One of my players has suggested some sort of a “Mana” Stat for spell casters. I have played with such things in other games where you basically kept score on whst you spent and how fast you recovered it. I don’t see how that would work in the Burning Wheel, unless we made Mana into a “Resource” kind of stat and taxed it alongside Forte for spell casting. Even then I’m not sure how it would work in play or game mechanics. Anyone ever try this before or have any thoughts on the matter?
Having mana that you spend on spells is counter to the way BW operates. You don’t track individual points of anything but artha. You could make a stat that you tax, but then you’re just reinventing Forte.
What problem are you trying to solve, or what thematic element are you trying to incorporate, by bringing mana into the game? My gut instinct is that if you want it what you really want is a game that is not BW.
Actually, I don’t think that it’s a good idea at all. But seeing as I am but one voice in our game I thought that I would post the question to see what kind of answers I received. To my way of thinking, we don’t need a Mana stat as mages are all ready taxed for magic and adding another stat to tax mages on top of what’s already there just seems unnecessary. Some of my other postings regarding possible changes to the standard sorcery rules are also along the same line of thought, limiting mages.
The only way I could see a Mana stat working in burning wheel would be if it was treated like a resource or pool that the mage draws on to feed spells and is tax on after casting. And that’s already being done by the published rules in BWG. Still, there are no foolish questions, and no man is thought a fool until he stops asking questions. (or is it better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt?) I prefer to double check questions I can’t look up on my own rather than risk breaking some major cog or gear in the wheel due to a group vote.
(And I want all of this settled befor we get into the Albion campaign.)
I had the sudden thought of a Fate Mage who fed off of their own artha. Now that would be weird. And probably untenable under the current rules.
A few decades ago I played a “Master of Fate” (mage) in a D&D/ICE/House Rules (Hack) game. My mage cast his spells using Tarot cards and advanced through the various minor arcana. I wonder if I could burn one of those up. They would have to have Gifted, Faithful, and maybe some Grey Sorcery. … (just kidding, no burning at the stake required).
It could be fun to do something like a fortune tellrr skill, similar to Astrology and Rune Casting thst only works on or for the faithful, tied into the characters BITs. It could be especially cool for the Auger lifepath.