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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 9256032" data-attributes="member: 6915329">You may not be pre-judging, but you might be missing out on something that could enhance your game by creating interesting plot hooks.I disagree. You create a world with no magic. Assuming it's an otherwise fantastical world (e.g., not the real world or a harder SF setting), why no magic? Because you didn't think about it? Because you don't want magic being an easy out? Because you don't want mages to outshine martials? Because you wanted to play in this one system that doesn't have rules for magic? I might have missed it, but I don't think I've seen anyone here address the reasons behind that limitation. If you know why you don't want magic in the game, then you can work with the player to find out why they want to play the last mage.Two things here that would need to be addressed: first, do the game's rules even allow for an Atlantean mage or a dragon PC? I took a quick look at a product page for the Pendragon Campaign (I've never played the game or read the books) and it apparently has rules for magic, and assuming that PCs are allowed to use that magic, then having a mage from Atlantis isn't a problem. Here you can talk to the player. Why Atlantis? How did you get from there to here? Since faeries seem to exist in this game, perhaps you, as the GM, can say that Atlantis is actually a fae city, another Avalon or Tir na Nog. If the rules don't allow for faerie PCs, then they can play a human who had been a "guest" of the fae for 10,000 years and only just escaped, and had picked up a few magical tricks.And now you have potential plot hooks (fae keepers looking for an escaped pet) and a good RP hook (playing a character who has been away from other humans for thousands of years, even if a much shorter time has passed in the real world).Dragons, of course, are a bit tougher due to perceived power levels, but again, do the rules allow such a thing? If yes, and you merely need a way to tie them into the setting, that's also easy. In folklore, there have always been strange creatures that were "saved" by being converted to Christianity. Meet Brother Grazadragram Ironscale; he donated his hoard to the church. If there are rules to allow for "weird" PCs, or if the rules say that your non-human heritage doesn't matter, mechanics-wise, then that means that's it's either perfectly fine to play an Atlantean mage or a dragon, or that the designers were dumb enough to think that nobody would ever want to play something really weird in an otherwise Arthurian setting.And if the rules don't allow such things, then nobody can say you're unreasonable for not allowing homebrew. If the player wants to play an Atlantean mage because Atlanteans have super-powerful tech, you can point to the equipment list and say "sorry, there's no space ships here; you can have a cart and a mule instead."Secondly, what's the point of the game? If the point is Arthurian quests and chivalry, then why can't a dragon do those too? What's preventing Brother Grazadragram from going on a quest to find the Holy Grail, or whatever it is Pendragon PCs are assumed to be doing? If the plan is to have the PCs just faffing around the British countryside doing whatever they want, then how is letting one of them be a dragon any different?This is why it's important to find out your player's motivation, because then you can work with them to create a character that actually fits in with the setting and genre.</blockquote>

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