There are several different ways we could go with our magic system. I’m going to outline each option and illustrate each with a single sample character, so you can se the differences between each approach. I should say right off that I think each method has some attractive elements, but I don’t feel any system is perfect. I’m very eager for your thoughts and, especially, questions, which could lead us to discoveries not immediately apparent.
One thing, however, is fairly sure: we won’t be using the standard Core Ability for Adepts given in True20, “The Talent.” The Talent allows any Adept to, for the cost of a point of Conviction, cast a level-appropriate version of any spell. This is great for some games, and in a tabletop it is a godsend for the adept, who can be fairly relied upon to deliver any magic required for the story. And it makes a lot of sense for settings like Harry Potter, where wizards are trained in a wide diversity of effects, any of which they can try at low level.
But both the literature and the real world occultism of our period does not fit that pattern. The literature presents occultists (when it presents them at all, more on this later) as each capable of some pretty astounding things, but an individual always has a set arsenal of powers and doesn’t manifest the sort of spontaneous magic the Talent would allow. Likewise, real-world occultism such as that practiced by the Golden Dawn or other Rosicrucian groups focuses on the rigorous learning of particular rituals, and not free-form spontaneous magic. Finally, with a large player base, there is a meta-need for niche protection. Eliminating the Talent means that individual magicians will not all be casting the same spells, preserving unique PC specialties.
There are some options on replacing the Talent; I’m not going to try to answer that question right now. Just ignore the Adept Core Ability in all these systems for now; presume that whatever it is, it makes PCs who take their first level in Adept much better magicians than those who don’t.
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2 comments:
So, having read the three character walkthroughs, I am inclined towards one of the 'Arcanist' versions for our magic. The ritualism feel and specialization is quite important, I think, to atmosphere.
The True Sorcery method seems a bit work-intensive from the system standpoint, though my experience with somewhat similar enterprises suggests that it would get easier to work through quickly as one learns. I already expressed some downtime concerns about prepared rituals.
The Companion-Horror magic version is nice in some ways, though I am not sure that the starting power levels are high enough for PCs to feel themselves to be effective. Having more skill points to be more well-rounded as people is a good tradeoff, especially for flavor.
Of course, I'd like to include some kind of a psychic role that may be closer to the vanilla-adept, minus The Talent core. I am not sure how best to represent that--perhaps they can spend conviction to automatically pass a fatigue check with their powers, and can only choose X number of powers, such as level+1 or even just 1? I need to read the powers more closely to think about that.
BY said, "I'd like to include some kind of a psychic role that may be closer to the vanilla-adept..."
Actually, that is very much what I also have in mind. We will use the "Spiritualist" role from the Companion for this: characters will choose powers from a short list of psychic abilities, but progress in power at the rate of a full adept. In exchange for a smaller list of powers to choose from, they get 6 skill ranks per level instead of 4.
This will exist in parallel to whatever method we use for magic.
She also said, "Companion-Horror magic version is nice in some ways, though I am not sure that the starting power levels are high enough for PCs to feel themselves to be effective."
I worry about the same thing. Not only that, I am not sure that lowering PC power ranks really addresses any of our actual concerns with magic. Magic is still quick and easy to perform, it just fails more often. I suspect most players would happily trade this for a system in which magic was slow and hard, but succeeded more often.
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