Vincent is dead on about the Solomon Kane magic. Things like sacrifices can also be used to lesson casting modifiers. Things are definately much more sinister. I was lucky enough to pick up the limited SK pack at GenCon and I can tell you, it's one mammoth book!
They managed to get everything right in that one. And I was most pleased to see that there's an adventure dealing with the Roanoke colony in it (among many, many others). That and the Righteous Fury mechanic simulates the fury that comes over Kane and Conan when it seems like that couldn't fight much more, much less stand. Good stuff.
That's another reason I'm leaning so heavily toward SW... SK was so well done and fits so well, I think Conan would as well. I know there's already a brief conversion at www.savageheroes.com but I figure I'll do my own and try to make it as complete as possible.
As to the question of Magic in SW, it's very broad and easily added to. I converted the majority of the spells in the D&D player's handbook with no problem at all. It all comes down to Trappings, as mentioned by another poster. Basically, a magic missle, lightning bolt and what-have-you are all the same thing: a missle-like spell that deals damage from a distance. So to cover that broad range, SW has Bolt. You decide how powerful to make it by how many Power Points you want to put into it (or it could be limited to the spell itself, the Fantasy Toolkits are great for helping to understand how to make new spells and tweak existing ones) and you decide when you make your character, how the spell looks and acts. Is it a lightning bolt or a swarm of bees? Is Blast a Cone of Cold or a wave of broken glass? Is Barrier a wall of bone of one of fire that does damage if touched... Pretty much any spell you can think of can be covered by the basic spells in the SW book. And like I said, you'll find ideas for ways of tweaking things from the Fantasy Toolkits if you want. I made use of them when I converted my D&D game.
Whew! :wink: I'll go back to training now.
