The troubles with magic, and a possible solution

[Locklathlan 41]

LOTC, has a long history of issues with magic, namely due to the issues present in the lack of knowledge in the player base - whilst the users of the maigc know what it is they are doing (generally), people on the receiving end of the magic have little knowledge to call upon (generally). Whilst in D&D for example, players can call upon the handy rulebook to tell them exactly how said magic should interact, and there is the always present DM to check if magic was used correctly, or to help extrapolate it to unorthodox uses, we have neither of these things in LOTC.Our rulebook is incredibly convuluted, not due to the complex nature of the lore, but due to the differing standards between one lore piece and another. This is namely due to most pieces of magicl lore, being from entirely different LOTC "generations", with players leaving and joining over time, this magnifies and becomes an issue as new roleplayers try to interpret.

 

Whilst some may call for a lore wipe, this really has never been neccessary - what it really needed, is the rulebook we lack. Of course, calling it a rulebook is wrong - it would not restrict how magic is used, simply explain why it works, and how it CAN be used.  Now, you may be wondering, how exaclty can we accomplish this "book" without it becoming like every other piece of magical lore. . . times however many pieces of lore there are? Which is a lot.

 

The simple answer is to make them all "too long, didn't read" versions (or TLDR for you acronym lovers out there, of which there are a lot). Whilst trying to explain the complexities of all magic would take some time, giving very simple, basic "yes it can do this, no it can't do this, this is very basically how this works", would provide more than enough information for the average non-magic learned RP'er to understand the practical nature of all magics put before them. In fact, that is probbly a better description.

 

Make a PRACTICAL compendium, of all magics. Maybe even ditch trying to explain the source of magic, and just explain the most common uses of any given form of magic. Given this community, this would probably come in the form of combat capabilties, seeing as we are that way inclined (I know, not all of us, but a lot of us). The sources of magic are perhaps a little more complex, and your average Joe probably doesn't have to understand the everything and nothing that we pull our magic from (if talking about voidal magics). He probably just wants to know, how can this fire evocationist, use his fire? Can he manipulate real fire? Who can manipulate real fire, if not this guy? Simple questions, with relatively simple answers (I know, all you evocationsists are gonna tell me how artsy you can make it, but if we're talking combat, we can extrapolate our descriptions and keep them simple).

 

So; in short.

 

Make a thread that calls on those educated in magic to provide a short list of information vital to interacting with their magic, in much the same way as "The Allusionists" recent document concerning elemental shamans. In fact, see his TLDR for the example I would have all magics use. If we produced a document such as that concerning only the practical natures of all magics, the knowledge would surely help to mitigate the need for GM/LT intervention in magical situations, and make people feel much more comfortable with ineracting with magicians across he server.

 

TLDR; we don't need a wipe, a redo, or a change of any kind. We need to work together, and pool our knowledge into a succinct volume that accounts for all currently existing magical knowledge.

 

((If this is in the wrong place, I apologise profusely. Wasn't sure what exactly this counted as. If an FM feels it needs to be moved, again, my apologies.))

Edited October 31, 2015 by Locklathlan

[Birdwhisperer 1174]

Moved to the Archive. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.