has him tossed out of his guild, class hall, clan? There are
hundreds of ways that players can seriously effected for commiting crimes. In
a realistic fashion. Of course the crime should fit the punishment and these
should be well defined in your code. And if they never come back to that town
it's a punishment in it's self "outcast" "banishment" etc... I don't think the
power of any one player makes them above the ability of an NPC to arrest them
"On my mud anyways". We can always come up with creative yet realistic
solutions to these situations.
-Batzing
-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
Jason Goodwin
In article <slrn6l4keg....@foobar.net>,
The Wildman <wil...@spamkiller.microserve.net> wrote:
>"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to
>anger."
>The response:
>"No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will
>put a serious cramp in his style."
I've known a few wizards that wouldn't care. (hmm, of course, they
did have clones in stasis cells ready to replace themselves, among
other, more subtle contigencies :)
A well played super powerful wizard would be nigh impossible to
actually hurt, let alone kill (much like a dragon, who've been
seriously downgraded in most muds IMHO)
The Wildman
On Thu, 07 May 1998 22:14:10 GMT, Wildman's eyes rolled up in his head and
froth dripped from his fangs when darren...@hotmail.com
<darren...@hotmail.com> said the following fighting words:
[about arresting lawbreaking mages]
"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to
anger."
The response:
"No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will
put a serious cramp in his style."
--
The Wildman
Gravity is a myth, the earth sucks.
Fight spam - http://www.cauce.org/
feel...@tidalwave.net-x
On 7 May 1998 14:48:23 -0500, wgoo...@expert.cc.purdue.edu (Jason
Goodwin) wrote:
>In article <slrn6l4keg....@foobar.net>,
>The Wildman <wil...@spamkiller.microserve.net> wrote:
>>"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to
>>anger."
>>The response:
>>"No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will
>>put a serious cramp in his style."
>
>I've known a few wizards that wouldn't care. (hmm, of course, they
>did have clones in stasis cells ready to replace themselves, among
>other, more subtle contigencies :)
>
>A well played super powerful wizard would be nigh impossible to
>actually hurt, let alone kill (much like a dragon, who've been
>seriously downgraded in most muds IMHO)
Then again, in some muds the bash skill keeps wizards from casting..so
if a wizard is busy sitting on his butt, he's not going to cast. Then
you take into consideration armor and such that helps defend against
spells. But no matter how powerfull the wizard, if he can't cast,
he's nothing but a person in robes.
Richard Woolcock
Ah, but a smart wizard would prepare in advance, precasting spells before
a suspected conflict and preparing magical potions, wands, etc. Armour
only protects against specific types of spells (usually direct damage
spells) - however in a well coded mud, metal armour might actually result
in you taking MORE damage from a lightning bolt than not wearing any
armour at all. Similarly, leather armour could be set alight from a fire
spell such as fireball.
KaVir.
mor...@niuhep.physics.niu.edu
wgoo...@expert.cc.purdue.edu (Jason Goodwin) writes:
>The Wildman <wil...@spamkiller.microserve.net> wrote:
>>"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to
>>anger."
>>The response:
>>"No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will
>>put a serious cramp in his style."
>I've known a few wizards that wouldn't care. (hmm, of course, they
>did have clones in stasis cells ready to replace themselves, among
>other, more subtle contigencies :)
>A well played super powerful wizard would be nigh impossible to
>actually hurt, let alone kill (much like a dragon, who've been
>seriously downgraded in most muds IMHO)
A well played super powerful wizard wouldn't wander around town breaking
laws either.
m.g.w...@usa.net
In article <6it367$189$1...@wily-a-162.resnet.purdue.edu>,
> >"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to
> >anger."
> >The response:
> >"No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will
> >put a serious cramp in his style."
>
> I've known a few wizards that wouldn't care. (hmm, of course, they
> did have clones in stasis cells ready to replace themselves, among
> other, more subtle contigencies :)
>
> A well played super powerful wizard would be nigh impossible to
> actually hurt, let alone kill (much like a dragon, who've been
> seriously downgraded in most muds IMHO)
>
That, of course, assumes a high level of magic exists in the world - not every
would has super-powerful dragons and mages. That's one feature I, as a world
builder, very much like in my own mud: We make it easy to clearly define your
new 'area' as a seperate world, with different rules. We've adapted a concept
from RPGs like GURPS and TORG - the 'axiom' level. If you don't want high
tech laser rifles or high magic fireball wands from the universe next door to
be used in your world, then you simply have a lower axiom level. It allows
for a large range of world concepts to be explored with a minimum of
interference with the functioning of other worlds.
m.g.w...@usa.net
In article <3552D9...@dial.pipex.comNOSPAM>,
Richard Woolcock <Ka...@dial.pipex.comNOSPAM> wrote:
> Ah, but a smart wizard would prepare in advance, precasting spells before
> a suspected conflict and preparing magical potions, wands, etc. Armour
> only protects against specific types of spells (usually direct damage
> spells) - however in a well coded mud, metal armour might actually result
> in you taking MORE damage from a lightning bolt than not wearing any
> armour at all. Similarly, leather armour could be set alight from a fire
> spell such as fireball.
That is a primary feature of our combat system on Dreamshadow - weapons don't
simply cause damage, they cause a certain kind of damage. Armor protects
against some kinds, but no armor will protect against everything and some
armor may reduce your protection against certain forms of damage. I've not
seen this implemented on many other MUDs - If somebody else has a system like
this, I'd love to hear of it.
We've found that having a large number of choices available to a character
avoids the problem many other mudders complain about, wherin one
skill/class/spell/weapon is considered the "best" in the game, and it throws
the rest of the system out of balance. With many options available to you, no
single strategy is always the right one: you may have a longsword that does
incredible amounts of fire damage, but if you have a low skill in
fighting.melee.edged.longsword and your opponent has good protection from
DAM_HEAT, then it's not a very useful weapon. [If you take it into a
low-magic area, it's just a sword, and in the Stone Age, it's just a shiny
stick. :) ]
Comments?
Jason Goodwin
In article <6iv1uu$6...@corn.cso.niu.edu>,
<mor...@niuhep.physics.niu.edu> wrote:
>A well played super powerful wizard wouldn't wander around town breaking
>laws either.
Well, one I can think of in-particular needed to directly drain the
life force out of human beings to sustain himself, what's simpler,
change your identity, walk into town, suck the life force out of some-
body, go home, Or, setup an elaborate plot to have young maidens
dragged to your secret laborotory, where someone might trace them
and find out where you've hid yourself. :)
I think super powerful mages would be beyond the laws of those
who didn't have more power than themselves, and thus woldn't be
breaking any laws any, but.... :)
J C Lawrence
Richard Woolcock <Ka...@dial.pipex.comNOSPAM> wrote:
> Ah, but a smart wizard would prepare in advance, precasting spells before
> a suspected conflict and preparing magical potions, wands, etc. Armour
> only protects against specific types of spells (usually direct damage
> spells) - however in a well coded mud, metal armour might actually result
> in you taking MORE damage from a lightning bolt than not wearing any
> armour at all. Similarly, leather armour could be set alight from a fire
> spell such as fireball.
A sample Wiz'es protections:
Fireball any object that comes closer than X to me that it not under
my direct control.
Fireball the source of any object that comes closer than X to me as
long as it is not me.
If either object still exists, repeat with electric lance.
If either object still exists, repeat with freeze ray.
etc....
Gawd ya gotta love Mage2Mage. Shame nobody else seems to have rolled
it into a MUD.
--
J C Lawrence Internet: cl...@null.net
(Contractor) Internet: co...@ibm.net
---------(*) Internet: cl...@under.engr.sgi.com
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...
darren...@hotmail.com
> That, of course, assumes a high level of magic exists in the world - not every
> would has super-powerful dragons and mages. That's one feature I, as a world
> builder, very much like in my own mud: We make it easy to clearly define your
> new 'area' as a seperate world, with different rules. We've adapted a concept
> from RPGs like GURPS and TORG - the 'axiom' level. If you don't want high
> tech laser rifles or high magic fireball wands from the universe next door to
> be used in your world, then you simply have a lower axiom level. It allows
> for a large range of world concepts to be explored with a minimum of
> interference with the functioning of other worlds.
I think the issue of accountablity for actions comes in here too. For every
action a players takes there should or could be an up side and down side. If a
super powerful mage " For those world that allow them " casts devistating
spells on tons what are the down sides of this action?
1. It would piss off the King/Queen/Mayor Etc of that realm. On a mud with
Politics enabled this would be bad. As the ruler of the realm wield not just
personal power but has the assistance "If justified" of the enter populas of
the realm. It wouldn't even be necessary for the ruler to send someone after
him the results might take economy or other forms. ie siezed bank accounts, no
merchant will sell to him etc...
2. How would a god react to losing 1-10000 of his followers? Would the God/
godess or devine being not take some action here? At least it might be
possible.
3. What are the down sides of casting such a powerful spell? Are you saying
spells of this kind are widely available on your mud? That they can be cast
over and over again with no down side? Wouldn't this mage become very tired
maybe be unable to cast for a period of time?
Personally I believe there are many solutions that are reasoniable within any
world for these problems.
darren...@hotmail.com
I think we could break up our individual realms into certain sectors for
discussion. Here are the ones I see...
1. Military
a. Power structure-> How a players/npc could advance up it.
b. Rules governing use-> How will wars work, commands etc..
c. Budget-> What funds the military has to work with.
d. Procurement -> Soldiers and Equipment
2. Govenment
a. Power Structure-> How players/npc fit in and how they could advance.
b. Rules of use-> Rules for government types. Pro's and Con's for each.
and the effects on populations, economies, armies etc...
c. Treaties-> Rules governing entering into treaties.
d. Infastructure-> farms, roads, city walls, ports. Things that will allow
for growth or protection or enhancement of a realm.
3. Economy
a. Power Structure-> Government, guilds and tradesmen and how to advance or
use them.
b. Bugets-> In this case the economy of the realm.
c. Sectors for potential growth
d. World economic effects upon the realm.
e. Economic basis-> Trade, gold, wood, coal what drives the economy in your
world? What I'm going for here is what are the
important natural resources and finished products.
4. Population dynamics
A combination of birth, death rates and moral and social factors...
Now these could be modeled using equations and represented by a number
"smaller than the real total" in NPC's, Rooms and areas. By considering these
factors our mud becomes more dynamic. The economy cycles, things that are
abundant today might be rare tomorrow "through trades or war.. etc". This is a
short listing of some of the factors I've been looking at. I really wish i'd
have taken at least one macro-economics class in school... it might have
helped.
I really believe each realms, kingdom or even town within the mud could have
different government types. Which would have vastly different effects on
players and the population of the land. Treaties could be fun to work with
too. Think of the Queens messanger being killed while on the way to X land.
What could a player/NPC do with it? Take it an enemy? Or return it?
I'm even considering making my mud mail delivered by pony express... It'd be
cool intercepting messages between people in a role playing environment...
Jason Goodwin
In article <6ivdll$9m1$3...@murrow.corp.sgi.com>,
J C Lawrence <cl...@under.engr.sgi.com> wrote:
>Gawd ya gotta love Mage2Mage. Shame nobody else seems to have rolled
>it into a MUD.
>
I'll bite. What's Mage2Mage I'm guessing a game based on
mages duking it out, but what the hey, I could be wrong :)
John Adelsberger
mor...@niuhep.physics.niu.edu wrote:
: wgoo...@expert.cc.purdue.edu (Jason Goodwin) writes:
: >A well played super powerful wizard would be nigh impossible to
: >actually hurt, let alone kill (much like a dragon, who've been
: >seriously downgraded in most muds IMHO)
: A well played super powerful wizard wouldn't wander around town breaking
: laws either.
I take it you've met super powerful wizards, and can therefore say what a
well played character representing one would and would not do?
--
John J. Adelsberger III
j...@umr.edu
"Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
- Ayn Rand
Nathan Fenenga Yospe
Jason Goodwin, is it true that on 8 May 1998 08:32:14 -0500, you posted
to rec.games.mud.admin:
: In article <6ivdll$9m1$3...@murrow.corp.sgi.com>,
Search for it on Mud-DEV. It was posted a while back.
--
Nathan F. Yospe - Aimed High, Crashed Hard, In the Hanger, Back Flying Soon
Jr Software Engineer, Textron Systems Division (On loan to Rocketdyne Tech)
(Temporarily on Hold) Student, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Physics Dept.
yospe#hawaii.edu nyospe#premier.mhpcc.af.mil http://www2.hawaii.edu/~yospe/
J C Lawrence
Jason Goodwin <wgoo...@expert.cc.purdue.edu> wrote:
> In article <6ivdll$9m1$3...@murrow.corp.sgi.com>,
> J C Lawrence <cl...@under.engr.sgi.com> wrote:
>>Gawd ya gotta love Mage2Mage. Shame nobody else seems to have rolled
>>it into a MUD.
>>
> I'll bite. What's Mage2Mage I'm guessing a game based on
> mages duking it out, but what the hey, I could be wrong :)
Mage2Mage defines a simple set of rules and a spell programming
language to be used in magical battles. I don't have a URL handy, but
you can find it in r.g.design via DejaNews (long time back), or search
the MUD-Dev archives to find the full copies (previous and current
versions) that I posted there.
Bartle's Waving Hands is another delight -- a predictive algebra of
magic.
David Skidmore
On Thu, 7 May 1998 darren...@hotmail.com wrote:
-Having put a bit more thought into the case of a very powerful mage breaking
-laws I've come up with a few more suggestions. Again this is purely world
-dependant... You could have the NPCs slip something to knock him out into his
-food, water, beer etc. You could have the guards use stealth to sneak up on
-him, shoot him full of arrows, bonk him over the head etc... What about darts
-that put him to sleep? Or any other weapon? Maybe there are areas on your mud
-that prevent players from casting "They could catch him there". What if the
-town leader has him tossed out of his guild, class hall, clan? There are
-hundreds of ways that players can seriously effected for commiting crimes. In
-a realistic fashion. Of course the crime should fit the punishment and these
-should be well defined in your code. And if they never come back to that town
-it's a punishment in it's self "outcast" "banishment" etc... I don't think the
-power of any one player makes them above the ability of an NPC to arrest them
-"On my mud anyways". We can always come up with creative yet realistic
-solutions to these situations.
-
--Batzing
Another idea is if there is one, ultra-powerful mage causeing problems, you
hunt down 3-4 or hey, as many as you want, almost as powerful mages, and have
them hunt him/her down. This is a fairly common theme in Fantasy novels,
because is makes sense, you can't easily use a sword against a guy who's 100
ft away throwing magical fireballs or icicles or magic missiles, etc,
especially if he's good enough to have made himself invisible... As the
Dharan's would say, "Fight magic with magic, steel with steel."
Raptor
John Adelsberger
darren...@hotmail.com wrote:
: 1. It would piss off the King/Queen/Mayor Etc of that realm. On a mud with
: Politics enabled this would be bad. As the ruler of the realm wield not just
: personal power but has the assistance "If justified" of the enter populas of
: the realm. It wouldn't even be necessary for the ruler to send someone after
: him the results might take economy or other forms. ie siezed bank accounts, no
: merchant will sell to him etc...
A mage just wasted an entire town, and you think the populace is going to
oppose him? Yeah, right. A few people(heroes) might. Then again, they
might not. Most people won't even consider such a move, and since most
people are not capable of protecting themselves, this is probably for the
best.
: 2. How would a god react to losing 1-10000 of his followers? Would the God/
: godess or devine being not take some action here? At least it might be
: possible.
Whereas the mage's deity will take no effort at all protecting what is
probably the single most valuable/powerful mortal asset he possesses?
: 3. What are the down sides of casting such a powerful spell? Are you saying
: spells of this kind are widely available on your mud? That they can be cast
: over and over again with no down side? Wouldn't this mage become very tired
: maybe be unable to cast for a period of time?
Maybe. If everyone around him is dead, that doesn't much matter now, does
it?:-)
Simply put, mages, at the high end of their ability, can only _practically_
be opposed by other mages, unless your system either just doesn't include
the really high end of ability or is unbalanced in favor of non-mages
deliberately(you _could_ have npc shopkeepers who wouldn't sell to Bargo
the Baddass Wizard, but could you explain where they'd get the courage
and why Bargo couldn't just level shops till they gave in?)
darren...@hotmail.com
> : spells of this kind are widely available on your mud? That they can be c>
> Simply put, mages, at the high end of their ability, can only _practically_
> be opposed by other mages, unless your system either just doesn't include
> the really high end of ability or is unbalanced in favor of non-mages
> deliberately(you _could_ have npc shopkeepers who wouldn't sell to Bargo
> the Baddass Wizard, but could you explain where they'd get the courage
> and why Bargo couldn't just level shops till they gave in?)
I think this has strayed away from it's context. In the political context we
were discussing pissing the King/Queen/Ruler off means the entire country
would oppose you. Now not everyone would have the courage but I'm sure the
Royal Wizard would or the Mage council maybe. Yes magic is always an option
when fighting magic. However I got the impression from you that if magic isn't
dominant then magic is out of balance? Hey there are other magical models to
consider. Again as I stated in the orginal post it will largely depend on the
rules of your world. I for one don't intend to have all powerful mages. Magic
will be powerful but it will have a down side. Every action will have a cost
and if that cost makes you vunerable then so be it. If in your world mages are
all powerful and superior then it's your right. I'm not saying your wrong but
I am saying it's not the only way.
-batzing
mor...@niuhep.physics.niu.edu
John Adelsberger <j...@umr.edu> writes:
>mor...@niuhep.physics.niu.edu wrote:
>: wgoo...@expert.cc.purdue.edu (Jason Goodwin) writes:
>: >A well played super powerful wizard would be nigh impossible to
>: >actually hurt, let alone kill (much like a dragon, who've been
>: >seriously downgraded in most muds IMHO)
>: A well played super powerful wizard wouldn't wander around town breaking
>: laws either.
>I take it you've met super powerful wizards, and can therefore say what a
>well played character representing one would and would not do?
And if I had would I tell you?
Clearly all of the following is opinion...
Allow me to rephrase and then justify:
A well played super powerful wizard would be unlikely to /wander/ around
town /randomly/ breaking laws.
To become a "super powerful" wizard one must have drive and
determination, such folks may well come into a village or town and
destroy the place... for a good reason. But randomly? They don't
come into town for supplies, they send a servant, or a message, or a
compulsion...
If they need an annual sacrifice for their work they may find a remote
place they can terrorize into silence, but for a monthly or more
frequent sacrifice they are going to find a big city or several
large towns that they can switch between to avoid suspicion.
Why?
If for no other reason than it keeps the mosquitoes away. There is only
a narrow power level at which heroes are an interesting diversion.
That is between being vulnerable to mages for hire and being so powerful
that all but a low double digit number of entities would be boring to
fight.
And most mages even while they are at that power level are interested in
gaining power, magical power, not being diverted by some lunkhead with
a sword or a second rate mage for hire.
In another post in this thread:
John Adelsberger <j...@umr.edu> writes:
>darren...@hotmail.com wrote:
>:1. It would piss off the King/Queen/Mayor Etc of that realm. On a mud
>:with Politics enabled this would be bad. As the ruler of the realm wield
>:not just personal power but has the assistance "If justified" of the
>:enter populas of the realm. It wouldn't even be necessary for the ruler
>:to send someone after him the results might take economy or other forms.
>:ie siezed bank accounts, no merchant will sell to him etc...
>A mage just wasted an entire town, and you think the populace is going to
>oppose him? Yeah, right. A few people(heroes) might. Then again, they
>might not. Most people won't even consider such a move, and since most
>people are not capable of protecting themselves, this is probably for the
>best.
Directly oppose the mage? No, you are right, almost nobody would
do that. Sound the warning? Release a messenger pidgeon? Close up
shop before he reaches your street? All of these are possible,
depending on the situation.
>: 2. How would a god react to losing 1-10000 of his followers? Would the God/
>: godess or devine being not take some action here? At least it might be
>: possible.
The god probably wouldn't immediately notice but some of his faithful
clerics might...
>Whereas the mage's deity will take no effort at all protecting what is
>probably the single most valuable/powerful mortal asset he possesses?
This begs a number of questions, how does magic work? Do powerful mages
have to pay homage to their deity? How obvious and intrusive are gods?
In at least some worlds mages have nothing to do with gods.
>: 3. What are the down sides of casting such a powerful spell? Are you saying
>: spells of this kind are widely available on your mud? That they can be cast
>: over and over again with no down side? Wouldn't this mage become very tired
>: maybe be unable to cast for a period of time?
>Maybe. If everyone around him is dead, that doesn't much matter now, does
>it?:-)
>Simply put, mages, at the high end of their ability, can only _practically_
>be opposed by other mages,
Or clerics. With or without (depending on the universe) the direct
intervension of their gods.
>unless your system either just doesn't include the really high end of
>ability or is unbalanced in favor of non-mages deliberately
For a well played high end mage, I might agree. But 95% of their waking
time is spent researching, kinda boring to play.
But all of this begs the question of what your magical system is like.
Is it possible to guard against random missile weapons? Do fireballs
exist? Can you read minds/intent? Can you create servants to guard
your back?
If I level every town I visit before I walk into it, that will
effectively keep me safe, but it might get kinda boring. But being
able to level a town via an earth quake or fire ball doesn't guarentee
that you have the power to survive an arrow through the heart.
So then you transfer your life force to your little finger, cut that off
and hide it somewhere... where some hero will find it and destroy it.
Robert
Amit Garg
Hello .
about mage2mage and Bartle's hands .... well could you please specify
where i can get hands on it . Because searches on dejanews and mud dev
didnt yield me much :(
I got an email address from mud-dev for the mage2mage system description
: it goes http://www.hookup.net/~gschmidt/sams/list.rpg.html
but is outdated i guess .
As for Bartle's Waving hands ... i couldnt reach a URM 'web source.
Sorry for the trouble ,
Amit.
J C Lawrence
Amit Garg <ag...@ifhamy.insa-lyon.fr> wrote:
> about mage2mage and Bartle's hands .... well could you please specify
> where i can get hands on it . Because searches on dejanews and mud dev
> didnt yield me much :(
Odd that. I spent less than 5 minutes searching MUD-Dev to find:
<URL:http://www.kanga.nu/~petidomo/lists/mud-dev/1998Q2/msg00009.html>
For a recent copy of the Mage 2 Mage document, and:
<URL:http://www.kanga.nu:80/~petidomo/lists/mud-dev/1997Q3/msg00417.html>
For Bartle's "Waving Hands" or SpellCaster.
Note: A very cursory search of DejaNews under rec.games.design found
both in even less time (I found both of them on my first attempt). I
suspect you need to polish your search skills.
John Adelsberger
mor...@niuhep.physics.niu.edu wrote:
: To become a "super powerful" wizard one must have drive and
: determination
At this point, we're purely into speculation, so I will remove myself from
the discussion. (Ex: Why couldn't extremely powerful wizards simply be born
one every couple of generations or so?)
mor...@niuhep.physics.niu.edu
j...@sun1.cc.umr.edu (John Adelsberger) writes:
>mor...@niuhep.physics.niu.edu wrote:
>
>: To become a "super powerful" wizard one must have drive and
>: determination
>
>At this point, we're purely into speculation, so I will remove myself from
>the discussion. (Ex: Why couldn't extremely powerful wizards simply be born
>one every couple of generations or so?)
This is why I liked the original (as I experienced it) AD&D character
generation. You took what you were given.
I don't see an easy way to implement the example given above in a mud.
Yes, my posts are speculation, but they are meant to cause thought about
how magic systems are implemented. What should a very high level
wizard look like? How should sie be roleplayed and how can that be
encouraged.
BTW even in the above scenario I would bet that any living very powerful
wizards would be on the look out for a birth and if that wizard looked
to be of the type to go around burning down villages they would take
care of the problem before sie gained enough experience to be troublesome.
Of course, such a birth may not be detectable...
<sigh>
Robert
Jason Goodwin
On 12 May 98 21:32:48 GMT, j...@sun1.cc.umr.edu (John Adelsberger)
wrote:
>
>At this point, we're purely into speculation, so I will remove myself from
>the discussion. (Ex: Why couldn't extremely powerful wizards simply be born
>one every couple of generations or so?)
>
I can't remember which series, but the following system was present
in a group of novels:
All magical power flowed from knowledge of mystic words (all were
impossibly long, but because they were magic, after hearing it, you
could instantly remember it) Know one word, and you were exceptionally
gifted with extra-ordinary skill in mundane things. Know 2, and you
were a mage with an "average" amount of power. Know 3, and you
had tremendous power beyond imaginging. Know 4, and you die a horrible
screaming death :)
(also, the more people that knew a word, the less powerful that
word was. A major plot was the revelation of every magic word to
everyone in the kingdom, thus "destroying" magic)
In the original D&D setting, there was a dimension (Alphatia) were
everyone was a wizard of great power, even after its near destruction
everyone born there was at the minimum the equivalent of 1'st level
wizard (great fun at the pre-school ey? :)
The process of becoming a powerful wizard is so tied to the theme of
the world, that discussing the proper behaviour of powerful wizards on
the basis of how they got there is non-sensical. (besides, what if
the cursed amulet of the Great God GooGoo turned that super powerful
wizard into a raving lunatic :)
In other words, John has a point.
mwi...@my-dejanews.com
In article <3558c...@news.cc.umr.edu>,
j...@sun1.cc.umr.edu (John Adelsberger) wrote:
>
> mor...@niuhep.physics.niu.edu wrote:
>
> : To become a "super powerful" wizard one must have drive and
> : determination
>
> the discussion. (Ex: Why couldn't extremely powerful wizards simply be born
> one every couple of generations or so?)
A good point. What it takes to become a powerful wizard is entirely dependent
opon the magical system they operate in. So while one system may encourage
years of study, another may reward physical discipline or devotion to a diety.
Perhaps rigerous mental exercises are required, or maybe powerful magic is
simply an accident of birth.
Or maybe you just need fashion sense: A Spectrum mage wearing every color of
the rainbow is literally 'dressed to kill'.