Children of the Nameless/MTG: Replacing Mana with Investiture

[ZenBossanova]

In the game, Magic the Gathering (and of course, in the story, Children of the Nameless) there are 5 kinds of magic. In Cosmere terms, we would say, 5 kinds of investiture. 

What I am trying to imagine is, how would the game and/or story change, if we replaced the 5 types of mana, with 16 types of investiture. 

[Sariel he/him]

CotN is not a Cosmere story, there's no investiture in it, and its magic system is very not-cosmere.

I mean, spells? Planes?

Spoiler

Entities of great power that are not shards?

Frankly, I don't think the magic system in CotN can, or should, be discussed in Cosmere terms.

[NoiseSpren he/him]

Question was about changing game machinations from five types of mana into 16 types of investiture.

 

Hard. Would not work.

[ZenBossanova]

15 hours ago, Sariel said:

CotN is not a Cosmere story, there's no investiture in it, and its magic system is very not-cosmere.

I mean, spells? Planes?

  Reveal hidden contents

Entities of great power that are not shards?

Frankly, I don't think the magic system in CotN can, or should, be discussed in Cosmere terms.

Magic the Gathering is definitely NOT Cosmere. But what if it were? Or, if you prefer, what if Brandon made a Cosmere version of Magic? 

 

12 hours ago, NoiseSpren said:

Hard. Would not work.

Hard, I may grant you. But I don't think it is impossible. I play a little Magic, when I have time, but I am very much an amateur. Further, I think it could make it more interesting. 

For instance, in Magic, getting Mana (what we would call Investiture) is straightforward. You play land cards, and you have an amount of mana strictly proportional to that, that is renewed at the beginning of each turn. (there are of course, numerous exceptions, with special cards, etc) Collecting mana for each kind of magic (Red, White, Black, Blue, Green) is more or less, identical, even if the magics themselves have different philosophies.
(eg. Organization (white), Curiosity (blue), Self-concern (black), Emotion (red), Instinct (green))

But if we replaced Mana with Stormlight, Breath and Allomatic metal, I am not sure how you would represent that with cards, but they would play very differently. It would not be as simple as just playing enough land cards.

Another point, with 5 color of magic, there are 5*4/2 = 10 kinds of bi-color cards. With 16 kinds of investiture, that would be 16*15/2 = 120 kinds of bi-shard cards, at a minimum. And 560 tri-shard cards possible. 

Of course, you would not have to start off with all 16 shards. You could save most of them for later expansions. With Magic new expansions come out regularly, so this is not unexpected. 

[Hoid the Former Drifter he/him]

On 12/16/2018 at 9:18 AM, Sariel said:

mean, spells? Planes?

Mistborn era 4 and also Dawnchant

[Hoid the Former Drifter he/him]

On 12/16/2018 at 9:18 AM, Sariel said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Entities of great power that are not shards?

 

Spoiler

TLR