Back in the late days of AD&D2E, I began wanting to make magic special. Not "better" than a sword, just functional and different.

What I did was hide spells from players, cloud it in mystery and add some flexibility.

In the setting I was using the players accessed "runes" essentially tapping into the power that forged the world (I'd stolen the mythology I was using for High Valor loosely and lathed it for AD&D)

Runes were essentially paths of magic that were themed to the runes overall icon concept.

The rune of Freedom for example granted the wizard spells based on "freedom" as a concept. In play casting the spell tied to freedom allowed the wizard a player was playing to "Burst bonds" (Knock) "Fling" something like branch at a foe (Magic Missile), "Leap from the Ground" (Jump) and so on. All of these in an oblique way came from the concept of freedom (freedom from entrapment, gravity, danger and so on.)


However, the player didn't decide the effect--the GM (me) did. It always put the player at an advantage for the moment, but the exact manner would be clouded until the effect went off. Once the player had the effect occur--he could attempt with an attribute check to repeat the process at a later time, but it had hefty modifiers.

Of course they still could only draw on so much power a day and essentially used the old "Slots" for how much power they could draw. All spells the wizard learned would be tied to the single runic path they drew upon, unless they learned another. It was difficult and dangerous to learn another rune--and a wizard could learn no more than three, without going mad, and also becoming slowly corrupted. (One player became a malevolent dragon by tempting fate.)

The effect wowed players, because magic felt special--it felt fun to them, and had less of a methodical rote feel, and more wonder.

It may not work for all players but that was how I handled it.

Of course this applies to AD&D, lots of games manage it as well (High Valor, Ars Magic, Talislanta 4E) in different manner. One thing I try and do when my brains is firing on all cylinders and I'm playing is to use High Valor's Shadowverse--poetry that becomes the spellwords for the spell, and never exactly repeated if I can help it.

In many games I tie magic items "creation" to events/heroic deeds and so on (also encoded in High Valor) simply because it becomes more amazing with your find out your grandfather's sword killed two trolls and you've taken on a third and its begun to be called "Trollslayer." Its so much more oomph and epic feel than castin X and Y spells to get Z magic item.

John Kim had a fairly good essay on the subject of making magic special. Can't be bothered finding the link, although I think I linked it already in my design archive thingo.

I liked 2E D&Ds magical item creation system as well. I think it did manage to capture some wonder in its magic-item-creation process (with the various fantastical ingredients and processes).

I'm not sure you necessarily need mystery to have magic seem wondrous though; I think its OK being defined as long as the items that are defined are wondrous themselves. The best example I can think of might be Arduin, where you look at his ingredients for various menus and things and sort of go "you're making that out of what?".

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;529112I'm not sure you necessarily need mystery to have magic seem wondrous though; I think its OK being defined as long as the items that are defined are wondrous themselves.

Game mechanics will never feel "magical".

Quote from: Putting the Magic in Magic ItemsD&D — and roleplaying games in general — have always struggled with magic.

Elrond knew all about runes of every kind. That day he looked at the swords they had brought from the trolls' lair, and he said, "These are not troll-make. They are old swords, very old swords of the High Elves of the west, my kin. They were made in Gondolin for the Goblin-wars. They must have come from a dragon horde or goblin plunder, for dragons and goblins destroyed that city many ages ago. This, Thorin, the runes name Orcrist, the Goblin-cleaver in the ancient tongues of Gondolin; it was a famous blade. This, Gandalf, was Glamdring, Foe-hammer that the king of Gondolin once wore. Keep them well!" — The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Nifty.

Player: We search the trolls' lair.
DM: You find a +1 goblin-bane longsword and a +3 longsword.

Less nifty.

Some would conclude from this that D&D just doesn't do magic very well. After all, what's magical about a +2 bonus to attack rolls or a +5 bonus to Hide checks?

But let's consider this problem from another angle.

He saw a tall, strongly made youth standing beside him. This person was as much out of place in that den as a gray wolf among mangy rats of the gutters. His cheap tunic could not conceal the hard, rangy lines of his powerful frame, the broad heavy shoulders, the massive chest, lean waist, and heavy arms. His skin was brown from outland suns, his eyes blue and smoldering; a shock of tousled black hair crowned his broad forehead. From his girdle hung a sword in a worn leather scabbard. — "The Tower of the Elephant" by Robert E. Howard

Also nifty.

DM: Someone taps you on the shoulder.
Player: I turn to look. Who is it?
DM: A 3rd-level barbarian with a sword.

Similarly less nifty.

What are we supposed to conclude from this? That roleplaying games are just abject failures? That they suck all the life and mystery and grandeur from the world?

Well, they certainly can do that. If you let the numbers become the game world, then that seems to be the inevitable result. But I think we're only looking at half the story here. In my opinion, the numbers inherent to a roleplaying system are only a means to an end. They shouldn't be confused with the game world — they are merely the means by which we interface wtih the game world.

Full article here.