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The riddle of sorceror?

Started by Brian Leybourne, January 06, 2003, 10:15:27 PM

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rikiwarren

I'd also been thinking of porting Sorcery magic into TROS.

One thing that is often talked about in Fantasy Writing workshops is that magic should have a cost.  It should be more than just a special effect, but something that contributes to the story/atmosphere/theme/etc.

Unfortunatly, the idea of magic having a cost is largely ignored by most RPGs (except possibly the really watered-down cost of having to spend time studying--which doesn't really contribute to the story).

Both TROS and Sorcery do a good job of introducing the idea of magic having a cost. However, the humanity issues in Sorcery are much more interesting to me than the ageing of TROS.

Yes, aging is bad for your character. But the slow bleeding away of a character's humanity gets to the heart of the type of stories I want to tell. I like stories that explore the nature of good and evil. That force the players to make hard decisions, and to make sacrifices.

And a humanity-loss mechanics could probably mix quite elegantly with the SAs.

Besides, I've been in love with demon-based magic mechanics ever since I read one of the original editions of Stormbringer (the game, not the book--though I loved that as well), oh far to many years ago.

-Rich-

p.s. I would be interested in seeing the Ars-style magic as well, since I've always loved that game. But I'm not sure it would add much over the existing TROS magic system.
Check out my essays on the intersection of writing and gaming at http://overstuffed-dicebag.blogspot.com/.