Sir Jerric

Finding things is always a handy skill. In fact, that would fit rather well along side the "weighing things" power I mentioned in my first post. Thanks! As for repairing relationships, the techniques would have to be incredibly numerous to be able to fix the full gamut of problems in that field. Only thing that comes to mind as broadly applicable would be a power granting insight into the sources of the problems, to make diagnostics faster. Doesn't take care of things instantly though. On the other hand, one could just use that sentence as the definition of a soft magic system, and just start exploring the ramifications of having a society where anytime you have a relationship problem you walk down to the local branch of Matchmaker's Relationship Counseling and get a quick patch. . . . I think I'm going to back away now. The psychological paradox is making my head spin. =) Not the type of answer I was looking for, certainly. But unexpected? Not so much. The experimental prodding at the limits of magical powers is how I design them, even how I write the replies to suggestions in this thread. If I had real access to magic I'd do exactly that: research. Besides, it isn't like you failed to provide ideas. Precision teleportation is a perfectly good power to add to the non-existent list of options suggested in this thread. And using magic to improve one's ability to study is also an interesting set of powers to pursue. Memory aids, fatigue reduction, faster thought . . . okay, so the feruchemists have beat me to this one, but my point still stands. =) To turn attention more to what I am looking for, perhaps this parallel will help. What would you do with a smartphone? Technology slips into our everyday lives in small but significant ways. If you had magic, what technologies would you make with it?

To Argent: Thank you for the gracious response, particularly in light of the strong words I used. You are quite the gentleman. (Do let me know if you do make a thread for that topic. I would be quite willing to discuss such things elsewhere. That is just a really disturbing road to tread with the approach I am using here.) To Ashiok: That cloning concept is a very timely suggestion. I've got a slot that could work very nicely for such a power in the ghost stories system I mentioned. Thanks a bunch. To Kasimir: I don't expect you to answer any of the following. I'm just prodding at your ideas to see if anything appeals to me, or anyone who happens by later. Magic as currency. What are we trading? Does the magic make units of minor power that can be passed around? Like little magic pills? Are we talking more like the Steelheart gifters, swapping access to their power for other services? Or are we talking using the fuel source as a currency, like Atium or spheres of Stormlight? Fixing electronics: What comes in handy here? Avoiding shocks, suppressing currents? Tracing circuits, finding shorts? Transmuting materials, editing the circuits post-manufacture? Fancy cooking: Not a field I'm very experienced in. Is the ability to blend or powder materials useful? Grind nuts to flour at a glance, pulverize fruits into smoothies? Perhaps migrating heat, chilling and heating ingredients quickly and accurately? (Might help with making tea, too. =) )

Erik volunteered the common room of the Spruce Thicket as the patrol office by virtue of telling the patrollers to report to him regularly before ensconcing himself in a chair by the hearth. But not facing the hearth. The old Borderlander watched everyone as they moved in and out, listened in silence as they gossiped. Every time one of the patrol volunteers stepped through the door, they were greeted with a barked "Report!", and if they hesitated, or tried to speak from across the room, an authoritative gesture to the cleared space before him set things to rights. Over the course of the morning, the reports were decidedly lack-luster. "Need I explain this again? Do horses tie nooses? I don't care if the horse has a dragon fang painted on it's rump, it still has no fingers. That noose came from a human's hands. Find. Out. Whose." And beyond that, people seemed to think that a man being stabbed in the back qualified the night as being "too quiet", and were off making politics of it. Erik wished once more that he'd spent the coin for a river trip to Arafel. Too quiet. If you accuse people, as Newan did, people are suspicious. If you defend people from accusations, as Gade did, people are suspicious. If you do neither, as about nine people did, people are suspicious. Welcome to suspicious-ville, everyone. Not that I'm surprised. After all, I'm suspicious of everyone myself. I will note that I did participate in a minor way to the tactical discussion of the mayor, so I'm not completely silent. But really, what are you expecting from a player whose prior experience at elimination games consists of Quick Fix 2, which provided next to nothing in terms of strategy for this style of game. I am quiet because I'm not certain what to pay attention to. So I appreciate everyone arguing in the thread here, as it is quite instructive. Did you know that of the five votes cast on day one, only two people posted during night one (and one only role-played)? In fact, only twelve of the twenty-four surviving players posted. I doubt that means anything, but there it is. On day three, we are proposing to elect a new mayor. The viewer(s) will have had two nights to have tried finding allies. What think people of suggesting that the viewer(s) scan the newly elected mayor, if they have not already. It could be a way to offset the chance that a Darkfriend or Corrupted gets use of the office, as they should (hopefully) be able to leak their findings out through their circles. This would also aid in using the cast votes to identify other potential allies. Thoughts?

I find myself forced to agree that if one gave magic to mankind, such things would certainly occur. However, the abuses of power are not the subject of this thread. I am trying to create a resource for aspiring writers who need ideas for unusual abilities to use in their magic systems.Please don't suggest that someone concoct magic powers to augment that activity. I am more than disgusted by the thought that a fan of Sanderson's work would post about such debased minds in my thread.

I am mostly after the kinds of stuff I put in the "For example" paragraph. Ideas for ways to apply magic. Ideas to inspire powers. Things that a character in the story might use their magic to do. Ideas that are mundane are cool. I like scenes where the Marasi parallel comments about the Ranette parallel using magic for such everyday things. Inspirations and mechanics are the parts I feel I have a solid handle on. I have a system based on bringing campfire ghost stories to life. I have a system inspired by the wild hair colors in japanese anime. I have systems based on dryads, on tuneless whistling, and on the weather. I built an entire world after watching a chef make handmade noodles. Many of these have robust mechanics, and the ones that don't are just "not yet". But all of these systems are designed for a range of available powers--rather like in Allomancy--and in the course of building them I wound up with one or two powers each. So I came here to ask people to help brainstorm more powers. I'll see what I can fit in among my myriad systems, and everyone else can use this collection as inspirations for anything that pleases them. If you had magic powers, what would you want to do?

Many of the threads in these parts are requesting help with building a system out of a particular power. I have the opposite problem. I have no trouble building systems. I tie them into the world, make schemes for how people handle the system's limitations, identify points of misunderstandings, all of that good stuff. Most of these systems are based around magic users with specific, limited abilities, rather like Mistings or superheroes. The trouble is that I often find one or two interesting powers that fit my schema well, and then I can't find enough similar ideas to fill all of the other slots. And with three, four, five, . . . lots of magic systems under construction, I have lots of slots to fill. And so I come to you, asking the question in this thread's title. What would you do with magic? Let's do a little brainstorming together. Think along the lines you might for a "If you were a feruchemist . . ." only throwing the doors wide to anything. Need some starting points? What's something tedious that you need to do regularly? An activity you find distasteful? Something that would be nice if it could be done faster? Something that you can't quite achieve in reality because of one little technical detail. For example, I've built powers out of the following ideas: Carving stone with your bare hands. Sealing an object inside a seamless crystal sphere. Repelling insects without chemical repellants. Weighing things without a scale. All ideas submitted to this thread may be used by any reader as they please. Ideas are cheap. Limitations are more interesting than powers. Your limits almost certainly will vary, so stop worrying about originality and help me build a nice repository of launching-off points for aspiring writers. Feel free to suggest twists of other peoples ideas. Mix and match. Whatever floats your boat. Hmm . . . floating a boat . . .

I forgot the technique that has been the most helpful in my own projects: Choose a theme. You are trying to build a magic system based on structured commands. Is there a thematic look-and-feel you want to achieve?. Does eloquence correspond to the phrasings used by kings and witches in Shakespearean works? Or to epic poetry? Gilgamesh? Are the best commands ones that resemble the structures of Catholic liturgy? The things being commanded, do they move via Jedi-style telekinesis, or do they dance about like in the Disney Fantasia short "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"? Finding a cool theme to tie in can help you find the right answers to the questions people have been offering.

Start with Swimmingly's questions. Answer them, or break them down into simpler yes/no questions. Answer them with whatever sounds awesome, or just arbitrarily, but then consider the consequences of that answer. If you don't like the consequences--if it doesn't fit your vision for your story--step back and change your answer. Try the opposite. If that doesn't fit either, find a middle ground. Keep Sanderson's Laws in mind. Not because they make things cooler, but because the Laws are focused on supporting a good plot. 1) The better the reader understands the magic system, the more the magic can be used to solve problems. 1a) If you aren't going to explain specifics, feel free to use magic to cause problems for the protagonist. 2) Limitations are more interesting than powers. 3) Explore the consequences and ramifications of what you have before adding more. Also useful to remember are the questions Mary Robinette Kowal uses: 1) How does this affect the poorest level of society? 2) How does this affect the wealthiest level of society? 3) How can this be abused?

Erik wouldn't have believed it if he had not seen with his own eyes. He would have been fine passing it off as crazy talk. Now he was pursuing villagers through the fading twilight, asking the same question time and again. "Horses do not tie knots. Where did that mare get a noose?"

If this game was run again, I'd be interested in playing again, if only to try harder to get my boon granted. I am even more curious to see how you'd curse me. =)

The only way I can see a non-sharder getting a particular advantage out of a sacrifice-kill weapon is by having the user conspire with their faction's Shamed Guard to slam the sharders or other faction with one instant and two single kills at once. That way the sacrifice has additional functionality. The transfer of alligence is still an odd one. Not knowing about the symmetry, one would do as Rengar did, trying to steal a member from the winning team to offset their advantage. And now the user is part of the winning team, and has personally gained from the curse if the status quo doesn't change. And know that people know about the symmetry, people are going to be inclined to use it for the "curse" and move themselves onto what they see as the winning team, swapping with the player that they know is a current target of a Ghostblood attack or whatever. That could get really messy if this game is run again.

Just keep in mind Gamma's clarification. The mayor's double vote only comes into effect if we don't change mayors on that day cycle. To get the double vote, the new mayor has to survive one night of targeting. And on the second night (after their first double vote has been utilized), they are again subject to a round of targeting. And dead or not, there is no double vote while the office is being swapped. In short, don't expect the mayor to be much of a functional power until a trusted group forms. On the plus side, it shouldn't be too hard to mess with a Darkfriend or Corrupted mayor if discovered, since a new election will either cancel their extra vote or provide information on who tried to keep them in office.

The biggest difference I saw in the game was the lack of secure communication. If we had been allowed to PM at will, this would have felt more like the other elimination games, as we sought to sort out who to trust or who not to trust within our own factions. I can see why PMs were removed, but I do wonder if adding the PMs back in while removing the Sharder win condition might make a good game. Then a weapon like Magam's would be quite undesirable, though. I don't know, really. I'm quite new to these types of games, so I doubt I'm in much of a position to be providing feedback. =)

Don't worry about me. I wanted to practice my improvisation. =) Erik entered the Spruce Thicket almost on Leas's heels. "That was a pretty speech there, commander." The title carried an edge of doubt. "But putting three foreigners in charge of the defenses? Do you think all these scheming Cairhienins are going to sit back and just let that slide? Look at them. Your mayor just got slaughtered, and they're already maneuvering to fill the office." Erik groaned as he dropped onto one of the common room's benches, then looked Leas in the eye. "I'll help you fight the shadowspawn, and the darkfriends as need be. But I won't be a pawn in these political games, alright. Leave me out of it." He leaned back against the table. I'm too old for this nonsense. Scheming Cairhienins. So the mayor only has a doubled vote if he or she holds the office for the entire cycle? Or said another way, the mayor's vote is only a single vote on the day cycle that he or she is voted out. I suppose that makes sense. Why would the mayor have a greater influence as they are being voted out of office? Edit: Meant to drop the quote before posting. =)

Nice game, everyone. I basically dropped out a day after dying since I didn't see anything important left for me to influence, and several real life things needed some more involvement. But I'm going to skim over things again now that we've wrapped up to see the behind the scenes of things. I'm a little disappointed over losing my one day extension as a Voidbringer. I had dozens of ideas for RPing Jerrek wounded in the streets and stuff, but someone had to hit me with a Weapon of Doom and spoil all my fun. =) Does anyone have any input on how a faction might have better arranged for their own victory? The nobles did do a good job holding out, but I wonder if there would have been a better approach than the one I had set out for the faction. I do like the idea of trying to flush out the sharders in a cross-faction alliance, but how would that have been done effectively? And if I may ask, did my boon get turned down for not being funny enough, or was it so odd that you didn't know what to curse me with? =) (I'm really guessing it was just not cool enough for the day one rush. My role wasn't the best for boon-hunting in the first place.)

If you're looking for world building assistance, what areas do you feel need work? Is this a stress test of your economic or political systems? Are we seeking out holes in the magic system's internal logic? Or are we providing brainstorming assistance by adding roundness to the cultures and biology of the world? Some targeting information would do me much good in designing a character.

I suppose I'll go ahead and give this game a try. Erik is an old borderlander whose recently deceased wife had talked him into retiring to the south countries with her. But once she passed on, he set out northward again. And he happens to have stopped here in time to hear of the Trollocs, and has volunteered to help with the training.

Role-playing tip: Jerrek is quite protective of his charges. If you want to convince him, you need to offer him some motivation. Do you have someone you want to get out of the city? Do you have some thing you want to get out of town with? Do you want to leave town yourself? Give us a motive to work with.

Jerrek hasn't moved his children out of hiding yet. He wants the volunteers first. But since you added children to the scene . . . Jerrek stopped and cast a wary eye across the stranger. "You aren't welcome to our spheres, if that's what you're asking." The stranger made a hurried protest, yammering something about children. Jerrek did not look back at the two starving lads he had happened across as they cried out from under a half-buried cellar door. That was the other reason he roamed the abandoned sections of Kholinar. "And what is your interest in children, stranger? Speak quickly. These streets are not safe for standing about chattering."

Jerrek wandered along the crumbled facades of Kholinar's once lively weaver's street. The street had been an early target for looting, bales of cloth having an excellent barter value in a city of ruined dwellings. Jerric routed most of his trips through the city along similar streets. Losing pursuers was not all that difficult for him, but he preferred to save his energy when possible. His thoughts turned again to the children. Old Farrah could handle their basic needs for a couple of weeks now, hopefully long enough to outlast the riots. But a basement was not a place for keeping children. Better to get them out of the city entirely, and soon. However, Jerrek didn't think he could get them through the streets alone. If he could find five respectable persons, moving the children would be easy. Two others ought to be sufficient. One . . . maybe. So much would rely on chance, perhaps too much. But the children couldn't stay in Kholinar safely. Time to start finding some help. Consider this an invitation. If you'd like to join in a RP extraction mission, feel free to add to my intro. Jerrek is willing to try extracting other people beyond his collection of waifs, if that suits your character.

I'm interested in trying. Not done a forum role-play game yet, but I've been wanting to try one. I will warn you that I don't care for strong language and will drop for that cause as well as other offenses.

Jerrek smiled as the faint light of the lantern played across his face. "Good evening, Farrah." He hefted a bulging sack. "Got a few things for you." The old ardent limped back to hold hold the door open for him. Jerrek hadn't taken two steps before a shadow-shrouded child careened into him. "Uncle Jerrek!" The cover slid off a small bowl of spheres, throwing a brilliant shimmer of rippling lights across the ceiling. Jerrek lifted an eyebrow to Alaral as he scooped up little Kharles with his free hand. Alaral rolled her eyes and waved to Uried and Surtos as they scampered toward him. Jerrek danced about with the children, steering their play until he could set the sack up on the table. Hands freed, he allowed the clinging youths to drag him to the floor, the better to play-act crawling away in desperation. Alaral, not yet past her thirteenth Weeping but serious enough for thrice that, stood back by the water-filled sphere lamp with Renov and Trus. Jerrek crept carefully forward and caught Trus by one ankle, imploring the lad for help. The two boys looked at each other, and their mock grimaces slid into broad grins. Laughing, they joined the fray. * * * Farrah tottered over to his usual seat, smiling at the children's simple pleasures. The city might have dissolved into chaos, but these few children kept a measure of their innocence still. He turned his attention to the sack of supplies Jerrek had brought in. Alaral stepped around the laughing melee to assist him, and he was pleased to see the trace of a smile warming her face.

I'd give it the title "Game Design" or "RP Game Design" and make it a subforum of the Role-playing forum. It does distance it from Sanderson Elimination a bit, but it provides more use as a place to discuss customizing other RP systems beyond Elimination games. Like adapting MAG or Pathfinder for Stormlight Archive games, for example.

Another couple of questions: If the worldsinger silences a player who used a once per game ability, is that ability lost, or is the player told that their ability is still available? Does a Shamed guard's Rabble rouse get blocked by the Ardent? Does their Kill-with-Me get blocked by the Ardent? (I'm guessing yes and yes, but other people are debating the question.) Edit: Punctuation.

My list is still on page 4 of the main thread. It isn't as convenient in placement, but it can be copy-pasted. *HINT* The steward can be killed by lynching, but is immune to role-related kill actions. The Shamed Guard can demand an extra lynch once per game as one of their special actions. Does this extra lynch eliminate the steward or not? If the worldsinger silences a shamed guard on the turn they die, are both their kills lost (assuming the rabble rouse was still unused and set to trigger on "if I die")? To be clear, order of events is Worldsinger silence, Voidbringer search, defense actions, vote tally, kill actions and lynching. Right? Are players directly notified if they have lost one of their lives? Freed bridgeman in particular?