[Homebrew] Sword & Sorcery campaign

[K Peterson]

I'm in the planning stages of a Sword & Sorcery campaign that will use MRQ2 as the rules set. I'm quite confident that MRQ2 is going to do a great job reflecting the themes of the genre. The only stumbling block I have right now is deciding on how to incorporate magic.

Sorcery feels too scientific to me to use as-is. RQ Sorcery makes me think of subtle transmutation and manipulation - it doesn't make me think of grim sword & sorcery.

I don't want there to be "Common Magic" usable by everyone in the setting - although I do like the utility and the selection of Common Magic spells.

What I'm considering is using Divine Magic and have pacts applicable to gods, demons, or 'outer gods'. Maybe it can cover the bases from insane priests leading sacrificial rites, to solitary 'sorcerors' that have gained their spellcraft by making contracts with demons, or dark gods.

It'd be nice to incorporate some risk of taint or corruption for those that practice dark arts, but I don't want to make any drastic changes to the rules-as-written.

I'd welcome suggestions. Thanks.

 

[TrippyHippy]

It may be worth referencing the BRP book, which has a different take on Sorcery and centres a lot on summoning demons and the like.

There may be something similar in the upcoming Elric book, incidently too.

None of the magic systems in the RQ2 are compulsory to use, and you can bolt on pretty much any system you like into the core rules. Suit to fit.

 

[K Peterson]

Thanks for the suggestion. It's been about 6 months since I last looked at my copy of BRP.

 

[simonh]

For grim swords and sorcery, magic should have a steep personal cost to the magician. RQ doesn't do that because it wants to encourage magic use, but the rich magical toolkit in RQ is very well suited to this sort of adaptation.

As you say, Divine Magic is perhaps the easiest to darken up a bit. Pacts with gods in wholesome cultural religions can easily be substituted with demonic pacts with sinister entities that grant powerful magic, but demand hideous sacrifices or onerous services.

Another approach might be to link using magic with acquiring antisocial personality traits, but you'd need to adapt a traits system from somewhere, or come up with your own. Perhaps casting sorcery only works when using mind altering substances, or impose a penalty if such substances aren't used. See the Mentat's use of Sapho Juice in Dune (ok, Mentats aren’t magicians, but still...).

 

[Deleriad]

For grim swords and sorcery, magic should have a steep personal cost to the magician. RQ doesn't do that because it wants to encourage magic use, but the rich magical toolkit in RQ is very well suited to this sort of adaptation.

Gifts and compulsions are definitely the way to go with this. When it comes to divine magic, spells could require an additional sacrifice to regain as well.

Sorcery works well because you can define a small number of 'evil' books that man is not meant to read which function as grimoires. The grimoires themselves may allow the casting of magic but require constant sacrifices in order to maintain the link with the grimoire. You could also make sorcery more of an NPC activity by making it a requirement to have the grimoire present to cast a spell and measuring the casting time in minutes rather than CAs. To counter-balance this, sorcerers may be able to perform ritual sacrifices that allow them to suspend a spell in their psyche ready to be cast later.

Mostly then it's just a matter of re-skinning slightly and making most magical organisations into bad guys. After all the atmosphere is that magic is an insidious, corrupting force that acts as a short cut to power.

 

[simonh]

Sorcery works well because you can define a small number of 'evil' books that man is not meant to read which function as grimoires.

Good point, reminds me of how this works in Call of Cthulhu.

Simon Hibbs