Between my work with BASiL and my current project, Shadow World: Book of Essaence, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the rolemaster magic system and the Shadow World setting. Perhaps an unhealthy amount of time!
For those that follow my BASiL musings, my final conclusions and work product are driven by the setting. What does Shadow World imply about the hows and whys of the magic system? This is contrast to forcing RM Spell Law RAW into the setting. Both approaches have merit, but I made my choice. Certainly Terry was not wholly interested in RM RAW; Shadow World takes many liberties with professions, skills and other RM mechanics. In short, BASiL also attempted to create mechanical differences in how different realms and magics were utilized and cast. Essence, Channeling and Mentalism all used different mechanics than just the standard RM SCR.
I was either reading or watching something and I had a thought. Probably not one I’ll test out in my current campaign/testing game but I wanted to think it through here on the blog. Given that Essaence is manifest and present throughout Kulthea, why couldn’t it just be tapped to use it (Channeling skill) rather than holding Power Points in a personal reservoir?
Taking it a step further for clarification of the current 3 realms:
Essence. Casters using the Essence Realm draw from area or surrounding sources to power their spells. That also means that the level of ambient Essaence would impact casting. Areas with low Essaence, or inhibited would stifle the caster. Areas of high Essaence (Flows or Foci) would enable more powerful casting. Instead of PP’s, the limitations would be around burnout and overcasting or perhaps just exhaustion based on channeled energy.
Mentalism. Mentalism would be more akin to the current system. The caster carries their own power points and replenishes PP’s as normal. Therefore Mentalists are independent of ambient Essaence levels; self-sufficient as it were.
Channeling. Channeling is basically a mix of the two, Channelers could either use their own stored PP’s or draw power from the Gods/patrons.
I always like tradeoffs in gaming mechanics, so clearer differentials on spellcasting mechanics in addition to spell power distinctions is of interest to me. As equally important, it still fits the Shadow World setting. Again, probably not something I’d test or flesh out, but when thinking about how to make Shadow World a unique setting or an updated one, it’s always helpful to think outside the box!