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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 9271675" data-attributes="member: 63">I'm working on a Bronze Age setting for a novel. A driving conceit of the setting is that a civilization is built on holy dictates, graven in stone, made by a series of high priests over the course of centuries. Imagine a cross of Hammurabi's Code and the Ten Commandments, only if a tablet decreed by the high priest says, "Within twelve cubits, speaking the word 'karaga' will conjure flame on the speaker's fingertip sufficient to light a candle," then, like, that works. There are lots of rules, restrictions, and caveats, and it ends up working a bit like a legal code, or computer code.You can gain magical powers if you are, like, 'ordained' in a particular role like 'cantor,' 'proclaimer,' 'purifier,' or 'paladin.' To do that you must fulfill certain parameters set down in these commandments, and there's a big political component to who gets ordained. There is a learning curve to actually make best use of those powers, but if, say, you are a cantor of the god of the desert, you can survive many days without water; you just get that ability.In addition to the official positions within the priestly hierarchy, there are, like, 'wizards' who are able to do magic by finding ways to tap into the divine laws - sometimes even subvert them a bit. And then there is more primal magic, which involves communing with beasts, calling upon wind and sea and fire, tapping into dreams, or making offerings to borrow the power of supernatural entities.I could just handle all this by reskinning D&D, but one of my reasons for wanting to run a campaign in the setting is to, like, have my players try to break the rules, find exploits and loopholes, and basically do a stress test on the setting, so that when I write the novel, I can sprinkle in little bits of lore. Like, "Oh yeah, if you're a priest of the god of weaving, you can't use your power to enweb someone if that person is wearing a green hat. Why? Well, firstly, your range is limited to 12 cubits because one of the early high priests was concerned about priests becoming too powerful, so he set that limit on most magic. Then 150 years ago the high priest walked into a spider-web and it annoyed him, so he wanted to make a decree that it wouldn't happen again. But there were a lot of rules set in place to keep the high priest from giving himself powers alone, so he had to make a broad rule. Now anyone wearing a green hat repels spider-webs if there is a priest within 12 cubits. Back then the word he used meant a specific shade of green dye that only he wore, but over time language drifted and now the word is interpreted to mean most shades of green."Anyway, what to do?</blockquote>

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