This is a new system, well not NEW per say, that I have been kicking around in my head for YEARS. Again YEARS. This idea popped in right around the time Termina first got underway, but I could never figure a proper way to implement it without causing some major upheavals in how everyone plays their character. Scratch that, it would've caused up to have to revamp how magic works in the whole of the RP down to it's fundamental level. So I have been holding it off, planning, thinking, tossing the idea back and forth to Kazei until getting it to this point. At this time I am STILL not happy with it, but at this point, it's where it can be play tested without any major upends. Understand, my thoughts on this are still pretty scattered, so it will be reflected in this post. I am putting down everything I have so far in hopes of having an open discussion in bringing it into the next Termina RP.
Now then, we have ALL played an RPG or eighteen where we witness some grand attack of some scale pretty much nuke the landscape. Case in point, Every Bahamuht summon ever. Or Ark from FF IX. Or EDEN of FF XIII. Or Ultima, Meteor, you get the idea. All of these things pretty much should cause lasting scars upon where they are cast, but the moment the spell/summon has run its course, the land is back to normal, minus a few less things that they were pointed at. I AM LOOKING AT YOU TONBERRY KING. Ahem. Anyway. This can be all taken for granted. After all, it's a game, that's just one of those things we take for granted, because it's a battle.
This is where the idea kicks in. What if, because it had to be a WHAT IF. What if, we brought that style of play into an RP. What if Sorcerer A, cast fireball storm upon Miscreant B. Oh imagine the damage to him that he would take, but the area as well! Oh wait! The area is heavily populated and Sorcerer A has no intention what so ever of doing damage to the good peoples! Well normally he would just have to tough it out and be ousted for the mass murdering Mage that he has become. b*****d. Honestly.
Now lets try that wit the new system in play. The guy on the receiving end is still very much going to feel the burn of that attack, but since that's the Sorcerer's sole intent the surroundings still get hit, BUT they do not suffer from the adverse effects of being rained on by fiery doom. So long as the Mage keeps it in his silly little head that all he wants burned to a golden crisp is Miscreant A, the surroundings will suffer no more than just visual damage. Once the magic has run it's course, everything goes back to the way it was, save for maybe one charred guy.
In a more in depth explanation the world of Termina is absolutely SOAKED in magic, everything is comprised of it and everything has it's own will. It has intertwined itself with everything that takes place on the planet itself, to the point where even the most inanimate of objects, like a rock, contains a small piece of magic and will. This could be explained as to how Druids are able to 'hear the voice of everything in nature' because they just happen to be more attuned with their magic of their surroundings. This by no means that they UNDERSTAND what is around them, but they do hear them and through that are able to more readily manipulate their surroundings to suit them, such as causing rampant plant growth, or being able to have a deeper bond with animals.
Now of course, there is some who will say, but there has been magic that has destroyed this, or blown up that, or killed this person, even if that was not their intent. Well MR sassy pants, that's right. It was NOT their intent, but the subject of control is also brought to light now isn't it. Concentration in a mage when dealing with magic and conforming it their will is always a touchy thing. Too much force and it scatters, too little and there goes your eyebrows. Magic on it's own is like trying to grab the wind itself with just your bare hands. Won't work. it does what it does, goes where it goes wildly, shaping, saturating, changing whatever according to the 'will' of it's surroundings. When a mage takes magic into their body, or from their body in some cases, they still have to impose their will upon it to shape it and give it a form, otherwise it's just formless and not any use at all to anyone. It's always a delicate balance in trying to cast a spell.
I suppose I went a bit far off from what I wanted to say in all my rambling, but Kazei is supposed to be bringing in a example post of what we have been talking about. So hopefully when he gets around to putting that up I can properly explain what I want to do with this new system.
