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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1536538" data-attributes="member: 812">There's some really good ideas both here and in the Plot Device thread.Magic in Barsoom is neither a plot device (that is, it IS bounded by consistent rules) nor a PC tool (that is, its use is not without consequences). Magic is a technology. A science, if you will, but one that affects the personality of those who study it.Barsoom magic works on two Skills: Spellcraft (which describes a character's ability to channel and focus sorcerous energy) and a new skill Grasp Shadow (which describes a character's ability to draw sorcerous energy from the Shadow Realm). You need both skills in order to be a powerful sorcerer -- but the higher your ranks in Grasp Shadow, the more danger there is of slipping in madness.Ideas stolen liberally from CoC, Dark Sun and Wheel of Time, of course.Barsoom is really ABOUT magic, in a sense. The entire campaign grew out my thinking about what magic means, what it implies for civilization. Magical power (I've been down this road before, and don't expect much agreement on this point) is different in its fundamental nature from all forms of power we observe in our world. There's nothing like it here. It's vastly different from the power possessed by a politician, or a military commander, or even a madman with a gun. It cannot be taken away from the possessor. It cannot be "balanced" in the way technological power can be (matching nuclear warheads with each other to ensure nobody attacks anyone, for example). It is inherently destabilizing.What sort of society would develop in a world where individual people can possess this kind of power? How would governments react? How would social structures evolve?Equally important, what sort of people would get really good at magic? Why would they explore it? How would they react to others learning about it?My thinking led me to the conclusion that ultimately, magic power favours paranoia in a way no familiar type of power does. The most paranoid will always win, eventually. And once they've won, the world becomes a very, very bad place, unless there exist some people who are willing to do very, very unpleasant things in order to put down the paranoiacs.And that's Barsoom. The people doing the really horrible stuff, the ones who murder innocents for no apparent reason, who put entire villages to death, who torture, maim and kill with impunity -- those are the good guys. Drives my players batty.</blockquote>

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