themaxx said:
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.
Well, here are some ideas for somewhat conflicted western mages, some of whom have more or less 'icky' costs but all of whom have to make tough decisions:
- Gambler mage makes a deal with the Queen of Spades, whom he sees in a vision. She will make sure he "wins" in life -cards, women, eternal youth and anything else he wants. All she asks in return is that he collect the souls of his opponents. Every so often he plays in a high stakes game in which the last hand comes down to a special bet in which he offers to allow someone to bet his sould to stay in the game. That person always loses and dies in the night. The next morning the loser's image appears on a special deck of cards that the Gambler never plays with but serves as a focus in spell casting. He is guided to his victims in dreams by the Queen of Spades, or the Black Queen as he calls her. He keeps asking what happens when the deck is full, but she refuses to answer. Should the Gambler somehow lose the Queen takes a year of his life - a horrible prospect for the vain gambler.
- A former cavalry soldier controls the dead, but only after he has ritually killed them and eaten their hearts. He has spell books of skin and magic totems made of human bones. He has a small troop of undead indian warriors at his command, but is haunted by their souls.
-A small, clerkish looking watchmaker builds clockworks with magical powers. He fuels them with pieces of his memories, or ones he can trick people into giving up willingly - the more important to the person's identy the more powerful magic he can create. He no longer remembers his own name nor where he is from. Most disturbing is his inability to remember the name of the woman and child whose picture he keeps in his watch - all he knows is that he loves them and cannot bear to part with the picture. He has come West to "make memories", but more likely to try and find a way to get some back.
-A Chinese man -actually a member of a long forgotten Polynesian tribe - who came to work on the railroad carves ancient runes into his skin and engages in other acts of self mutilation. This gives him the ability to empower his own flesh and physical abilities, or to warp the bodies of others.
- A transient can take on the identy of anyone for a while, provided he kills them, skins them, and wears their skin. He has been a wolf, a horse, a whore, a gunfighter, a farmer, a preacher, a buffalo, and an indian scout - he is no longer sure who, or what, he is.
-A preacher has access to great magical powers through a demon he has bound to himself with enochian tattoos. However, he occasionally has to feed the demon with sin, either his own or someone elses, to retain its power. This ususally results in him leaving town when his excesses are discovered. But he is determined to force the demon to do more than enough good to out weight the sin he must commit in its name.
Dont make it a single all encompassing source of magic. Let each person find his or her own way to power, that way each person suffers in a very private sort of hell. One that no one else can fully understand.
