Question about setting/running my first Legend game.

[General Buttnaked]

First of all, sorry for the length of this post. Thanks to all who read it, let alone reply.

I plan on introducing Legend to my gaming group. We rotate between three gm's (out of 6 people) and I've been reluctant to do so up until this point. I've been thinking of a setting and a story for quite a while and recently found Legend and thought it would fit with what I had in mind. I haven't told my group yet, but that's neither hear nor there.

In any case, some background is in order. Recently I've been totally blown away by 4 sets of books which I can see influence my setting. The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie, The Malazan Book of the Fallen Series, the Lies of Locke Lamora Series, and the Name of the Wind Series.

While I'm not asking specifically where and what should be contained in my setting (although it's welcome), I have an issue which I do not know how to introduce... I plan on a low magic setting at first but over time it becomes apparent that stronger magic is becoming more available. This would be incremental over time. I would outline for my groupmates that magic is extremely rare and pretty damn weak at inception. The issue is I want them to have the option over time, at a later date, to be able to pick up a little magic if they want, to keep up with the Jones' as magic becomes more known and powerful to those that truly apply themselves. How do I introduce this? Obviously I'm not wishing all of them to become fighter-mages, but perhaps one or two of them devote themselves to the pursuit of arcania.

My basic setting is this...

A nation is suffering through a civil war between the royalists/royal army and the powerful merchants guild with the aid of mercenaries. The ruling king & queen have been killed and the nation is in turmoil. The infant prince has gone missing. Two powerful merchants are vying for control over the kingdom, it is one of these merchants who hire the party to retrieve the missing prince. A house guard and a northern emissary(ie Legend:Viking) have taken the prince into hiding at the behest of the king and queen, who was half viking herself. They are posing as goat herders on the eastern borders in the forest which after a few trials and tribulations I expect the adventurers to find them. Whether they find them and what they do when they find them is not up to me.

The house guard, who is female is a great swordsman. The northern emissary, while hulking and formidable looking, is actually a Rune Carver and most likely the first introduction to magic the adventurers come across. They have 100 goats with them which drown out the cries of the infant and provide milk for the infant also. Over time this also leads to the Goat King folklore that becomes prevalent although many think it is in reference to a large goat headed being which does I don't know what at this point.

Any ideas? Questions? Comments? Call me an idiot?

 

[rust]

How do I introduce this? Obviously I'm not wishing all of them to become fighter-mages, but perhaps one or two of them devote themselves to the pursuit of arcania.

Provided that I did not misunderstand that, it should be no problem
to make only the less powerful Common Magic spells available at the
beginning of the campaign, and then later on to introduce the option
to learn Sorcery from one of the setting's rare sorcerers ?

 

[alex_greene]

First, NPCs. Draw up a good chunk of them; you'll need them.

Second, magic can come slowly to the world not as spells suddenly becoming available, but in subtler ways. Characters have dreams which start coming true; an accidental gesture becomes a trigger for an Ignite spell; characters start getting flashes like the readouts of Detect X spells that they would know if they knew Common Magic, and everyone who wants to know magic gets blinding headaches on a semi-regular basis as their powers begin to manifest.

Then the first of your Adventurers manifests some Common Magic effect during a moment of great stress. Maybe he has to sneak past someone and he manifests Bandit's Cloak; perhaps he inflicts Befuddle on someone whom he yells at to "get lost!" or some such.

At that point, the world becomes aware that magic has returned to the world, and then some. And then you can have characters dig up the old books and start trying to learn Sorcery, too.

 

[General Buttnaked]

Thanks, that's an interesting way on introducing it slowly.

 

[DamonJynx]

I like the setting concept - very Belgariad as well.