Mana

I'd like to implement mana points in my OSR game, but I haven't seen any homebrews that uses it efficiently. In my setting, the source of arcane magic comes from the mindrays of a giant rainbow alien worm in the bowels of space rhat acts as the high conduit for other Elder Gods. Divine magic comes from the energy from the earth and is elemental based.

>>55297307
>magic power source
gross. I bet you also treat magic as a science.

>>55297454

I prefer Winds of Magic style magic where there's always a risk. Maybe combined with magic that calls on other beings for their power or making pacts and bargains, or if the magi is canny enough, able to trick and lie demons or otherworldly entities into doing what they wanted.

>>55297307
in my setting

Evocations come from within. I have intentionally kept it vague but casting evocation spells is very exhausting. Anyone can cast evocations with enough training and practice, but some are naturally better suited for it, and it takes a lifetime of dedicated study to be good enough at it for it to be useful. Evocations are usually simple things, like spitting fire, or accelerating the natural healing process. More powerful wizards with many decades of training have been known to use more complicated evocations.

Invocation comes from without. It is presumably just as draining, but it is draining someone or something else. it is basically asking some divine or extra-planar entity nicely to cast a spell on your behalf. Invocations are truly magical and can be anything, though how magical depends on the power of the individual asked.

Geomancy is also a thing but that's basically magic feng shui. The effects are always very subtle and skeptics wonder if it is really magic at all, or if there is some explanation to be found.

Astral magic draws power from the weirdo alien dimension, but in order to be able to do that a person has to first be abducted by the weirdo aliens, then be tortured a whole lot until they form some innate connection to the weirdo alien dimension, then escape. Astral sorcerers are almost always insane, and how they actually feel about their powers are all over the place. Astral sorcerers cannot use normal evocations - that link with themselves has been cut.

>>55297307
Mana is energy leaking in from an adjacent dimension. The supply is not limitless, there are ways to hedge it out (thus Anti-Magic fields) and it is possible, but not easy, to entirely deplete the available mana in an area. If this happens it can take years or longer to replenish itself. Magical power plants and such are built on what we call ley lines, natural areas of stronger mana emanations.

Overtaxing the available mana can result in dead magic zones (which eventually recover) and wild magic zones (ditto). Ley lines have an "flow" and it's not inconceivable that rival nations would compete over who got to use a ley line, with the "upstream" one naturally gobbling up all the magic it could and the "downstream" one possibly starting a war if they go too far. Magic water wars, essentially.

>>55297307
Everybody has minor, inherent magic they can use effortlessly. Altering that magic into more potent forms, or into spells with different effects, strains your excess magic reserves/mana points.

>>55297307
>'magic points'
What the fuck?

>>55297307
Never found a system I particuarly liked.

>>55298160
Some systems give spellcasters a certain number of levels of spells to cast without requiring memorization. Or they have a finite mana pool. Thus, magic points.

>>55297307
Magic doesn't affect the corporeal world, thus it can't be used to power anything. Magic is spiritual. subjective and finicky, thus it's impossible to prove its existence let alone differentiate someone who actually has abilities from someone who merely claims to have abilities. 'Magician' is synonymous with 'trickster' or 'liar', claiming to have magical abilities is like claiming to hear god.

>>55297307
At the start of the day you internalize a list of spells into your mind. This is what you got for the day.

>>55297307
I typically have mana as an entirely separate thing from the blue meter that lets you cast spells.
Mana, while retaining a strong association with magic, is influence, in the pacific island sense. Mana is what lets a 20th level fighter jump over a small castle in full plate to charge a tarrasque on the other side of it. Mana is what lets a 20th level bard convince a room full of people that he is in fact the moon, and the rightful owner of everyone's things. Differences in Mana is why a 20th level wizard can ask for a free, limitless portal to the elemental plane of fire, while a first level barely gets sparks. Mana is why an adventurer can go into a cave, kill the inhabitants, and leave able to take more swords to the face than when he left.
Mana is basically exp, except as an actual, measurable energy you can do other things with. Mana is, and can be used as energy, but has a closer tie to authority. With high mana, you are literally ordering the natural laws of the world to bend to your will. With low mana, you are often bossed around and dislocated by those with high mana, let alone the world. This is why kings and commoners have such vastly different authority, despite both ostensibly being untrained noncombatants who never killed anything worth noting in their lives.
Mana begets mana. Those with mana tend to be put in positions to obtain more of it. By exerting your mana too much, it begins to loose potency.

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My preference is magic energy is multidimensional, so certain traditions, styles and focuses are drawing energies from different planes. Casual reality is like looking at white like, while understanding the planes is like isolating a color on the spectrum.

There is external and external traditions, so forth and so on. but magic is powerful, and present, and once you can see through the prism, you can bring down the energy onto the lower planes.

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>>55297307
>mana literally means good magic, and tabu (from which the word taboo is derived) is bad magic

Why complicate things at all from there?

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>>55297454
Why the fuck not?