Mana in pen and paper RPG's

Simple. Base Mana Pool, Mana-regen each round, and each spell has a mana-cost.

I think it'd work better than all the spell-slot shit to be honest.

>>50886851
>how do you use the one system that's more bland than 5e's open slot system?
I'd make it work by using literally anything else. Physical fatigue/damage, charges, skill use, the list goes on of actually interesting and/or tactically-minded systems.

You have a pool of mana that you use for spellcasting and supernatural feats, the pool restores completely on short rests, and a mage's most important equipment stat is mana increases. Mage the class gets "Affinity", a passive that reduces all spell costs by 1 mana, meaning their maximum damage nova is largely unaffected and so will remain in relative balance (High-octane spells have high mana costs, lowering them by 1 isn't a huge deal) but a full caster won't burn through their entire reserve firing off 2-mana magic missiles. Lets the casters rely on their 'cantrips' and keeps martial-casters in balance as well.

>>50886892
Done before, turn-by-turn regen is a fustercluck of numbers tracking that still won't achieve the feel you're looking for.

There are already multiple systems that do this or offer this as an option, but please continue with your thought experiment.

>>50886851

You just use the "Ultima Online" method: each spell has a mana cost that is subtracted from your mana pool. Each round you passively recover some amount of mana, based on a secondary skill called "Meditation". If you happen to run out of mana, you can "Activate" your Meditation skill, and while not interrupted you recover mana at a increased pace.

>>50886851
>Create Numerical pool for Mana, basically it's HP but uses whatever stat pool to add to it
>Spells remove mana based on some formula, probably a rough start will be Caster Level x Spell Level. Eg: Spell Lvl = 5, Caster = 10 = 50mp to cast a spell, then use the base mechanics to interpret how many of each level spell should be able to be cast per day and tweak points / pool size.
>Tie a second casting statistic to prevent overt spam. Eg. Multiple sequential casts adds a 50% increase MP 'tax' or something.

Or something like that

>>50886851
Gotta create your own spells to make it work. If you get something like D&D and try to change the casting system but keeping the spells, it's gonna stink.

>>50886851
from my autistic homebrew
>The character can cast each spell in his spell list once per day. When a spell is cast it’s considered spent. After a long rest all spent spells are available again.
>The character can only cast a limited number of spells in a short amount of time though. When he casts a number of spells equal to his Sorcery, he needs to take a short rest to cast more spells safely. Otherwise he becomes fatigued each time he attempts to cast a spell beyond this limit.

Learning spells cost xp points and they are pretty much at the same power level.

i use a homebrew mana/stamina(feats) system that each class has separate hit dice for, each level they roll and increase their total amount and higher level spells or feats cost more to use

>>50886851
simple and elegant

you would be hard pressed to find something that works as well as this
biggest advantage is that it allows for a hundred small spells or one big one, and any number of combinations in between
it is also a familiar concept that can be taught and learned very easily, and it is very easy to relate to other concepts (like hit points)

>>50886851
The method of measuring mana as countable points came from the Avalon Hill WWII wargame method of limiting the supply of units in ammo and fuel. The unit needed to spend a turn doing nothing but resupplying, without which it could not move and its ability to deal damage was almost nil.

The mechanic changes with RPG magic because the more powerful spells cost more points. So either you're casting your most powerful stuff every round anyway (in which case a simple Vancian tickbox would be enough), or the more powerful spells have very limited applications (forcing caster players to memorize all those limitations.) The second method could be fun for a creative player to discover spells, but I feel it gives the person building the encounters too much power, as he now knows specific capabilities of the caster and can tailor the encounters for or against the caster. The DM would have to be very careful to keep things fair to the caster in that case.

>>50886851
>Magic Point systems

There's lots of games which aren't Dnd that use manga, hell even Dungeons & Dragons does to a degree with monks, sorcerers psionic.

But look at white wolf games. Not that they're good but they went with Mana for pretty much everything.

>Mana pool
>Spells/Supernatural Abilities cost Character Level plus spell level
>Regen is either character level, half level or no regen per round depending on style of the game
>Optional rules for exhaustion when mana reaches zero

>>50886851
The less numbers the players have to keep track of the better. And constantly editing a dwindling value on top of not-dying points is a complete pain in the ass. More so than its worth most of the time.

I much prefer balancing spells and unique abilities as a per day/per rest/per encounter basis. Faster. Less of a hassle. And easier to manage since the only things the players need to remember is which spells they've blown during the session.

Copy anima's zeon and ki.

>>50886851
Tracking mana is a simple matter if you keep the overall mana values low.

Just get your change jar and give each player a number of pennies equal to their maximum mana.

Mana spent is slid out from their pile towards the middle of the table, mana regenerated is slid back in.

>>50896470
>I much prefer balancing spells and unique abilities as a per day/per rest/per encounter basis. Faster. Less of a hassle. And easier to manage since the only things the players need to remember is which spells they've blown during the session.

Why are several smaller numbers easier to manage than a single larger number?

>>50896596
I'm not sure what you mean by "several small numbers". Its basically just turning most spells into one-time-use cards. Aka you drop your burning balls of fire once and they're just gone until you rest or combat ends or whatever other conditions you put in place are met. No numbers involved, except "one".

>>50896584
I have glass pebbles for mana counters, games fun

>>50886851
The basic unit of magical energy is a mana point. Spellcasters have 'mana slots', upon which mana points can be placed.

Let's take an average well trained and experienced mage. This mage has two mana slots. Normally, they're charged with mana. He can spend them to cast a basic 1-mana spell like Force Bolt without breaking a sweat. He could spend them both to cast Fireball, a 2-mana spell, too!

But what if he wanted to cast Ray of Annihilation, the 3-mana spell? Well, he may have just two mana slots, but he can handle up to five mana points. He could spend a short amount of time (a round) to charge himself with one mana point, to cast a spell with or fill one of his slots. He could also hold that point (making a concentration roll), and concentrate again to cast something more powerful, like teleport. Magic circles, runes, and the like often help on concentrating on such spells. And that is important, because losing concentration on a spell is dangerous!

What if he wanted to cast something like Flight? You see, when you cast a spell, you shape mana into the desired effect, and throw it at someone. Then, it dissipates. If you want to create a sustained effect, you have to mantain the mana's shape.
Thus, you could grab some mana, shape it into whatever spell, and put it in one of your spell slots, thus "filling it" (and being unusable for other spells!) while this spell is active.
However, you might want to cast a more powerful sustained spell. If you don't have enough mana slots to sustain the spell, you will have to keep concentration on it every round.

Apprentice wizards often don't have any mana slots, and so they often fail at casting even the most basic of spells.

>>50896690
But you usually have the same spell memorized several times once you are out of the early levels.

>>50896969
Also: what happens if you really NEED power RIGHT NOW? You can use your body as mana slots, taking damage in exchange for mana and spells.

My homebrew has mana fully refresh after each round. The more mana you have, the more complex spells you can cast. You get to create your own spells, but you also only have a limited amount of known spells. During down time you can create new spells and add them into your spellbook, which both curbs casters taking extremely long turns trying to math out a spell during combat, and also ensures spells remain within budget. Casters who don't invest it the "physical damage" stat only get one action per turn, which calls for a nova type cast. If you do invest in both Magic and the "physical damage" stat, then you can spread out the mana between up to 5 actions for the same total cost as the single spell. This lends itself to more flexible casting that pairs well with augmenting your physical attacks with magical damage or utility (like adding grasping vines to an arrow).