thread: 2009-04-30 : Magical Magic
On 2009-04-30, Mark Woodhouse wrote:
Well... I think its attempted plenty. But it's so terribly subjective. The traditional method has been to fill the game text with lots of dense, allusive, complex fiction woven in with the number-crunchy procedures. But the more definitive you are with that sort of thing, the less "magical" judgment-calls play into it; and the more nebulous and open to interpretation, the more difficulty in getting a coherent enough aesthetic for it to "feel right."
Mortal Coil is about as close as I can think of to purely group-constructed aesthetics that nonetheless inform mechanical resolution in a meaningful way.
Hmmm... on the other hand, actual-play-ishly, I think some of the most "magical magic" I've seen in play in recent years was Nobilis, and I largely gave up on it because it was just so darn much WORK trying to live up to that aesthetic standard. Poetic, mythic magic is great, but it's also TOUGH.
