>Let's say, is overall not better than. It's not really about
>a longer list of flaws or strengths so much as whether the
>whole is better or not.

Okay, I should've phrased that better. I know it's not just about number of flaws but the overall flawedness.

>I'm not going to enumerate flaws in an absolute sense so much
>as discuss problems I see with this system vs. the existing
>system, or strong points of the existing system that it lacks.

I appreciate that you did this.

>1 and 2) It removes all interaction from the equation.

Well, in its most basic form, yes. And I agree that's a downside. It is hard to think of ways that don't rely on tedium but still introduce an interactive element. Personally, I find that the tedium element outweighs the interactivity element. Some of that is personal choice with roles, but I've always gotten kind of a blah feeling from wand-centered RP, despite being someone who until relatively recently played mostly for RP. Admittedly, there's a world of options out there, but overall my experience has been unrewarding. Anyway, that's just anecdotal and not systemic, neccesseraly.

I'll try to think of some ways to re-introduce interactivity to it.

>The current system has a second spot for interaction:
>3) Your system doesn't value exploration at all.

>
>From the sounds of things, you really don't so much as a
>player either. That's okay, but we're not working with the
>exact same set of priorities and it is a factor on my list.

I do value exploration. I've always enjoyed exploration, and I've gotten minor nods for reporting tons of typos with a couple different characters. Exploring is a lot of fun to me. However, the major caveat is exploring is a lot of fun once or twice. What I hate is running a while, sleeping for moves for a few minutes, running the rest of the way to an area, checking off some locations on my list, resting for another few minutes, then dashing off to check some more locations ad infinitum. Oh god I it's putting me to sleep just thinking about it.

I even think real exploration is a legitimate CF skill, though there is a significant portion that can be automated just as effectively, which means to me that it's not much of a skill. Maybe it's just me, but being a fastidious explorer is tedious. It's great fun to go to an area, look at everything run around discovering stuff. Making absolutely sure that I've typed "exa word" for every word in every bit of text in the area is just tiresome work that I'd rather have a program do for me (though I have not and will not be writing such a thing). And then you have to make sure that you really wrote everything down and keep it in a place you can get to and don't lose. Bleh.

To summarize, exploring is fun and can be a valid skill, but just farting around rechecking a list of locations is neither.

>4) Your system encourages/empowers more conservative play.
...
>The way this would play out seems pretty self-evident to me so
>I'm not going to dig into it, but if you don't see it or
>disagree I could.

Well, I don't see it. My assumption is that you won't be able to have a/b/s for every fight because of the timers on the wands. The theory is that you would adjust the timers on the wands such that the incidence of people having a/b/s is the same as it is now. That is, it takes a certain amount of time to get your wands now, and it should take that same amount of time between castings of your wand creation spell.

If anything, it should make people a little less conservative, because they know that if they die, at least they aren't losing the hour it took them to get the barrier, though just like in the current system, it might be another hour before they can get it (depending on the timers, obviously) again.

Overall, people should be getting *more* conservative with more protections, not less. Maybe it's just me, but half the reason I use protections on my mages is because it means I can be more aggressive. When you're a mage without protections you have to be excrutiatingly cautious and pick and choose your battles very carefully. To pick a current example, without wands I would never fight hunsobo with any mage. With wands I would at least give it a try (and still lose). Unless pimp gear, having a/b/s doesn't put you in a position where you are more powerful, but if you lose you're taking a big hit. An increase in a/b/s availability for the big fights should make people more willing to enter them.

Now granted, people *could* choose to only fight with a/b/s, but they can do that now, and most of the elite mages pretty much seem to choose that. I don't remember ever fighting say, enarn, or any of lightmage's characters when then didn't have wands. The only difference the mage-crafted system makes in this sense is that you know that if you wait long enough you will get your wands, so you can go sit in a corner if you really hate not having a/b/s that much. Again, I'm envisioning the mage-crafted system as an overall reduction in the ability to get 24/7 coverage, because it's an increase in the ease of getting it and the guaruntee of having it at least sometimes.

>5) Your system eliminates/minimalizes risk (and, for the most
>part, decisions and opportunities) around actually getting the
>wands.

That can be alleviated a number of ways. For example, you could just make it so you have to go find a high-level mage and pay them to help you craft a wand. If there are only a few of these NPCs then everybody knows where mages go to get wands and that creates the risk. That would increase the risk and allow for the stalking/assassinating. A system like that would have pretty much all the positive effects you listed, wouldn't it?

Also, that system encourages some exploration (finding the mages that you can pay, or maybe finding ones that don't charge as much gold for their services, etc) but doesn't require straight-up drudgery.

>6) Your system eliminates Veil-based decision making.
>Generally, getting the wand is the right choice here... but it
>is a tactical choice that you're eliminating.

I guess.... I can barely imagine anyone every making the choice to let the npc mob live instead of getting barrier. If you want this element, then perhaps the wand-creation ritual weakens the veil. I.e. you're pulling a piece of the essence of the veil into the wand (yes, that makes the veil the Theran plane's a/b/s)

>That's about all I have time for at the moment. Hopefully
>it's some food for thought.

It is, thank you.

>It's not really that simple, and CF not being a single-player
>game annoyance has to be considered in a more general sense.

That is a good point, though I think the npc-helper addition addresses that.