Submitted by alderneyvamp on Sat, 2009-10-10 03:44.
I think that in a game of this type, it should always start bleak (I'm talking from a story point of view at the moment) the loss that has been suffered should be apparant in every location and every desperate community. What makes this fun is the actions of the PCs to liven the world, to make it less terrible. It comes when the players first get given the description of children laughing and people singing, because of their actions. The bleaker the beginning, the more rewarding those moments of joy.
Mechanics wise it is fitting for players to slowly lose what made them great, that they would only be a few steps behind the world they lived in. But telling players 'your only going to get worse' is very off putting for most. Perhaps there could be a system that as you lose your 'mystic traits' you gain mundane ones representative of the skills that were replaced my magic. As the wizard slowly forgets his magic (or has it leeched away from him or something) he figures out how to replace it, men have relied on wizards controlling the weather for hundreds of years, but before that we had irrigation systems that provided our grops with all the water they needed, brother I will show you how.
Of course the route you described, the everyday miracles, also absolves this problem somewhat. The players will have a finite resource with only some very specific ways of regaining it, they would more like look for adventure to refuel themselves. Perhaps there could be some sort of negative effect for those who manage to horde too much 'magic.' They become out of touch, the new generation become jealous wishing to steal his power 'eat the oni's heart to gain his strength' that sort of thing.
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Don't steal... The Government hates competition.
Struggling to find a way.
I think that in a game of this type, it should always start bleak (I'm talking from a story point of view at the moment) the loss that has been suffered should be apparant in every location and every desperate community. What makes this fun is the actions of the PCs to liven the world, to make it less terrible. It comes when the players first get given the description of children laughing and people singing, because of their actions. The bleaker the beginning, the more rewarding those moments of joy.
Mechanics wise it is fitting for players to slowly lose what made them great, that they would only be a few steps behind the world they lived in. But telling players 'your only going to get worse' is very off putting for most. Perhaps there could be a system that as you lose your 'mystic traits' you gain mundane ones representative of the skills that were replaced my magic. As the wizard slowly forgets his magic (or has it leeched away from him or something) he figures out how to replace it, men have relied on wizards controlling the weather for hundreds of years, but before that we had irrigation systems that provided our grops with all the water they needed, brother I will show you how.
Of course the route you described, the everyday miracles, also absolves this problem somewhat. The players will have a finite resource with only some very specific ways of regaining it, they would more like look for adventure to refuel themselves. Perhaps there could be some sort of negative effect for those who manage to horde too much 'magic.' They become out of touch, the new generation become jealous wishing to steal his power 'eat the oni's heart to gain his strength' that sort of thing.
____________________________________________________________
Don't steal... The Government hates competition.