Charles Phipps
2008-03-07, 01:36 AM
I thought I'd share how I'm going to run magic in my next Hyborean game based on how I ran it in the last couple. I'd appreciate some feedback on what people think of it and how they'd recommend I proceed.
How Charles Phipps runs his Sorcerers
In general, I make it a point to do something very "non-Howard" with my Sorcerers.
Basically, the vast majority of Magicians in Hyborea are frauds. The Hyborean Age at my table is literred with people like this guy.
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f350/Willowhugger/Me/Conan/bluffrj8.jpg
And I don't mean in Conan the Destroyer.
Almost every priest in Hyborea, sans Cimmerians, claims the power to work powerful miracles and awesome wizardry. Furthermore, there's plenty of professional fortune tellers and oracles plus all manner of genuine full-time magicians that ply their trade in nearly every damn city in the continent.
The simple fact is almost every one of these guys is an utter fraud and has about the same level of magical power as your typical priest in the modern world or Fortune teller. The fact is that people in Hyborea are no more intelligent and educated than the majority of ones in the real world.
What's different is the fact that plenty of "Genuine Wizards" exist as well. However, they're genuine in the context of Arthur C. Clarke meets Harry Houdini. In the Hyborean Age, a man who knows some basics of chemistry and stage magic can get away with a whole lot. One of the favored services of wizards during my game is people who actually know something about astrology and measuring the weather since the advice they provide is USEFUL, it's just that what we tend to term as a Farmer's Almanac is divination to most folk.
I like 300's take on the thing to some extent. There's people who put smoke powder in skulls, keep gords of Flaming Oil to "breathe fire", and otherwise jealously guard their superstitious power. It's not that difficult to claim to be a powerful sorcerer in the Hyborean Age and get away with lives of luxury or power.
Here's the rub though, almost all real wizards are like this too.
I'm considering ditching the Scholar Class completely (which is a poor title for a Magic User in my opinion anyway). In general, the whole "Lovecraftian" magical take seems to be much more appropriate for my work, though I'll have to find an appropriate Spell Casting Class or create my own variant on it.
But generally, the idea is Magic is Frickin' Hard
Thoth-Amon showed up in one of our games and I had their dinner table served by "zombies" who kept their mouths sewn shut. Some of the players were shocked to discover they were zombies in the Haitian sense, a bunch of people drugged pufferfish that had their mouths sewn shut only a little so they could open it to drink broth. Why would Thoth-Amon, the most powerful wizard period in my Hyborean Age resort to such cheap trickery?
Because it was impressive and freaked people out, which is something he needs to do a lot of to keep people scared of him. However; I had an NPC servant of his comment that his real rituals required hours of preparation, meditation, and human sacrifice to carry out. It was physically and mentally taxing to the most amazing levels possible.
So yes, as it's described in the Masters of Yimsha, the spells require the right astrological signs and god knows what else. Almost all magic a real wizard uses to establish his credentials is mummery and theatrics.
Likewise, I think my new wizard class (If I make it) will almost certainly require the Aristocrats "Do you know who I am?" Most magicians are pretty damn helpless in my Hyborea before Conan and company, they just need to use their terrifying reputations and assembled minions to keep people away before the climax.
So any suggestions, critiques, ideas?
* Thanks to the Conan Motivational Poster thread for the poster.
How Charles Phipps runs his Sorcerers
In general, I make it a point to do something very "non-Howard" with my Sorcerers.
Basically, the vast majority of Magicians in Hyborea are frauds. The Hyborean Age at my table is literred with people like this guy.
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f350/Willowhugger/Me/Conan/bluffrj8.jpg
And I don't mean in Conan the Destroyer.
Almost every priest in Hyborea, sans Cimmerians, claims the power to work powerful miracles and awesome wizardry. Furthermore, there's plenty of professional fortune tellers and oracles plus all manner of genuine full-time magicians that ply their trade in nearly every damn city in the continent.
The simple fact is almost every one of these guys is an utter fraud and has about the same level of magical power as your typical priest in the modern world or Fortune teller. The fact is that people in Hyborea are no more intelligent and educated than the majority of ones in the real world.
What's different is the fact that plenty of "Genuine Wizards" exist as well. However, they're genuine in the context of Arthur C. Clarke meets Harry Houdini. In the Hyborean Age, a man who knows some basics of chemistry and stage magic can get away with a whole lot. One of the favored services of wizards during my game is people who actually know something about astrology and measuring the weather since the advice they provide is USEFUL, it's just that what we tend to term as a Farmer's Almanac is divination to most folk.
I like 300's take on the thing to some extent. There's people who put smoke powder in skulls, keep gords of Flaming Oil to "breathe fire", and otherwise jealously guard their superstitious power. It's not that difficult to claim to be a powerful sorcerer in the Hyborean Age and get away with lives of luxury or power.
Here's the rub though, almost all real wizards are like this too.
I'm considering ditching the Scholar Class completely (which is a poor title for a Magic User in my opinion anyway). In general, the whole "Lovecraftian" magical take seems to be much more appropriate for my work, though I'll have to find an appropriate Spell Casting Class or create my own variant on it.
But generally, the idea is Magic is Frickin' Hard
Thoth-Amon showed up in one of our games and I had their dinner table served by "zombies" who kept their mouths sewn shut. Some of the players were shocked to discover they were zombies in the Haitian sense, a bunch of people drugged pufferfish that had their mouths sewn shut only a little so they could open it to drink broth. Why would Thoth-Amon, the most powerful wizard period in my Hyborean Age resort to such cheap trickery?
Because it was impressive and freaked people out, which is something he needs to do a lot of to keep people scared of him. However; I had an NPC servant of his comment that his real rituals required hours of preparation, meditation, and human sacrifice to carry out. It was physically and mentally taxing to the most amazing levels possible.
So yes, as it's described in the Masters of Yimsha, the spells require the right astrological signs and god knows what else. Almost all magic a real wizard uses to establish his credentials is mummery and theatrics.
Likewise, I think my new wizard class (If I make it) will almost certainly require the Aristocrats "Do you know who I am?" Most magicians are pretty damn helpless in my Hyborea before Conan and company, they just need to use their terrifying reputations and assembled minions to keep people away before the climax.
So any suggestions, critiques, ideas?
* Thanks to the Conan Motivational Poster thread for the poster.