Esoteric Arcana: Unconstrained Magic And Magical Sources
Less common Unconstrained Magic frameworks
Unconstrained Magic
Unconstrained Magic is very rare in video games because as systems of rules and measurements they obviously lend themselves more to Predefined Magic. Especially because Axioms has RPG elements and *most* RPGs have very tightly defined magic and railroaded narrative and little flexibility. Unconstrained Magic is most similar to “make your own spells” based systems. As far as purely combat related magic these are the forms of magic where you can mix and match “runes” or “words of power” or other stuff like that.
In Unconstrained Magic the basic idea is that you are not bestowed with skills or classes from on high, whether from a divinity or an extremely powerful crafted object. Yes you can create magical objects that provide pre-defined “systems” like in your favorite LitRPG or even Progression Fantasy. After all they are based on games. Why not get meta?
In Unconstrained Magic players can either find Spell “components” themselves or they can study complete “spells” from Unconstrained Magic systems to learn new components. “Components” are some type of subset of a Spell like runes or words or geometric patterns that can be put together to create a Spell. Note that there are Predefined and Unconstrained methods for Enchanting. Or there can be. It all depends on the settings and world generation randomness of the world you are playing in.
Components will have a Type and a Value and a Cost. So you might have a component that provides “10” “Range” for “5” ”Cost”. Another component might provide 5 Range for 2 Cost. You would then combine one with a 10 Damage for 5 Cost and a Single Target Fire for 5 Cost component. So for 15 cost you’d have a 10 Fire Damage Single Target Spell With A 10 Meter Range. You might also have Modifires so a component might be +1 Target for 10 Cost or -1s Casting Time for 8 Cost.
Unconstrained Magic can have other interesting properties. There is a framework for a system where each “component” starts at 20 “strength” but if you share the component it goes down to 19 “strength”. Each of you could then share again. If they shared and you didn’t you would have 19 strength but they would have 18 and so would the person they shared with. These values and the changes can vary. Perhaps a system where you start at 20 and share a 4 point version that they can’t share but you lose 1 point. Plenty of weird stuff in the magic system generation. And since this is a single player sandbox game “balance” is not a huge concern in design.
Magic Source
Magic can come from a variety of places including Gods, Research, Ruins, and so forth. A Research based magic system might provide Predefined Spells from a list for a given “Topic”. Or it might provide a “Trait” that modifies the magic a mage does. Like a passive “Skill/Ability”. Gods provide magic based on their nature and your commitment. We talked about Divine Magic in a previous post.
Locations or Objects can be found by exploration, or made in the case of an early era high magic level world to provide magical abilities. This might be Classes or Talents or Skills of specific or varied kinds. Highly advanced Rituals can summon “moons” into the sky that provide magical options or make deals with various powers. This is relevant since some kinds of crafted magic objects could be stolen or lost while “celestial objects” or “deals with a devil” would be harder for enemies to disrupt.
Research Based Magic
As noted one of the more common sources of magic is Research. Research Based Magic can be Predefined or Unconstrained though it is more often the latter than the former. This is a kind of magic we’ve discussed previously. You have buildings, items, and materials you work with and you build up to a breakthrough. Basically this is the standard 4X style research system with a little bit more freedom and uncertainty.
Research Based Magic can research “classes” for Characters and “recipes” for potions/enchantments/crafting. Or it can focus on individual “spells/skills”. RBM will rarely be connected to a Talent system. RBM can even in special cases much more closely approximate the system in more common fantasy strategy games with pre-generated techs/levels/spells.
Dungeon Based Magic
Yes, you can. You can dive dungeons. Deep, dark, dank dungeons. There’s no particular constraint on how dungeons design and determine rewards. It could be anything from the traditional game/litrpg system to one that mimics the divine style of magic bestowals.
This is a good place to note that my plan is for it to be relatively easy to find a magic system you really like and go through the game files to find where it is saved and keep it for later, whether to insert into a generated world or for usage in a total conversion mod. Obviously with randomly generated magical systems you’ll get some stinkers and some home runs. This might help alleviate variance.