An Idea For A Game

[Galfraxas]

Okay, I came up with an idea for a game, which I've decided to post here... This is only a bare bones idea, as I have yet to actually think of what kind of system to add to it or anything like that. Basically, the setting is modern day earth with one small difference. Magical abilities are rather common with the population, and some people are more magically talented than others. Unfortunately, some of these magically active people are abusing their powers, using them to commit crimes and be evil and stuff. This has led to the formation of "Magical Crimes Divisions" in most police precincts, which is where the players come in. As members of said "Magical Crimes Division", the PCs (some of whom are magically active, some of whom are not) save the day on a daily basis from these evil magicians. The PCs run around investigating the crimes, and eventually track down the criminals and the day is saved. The PCs don't necessarily have to be police officers.. they could be private investigators or just normal people who unfortunately get caught up in the investigations and end up helping to catch the criminals. Any opinions, comments, questions, etc, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Galfraxas

[hardcoremoose]

Galfraxas,

This could be cool if you did your homework and focused on the police procedural end of the whole thing.  That amount of "color" (am I using that term right, Ron?), integrated into the game mechanics somehow, could make for a very fun, tongue-in-cheek type game.

Back when I was writing up NightWatch and ward 13 for InSpectres (which you should take a look at if you haven't already), everything I saw on TV became the basis for a new variant.  I was watching CSI a lot, and so naturaly I had this idea for a supernaturaly-oriented forensic research team, which doesn't seem too far off of your idea.  Maybe there's something there you could use.

Take care,
Scott

[Theory of X]

I like the idea.

The hard thing for me to balance would be the power of the magic:

Too powerful and they could own countries.

As long as magic-users aren't casting nuclear blasts as they increase in power, I think it would be fun :smile:

[Galfraxas]

The idea I had to balance out the magic being too powerful is that although people have access to magic, the harder stuff (like nuclear blasts), are difficult to pull off. Most of the criminals have found interesting tricks that when put to good use, lets them pull off crimes. Stuff like the ability to become insubstantial for a short time, freeze time for 30 seconds, maybe even a few smaller attack type spells, like magic missles or something of that sort. But then again, there are a few criminal masterminds (read bad guys for higher-level adventures) who could threaten to magically nuke Kansas if their demands aren't met. At that point in the game, the players, who have enough experience to be considered a sort of Magical SWAT team, are called in to put the bad guy away. And magic can come into the investigation too. Maybe a PC has an informant who happens to be the spirit of a gang member who was killed in a drive by shooting or something.

[Galfraxas]

Okay, I've come up with a basic idea of how magic is going to work in my game. Basically, there are two kinds of people in the world, the Mundane, those who don't have magical powers, and the Magickal, those who do. If you choose to be a mundane, you get more skills or stuff like that. If you choose to be magickal, you don't get as many skills and stuff, but you do get to choose a magical discipline. Basically, during character creation, a player choosing to be Magickal decides to study one kind of magic, be it illusions, necromancy, elementalism, etc. Once that choice is made, it's final. They can never switch magic types, or gain abilities in a different field of magic. It is, however, possible to gain background knowledge of other types of magic. For example, a character chooses to become an elementalist. Worried that a necromancer might pose a problem, the elementalist studies what spell effects are possible for a necromancer. If that character wanted to gain necromantic powers, it would be impossible, because he's already formed his Magickal Energies to work as an elementalist. On a side note, Mundanes will have a sort of "Luck Pool", a small pool of points they can spend to reroll dice on a 1:1 basis. This luck pool recharges slowly over time, or can be magically recharged, or mundanely recharged by pulling off an incredibly hard task without the use of luck points. Stay tuned for more info.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

OK, I'm going to give you some of my impressions.  Take them as you will.

How is this idea different from comic book super heroes?  Even heroes without the costumes?

How is the modern world different because of the presence of magic?

The comic book The Watchmen showed little details that the effect of having a being like Dr Manhattan in the world and the little differences he had made in the world, like the electric cars and such.

Magic being in the world would also have little differences like this, I believe.  Exactly what that is your or the player's discretion but can be an interesting flavor element.  Making your game unique.  The sort of thing that attracts fans, you see.

Personally, were I doing this I'd research both police proceedure and new age/occult/real magic stuff.  Research can help shape the whole in way you may not have considered.