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View Full Version : Musing on converting Max Frei/Echo into a RPG



Florian
2018-02-12, 10:24 AM
Servus.

Short background: Max Frei is the pseudonym of a pair of russian fantasy novelists, as well as the name of the protagonist featuring in the "Labyrinths of Echo" series, a terrific piece of fantasy world building on its own.

Premisse of the setting:
- All magical energy originates from the Heart of the World. The city of Echo is build directly above the Heart, the farther you get away from Echo, the less energy is around until magic stops working roughly half way around the globe. Magical energy is not infinite. Too much high-powered magic will siphon the Heart fast, up to the point that it can be completely drained beyond the point that the energy can be replenished, then the Heart, as well as the world itself, will die. Magic falls into the categories Black and White (no, not what you think) and is ranked in levels of energy consumption, from 1 to 234.
- There are no spells. Magic is part of physics and natural laws, but itīs the part that you can only really access and comprehend after you have learned how to channel or store (that's the thing with Black and White) the energy of the Heart or other direct sources of (supernatural) energy.
- Magic is skill and craft. That point is a bit harder to explain. See above for physics and energy. A chef cook who has learned to handle that energy can start integrating it into the cooking process, a trained martial artist can start integrating it into his moves and kata. But how to handle such things as Astral Projection, Teleportation and Dream Travel, things that are assumed to be theoretically possible? That's the whole point of the various Esoteric Orders, finding out how to turn theory into praxis.
- Magic will change you. Learning how to store and channel ever larger amounts of energy will have a pronounced effect on personality and outlook. A serious combat mage will always seek battle, a healer mage canīt help himself but heal suffering, and so on. What you know will fundamentally change who you are.
- The Order Wars and the Small Secret Service. As stated above, draining too much magic will drain the Heart and end the world. That nearly happened and the outbreak of hostilities between the various Esoteric Orders brought it nearly to a brink. One Order managed to be triumphant, forcing the other Orders to migrate to the fringes and imposing a serious ban on magic above a level that's deemed sustainable - 8th rank. The 3S has basically the equivalent to a "license to kill", on both the killing and full energy usage, as their job is to hunt down practitioners of magic who overstep the boundaries.
- Much is unknown, you can only learn by exposure. See above for "skill and craft". The theory is there and some of the Esoteric Orders put them into practice. The point of the entire setting is, that they barely started investigating and experimenting with what could be done with magic when they understood the connection to the Heart and the war broke out.


So, imho great setting, but I'm a bit unsure how to convert it without having to completely start from scratch.

The setting is pretty "mundane" when it comes to action and combat. Agents are not really trained for this, itīs neither expected nor needed, but they're the ones with the "big guns".

The "magic changes you" part would suggest a similar system like checking vices in Pendragon.

WoD Mage spheres seem to be a good anchor point, but how to integrate learning new uses for magic?

It would seem to have some similarities with old Earthdawn and modeling new magic as new skills learned certainly has some appeal to it.

Thoughts?

Grod_The_Giant
2018-02-13, 07:48 AM
This might sound weird, but the "magic is skill and craft" bit makes me think of Exalted. That's basically the entire schtick of the Solars-- their magic is all about augmenting normal skills to superhuman heights. And their obligatory WoD-roleplay-or-else-morality-track sounds like it matches as well, since it builds up by doing things against your nature and sort of forces you into it to the point of obsession when it gets too full. You've also got a generally-separate system of sorcery for the Estotic Orders (which, at least in 3e, even has ways to distinguish different traditions of accessing it) and a mana pool type thingie which can easily be fiddled with to represent proximity to the Heart.

Your biggest issue might be the generally high power levels Exalted encourages, but... well, I guess it depends on how powerful magic-skill-users can get; you could certainly cut off access to higher level Charms to cap things off, and "how much can you accomplish with 5 successes" is always a matter of GM opinion. That and, I guess, mostly-mundane combat, but removing most or all of the various combat charms would solve most of that.

(I suggest using 3e, though, because it's way slicker than past editions and lack of expansions doesn't sound like it would be an issue with a custom setting)

----

For a completely different track, Fate would also work pretty well. Have a lot of Stunts that are fluffed as channeling magic into your skill, require magic-related Aspects, and you've got a lot of that covered. You've even got the system sort of working for you in regards to the "more power=less choice" thing-- the more Stunts (ie, magic) you take, the less Refresh you have, and the less freedom you have to buy off Compels.