Hedgerow Hall

Spells in Hedgerow Hall are still arranged into colors. Each color's spells are divided in ascending order of rarity/complexity. The lower tier spells are more commonly available. Where before spells were just verbs attached to a crystal object, now they exist in their own right.

When you hold a properly charged crystal, you gain access to a number of spells depending on your own magical power and the power of the crystal. If you are an adept, mage, or wizard (corresponding to 1, 2, and 3 points of magical power) with a color of magic, you can cast the lowest 1, 2, or 3 spells without a crystal focus.

Spellcasting is done by pressing an Fn (F1, F2, etc) key, using the cast verb, or clicking on the spell in your spell pane. When you cast a spell, you go into casting/targeting mode... a glowy aura suffuses your character, focused around your eyes. The aura is visible even if you're hidden and it shines in the darkness. It lasts up to a few seconds after the spell is cast.

Spells that take a target can be targeted in a few ways. Pressing the Fn key again will cast it on yourself if it's a buff/positive effect, or the most obvious nearby target. Looking at or glancing at a subject in line of sight will target the spell towards them. Left-clicks on valid targets are interpreted as glances while you're casting.

For distant targets, you can make use of spatial anchors created with purple magic or mind links constructed with blue magic. You can also use commands to focus your energies on a set of coordinates (relative to your current location) or try to visualize your target. This requires a certain amount of foreknowledge and planning to make work.

Each color of spells will include 12 basic spells. A character who lacks magical power will only be able to use the lowest 1 to 3 spells with a crystal, and it has to be charged by someone else. Charging a crystal is no longer done to make clear crytals into colored ones; clear is now just considered white. Instead charging is how crystals are activated. An uncharged crystal is just a hunk of pretty rock. When charged, it gives +1 to 3 to magical power (depending on whether it's quartz, another gemstone, or a diamond) for its color. Activation lasts a number of game days (2 hour periods) based on the power of the mage who activated it. It takes mind points rather than magical power points.

The fact that I've separated spells out from the crystal objects means it will be easier to implement my planned alternatives to crystal magic (things like scribal magic, where you make magical scrolls) than was possible in the first version of HrH.

As with the classic version, I've started filling out the magic system with purple (travel magic) and blue (mind magic), as travel and communication are two of the most basic things in the game. I'm a lot farther ahead with purple.

1. BLINK: The lowest level purple spell. After a delay of a second or two, it teleports you to a random location roughly between 10 and 20 squares away. More powerful castes can boost the distance. The direction and end location is random, but the minimum distance increases at the same time as the maximum distance. So if you're trying to get about a hundred squares away, you will never end up just 10 squares from where you started.

2. FLEETNESS: A basic purple buff. This lets you run faster and--more importantly--without tiring for short periods of time. It also improves jumping ability, though it doesn't fully prevent the fatigue of jumping.

3. DISTANT ACTION: A buff that temporarily allows the subject to nudge objects closer/farther away or interact with doors and other objects at a distance. (Actually gives you a temporarily useful level of the psychokinesis skill.)

4. TRANSPHASE: Line of sight teleportation. With greater difficulty and power cost, you can teleport to a distant location, as long as you know the relative coordinates. Can also be used with anchors, or to teleport to a person who is known to you.

5. TRANSPORTATION: Teleports an object from your inventory to a location, either line of sight or distant.

6. APPORTATION: Teleports an object to you. Can be used at line of sight, or can be targeted distantly in a manner similar to transphase.

7. ANCHOR: Allows you to create spatial anchors that can be used to target spells at a distance. Spatial anchors do not just work with purple spells! The maximum anchors a caster can have is equal to 1 plus their purple magic level squared (I.e., 1, 2, 5, or 10).

8. RITE OF PASSAGE: Gives the subject a buff that allows them to teleport back to their starting location (where they were when the spell was cast) at any point while the buff lasts. If the buff expires or they are knocked unconscious, they will automatically return, but it can also be cancelled without effect.

9. SUMMONING: Invites the subject to teleport to you.

10. FORCEFUL SUMMONING: Hostile spell. Summoning without the prompt.

11. GRAYWALK: Teleports the caster into the Gray Place. Characters in the Gray Place are invisible and intangible to those in normal space, but can see all people--including invisible ones--in normal space, albeit dimly. The normal rules of physics don't apply in the Gray Place. In particular, movement is very rapid and unimpeded by obstacles, but mentally draining. Traveling through the Gray Place lets you reach basically any point in the map very rapidly. The Gray Place is "flat" compared to the normal world; entering it underground places you above ground. You can exit the Gray Place at any time.

12. GRAYSHIFT: Teleports the subject into the Gray Place. They can exit the Gray Place at any time.

I am planning on keeping most of the colors the same, though I'm changing a few of them around to break up the attack/damage spells a bit, get the classical elements into the game, and replace the thematically muddled red "blade/war/metal" magic. Red is now body, and yellow will be creation/artifice.