I am just soo tired of epic fantasy, heroic fantasy and D&D type fantasy. I need something else.

So, with nothing but time on my hands - I cycled back to the one genre that I have always wanted to run but haven't gotten to in 30 years... Sword & Sorcery. Well actually there is another, Pulp Adventures but that's another discussion.

I want to run this without divine casters or Tolkien influences etc. I have the Mongoose d20 Conan books. But i don't want to run a conan game. I want to run games with more political intrigue and mystery. AND I want run it in Genesys.

How would you wonderful people do the corruptive sorcery from Sword & Sorcery? By that I mean - in S&S the magic is dangerous and it has a price. The caster can push the casting but the price gets higher.

4 hours ago, GnosisNoise said:

How would you wonderful people do the corruptive sorcery from Sword & Sorcery? By that I mean - in S&S the magic is dangerous and it has a price. The caster can push the casting but the price gets higher.

It seems to me that's how the magic system already works in Genesys. Just remember to follow the table on page 211 closely when resolving magic checks and you should be fine. Maybe borrow the Low Magic rules found in the EPG (page 22).

Everything else should be dependent on your setting.

Thanks mate. I'll have a look.

And you are right, the setting should set the tone.

What do you want the "end game" of your corruption mechanic to be?

Do you want it to be like in Warhammer, where it can twist their appearance and mind and eventually they can lose the PC as a playable character?

Or do you just want magic to have an increasingly higher "price"?

9 hours ago, emsquared said:

What do you want the "end game" of your corruption mechanic to be?

Do you want it to be like in Warhammer, where it can twist their appearance and mind and eventually they can lose the PC as a playable character?

Or do you just want magic to have an increasingly higher "price"?

Good question. I'd think that twisting their bodies and mind is mostley where i'd want to go but not to the extent that the player looses a character - just want them to Want to keep pushing the boundries of hubris and power.

I want magic rare enough, and dangerous enough that only the players that really want to pursue power will.

The group I want to run this for is my 30+year d&d/epic/heroic fantasy group, so even they have never done S&S... They are excited about trying something completely different in theme.

17 minutes ago, GnosisNoise said:

Good question. I'd think that twisting their bodies and mind is mostley where i'd want to go but not to the extent that the player looses a character - just want them to Want to keep pushing the boundries of hubris and power.

I want magic rare enough, and dangerous enough that only the players that really want to pursue power will.

The group I want to run this for is my 30+year d&d/epic/heroic fantasy group, so even they have never done S&S... They are excited about trying something completely different in theme.

You've got the fear and sanity rules already. With a little reworking, you could easily combine the negative results on magic with the effects of sanity and trauma to emphasize the dangers. Mix in the low magic rule, and you have something that always straddles the line of danger.

Yeah, m8, sounds like you want to play Warhammer 3e :

- Narrative, open system like Genesys. (It's Genesys's grandparent, after all)

- Easy to drop or reflavor divine casting.

- Corruption and miscasting, both in card form and random tables.

- Underappreciated/underloved and really simple for Genesys players to grasp (speaking from experience).

8 minutes ago, BrickSteelhead said:

Yeah, m8, sounds like you want to play Warhammer 3e :

- Narrative, open system like Genesys. (It's Genesys's grandparent, after all)

- Easy to drop or reflavor divine casting.

- Corruption and miscasting, both in card form and random tables.

- Underappreciated/underloved and really simple for Genesys players to grasp (speaking from experience).

Yeah. WH 3e is hugely under appreciated. Sadly don't own it anymore.

For the most part while I am a fan of the setting my gaming group just do not like the Old World at all. They are intrigued with the whole Conan and Lankhmar type of fantasy though. So that's why I am up here tapping the input of the community.

15 hours ago, Swordbreaker said:

You've got the fear and sanity rules already. With a little reworking, you could easily combine the negative results on magic with the effects of sanity and trauma to emphasize the dangers. Mix in the low magic rule, and you have something that always straddles the line of danger.

Thank you mate. Will pursue this line. Much appreciated. Been so busy with a bunch of projects that I just could not get a clear view of where to start and where to go.

Really appreciate the guidance.

16 hours ago, Swordbreaker said:

You've got the fear and sanity rules already. With a little reworking, you could easily combine the negative results on magic with the effects of sanity and trauma to emphasize the dangers. Mix in the low magic rule, and you have something that always straddles the line of danger.

you might take a look at the corruption rules of the dark heresy port for genesys

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/266319-second-edition-release-dark-heresy-warhammer-40000-in-genesys/

Thank you @Terefang ! Have not seen this before.

You could also have it be as simple as inflicting a Crit when the caster rolls a Despair. Most results will be more of a temporary backlash, but a nasty enough roll could leave the caster twisted in body and mind. Just be sure to describe it appropriately.