Manacite

I been wanting to give out little teaser portions of my Clashlands game setting that I am developing the DDRPS for, and this is going to be the first of those little teasers. To save on explaining how the details of my magic system, I'll just give a brief summary in explaining this game element. I have noted before that I have never liked the Vancian style of magic. Fact is, I much prefer a Niven flavor of magic, such as in Larry Niven Magic goes away series. In it, magic doesn't work for nothing, but actually consumes a type of mystical energy known as mana (or manna as it is spelled in the latest of Niven's series), that is usually ambient in the environment. In my setting it is also available from an internal source, or various ways of channeling and storing it, but there is still a minimal amount of ambient mana required for a magical effect to actually manifest. In a Mana dead zone, magic simply will not work at all.

In my system there won't really be spell levels, but rather a combination of minimum mana level to manifest it and the total amount of mana points it takes to activate a type of magical effect. Once started, there may be a steady drain to maintain an effect as well. In addition, most magic items will be powered by mana, some directly by tapping it from their wearers and others from mana storage devices.

In the Clashlands setting, the most common sort of mana storage device is going to be Manacite shards. Manacite is made alchemically by mixing various chemicals with ground crystals and salts and then simmering it in large vats to grow manacite crystals which are not charged when created, but can be charged once grown. They are very uniform in shape, size and storage capacity and have a full charge life expectancy of about 1 earth year. After about 10 years without use they would drain completely. As long as they aren't actually used, they are rechargible. It is my vision that there will be combat mages marching around with bandoliers of charged manacite crystals to power manacite powered magic items and their quick spells. When a Manacite crystal is tapped, it burns out, and dumps enough mana to power the equivalent of about a 3rd or 4th level standard D&D spell or effect. Any mana not used is wasted and discharged into the local ambient mana flow, with negligible effect on the local ambient mana strength, and the crystal burns out at which point it can't be recharged but can be used for other useful purposes in a recycled fashion.

A charged crystal of manacite would weigh about an ounce, and would put out a steady blue glow with a luminessence equivalent to a typical blue LED. In the Clashlands setting, a brightly glowing one is usually accepted in barter at a straight trade rate when insufficient coin isn't available, because they are usually very easy to resell if not useful to the merchant accepting them.