Magic is a difficult thing to address. Generally, it''s invoked with "ancient rites" and "lost wisdom", or else it''s taught to initiates in a "mysterious order". But all these system imply that somebody had to be first to use it. Unless the gods invent it and teach it to the first people, who pass it down in an oral tradition, there had to be some guy sitting around with a bag of newt''s ears and a notepad trying different incantations and writing down what happens.

Most games are set thousands of years after magic has been defined and turned into a practice, like math or physics, that can be learned from books and achieved with effort. This game seems to be set in a world that''s just learning about magic, and so it won''t necessarily have those ancient tomes of learning. The scientist himself is probably the only guy who has any clue what''s going on with the stuff, but if the player can learn it, then it should be a learning process. Maybe you can steal some of the scientist''s notes and records (he''s got a thousand years worth to work from) or maybe he will teach it to some of his cronies, and you can learn it from them somehow. Or maybe it''s something that has an ontological presence, and you can "commune" with it through meditation or artifacts or something, so you''ll learn about the nature of magic, and be able to "figure it out".

In fact, that might be the key. He''s been working for a thousand years, using the scientific method, locked in his ivory tower, and he''s got a big list magic tricks that he can use. He''s managed to construct a handful of magic incantations through trial-and-error, and he''s made some magical devices. But the character, through his wanderings, will learn magic through his contact with the world it enchants. He''ll learn the language of creation and destruction, and will gain insight into the true nature of the energies it uses. So, in one lifetime, the character will surpass the scientist''s millenium of empirical study, and will be able to defeat him.

Why hasn''t anyone else done this? Well, the scientist went mad and refused to leave his laboratory, his cronies never thought of magic as anything but a means to power, and the normal townsfolk are too scared of zombies to go out and see the world. Your guy is the perfect combination of tough, smart, and open-minded that he can get to the four corners of the globe, solve the various mysteries of the world, and gain insight into the inner workings of the thing the scientist unleashed. It''s sort of existentialist, if you look at it with Kierkegaard''s "knowing the truth versus being in the truth" dichotomy.

[TANGENT] It reminds me of a thought experiment in Cognitive Science. There''s this scientist, named Dorothy, who lives in a black-and-white world. However, she''s fascinated with the color red. She can''t see it, obviously, but they have instruments for measuring wavelengths of light, and she''s studying the range that we call "red". She learns everything about it: She learns about light waves, and about retinas, and about the occipetal lobe, and she knows everything that can be learned about the color red, but she''s never seen it. Then, there''s a tornado, and her house is swept off to Oz, a magical land where everything is in color. When she gets there, she opens her eyes and sees, among many other amazing things, the color red. The question the thought experiment poses is this: Does Dorothy learn something about the color red when she sees it that she didn''t learn from her years of studying the brain and its interaction with light patterns? The answer is yes. She has learned what red LOOKS like. [/TANGENT]

So you see, the scientist is like Dorothy. He''s trying to learn about magic by measuring it and recording its properties, but he''ll never know what it is until he experiences it. The player''s character, despite knowing next to nothing about the scientist''s findings, will see the color of magic, and so he will gain a totally different kind of knowledge about it. A fight between them would be like a guy who can apply vectored forces to himself and a guy with wings and a flying instinct engaged in a dogfight. The vector guy would have very precise, but inelegant control over himself, while the winged man would have smooth controls but no real knowledge of lift or thrust, and so he''d be clumsy as well. The critical difference is that the winged man can practice and get better, while the physics man can only make his calculations more precise, and maybe construct some patterns or tactics to apply.

Of course, this would be a whole new thing to explore. Maybe when magic leaked in, gods came with/brought it. Maybe magic itself is some kind of illuminating thing that you can learn about just by touching it. Maybe there are artifacts, or nexuses of magic where this level of interaction becomes possible. Maybe magic flows and ebbs through the world, and you can find "deeper" areas, where you will learn new stuff. I don''t know, it''s a tough thing to do.

I really like that idea. Having the player sort of "join" the energy, instead of sucking it dry. It would be difficult to allow the player to accumulate it through the game, though. If he/she could use this energy, it would be possible to multiply strength or speed, etc. It would be really hard to keep it balanced and under control, game-logic-wise. Unless there was a reason they couldn't use it.

I wish there was a way I could use this without offsetting the player's abilities until way-later on (like when they're finished adventuring, and just want to beat the game). One of the main purposes of the game is to get a feeling of being normal. Or at least not the "savior", "champion", or "chosen one". To feel as though the player has earned all of his abilities, and hasn't been "granted" powers. To have made a huge difference and still remain a normal person.

I know. I'm asking you to give me toast but keep it bread. I want the player to remain normal until he must fight something that's not normal, but I don't want him to be granted powers. It's impossible. I have to go with one or the other.

There is the idea that perhaps the player has been recieving magic, as you explain, but does not know it, or does not use it, or does not know how to use it. There could be a dramatic catch, where the scientist easily kills him off and pushes him aside with boredom. Then that unused energy surges through him, out of control, giving him insane temporary power. Again, I feel that the idea is much nicer before I explain it. Is that a sign to stay away from writing?

Thanks again, I am keeping tons of notes.

EDIT - By the way, I really like the Dorothy thing. I've never heard that. I've always theorized about how people think spirits, ghosts and Gods are impossible because they can't be proven. Yet something as simple as being color-blind would prevent us from seeing color. We could see the difference between red and blue, understand the complexities that make them unique, but we could never know or prove what they really are, and what they're for.

[edited by - Jiia on February 18, 2004 4:17:09 AM]

As much as it hurts to reference The Matrix, maybe that's a good example for this. Neo's power is intrinsic and nearly limitless, but he has never really used it before. He can see that he learns more quickly than others, and that he can do things faster or better than they can, right out of the gate, but only in extreme circumstances to the depths of his power make themselves known. There's the dojo scene, where he almost uses super-speed, the bullet-dodging sequence, and finally the resurrection at the end of the first movie (which your example nods to).

So maybe the character works through the whole game to get the strength and speed and skill to fight the boss, and when he gets there, the boss is so much more realized, magically, that the little parlor tricks the hero uses are totally overshadowed, and he gets his butt thoroughly kicked. But in the course of interacting with the scientist's magic, he has a revelation that allows him to apply the full force of his magical potential to the rudimentary skills he's learned. The synthesis of his talents and a sudden understanding of how magic works for the scientist would manifest as super-powers, which would give him at least a fighting chance, if not an advantage.

The problem with this system is that all the levelling you did is made less important in the final battle, but it helps with the toast/bread thing.

EDIT: And it might help give the scientist some motivation: He's trying to understand magic, and the evils that befall the world are the results of his experiments with it. Maybe some good things could happen, too. Heck, the whole idea of the world being transformed by magic might be attributed to him trying to tinker with it. And of course, since his approach is flawed, he'll never figure it out, and that's why you have to go "enlighten" him. With a stick. A magic stick.

[edited by - Iron Chef Carnage on February 18, 2004 4:00:23 PM]