Fading Magic

[Haltherrion]

Have you ever run a campaign where magic was somehow weakened? How did you implement that in game terms?

My co-ref and I have a setting where a cataclysm centuries ago "sundered" magic. It had the effect of dispelling most magic extent at the time which is simple enough to handle. Our initial thoughts were that it also weakened the ties of magic such that spells/powers were not affected but permanent magic items had a chance of failing.

We play-tested a system that allowed for failing magic items (permanently or temporarily). The determination of the failure seemed to work smoothly enough but having items come and go (or die) proved to be rather messy in terms of pulling the mods out of your abilities. Plus while the players were troopers, it clearly was a major irritant.

So our current thoughts are to just have magic failure (in a simplified form) apply only to items crafted from before the Cataclysm which generally means +3 and higher stuff (we are starting level 1 so this is reasonably far down the road). Failing items can be repaired to a point.

Anyone try other ways? I'm looking for ways to bring home the fragile nature of magic without affecting class balance, taking a lot of game time or being a significant irritant to the players. We don't intend to have a lot of the higher level magic in the span of this campaign (which will probably run to level 6-7).

As a side effect, having the really powerful stuff be fragile means the players will use it sparringly which actually allows us to introduce it a little earlier into the campaign.

 

[Nifft]

Forgotten Realms has had many such magic-weakening events.

Dark Sun screams this trope.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Herobizkit]

I would suggest requiring PCs to make caster checks versus "the world's" magic DC in order to activate their spells and items. Perhaps, should their inital attempt fail, they do not lose their spell but get a +2 bonus for every round they try the same spell again to defeat the DC.

I was also going to suggest limiting the PC's to 3rd level spells or lower, but that shouldn't matter if they are going to peak at 6-7th level.

You may want to consider browsing the site for the E6 homebrew rules. In short, PC's stop advancing once they reach level 6 but continue to earn feats for every 5k xp they earn.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

Masque of the red death and Call of Cthulu d20 do this nicely.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Yes. I based an entire Rolemaster campaign world on it.

In RM it was easy to represent. I simply made the available power points to players limited as a percentage of "standard", based upon the locale.

In towns, cities, along rivers, oceans and near irrigated lands, the available power to work magic was vastly decreased, to about 10% normal with a max of very low level spells being cast in those areas at all.

Magic, however, was still workable in "the wilds" and rose to standard magic or even higher than standard magic while underground in some old locales.

My reasoning had to do with particle fallout from a huge explosion a thousand years back which interfered with magic. Think "Nuclear Winter" or Iridium dust falling all over the world after the meteor that killed the Dinosaurs. The effect was the same as your "sundering" effect. But over time, the fallout dust washed off the lands and worked its way to the rivers and oceans. The faded magic began to return in some places -- and the fading got worse wherever people gathered to live in numbers.

Why? Put simply, the "anti-magic dust" was literally in the water, and in particular, the river beds and soil of lands that were subject to seasonal flooding or irrigation. As virtually all settlements were near water (or irrigated farm lands) it made civilized areas extremely magic poor, while the wilds and ancient dungeons were relatively magic rich.

This is easy to do in a pure magic point system. In terms of encounter powers and spells per day in D&D, you just reduce it similarly as you feel necessary.

No spell higher than 2, say, in a town, no spell higher than 1 in a city near a river, etc.. Large coastal cities near estuaries have NO MAGIC available within their locale whatsoever. Inherently magical races cannot long survive in "civilized" areas and become violently ill and listless. If they remain there too long, they will die. Their races are contained to the wilds or, usually, need to live below ground in "magic node" areas or on mountains in the wilds. (Think "ley lines" in Birthright terms, if you are familiar with the 2nd Ed setting.)

Essentially, wherever people need to farm to get their food, that's a place where there is going to be concentrations of anti-magic dust. The range of this effect is as big radiating outwards (or as small) as you need to make it. I recommend not making the effect very predictable. Parties that cannot rely upon their magic at all times start to get clever in their approach to some problems. (Note: spell users always know what the realtive "power" level is when they are in it. It's not a tactical surprise in that sense, it simple makes prediction of the power level of an unknown area... unknown.)

Note: the explanation does not mean that the inhabitants have really worked out that it has something to do with the water and soil. They believe it has to do with "civilization" or religion, what have you. Alternative explanations tracked closely (or perfectly) with the "real" cause, so it was easily explained away in game, without the "truth" being known. (Discovering "the truth" was part of the metaplot of the campaign.)

The beauty of the "faded magic" mechanic is that it restores the medieval nature of the game world by removing magic as a reliable strategic military asset, while still making it available to most adventuring locales. Yes, you can have the magic fade and render magic items inoperable (or greatly reduced) as well in civilized areas. This effect can be permanent or temporary, as you see fit.

So yes, my campaign world still had castles, did not have magical flight or fireballs to contend with during a siege or on the battlefield, etc.. and it all made rational sense (well, verismilitude at least). In this game world, the effect of the fallout was that it prevented any form of long range teleport from being used too. (I usually HATE the implications of magical teleportation but like to leave myself an "out" for very occasional PC and NPC use). I LOVED this aspect of the "faded magic" effect. It made the world "realistically medieval", while still allowing for magic to operate in locations where the adventures were set. You can have your cake and eat it, too.

Where you need to, you can even INCREASE the power available to your players in magic rich areas.

This allows you to give the players extra power in a location based adventure without having to worry about its long term effects on your campaign.

I highly recommend playing with something like this sort of system in your campaign world. Because it has such a profound effect on the game world, it's not something you can just plug into a pre-existing published game world. But for a home brewed campaign - it remains my best home brewed theme + mechanic I've ever run in 32 years of gaming. YMMV.

 

[Haltherrion]

I highly recommend playing with something like this sort of system in your campaign world. Because it has such a profound effect on the game world, it's not something you can just plug into a pre-existing published game world. But for a home brewed campaign - it remains my best home brewed theme + mechanic I've ever run in 32 years of gaming. YMMV.

Thanks Robert- not looking for something as significant for this setting although it sounds intriguing. I don't want to clip spells too much at this point as I want to keep the class balance essentially the same- its partly why we are just picking on magic items.

In our first view, there was an ongoing effect that only showed on items. In our current view, there was a single event that destroyed or weakened effects active at the time of the event. Anyway, lots of ways to cut it just curious to see how others have managed it.

 

[Haltherrion]

Forgotten Realms has had many such magic-weakening events.

How about a quick run down on FR? I've always been a home-brewed campaign ref; never bought the other settings and not going to start now

Dark Sun screams this trope.

<Shudder> A friend ran a Dark Sun game once... it wasn't my thing

 

[Leatherhead]

Does it count if magic has just been introduced to the world and people don't really know how to use it?

 

[Haltherrion]

Does it count if magic has just been introduced to the world and people don't really know how to use it?

Probably not for my setting but an interesting way to do it in general. Feel free to share

I'll have to confess, the magic sundering is more my co-ref's idea than my own. I'm a little leery about messing with it for balance reasons, especially since we are new to 4E. I think our present system (where the higher level magic items are all from pre-Cataclysm and can wear out) is reasonably benign and still gets some of the flavor of suspect magic without too much risk of imbalance.

But whether or not I can use it for this setting, I'm still curious to hear your experiences on it.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Thanks Robert- not looking for something as significant for this setting although it sounds intriguing. I don't want to clip spells too much at this point as I want to keep the class balance essentially the same- its partly why we are just picking on magic items.

Well, it doesn't "clip spells" in the wilds or old ruins and ancient areas. In those areas, it's works per standard (or maybe better than standard in some areas). Class balance isn't affected there. In the campaign I ran with this mechanic, it didn't effect the play balance of the characters much during game sessions. Indeed, it ended up as a Lord level (20th+) Rolemaster campaign by the end. If you never played RM2 - that's close to 15th-16th level D&D in terms of power level. Bordering on four colour super hero stuff.

The mechanic just nerfs spells and items in "civilized" areas. "High Fantasy" still exists - but it is mostly dismissed as myth by some and as wild exagerrations by most. It's a neat mechanic to justify such a dismissal in the minds of most. More importantly, it gets rid of teleportation, magical flight, instantaneous magical communications within a kingdom or empire, and of course, wipes out the "buying and selling" of most magical items in a local marketplace. The monsters don't invade civilized areas, etc.. (it makes them sick to go there, etc..)

If you want some "civilized" areas in your game world where those High Fantasy aspects survive, you justify with different geography.

It's mostly a "look and feel" nerf rather than one that effects gameplay during an active adventure.