Magic, Traits, And Other Stuff

I have a series of questions about how to better balance gameplay.
You obviously need to use a power point in order to cast spells. However, in my group most of my buddies roll with Mages that have 1 Might, so it's not feasible to have them attack someone in melee with their weak Staff of Magic, Not Melee Attacks +1. Is it then feasible to cast a simple damage spell with just a Wis + (Mage Trait)?
Should there be a range modifier on spells and ranged attacks? With the ability to move pretty much the whole map each turn, it kind of plays out oddly. I might have developed a way to do it better. We use our Agility stat x 2 = the number of squares that are traversable in one turn. It works the same for attacks: Agi or Wis x 2 for the range available to shoot something. Obviously this is a meta-rule, but it works for us, both in game balance and roleplay, since a Mage with a 1 Agi makes sense, because they forego conditioning to increase their magic power.
Last one, I promise. @_@ Could you give me a better definition between what qualifies as a "Major" trait versus a "Minor" one? Is the major for combat and minor for roleplay? Could they both be combat-oriented or should the minor be designated for being more of a talent, or penchant?

Thanks!
Matt

Hi, Matt. For combat, here's what I had in mind balance-wise.

- Mage attacks. You have to be careful about letting mages have extra leeway in combat, because they are already quite powerful in the flexibility they have with freeform spells. They could use Agility for a ranged attack, and flavor it as a magic missile if they want, but it'd be no different than if they had a crossbow. For a melee attack with a magic staff, I would stick to Might + Magic Staff. If they are min-maxing their Might to 1, they should accept that they will be weak in melee, unless they want to spend a Power point to do something crazy with it.

- Movement points & ranges. I would highly advise against this because it would immediately turn combat into an exercise in optimization. People will take time counting out squares, finding the perfect path, asking if this special square counts as extra movement, etc. It's best to just let combat flow and let the players do whatever cool thing they want now, instead of waiting until they are in range (which is boring and frustrating as a player).

You can always handle special cases as they come up. Everyone should be reasonable enough to know that you can't just run past opponents to wherever you want.

- Major vs Minor traits. Traits are freeform, so there isn't really a difference. The major trait was just a way to fit chargen into more of a class-like system that people are familiar with. I plan to revisit this soon, though, mainly because it doesn't translate as well to other genres. =)

Hope that helps.

It sure does, Frost. Thanks a million! Keep up the good work, I can't wait to see the new stuff you have for us! I'm spreadin the word, we need more people in here! lol

I agree. This site is freaking awesome. Thanks Frost!