kenurion
I've always run "magic-rare" campaigns. I guess it's because magic-rare is more intuitive to me since I happen to live in a magic-free world. I was wondering if anyone who enjoys running "magic-rich" campaigns would be willing to share thoughts on DM strategies. Thanks!
Comments
Consequences refers to the effects of magic use on the caster, on their allies, and on the world around them. In Dark Sun, whenever a Defiler casts a magic spell, something, somewhere, gives up its life energy to provide the caster his or her spell-casting mana. There are also Preservers who give up a portion of their own life force in order to cast magic instead. In that world, there are no gods, and thus, no divine healing magic.
In my world, there is a mathematical form of magic called Runometry. It is essentially like a character within a video game hacking the code of the game and changing the rules of his or her own reality. A person draws floating runes in a complex equation that represents something "real". This can be anything from a simple equation for how big apples can grow to a more complex one which represents, say, whether a particular race of creatures has eyes. Change one symbol, and you change the code. Suddenly, apples are the size of peas, or buildings, or they are square, or they are sentient, soul-bearing creatures with hopes and dreams. Suddenly, an entire race goes blind, or can see in all directions at once, or they all explode, or they disappear from the world from across all times, as if they never existed, and nobody but the Runometrist would remember them at all.
Obviously, this is far too much power, and the consequences of such power can be disastrous (to say the very least). So, in my world, though the science of Runometry exists, its study is forbidden and anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of it is hunted down and killed by a clandestine group called the Luminati. Ironically, it was a Luminaire who discovered Runometry to begin with. The discovery drove him absolutely mad, as he created an equation that allowed him to see everything. I mean everything. He is looking at you, right now, and forever.
Well, I'm not sure if any of this qualifies as "strategies" per se. But I hope it wasn't too big a waste of your time. If it was, you can just use Runometry to prevent me from ever being born, thus robbing the world of the concept of Runometry and making the very act you just committed impossible...
My brain hurts. Magic is fun. Use it more!