I wanted to get any thoughts that are out there for a rough system I thought of to adjust the magic system in the Genesys CRB.

• There is a single magical skill that is used for all magic-use.
• Magic comes from Sources , this might be an element, patron, deity, or anything else that fits the setting.
• Characters must be attuned to a Source in order to use magic. If they have no attuned source, then their magic skill only functions as a knowledge skill in magic.
• The Source that the character is attuned to determines what spells they can cast by drawing on that source, in some cases restricting effects or perhaps even having unique effects of their own.
• Characters maintain their connection to their source using a Talisman, which has a limited number of charges.
• It does not cost any charges to attempt to cast a spell, but the charges can be spent to reduce the difficulty of a spell.
• Charges are replenished by performing a long ritual to strengthen the talisman's connection to the Source.

This system is intended for a setting where magic exists, and most people will have encountered it, but is not very common. Mortals also have no or little innate magical capacity, only drawing on it from powerful sources through ancient traditions lost in myth and mystery.

I was considering one other change, which would be that the difficulty of a spell that requires a check would always be a minimum of a challenge, rather than difficulty. I like the idea of magic having an inherent danger to it, embodied by the ever-present possibility of a Despair. Although I think I would attach that as a special rule for certain sources, rather than make it universal.

Would love to hear others' thoughts

So a few things:

1. What is really your goal(s)? Sounds like you want a little lower-magic feel. And of course a little different flavor. Is that it?

2. There's only 1 magic Skill, what about the linked Characteristic? Is there only one of those, or does it depend on your Source/Talisman?

3. How do you get a Source/Talisman? Is it just a matter of buying a Talisman? Is there a Talent component? Just a narrative thing if you find a Talisman? It sounds like you can only be attuned to one Source/Talisman at a time, yea? But maybe then that you change Sources at will if you have multiple Talismans? Why use the word Source in any of this, if Source = Talisman?

Ultimately there's only two really different things here, right? One magic skill, and your Spell access being anchored to an item instead of Skill.

I mean, how many spells a Source gives could be different, you didn't mention but that's not a fundamental mechanic difference. And other than that Sources/Talisman is just a different word for "Primal" or "Divine" or "Verse", etc. The Talisman thing mechanical is otherwise really just a custom item you created that does something similar to what other items can do. And the based difficulty of a Spell being a Challenge die is really not outside the scope of RAW if magic in your setting is inherently dangerous.

If I've interpreted your goals correctly, and depending on some of the answers to my questions (can you change Sources/Talismans relatively easily?), I think you may be failing to create a lower magic world or system. Your system sounds potentially more flexible (if I can change Spells by just changing Talismans), easier to "game"/min-max (I only have to worry about 1 Skill and maybe just 1 Characteristic), and really just more magical (magic is tied to objects floating around the world that anyone with the Skill can just pick up and start casting something new, instead of being limited and tied to who the character fundamentally is/what they know).

@emsquared

Thanks for your reply.

I've mostly come up with this in a kind of stream of consciousness and I haven't refined it much, poking at the logic was exactly what I was hoping for in a response.

• You are correct that I am trying to achieve a lower-magic feel or, at least, a sense of magic being more alien and 'other' to the characters in the setting. Magic isn't meant to be something understandable in the sense of its "scientific principles" but a force that can only be loosely grasped.
• I actually forgot about the matter of a linked characteristic. My first thought would probably be to connect it to the source. One example could perhaps be that a caster drawing on a patron wolf spirit might link spell-casting to cunning, a magical runed structure as a source might link spell-casting through it to intelligence?
• Talismans would probably be narratively acquired, but now that I've gone over my notes I actually think that the talisman isn't really a part of the system at all, just a new magical item, as you point out. Having it as a requirement to cast doesn't seem to add anything valuable.
• My thinking is that a character could only be attuned to one source at a time, perhaps with the option of increasing to more than one simultaneous attunement with talents?
• Characters that start out having skill in magic would likely be already attuned to a source. Changing attunement would be a narrative matter, in that it would likely require some kind of quest or task and isn't something to be done lightly.

I appreciate your thoughts.

My homebrew magic system includes casters having to tap into a "Sorce". Thus, "Sorcery". For example, to be able to cast a 3 difficulty Fire spell, the Fire Sorcerer needs to have gathered a level 3 Fire Sorce. Fire Sorce 1 may be only a torch, while Fire Sorce 5 could be a village or small forest on fire.

Spending casting results includes using disadvantages to lower Sorce levels or even despairs to accidentally release all of your gathered Sorce at once to possible detrimental results to yourself or others about you.

I still have multiple skills used to cast.

I've added an Affinity ability for each of 8 Sorces. Your Affinity is used as a skill when gathering and keeping Sorce on board your caster. If you gather Sorce above your Affinity, it's possible to do greater things, but you run the risk of horrible accidents through upgrades resulting in despairs - An Earth Sorcerer may turn himself into stone or a Death Sorcerer (necromancer) may cause death in himself.

On 6/6/2020 at 12:21 PM, Sturn said:

My homebrew magic system includes casters having to tap into a "Sorce". Thus, "Sorcery"

*cries in etymology*

5 hours ago, Morangias said:

*cries in etymology*

A certain awesome video game coined "Sourcery" which uses the "Source". I actually had that in my notes years ago before playing Divinity and figured no one would believe that I came up with it first (independently?). So, I switched it up.

3 hours ago, Sturn said:

A certain awesome video game coined "Sourcery" which uses the "Source". I actually had that in my notes years ago before playing Divinity and figured no one would believe that I came up with it first (independently?). So, I switched it up.

Pretty sure it's Terry Pratchett that coined the term "Sourcery" first, it was the title of one of the first Discworld novels.

EDIT: terribly sorry for multipost, my PC has crapped itself while posting and this seems to be the result 😕

EDIT: Multipost, sorry 😕

Well darn. So it's doubly good I went with Sorcery.

For the record, the word "sorcerer" is derived from the Latin stem "sors = fate, lot", through the noun "Sortiarius = a type of diviner that casts lots". There are no connotations with "source" other than the two sounding slightly similar.

Interestingly, Pratchett's Sourcerers were the direct opposite of what you (and Divinity) came up with - they didn't draw upon external sources of magic, they were the source of magic themselves. Also, pretty sure it was a double play on both "source" and "sour", as the existence of a single Sourcerer caused utter havoc for all magic in the world.

5 hours ago, Morangias said:

For the record, the word "sorcerer" is derived from the Latin stem "sors = fate, lot", through the noun "Sortiarius = a type of diviner that casts lots". There are no connotations with "source" other than the two sounding slightly similar.

Yes I didn't figure the source of "sorce" was a word meaning source. Like most fantasy campaign worlds, English also doesn't exist in my setting either other then as a helpful replacement tool for the actual common language. So, not something I was worried about. For the record, "Mesar" is used in place of Sorcery in the actual language in my setting. But, I'm not expecting my players to actually memorize the lexicon I've come up with, so "Sorcery" is the substitute. And yes, "Mesa" is the root which does mean something like "the sources of magical power".

To get back on track....

On 6/5/2020 at 9:41 AM, ProfessorTerrible said:

I was considering one other change, which would be that the difficulty of a spell that requires a check would always be a minimum of a challenge, rather than difficulty. I like the idea of magic having an inherent danger to it, embodied by the ever-present possibility of a Despair. Although I think I would attach that as a special rule for certain sources, rather than make it universal.

I would say go for it. Have you considered what to do when a Despair is rolled? The Talisman being used loses charges? Temporarily losing connection to the source?