Adding Magic to Occult Wild West

[themaxx]

I'm going to be starting a campaign set in the American West frontier with some mysticism and occult mixed in. The PCs will be a group of travelers, exact motivation still being determined by them.

I'd like to introduce some magic into this game, but with a degree of rarity and discomfort. What I'm looking for are things that a PC might need to do to be able to learn to channel the magical forces around them and take levels/feats in spellcasting.

Funky moral quandary stuff is great.

* A character needs to replace an eye with a stone to see the magic that is to be manipulated.
* A human heart/brain/spleen must be consumed, fresh
* A potentially dangerous pathogen must be contracted to open up the mind to magic

etc.

So what have you used or brainstormed up for low-magic environments to make magic special?

 

[Voadam]

You could possibly use d20 Call of Cthulhu magic. I understand the flavor is that it causes insanity to learn and use, which is manifested in ability damage and drain.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

You could possibly use d20 Call of Cthulhu magic. I understand the flavor is that it causes insanity to learn and use, which is manifested in ability damage and drain.

It is very low power, and has a sort of "black magic" leaning. Another possibility is the True20 magic system.

Do you have Deadlands? It's much more magical than you want, but it has tons of good stuff in it to steal.

 

[Karl Green]

Well Grim Tales has some cool ideas for low-magic setting. Basically your spellcasting can cause you CON points if untrained or casting spells above your 'ability' (so a 2nd level spellcast can try and cast a 2nd or 3rd level spell) or STR points if you have the Talent for spellcraft and it is within your ability.

Drain works like this... roll a number of 1d6 = to the Spell Level (so magic missiles roll 1d6, fireball roll 3d6), then minus the Key Attribute from each dice (so if your INT bonus +2, then minus 2 from each dice of drain you are rolling) BUT '1s' still cost you 1 point of Drain.

Maybe instead of the training, if the spellcast has these weird items in them they can cast spells that only cost STR drain. Maybe it could give them a bonus to their Drain resistance, etc. You could play around with a lot of this to get the level you want.


CoC d20 is pretty cool and weird also BUT costs you Sanity Points (a new Attribute based on your WIS)

 

[Stormborn]

Might I suggest my own Imperial Age: Magick which sets forth a very adaptable system for Victorian Era (which would include the wild west era) magicks based on d20 Modern. You will want to heavilly emphasize the Laws of Magick (Names, Contagion, Similarity, and Familiarity), perhaps to the point that it doesn't work at all with out employing one or more of them. I would recomend the Third Practice and the First Price with Option Three or Four and allow Magick Mastery Feats only as bonus character level feats not available at any other time, and perhaps add an in game prerequsite of contact with a suitable source of information such as a book or tutor. This sets up a faily low magic game in which those who can use magic can only do so in very specific ways (tied to the schools, but other options are possible) and never have access to higher level spells. What spells they can cast are going to cost them in ability drain (with option 3 it will be 1d6 per level, option 4 gives a scaling system, while option 1 is 1 point per spell level and 2 is 1d4 points per spell level), which means they aren't going to cast many spells except in desperate need.

To apply your examples above:

* A character needs to replace an eye with a stone to see the magic that is to be manipulated - This would require Magic Mastery 1 (Divination) and apply the laws of similarity and contagion, but in your case rather than giving bonuses they are required for spellcasting. The character has an eye patch that covers his hollowed out socket. To use any divination magicks he has to put a ritually prepared stone in his eye (causing him pain represented by the ability damage) and make the Divination skill check to cast Detect Magical Auras or other divination spells.
* A human heart/brain/spleen must be consumed, fresh: This is easilly an example of both contagion and similarity and might be used as material component in any number of spells.
* A potentially dangerous pathogen must be contracted to open up the mind to magic: Hmmm...will this is a little further afield. Although the laws would suggest that a person could deliberatly expose himself to something dangerous - say the blood of an powerful creature like a demon or a dragon or the flesh of a lich - and in exchange be mystically synchronized with it, sharing some of its power. Your metaexplination of a pathogen is fine, but given the setting the PC wouldn't think of it that way.

The system is fairly wide open and you can apply it in numerous ways. It basically up to you and the players to emphasize the flavor of the mechanics, but thats true in most systems.

My other suggestion is to not use d20, pick up Unknown Armies and go down a completly different road.

 

[themaxx]

This is all good stuff, thanks! Looks like I might be expanding my library a bit.

For system mechanics I'm leaning towards using Spycraft 2.0 and Spellbound OR going Dogs in the Vineyard. The group and I all use and enjoy Spycraft, so that seems the most likely candidate. I can add things like Sanity, extra magic feats, or other stuff on top if I want.

Mechanics I'm not as worried about. I'd love cool story ideas for how to get involved with magic and make it kinda 'icky' to the PCs. What are some tough decisions or sacrifices? I'd like magic to be rare and dubious, but present.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

You're talking Wild West boomtowns, rare magick, and some icky decisions?

1. Sacrifice the Indian village to stop the Wendigo from emerging.
2. A fast train isn't run on coal - it's powered by blood and magic - small children keep disappearing at towns on its route.
3. Really good magic means you need to eat a small part of your own body. The PCs show up to supper and find a coven sitting down to Self Stew.
4. Gunpowder is made from rare elements found in corpses. (I used this in a fantasy game. Caused some nasty debates among PCs about firing pistols.)
5. Magic causes side effects in normal people within a big radius. The PCs come across isolated towns with weirdly altered people. There's a shaman or wizard in their midst, but he or she is hard to find. (I'm thinking a bit of the X-Files episode with all the circus freaks, etc.)

Actually, X-Files is a pretty good model for this.

 

[00Machado]

What about the magic systems from Black Company or Conan?

d20 Past has some stuff you could rip off and build flavor around for their pulp era sorceror archetype.

 

[joeandsteve]

There are histories of some American Indian Tribes using halucinagens in religious ceremonies to give visions or religious experiences (Peyote was used IIRC). So the PCs could have to use some possibly addictive or harmful drug in order to 'experience' the magic world. Hope that helps.

 

[Unkabear]

There is the magic system in Midnight. You get 2+(casting stat) spell points when you take the Magecraft feat. Then if you take levels in Channeler you gain more spell points, one per level of caster class. Then when you burn through those you burn CON to cast spells. Each spell costs one spell point per level of the spell to cast. Keeps the game fairly low magic but allows for your players to use it when they want.