RPG mechanics ideas: Freeform magic

[mc776]

Velexiraptor posted a brief reflection on what a "magic" system should do in a game.

In another thread of hers I had half-jokingly made a comment along the lines of ~I'd rather we had the opposite [of making martial classes function with moves in a similar manner to spellcasters], just give the scene some hitpoints and if you magic it hard enough with a big enough wand it changes~.

Meanwhile, my primary model for doing anything remotely like this, Mage: the Ascension, I mostly remember as being literally unplayable since I just ended up constantly second-guessing and self-censoring as to what I could or could not do given this sphere and that effect and where was all this mass and energy coming from and if I could make a grain of sand appear where previously there wasn't one could I also make that same raw energy and level the entire city block etc. etc. etc. - in other words not very good guidance as to objective checks and balances.

So here are some notes on what those checks and balances might look like:

• You've got at least 3-5 "spheres" of magic, based on your setting.
  • These could be Mage spheres, or Pokémon types, or classical (Western or Eastern) elements, whatever, as long as you all can get enough of a feel of each one that you can say what it is and what it isn't in most ordinary cases.
    • Just throwing this out there as one possible slimmed-down version of Mage: Matter, Energy, Space, Time, Spirit, Math. (Spirit including all matters concerning direct interactions between persons, defined as anything with a subjective experience and a notion of being able to relate to another subjective experiencer)
  • Each character has a numerical stat to represent their competence in each sphere.
• Before the roll, the player announces what effect their character is trying to do.
• To determine your skill for the given task, take the 3 most relevant spheres and take the sum of the best and worst stat.
  • The GM has final say in which spheres.
• Now add any modifiers in your system - Arete level, Charisma stat, magical foci, whatever - and make your roll.
• The scene will have its own endurance/hp and resistance stats.
• Resolve the roll against the scene's resistance, and consider how well it went.
  • The GM is presumed to narrate this result in good faith, subject to the following principles:
  • The effect should substantially be a reasonably inferred consequence of the player's intent, but on a poor roll it could be a watered-down version. ("I cast fireball." Good: "Failed roll, your fingers make a farting sound and you smell smoke." Bad (unless mutual expectations about the setting and consequences of magical failure allow this sort of thing): "Failed roll, you cast waterball instead.")
  • On a successful roll, unless the setting requires otherwise:
    • Unless necessary in the name of good sense or time/priority contraints, the GM should not concede, directly, what the player was trying to achieve with the effect.
    • The GM must not attempt to undermine the player's intent or motivation.
  • The degree of success is to be distributed among the following, subject to player prioritization:
    • Deniability: if there's an explanation unrelated to magic, including placebo.
    • Magnitude: usually connected to amount of energy involved in doing something, but huge penalty if affecting any person's mind directly. For making physical objects appear, please remember the deniability part of it to avoid E=mc^2 problems.
    • Specificity: how well this conforms to what the caster is trying to accomplish, neither more nor less.

Obviously this is incomplete and cannot be played on its own - it's meant at this time to be no more than a conceptual framework. Felt cute, might delete later and whatnot.