Forum > World of Aernth/Channel Cities
No Quarter Under the Crown
Cory Magel:
It's akin to the setting I will use most time in terms of quality items and magic. Technically "magic" as a whole is somewhat common (as high as 20%), but not really seen as magic due to it's very limited nature/scope for most those with any ability. Semi and Pure spell casters however make up a fairly small percentage of that 20%, so it ends up being around 1% of the population - and much of that is made up of Channeling Users (Priests, Paladins, etc). I don't want magic items to be common, but the group will obviously eventually obtain them over the course of their adventures. I also have heavy armor setup to be somewhat rare. Essentially, Chain Mail is what a somewhat veteran adventurer would likely have and normally only Military Heavy Cavalry, Knights, and Paladins would have full plate armor. You can get it, if you can afford it, but you are going to be mistaken for one of those three forms of 'fighter'.
So... my rambling point... I agree with Ironmaul, I think the market has room for a lower magic form of setting.
ironmaul:
I've been watching the TV series "Conquest" by Peter Woodward about the history of weapons and armour of various cultures and time periods. He has a great deal of info on swords their types and the pros and cons of them, quite interesting. Although the over the top commentary and shouting get's a bit old after awhile, definitely worth checking out though. It was mentioned that it was outlawed to own or carry a sword except knights and nobles, something I thought interesting to have in a game world. What if the adventurers discovered a magical/enchanted sword but the laws prohibited the use of it because of there low status? Makes for an interesting adventure in itself.
On a side note you just have to look at Game of Thrones. It has low abundant magic in it's setting and look how popular it is with people that normally isn't into fantasy type genres. It's not the magic that makes it a successful setting but the culture the diversity of it all. The small bit of magic use we see in it is just enough to keep everyone guessing and intrigued.
So anyone that wants to create a low magic setting will have me cheering at the side lines screaming go go go!. 8)
Wolfhound:
Yup, love Game of Thrones. Very little magic, but it is there (although it is portrait almost as if magic had nearly disappeared from the world or was largely lost and is just now starting to re-appear).
In other ways kind of reminiscent of Tolkien's Middle Earth, where it is present but not very common, and in some cases tends to be feared or distrusted (that is something that I've toyed with in this setting, but only with a few of the cultures within the setting).
Cory Magel:
Yeah, I mentioned elsewhere the way people look at magic in my setting depends largely on the population density rather than if they are within a certain kingdom or culture. Essentially how "backwoods" they are.
For example, if you tossed a Firebolt on a busy street in a large city you'd be a spectacle, but the worst that might happen is you get tossed in jail for a night (assuming you didn't hurt someone innocent or cause damage and didn't resist the city guard). But if you did the same thing in a small village odds are you'd either clear it out due to people fleeing in terror or have the locals attempt to lynch you (although they'd probably try to drown you rather than burn you since you obviously have the power of fire on your side).
There are also Church Knights (of the more zealous churches) that would potentially hunt you down and kill you if they could get away with it since you're obviously in league with demons, devils, evil gods, whatever...
markc:
And the best thing is that in RM you can go off the road so to speak or out of the box and select and restrict spell lists for specific professions.
Think of the paladin who had super strong detect/dispel/find magic lists but no showy spell lists, or the elementalist who had to learn way off in the woods to prevent being caught. ect the game world almost writes itself. Also the other fact is that over time a person or population will grow accustom to what you are trying to do and relax or revolt to go back to the old (somewhat modified) way.
ie a vigilante crusade against essence users not branded by the crown, at the beginning everyone may be on the look out but over time as they do not see the "boogie' essence users they let their guard down and maybe even not spend so many PP searching everyone who comes in as they would have before. The underground movement of people is also good for the "night trades" so to speak as well.
Well back to cradling my injured wing.
MDC
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