Marios is right about a distinction between a rules system and a narrative system for overcasting. Personally, I'd prefer a narrative system but I can see where players may take the piss with it. But then I suppose my psionics system is already pretty much a 'trust' system as you can regen points as you go - one hour of 'nothing save talking and light walking' gives you a point back. Unless you have a ref for every player who is a psion standing over their shoulder counting you have to be on trust...

I suppose it is possible to put a system in place where you can burn a hit for every level/spell point cost of the spell/psionic effect you are trying to overcast. So, if a spell cost 2 points and you have enough to cast a one point spell you can burn one hit and be in a lot of pain until it is healed through 'mana burn' or 'psionic drain' or whatever. If a spell cost 12 points and you have none left then you can burn up all 12 of your body hits (one per location, including the head) and be incredibly screwed for a while afterwards. I'd say a coma until treated by someone who knows what they are doing...

You see, I like the idea of heroic sacrifice and last minute 'pulling the saving grace out of the hat' deals. I think it is a nice LRP concept. If a player can save the day but lose something, die or otherwise really mess up thier character in the process (sanity is another good thing to lose... ) all the better... However, I like it to be simple and quick to admin.

I suppose 'talk to a ref' is a useful idea as it means that the consequences are variable and dependent upon the whim of the ref. There is no predictable consequence that the player can look up in a book and work out if he can afford it. You do the overcast, the effect happens, standard consequence is that you fall unconscious until the ref comes over and tells you what happened to you - bit of a headache, maybe, or something more dangerous like coma, insanity, loss of magical ability, memory loss, severe scarring through burns from mana burn... A bead bag could be used even. The 'cure' for the consequences could even form part of the plot for the rest of the event or even the next event. Maybe the other players need to travel into the mages head to 'bring thier spirit' back. Perhaps they have to find a famous healer who knows how to deal with the problem. Maybe the mage has to quest to recover his power or find the ingredients to a potion which restores it. Lots of nice possibilities.

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The Whispering God is your friend... trust the Whispering God...

Ruins of Empire

1st - 3rd Feb, 2008, Gladstone scout centre, Chester

  Just to make it clear: I think that the current incarnation of the Treasure Trap rules that we use at DUTT is more complicated than, say, the Maelstrom magic rules, but it's vastly less complicated than it was a few years ago.  If you're someone like me, who would prefer to limit the amount of mental maths they have to do in order to cast magic, then it's currently entirely possible to play a mage without ever overcasting and burning into body hits.  But the option is there, if you want to use it.

  /off-topic

  How many hit locations do players have in this hypothetical system?  In all the locational hit systems I've come across there are 6 different locations (two legs, two arms, head and torso).

  Allowing people to pool hits from different locations in order to overcast sounds relatively complex- at DUTT, the hits you lose from overcasting always come off the torso.

  Yes, if you can create a simple mechanic then hideous maiming is often more fun than instant death.  I personally would steer away from IC comas, though- they sound like they would be really dull for the victim.  If there's some reason why the medical staff can't or won't treat my character immediately, then an hour of IC agony (or even better, IC madness) sounds quite fun, whereas lying very still and quiet and trying to ignore any people discussing plot information nearby does not.

  I reckon it's largely a matter of personal taste, but in most cases I think I'd prefer a situation where the refs don't make the final call on what the effect is.  If the effect of overcasting is loss of magical ability then I'd prefer that to be because that's always the effect of this type of overcasting, or because the refs drew a blue bead and then looked that up in a pre-written effects table, or something.  Rather than because the ref tried to think of things that overcasting might do to you, and then decided on loss of magical ability because they figured it would be cool.  I don't think it fundamentally matters, though- so long as you make it clear to the players whether effects are based on soulless mechanics or refs' personal judgement I think either approach is viable.

  I personally would also steer away from memory loss as an effect, simply because I often find forgetting certain things IC to be both difficult and irritating- but again, that might just be me.

  I like the idea of a really unpredictable effect, though.

  That sounds like it would be cool (read: an ego-trip for attention-seekers like me  )

  This is true- I can certainly think of situations where there have been characters who would have loved an opportunity to bundle a particular person out of the way without having to explain to their god or local law enforcement why they'd murdered an innocent person.

  In that situation, there may be an IC incentive for doctors to lie and say that the coma victim is a total vegetable and can never be revived ("so tragic, but we'll leave the respirator on and do everything we can...  now, about those presidential elections...")  But it's a bit OOC sucky for the player of the coma victim.  I don't mind outright character death, but I'd rather avoid situations where a character is alive but unplayable and might in theory become playable again at some stage in the future, but probably won't.  It's like how IC executions are more OOC humane than IC life imprisonment.

I had a character who was unplayable without being in the direct physical presence of another character.  When that other character died, he turned into a quivering wreck in the corner.  Didn't bother me in the least.

What was the topic again?

You're entitled to your opinion as long as you realise it's wrong.