This quote:

Quote from: Akrasia;460059Each of the magic systems has quite a different character.  I'd be very disappointed if they removed any of them.  

As I wrote earlier, each system is quite modular.  It's nice to have them as options.  If you only want to use one system in your games, that's fine, but I know that I appreciate being able to choose.

from the thread discussing the end of the Mongoose RQ line (or rather its conversion into generic form) has me curious.  

Four magic systems in MRQ?  The only one I know anything about (and the single biggest reason I have never bought any RQ stuff) is the goofy one where you find runes lying around on rocks and trees and such and learn magic from that (at least that is my understanding of it, and the way it was described to me in another discussion years ago).

But there are other magic systems/rules in RQ?  And they are all optional/modular, so I can leave out the stuff that seems dumb to me like the above?

Anyone want to describe these magic systems and how they work (FYI I know the basics of the RQ/BRP family, so you don't have to dumb it down too much)?

The goofy one was a strange curious tangent that is best forgotten about. The four systems are:

Common magic. It is weak and ubiquitous and mostly affects yourself. It can become quite powerful if you specialise in it. It's often used to model "hedge magic" and could even model psychosomatic magic. It's general common in "primitive" societies. In more advanced societies it might be stigmatised as peasant magic.

Spirit magic (animism). This is a system for talking with and/or controlling spirits. Think of classical shamanic magic, native Americans and so on. A spirit magic can speak with ancestors, bind spirits into fetishes, travel to the spirit world, combat spirits and even drag mortals onto the spirit plane and destroy them. Many advanced spirit magicians gain a fetch which may grant a wide range of abilities.

Divine magic (theism). Through creating a pact with a deity worshipped by a cult of some sort you gain some of the deity's powers and characteristics. Worshipping a storm god would get you lightning spells and storm creation spells for example.

Sorcery. Through mastering grimoires which are usually held as secrets by orders or loan magic, you can learn to cast the spells held therein.

From the very beginning, RQ has bound magic into social structures so that learning and practising magic requires advancement within some organisation. Different types of society tend to be associated with different types of magic. So nomads might largely be spirit magic users while sorcery requires literacy and large libraries.

Thanks for that description.  And any or all of them could be removed without "breaking" the game in some way?

Quote from: deleriad;460079The goofy one was a strange curious tangent that is best forgotten about.

I.e., it's part of MRQ I, and AFAIK not found in any other RQ/BRP game.

If you're coming from a class-based RPG background, it might, possibly, help to see the four systems as equivalent to four types of spellcaster, although (at least going from earlier editions of RQ) they're somewhat more mechanically diverse than say D&D magic-users/clerics/druids.

Quote from: Technomancer;460083Thanks for that description.  And any or all of them could be removed without "breaking" the game in some way?

They are supposed to be completely modular. So they can be chopped and changed as required. Some settings also add different systems. E.g. Draconic Mysticism, Dream magic and so on.