Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shadow" data-source="post: 9174375" data-attributes="member: 16760">I honestly think that having freely-usable spells that are just better than skills are usually bad design. There should be something (other than prepared casting, since this isn't D&D) that makes it not always the best choice.With that in mind, Fate fills the bill. There's two basic ways to handle magic in Fate - either have it just be one way of flavoring your character's skills, or create a full-blown subsystem for it.If the former, some people will flavor things as magic, others not, yet others as some magic and some not. It doesn't matter - your Invisibility spell is just the justification for why your Stealth skill is high. If the latter (my group's usual preference) it is usually tacitly assumed that most PCs will eventually end up using magic for at least some things, if not from day one.We usually create two distinct forms of magic with distinct tradeoffs and often with a tight theme.In one campaign, the two types were Sorcery and Wizardry. Sorcery involved making a pact with a specific spirit. (None of which were nice by human standards, though some were more tolerable than others.) It gave you great power, but in a few narrow areas. Wizardry involved stealthily siphoning power from the spirit of your choice. It was much broader, but considerably weaker, and it made all spirits HATE you. (Hence it was impossible to be both.)Our starting lineup was a sorcerous thief, a sword-wielding wizard, and a mundane con artist who eventually ended up making a sorcerous pact as well. In our current campaign, the two types are Sorcery and Ritual Magic. Sorcery this time is a tightly-thematic bloodline ability. Ritual Magic can be done by virtually anyone with Lore skill. It has well-defined things it can do, but takes a painfully long time to do anything and often needs multiple people. In this one, everybody has at least a touch of Ritual Magic (with different specialties) and two of the three PCs have sorcerous bloodlines, though one of them didn't realize it at first.Part of the fun has been, "what if you have two bloodlines?" Turns out one is always dominant, but Ritual Magic can change which one! We've also started to realize that rituals can transfer a bloodline power from one person to another, if you know what you're doing and have special components.</blockquote>

Verification