Quote from: Trond;901364Not sure what you mean about Conan though.

The girl makes some sort of deal so that Conan will live again. And then later in the film, her time comes. And she has to except it.

Quote from: talysman;901320Fantasy Wargaming.

I've been thinking of getting a replacement copy.
The system of magical correspondences looked pretty cool.

John Snead's Enlightened Magic sourcebook for BRP is an update of Liber Ka for Nephilim and is explicitly an RPG magic system based on Goetic or "High Magickal" principles as currently practiced in the real world.  Isaac Bonewits did something similar in Authentic Thaumaturgy for GURPS.

Probably the biggest issue with them as RPG supplements - as Snead points out - is that being rigorously realistic, you really can't do much with magic.  Enlightened Magic contains some rules for amping up the power level to something more gameable.

Surprised nobody mentioned Ars Magica.

Quote from: Trond;901311Anyway, what's your favorite magic system that "feels real"?

Unknown Armies. Even those Avatar.... ummmm, "emanations" seem to be reasonable.

Quote from: The Butcher;901351What little I've seen of Artesia, and of Artesia's magic in particular, gets me into a Runequest mood. Sure, there's plenty of fire-flinging common, divine and sorcerous magic, but the spirit magic subsystem (at least as presented in RQ6) would fit it to a T.

No wonder Mythic Britain uses spirit magic only.

Artesia is based on the author's Runequest campaign, AFAIK:).
Why it uses Fuzion as its core is beyond me, but I suspect it might have something to do with IP issues.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;901386Unknown Armies. Even those Avatar.... ummmm, "emanations" seem to be reasonable.

That's my vote as well. Magic as the expression of the collective subconscious? Sign me in, ths is one of my two favourite ways for this stuff!
The other option is "the wizard has no real power apart from summoning and controlling spirits and demons", so I guess we can add Sorcerer to the list;).

Quote from: AsenRG;901389The other option is "the wizard has no real power apart from summoning and controlling spirits and demons", so I guess we can add Sorcerer to the list;).

I don't know where I've seen the class, but it was some sort of Arabic-themed demonologist, who had only three spell-like abilities: summon djinn, banish djinn, bargain with djinn. He couldn't perform any other magic tricks, those djinni made all for him... providing he managed to form his wish in such a way that it did him more harm than good.

I honestly can't recall the game's title...

Quote from: talysman;901320Fantasy Wargaming.

Quote from: Gormenghast;901379I've been thinking of getting a replacement copy.
The system of magical correspondences looked pretty cool.

Yes, and pretty much the kind of thing you see when you look at occult books like Francis Barrett's The Magus or Crowley's Liber 777, which is part of why I think of the FW magic system as more realistic.

Another reason is that it is basically a spirit magic approach, which as some people suggested up-thread, in general feels more like magic as it was/is practiced by people who believe in it. I almost named GURPS Voodoo, for this reason, but FW seems closer.

A third reason: most of the magical effects you'd see in an FW-style magic system would be "situational luck" (bonuses to specific kinds of actions) rather than flashy spells. Your amulet carved from a ram's horn might make you more likely to strike first in combat, or more likely to set something on fire the first time you hit it with a flaming arrow. Some of the flashy effects are still possible, but only through ritual magic, so they are less likely to show up in a combat.

I could have gone with something less spirit magic-y, more psychic powers, in which case I'd probably say Authentic Thaumaturgy, but as much as I liked Real Magic (Isaac Bonewits's serious magic book,) his gaming supplement seemed a little off. I never tried to use it.

Another option would be a more low-key folk magic system. One of the GURPS writers, I think it was S. John Ross, suggested magical versions of mundane talents, which allows characters to perform ordinary tasks or crafts with a bit of extraordinary flare.

How does a magic system "feel real"? That's like asking which game has the most "realistic orcs."

Quote from: AsenRG;901389Artesia is based on the author's Runequest campaign, AFAIK:).
Why it uses Fuzion as its core is beyond me, but I suspect it might have something to do with IP issues.

They are supposed to be working on a new edition which is much closer to Runequest overall according to the author. Except that I don't think they will ever finish it.

Having said that, Artesia is actually great the way it is. Much better than Fuzion on it's own if you ask me. Smylie actually incorporated the setting into a relatively straightforward system in a way that I have rarely seen before or since. As much as I like Runequest, he didn't need to change the systems (maybe a little tweak here and there would be good, but seriously the Artesia book is pretty solid the way it is)

Quote from: Matt;901420How does a magic system "feel real"? That's like asking which game has the most "realistic orcs."

If you really believe that, you might as well stop playing RPGs. Switch to traditional card games, chess, checkers, dominoes, that sort of thing.

The whole point of RPGs is to "feel real".

Quote from: Matt;901420How does a magic system "feel real"? That's like asking which game has the most "realistic orcs."

'Real' as in how it was performed and described by people throughout history who did, and maybe still do believe in it.
Pretty much none of those beliefs resemble how the magic functions in D&D... which often, IMO, fails to feel very 'magical' and comes off more as some sort of mundane technology.

So it makes sense that some of us prefer game magic that more closely matches what we've heard of real world practices... or just has more of that atmosphere.
Kind of like why I prefer dragons in fantasy settings that still mostly-sorta resemble the what people might actually have believed in, vs. being shaped like Stukas.

The closest to me of all the games I've played, as a set of 'power', I'd have to say Barbarians of Lemuria or Runequest.

Quote from: DavetheLost;901350Tribe 8

Tribe 8's system is quite good. Loose, but not as abstract as Mage The Ascension, with a very clear expression of the metaphysics of the system.