The "Magic" of Text Adventures

[Debaser]

Hey, quick, help me out! Are there any text adventures out there which involve to some large degree the use of magic by the protagonist but aren't of the Enchanter style "spells are verbs" variety?

[The Wrong Base Fairy]

WRONG BASE!

[Debaser]

What the shit? I need this information for a HUGO Adventure I am PROGRAMMING.

[Roody_Yogurt]

Um, examples aren't coming to me easily.

I think in the category of "opposite of you mean" is "Augmented Fourth," where spells aren't verbs but you play certain songs that do certain magicks in pretty much the same way.

Then there are the "collect all the magic elements" games, like "Vindaloo" (I think) and "Adoo's Stinky Story."

"Journey" handled magic by mixing powders for different effects (although you go through much of the game without realizing how closely you have to pay attention).

Um, there are probably other games, too.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Hey, quick, help me out! Are there any text adventures out there which involve to some large degree the use of magic by the protagonist but aren't of the Enchanter style "spells are verbs" variety?

Spellcasting x01. I think.

I got em all -- EM ALL -- if you need 'em, Debaser.

Plus, they all work in DOSBox, which is nice.

[Debaser]

I think in the category of "opposite of you mean" is "Augmented Fourth," where spells aren't verbs but you play certain songs that do certain magicks in pretty much the same way.

Yes, exactly.

"Journey" handled magic by mixing powders for different effects (although you go through much of the game without realizing how closely you have to pay attention).

This is exactly what I'm looking for. Sort of. I found an entry on Underdogs and I'll check it out.

Spellcasting x01. I think.

Right! I've been meaning to play those anyway! I can get them off of U-Dogs too, so thanks for the offer. I... think I have Dosbox. I tried to play Pirates! Gold with it one time. Can you give me a brief synopsis of how magic works in the game?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

There are boxes, in the world of Spellcasting... boxes that contain spells! You have to find them. Then you open them. I think that makes you memorize them from there.... amd then you're able to cast them wherever you want, if I recall correctly.

I don't think there are spell points in any of the Spellcasting games.

DOSbox is free, and on SourceForge, which is nice and all (erm, nice for Sourceforge, and that server in Raleigh that hosts all their stuff).

[Debaser]

There are boxes, in the world of Spellcasting... boxes that contain spells! You have to find them. Then you open them. I think that makes you memorize them from there.... amd then you're able to cast them wherever you want, if I recall correctly.

I don't think there are spell points in any of the Spellcasting games.

So you just cast them at will? This will not do at all. I mean, I appreciate the help, but I need more... complicated magic systems. That's what I meant. Y'know, something more than just commands. The magic system I'm currently implementing is ripped of KQ3 (though I didn't realize until after the fact that there's where the idea came from) and is basically alchemy as far as play mechanics are concerned.

I'm trying to either a) Come up with a more interesting system, or b) Rip off some decent puzzles for the system I have.

Maybe I should play Christminster again.

[JoeNotCharles]

There's stuff like Worlds Apart, where instead of a lot of "spells" with small effects, you have a limited number of magic-like abilities which have really in-depth effects on the landscape - in this case, the ability to focus on objects and enter a sort of spirit world related to that object.

[Roody_Yogurt]

For further clarification, the powders in Journey represent elements (earth, water, air, fire), so if you want to make mud, you mix earth and water. A fireball is air and fire, and other spells make just as much or less sense.

You could also do things like the graphical game Dungeon Master, where you do spells by clicking on runes and push a 'cast' button. As you progress through the game, you find rune combinations of important spells but there's enough method to the madness that it allows the player to experiment and find new spells.

In a text game, you could do this with menus of magic words, and players can keep on selecting words until they eventually select 'cast'.

[Debaser]

You could also do things like the graphical game Dungeon Master, where you do spells by clicking on runes and push a 'cast' button. As you progress through the game, you find rune combinations of important spells but there's enough method to the madness that it allows the player to experiment and find new spells.

Or like Loom!

In a text game, you could do this with menus of magic words, and players can keep on selecting words until they eventually select 'cast'.

This would be even easier in a parser environement. It wouldn't be too hard to get Hugo to recognize "magic sentences", I don't think. I'll have to ponder this, as it would require rethinking some other portions I already have coded. But this would be a solid gimmick from a puzzle standpoint (whereas alchemy puzzles are basically scavenger hunts).

If anything else comes to you (or anyone) please contribute. But big thanks to Robb, Roody, Charles (whoops, I mean Joe, sorry) and a big giant middle finger to the Wrong Base Fairy.

[Hugella]

If I remember correctly, 'Halothane' (z-code in the archive) also used some sort of alchemical processes to generate 'magical' effects.

[Hugella]

No, my above post is wrong. When I think of the right name, I'll let you know. :)

[Worm]

You could just go for more free form magic. You could make "cast" mean "use" ... you can do that can't you? Then have a certain amount of spells like the intial cantrips (Some game I can't remember) that are just basic spells and you could "cast spell with spell" or something to make combinations to solve various puzzles.

[bruce]

The Ultima Underworlds used rune-based magic, to put together spells which were a sort-of-logical sequence of three runes.