(TFT) Magic: illusions, cities

[Meg Tapley <barnswallow@sbcglobal.net>]

Who thinks that Illusion, at IQ 11 and ST cost 2, is overpowered?  
Sure, it can be disbelieved, but opponents have to lose their action  
while doing so, and can be engaged by illusory figures, meaning that  
illusions can create a huge tactical advantage - not to mention the  
constant use as scouts. Solutions could be bumping the ST cost to 3  
and/or increasing the IQ level.

Another question: Is it better to have lots of specialized spells, or  
a few general ones?  For example, Illusion could be split into  
"Illusory Scout" (you can see through its eyes, but it can't do any  
damage), and "Illusory Opponent" (can do damage, but you can't see  
through its eyes). Or, you could make Stone and Iron Flesh the same  
spell, except that the better version costs more ST/turn.

Regardless of gameplay advantages or disadvantages, from an "in-world  
logic" perspective, there should be lots of specialized spells. Think  
about it: Wizards have been studying magic for hundreds, probably  
thousands of years, and for a lot of that time, the Wizard's Guild has  
been encouraging and rewarding the development of new spells. Spells  
are hard to invent, but not that hard, so there are going to be a lot  
of them, and many will necessarily be pretty specialized.

On the other hand, wizards would also be interested in learning to do  
the greatest possible number of things with a single spell, which  
would lead to generalized spells. There are probably adepts looking  
for the Unified Spell of Everything ("Change Reality") the same way  
physicists are looking for the Unified Theory of Everything...

Also: I got my hands on a copy of "Guns, Germs and Steel", by Jared  
Diamond. I'm probably not the first on the list to stumble across it,  
but for those of you who haven't, it's a pretty cool resource. It  
deals with the question of why some societies developed better  
technology (and nastier germs, and more complex social structures)  
than others. Neat stuff, and useful for worldbuilding.

It occurs to me that magic must have developed after agriculture. In  
order to have a wizard per the TFT system, it seems that you have to  
have a special wizard school, which means a social structure that  
supports that kind of thing, which means a city, which means  
agriculture.

One final item: What's a good name for a long, piecemeal post like  
this one? A shotgun post? Brain dump? J-rant? ;-)

- Meg
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