Topic: Magically Dead/Wild Regions

[jasonyarnell]

How would you how about handling the mechanics of magically Dead or wild regions?

Or, for that matter, regions that "super" magical, like Leyland line nexus points?

[GrumpyOldFart]

A lot depends on how you handle magic in the first place.

If you do mana types, Fixed mana use should work as long as you have components, unless you rule that the area drains the magic from them. Personal mana would work until the caster runs out of points, but then the caster could not regain mana within the area. Granted mana would work so long as the caster still has the support of their God. Ambient mana would not work at all.

On the other end of the scale there are more options. Again, I would think Granted mana use would remain largely unchanged. For the rest, well... what do you think the result would be of a saturation of mana? Would spells have random additional scaling? Would you have to worry about components catching fire? Would you have random Fortean effects? Would casters be forced to keep casting spells in order to avoid overload and mental damage of some sort from the resulting burnout?

There are any number of ways you can handle it, and for many of them, the result would be casters thinking, "Wow, this is really cool!... wait, what? Aw man, this sucks!"

[Thom @ ICE]

In addition to those comments, I would also consider the following possibilities.
* Dead Zone - casting of the spell results in the magic dissipating during casting (no effect)
* Wild Zone - casting of the spell results in one of the spell parameters fluctuating from 50% to 150% and a 20% chance of impacting the wrong target

 

[jasonyarnell]

Groovy. Thank you for the ideas.

[GrumpyOldFart]

Note on Granted mana use: I said above that "Granted mana use would remain largely unchanged"... but really, that is based on the assumption that the God in question is powerful enough that the link between God and caster is unaffected by local geography. If the caster is gaining mana from a demigod or a "small god," like a dryad or local spirit, that assumption may not necessarily hold.

If, for example, a Druid's relationship with "the Gods" is such that they don't worship anyone in particular, but rather create something along the lines of diplomatic relationships with the "small gods" of wherever they travel, then all bets are off, and how they are affected is defined by how those local spirits exist in a magic dead (or magic saturated) area. If the place is "magic dead" because those local spirits are sucking up all the local mana, the Druid is gonna be far and away the most powerful caster there. If the fact of the area being "magic dead" makes it so local spirits of that type simply cannot survive there, the Druid will be in the same position as the ambient caster.

[GrumpyOldFart]

Further note: Personally I have found Fortean effects to be a lot of fun, and depending on how they are used they can have a major tactical impact as well. When the party is in a hammer-and-tongs conflict with a majorly nasty monster, you can completely change the mood at the table by saying, "Your fireball worked flawlessly.... and (number of PPs spent casting the spell) bluebirds flew out of your nose."

On the other hand, you can largely destroy the advantage of an Invisibility by a spell resulting in the caster being showered with hundreds of tiny brass sequins, or having every plant within 10' of the caster suddenly bloom. Still, that's better than a tiny thundercloud that will follow the caster around for the next (number of PPs spent casting the spell) rounds.