RolePlayGateway said:
Yeah, I think the major thing with adding magic is balance, and adding a “disaster” point is definitely one of the best ways to go. Maybe you should consider a “roll to fail” for every cast?

That would depend on underlying a system a bit, but it’d be interestingly alright. I’d think it’d be cool, at least, to have a “roll for something weird to happen”, if you roll really well or really bad.

Yeah, I think the major thing with adding magic is balance, and adding a “disaster” point is definitely one of the best ways to go. Maybe you should consider a “roll to fail” for every cast?

Sares said:On the other end of this spectrum, I’ve always been fond of the idea of magic-as-mundane, that in a society with magic it becomes a normal functional part of life.

That can be great fantasy setting alright. But to me, that makes magic just another sort of “amazing technology”. Great fun and can bring up some interesting questions.

But not what I like to think of as “magic”. Magic in myth and fiction is mysterious and strange and that’s the allure of it, what makes it interesting to write about or use in an RPG. It breaks the mundane view of the world. I find like playing magic-users in games like Mage or Ars Magica but in most other settings that mix magic-users and other character types, the magic system comes off as overly complex and, basically, mechanical. i.e. “We need a magic-user class so lets keep magic within the same constraints as the rest of the setting,” but when it should really be about breaking the perceptions of the characters within the setting.

Of course, there is no right or wrong here, so we can all have our own opinion about it.

Could work well, but if does depend very much on the setting / campaign.

On the other end of this spectrum, I’ve always been fond of the idea of magic-as-mundane, that in a society with magic it becomes a normal functional part of life.