tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post8240697151780338081..comments2024-03-28T21:13:53.845+00:00Comments on Fabled Lands: The price of magicDave Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-72872829567928871232018-04-27T13:38:13.144+01:002018-04-27T13:38:13.144+01:00That's so marvellous to hear. When I hear abou...That's so marvellous to hear. When I hear about books I've written giving pleasure to kids -- and a whole new generation at that! -- it really is the biggest reward any writer could hope for.Dave Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-62390435819005482722018-04-27T02:54:20.794+01:002018-04-27T02:54:20.794+01:00You have a new fan! My 10 year old daughter loves ...You have a new fan! My 10 year old daughter loves Bloodsword! And the Sword of Life books.<br />That was the age I started playing Bloodsword in 1989 too.Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15695489558914162784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-26080314677783908652018-04-24T19:20:15.508+01:002018-04-24T19:20:15.508+01:00Actually if anyone is really keen to play Bloodswo...Actually if anyone is really keen to play Bloodsword book 5, I'm pretty sure there are pirated PDFs out there and you can use Lulu (see link in the sidebar) to print up a personal copy. By preference I'd completely rewrite the thing so that the style, tone, themes and plot connected better with the other four books. But now we really are talking about a big old Kickstarter, and I doubt if there are enough Bloodsword fans out there to make that work.DMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01887893691053633187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-31298385369290834452018-04-24T17:55:20.194+01:002018-04-24T17:55:20.194+01:00Hmmm... Blogspot stripped out the fake HTML code ...Hmmm... Blogspot stripped out the fake HTML code with which I surrounded that post...<br /><br />It should have said:<br /><br />[cough]volunteers[/cough]<br />Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04062647064149474954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-29442914107991122682018-04-24T17:54:06.727+01:002018-04-24T17:54:06.727+01:00volunteersvolunteersLeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04062647064149474954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-68343463766426020792018-04-24T16:34:56.628+01:002018-04-24T16:34:56.628+01:00When I get time to edit it. The problem is that th...When I get time to edit it. The problem is that the flowchart is broken in many places and there are numbers that were just left as "XXX" in the text, so I guess nobody bothered to proof-read it. To get it into publishable state would take a few weeks for the editing part, and then there's the typesetting and the scanning of artwork, etc. Somebody suggested I should run a Kickstarter to fund it, but the Catch-22 there is that running a Kickstarter is a month's work too. So really it will have to wait until I have a spare month or two.<br /><br />On the plus side, you're not missing much:<br /><br />http://fabledlands.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/the-apocalypse-is-going-to-take-little.htmlDave Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-28840987907990172752018-04-24T14:20:39.177+01:002018-04-24T14:20:39.177+01:00When is Bloodsword 5 - Walls of Spyte - being rele...When is Bloodsword 5 - Walls of Spyte - being released?Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15695489558914162784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-36416758425007427272018-04-23T19:30:04.770+01:002018-04-23T19:30:04.770+01:00I also track an additional characteristic in my ga...I also track an additional characteristic in my games, Taint, which is a measure of how much a characters is corrupted by sorcery. The flashier and more overt the spell effect, the more Taint it causes, which encourages sorcerers to be more subtle (most spells cause no Taint at all)<br /><br />As for how much players know about the threefold curse, I have some general guidelines about causing or healing damage, and some spell effects have specific curses but I don't slavishly apply the curse to all spells cast, just those that shortcut some hardship, which itself typically informs what the curse should be (not that the player necessarily knows what this will be at the time of casting or receiving the spell - nor might I, it might be something I think up later and use the spell as the reason to weave it into the narrative). What I don't tend to do (and might start, having read this blog post!) is create narrative sub-plots because of the curses.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04062647064149474954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-4887946279415639692018-04-23T18:32:15.872+01:002018-04-23T18:32:15.872+01:00Lee, do explain this to the players or let them fi...Lee, do explain this to the players or let them figure it out for themselves? <br /><br />I only ask because one of my current players has acquired a sudden disaffinity for horses and although convinced it is some sort of curse is struggling to pinpoint the source. It seems more interesting (to me, ymmv) to make his character figure it out, maybe quest a little for it but in the case you describe maybe the effect better stated up front. This is the price, will you pay it?Dominichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-67076878736711935132018-04-23T14:58:31.347+01:002018-04-23T14:58:31.347+01:00Some of them do. It helps that in most of the saga...Some of them do. It helps that in most of the sagas magic is subtle and ambiguous. That's excluding the ones with undead in, obviously.DMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01887893691053633187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-82822437875360617142018-04-23T13:47:13.105+01:002018-04-23T13:47:13.105+01:00“There is no magic” ... but presumably the charact...“There is no magic” ... but presumably the characters think that there is ? John Haganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249152658906641154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-57062990375479198762018-04-22T23:15:21.709+01:002018-04-22T23:15:21.709+01:00I like it. Nice to have a general rule that can be...I like it. Nice to have a general rule that can be applied to all sorts of situations. How would a killing spell affect the caster?DMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01887893691053633187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-52062123190673869342018-04-22T19:26:21.047+01:002018-04-22T19:26:21.047+01:00Whilst not every spell comes with a price, I like ...Whilst not every spell comes with a price, I like to include a three-fold curse, where possible, on either the caster or recipient of spell that, in some way, shortcuts the game.<br /><br />For example, a healing spell will instantly restore the health of the recipient but they will be unable to heal any further wounds naturally until three times the duration it would take the wound healed by magic to heal naturally. Each subsequent receipt of magical healing within this time would triple this duration. A character that relies too heavily on magical healing may never heal naturally again - then what will he do when the supply of magical healing is cut off?Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04062647064149474954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-48719814877334023502018-04-21T17:45:52.317+01:002018-04-21T17:45:52.317+01:00A lot of campaigns don't allow very powerful m...A lot of campaigns don't allow very powerful magic, but we'll include it so long as it comes at a cost. By that I usually mean an emotional cost, such as when we resurrected Joe Lynch in our Elleslandic mercenaries campaign. That turned out to be a careful-what-you-wish-for experience:<br /><br />http://fabledlands.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/sleep-of-sword.html<br /><br />It's hard to design rules for it, but I chafe at leaving things up to the whim of the GM. Currently we're playing Gregor Vuga's Sagas of the Icelanders and (although PbtA systems do leave a lot of hand-wavy stuff to be defined in play) that feels like it could deliver quite effective magic rules. The irony is that I'm running Sagas as historical -- there is no magic.Dave Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-63352940084011222382018-04-21T09:17:41.153+01:002018-04-21T09:17:41.153+01:00Great post. I’ve always been fascinated by bleak n...Great post. I’ve always been fascinated by bleak nature of Krarth. When I first read book 6 as a child I could never imagine my players wanting to go there.<br /><br />I try to include magic at a cost in my current Dragon Warriors game whenever the subject comes up. It leads to much more satisfying outcomes than I-cast-fireball-all-the-gnolls-die...Dominichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11292932049776630442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-53671669775329416442018-04-20T20:18:42.764+01:002018-04-20T20:18:42.764+01:00If it were Odin we were talking about, I'd ent...If it were Odin we were talking about, I'd entirely buy it, John.DMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01887893691053633187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-6519651832315403922018-04-20T18:22:38.173+01:002018-04-20T18:22:38.173+01:00Indeed, great film ! Though I would never use the ...Indeed, great film ! Though I would never use the words “poor old” in conjunction with Merlin; you know the whole ‘crystal cave’ thing was just an elaborate alibi so he didn’t get the blame when Camelot fell ; ) John Haganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249152658906641154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-14780409343960485212018-04-20T17:22:38.628+01:002018-04-20T17:22:38.628+01:00Or Excalibur, where poor old Merlin really pays a ...Or Excalibur, where poor old Merlin really pays a high price for the things the Pendragons ask him to do. (It's way past time I watched that again.)Dave Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-69389528882061409922018-04-20T17:06:20.758+01:002018-04-20T17:06:20.758+01:00Joking aside - I completely agree with you that &#...Joking aside - I completely agree with you that 'magic must have a cost' - especially if that cost also comes with intriguing additional story hooks. The kind of magic system which inhabits a hinterland between Vance and Lovecraft; where casting a fireball against your foes would only be permissible if the sorcerer was for a Month thereafter the centre of uncontrollable pyrotechnic incidents which start small but could well get out of hand (e.g it would not be wise to go to sleep without completely stamping the camp fire out); or the invisibility spell which renders its user blind for the duration of its potency. John Haganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249152658906641154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-86054430507025870732018-04-20T13:55:26.724+01:002018-04-20T13:55:26.724+01:00I could've used it almost word for word in CYB...I could've used it almost word for word in CYB and not bothered with the Blade Runner ripoff!Dave Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-64735910907073952742018-04-20T13:49:33.592+01:002018-04-20T13:49:33.592+01:00I imagine this is pretty much how the NHS is going...I imagine this is pretty much how the NHS is going to work after Brexit ;)John Haganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249152658906641154noreply@blogger.com