I'm mastering a home campaign based on my own rules. The matter is not rules but setting design.

The campaign start in a big city, the city of arts and crafts. Ruled by humans and gnomes. The last ones are keeping kobold slaves in a ghetto as workforce. I designed gnomes as focused people. Focused on their work and excellence of their creation. In any case they are not struggling for power, that's why the humans are here. PCs are humans only, safeguards and merchant in this metropolis.

My point is : the gnomes are using Alchemy in order to enchant manufactured objects.

Nevertheless, I'm designing this world as nearly non existent magic. There can exist artifacts that can be discovered but basically this is a low magic setting. In alchemy this is the use of magical raw materials (minerals) that confer some magical effects to specific and rare creations.

There is a threat from the East (the city is kind of a reclusive location and distances are large in this world). The 1st part of the campaign will be the discovery of the forming of an evil orcish army in the eastern toundra. The army leader is a conqueror.

My point is that magic exist in some spots on the planet but I'm trying very hard to find a good idea to motivate its existence. Maybe the use of magic is feared or can cause harm to the caster. Maybe it's used by neutral aligned individual that are essentially mercenaries and not of large scale power. Maybe it's acquired after several years of mystic approach.

In case of magic is existing, it seems  reasonable (in terms of dramatic element in the story) that PCs come across arcane masters and try to learn something from them. I'm missing the plot elements not to prevent this but to limit the use and spread of magical power in the world. Maybe magic is present but in secret societies and I'm searching a good reason why it never show in public.

For divine magic I'm still elaborating ideas. There can be worship but no godly manifestation. The city has its own deity. It may reinforce the idea of non existent magic : if magic exist and not the gods, the clergy should be useless. If nothing exists on large scale the clergy is then part of the political system.

Maybe the PCs may encounter recrudescent magic in evil hands in the East ...

Any good idea ?
Thanks

The title said "alternative Earth" and there's absolutely nothing about the setup you've described that's, um, Earthly. If anything sounds like typical D&Dland.

Quote from: The Butcher;758344The title said "alternative Earth" and there's absolutely nothing about the setup you've described that's, um, Earthly. If anything sounds like typical D&Dland.

Yes.

The setting is an Alternative Earth because it has the same shape as geographical Earth. It's more a kind of a mnemotechnic thing for me. It could be Earth but with fantasy races alive and locations inspired by historical (real life) settings.

The Eastern orcish land is Russia (specifically empty spaces with barbaric tribes). The starting city is basically Prague, in Czech Republic. German mines are owned by dwarves and Britain and Japan populated by Elves.


For the City of Arts and Crafts I'm focusing on a "Jewish ghetto" in the form of the enslaved kobolds (treated as beasts of burden by the gnomes, still friendship and esteem exists between some kobolds and gnome craftsman).

The beginning scenario will be focused on the Golem's tale : there is an uprising tentative from the kobolds. By following the leaders of the kobold underground union, the PCs may encounter a gnomish Golem creator.

This Golem is Alchemically based. The formulae comes from old tomes and scrolls. I kept the idea of the name of power written on the Golem head and stolen body parts or organs as in the Frankenstein Hollywood movie.

Regards.

Zones like FR or RIFTS. Your original city is in a dead or weak magic zone but in certain spots there regular;strong-wild magic zones. Look to GURPS Magic for instructions to set it up.

Zones like FR or RIFTS. Your original city is in a dead or weak magic zone but in certain spots there is regular/strong/wild magic zones whatever is appropriate. Look to GURPS Magic for instructions to set it up.

It's basically the same as fooling with overall technology levels but for magic and less then a world scale. Say like Salem MA, Stonehenge, the Nazteca line...places of power to balance things out. Also Ley Lines are helpful for this kind of thing.

Mengniu is cutting its stake in Yashili to ensure the still-listed company met requirements for a Hong Kong listing.Planned center to handle firm's global financial mattersChinese telecom equipment giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd said on Monday that it plans to open a London-based center later this year to deal with financial matters, despite a recent probe it faced in the United Kingdom.5 percent and inflation at 3.The 68th Session of the UN General Assembly will start at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Sept 17. So it's important for China and US to attach great importance to the coordination. In the first three quarters of the year, the company recorded a loss of 2.98 percent of its gross domestic product, according to the report.The government underlined the need to help rural migrant workers become urban residents in a document released earlier this year.The central bank scrapped the lower limit on bank lending rates last month,imitation ray ban, a step toward liberalizing interest rates. The China Securities Regulatory Commission announced on Friday that foreign shareholders can have a total stake of as much as 49 percent in a joint venture securities company,solaire ray ban, up from the previous limit of one-third. "The fundamental reason for the trade imbalance lies in US restraints on exports of high-tech products as well as dual-purpose goods and related technology, which would effectively balance bilateral trade.
 "He is not fond of English,ray ban aviator 3025, but I send him to the class.Instead of complaining about his work pressure and lack of vacations,ray ban promo, he enjoys his life in China.In the Panyu and Huadu districts in Guangzhou city in Guangdong, there are over 900 jewellery makers.The trial of Bo Xilai,lunettes ray ban wayfarer, former Party chief of Chongqing municipality, was held at the court in Shandong province from August 22 to 26.Apple has been placing greater emphasis on the Chinese market since Cook took over, illustrated by its store expansion in the country and a shortened new product delivery time gap between the United States and China.The ongoing CPC meeting is expected to introduce major policies and measures for China's further reforms. Jean Marc Duplaix, chief financial officer of Kering, said the moderating sales growth in the Asia-Pacific region reflected a "tougher macro environment".The plan,prix lunette ray ban, the first of its kind, is expected to provide details of supportive policies for logistics parks in financial, land,ray ban optique, water,ray ban outdoorsman, electricity and transportation areas, the newspaper said.Han Shuang, 30, who met her husband through the online dating website Jiayuan. Emphasizing job creation in the service sector in urban spaces will help sustain income growth despite lower GDP growth,ray ban lunettes de soleil," they said.
55 percent,ray ban wayfarer 2132.
????????
 
 
   http://cwc.hlbrc.cn/Review.asp?NewsID=848
 
   http://hpcgi1.nifty.com/odatntak/yy-nifty/yy-nifty.cgi
 
   http://adult-plus.com/cgi/aska/aska.cgi
 
   http://park10.wakwak.com/~l-o-ly-o0/cgi-bin/yybbsi/yybbs.cgi
 
   http://puss1982.7991.ftpdo.com/Review.asp?NewsID=535

Quote from: Marleycat;758396Zones like FR or RIFTS. Your original city is in a dead or weak magic zone but in certain spots there is regular/strong/wild magic zones whatever is appropriate. Look to GURPS Magic for instructions to set it up.

It's basically the same as fooling with overall technology levels but for magic and less then a world scale. Say like Salem MA, Stonehenge, the Nazteca line...places of power to balance things out. Also Ley Lines are helpful for this kind of thing.

It makes me think of telluric nodes as for druidic magic in RoleMaster.
I've got GURPS Magic 4e on hand but it says nearly nothing on rifts (after searching in this huge pdf).
Do not want to bother but have you got a page number or is this from another edition ?

Regards.

I was referencing the RIFTS RPG as a sort of framework for inspiration not rifts.

GURPS Magic explain high/low magic for the entire world just scale it to local spots that you can have your city be low magic and have your antagonist come from a city or place right in the center of a ley line nexus point and have them be all magic without screwing with the whole setting and keeping it mostly earthlike and fairly normal like you want.

How about this:
Whatever thousands of years ago Earth was bombarded by a bunch of meteorites (ones large enough to leave craters and debris but not too large that they'd wipe out all life on the continent.) Maybe it was originally one large asteroid which broke up as it orbited the sun but stayed close enough together that they all plowed into Earth at about the same time. Maybe, like those periodic meteor showers the Earth passes through the orbit of the debris and gets more small pieces on a regular basis.

Anyway, that's where the magic minerals come from: places surrounding meteor impact sites (which may not be obvious, craters wear away or are buried in dirt or forest or become lakes.)

Why isn't magic more common? The magic minerals cause harm, like radiation from uranium does. In small amounts it's fine. When protective clothing and boxes is used it's fine. But too large an amount or too long an exposure and sicknesses occur. Lesions, cancers, hair loss, sterility, death. Your pick. But does anyone care if a bunch of Kobolds die of the puking sickness? For some reason the cleric's "cure disease" spells just don't work on them. Pity.

My solution to keeping magic scarce is to limit it racially.

Arcane spells are the purview of elves. Gnomes can also use it. Halflings, dwarves and men are unable to use it. Since neither elves nor gnomes are particularly ambitious in terms of conquering territory or in terms of selling their labor to other races, this keeps arcane spellcasters nicely contained, even though magic items can be plentiful.

A few men can cast arcane spells, but only those with elf blood. Very rare, only a handful alive at any one time.

I've got now GURPS and RIFTERS rules on hand. Both interesting.
Thanks again for your replies and good ideas to pick from.

The use of minerals is a good starting point. There can exist known and unknown nodes of magical power on the Earth crust. It may be even possible to carry such minerals but such venture is full of dangers (thievery, contamination).

The power lines can move also, according to Arcane eruptions.

I may map these locations according to volcanism locations (Iceland, Japan, ...). On the already known spots powerful arcane users are living but their reach is limited.

Under the City of Arts and Crafts, an alchemist and warlock journeyman is building step by step the Golem. In the cave he is using as a shelter there is a big block of Black Obsidian forgotten by the city rulers. The untrained eye can only see in it a perfectly flat stone of high density.

These kind of stones may corrupt bodies and souls.

I've also seen the Orcish Lord Conqueror collecting dead bodies all over the world so as to bring them to Oural. His idea is to build an army of undead with the help of an nearly dead and consumed necromancer. He is waiting patiently for an Arcane eruption in his favored spot.

"Why the hell orcs are collecting corpses ?" A question that the PCs may ask during one of their raid in the wilderness ...

For Divine magic I'm thinking of miracles, boosts, signs and visions. Priests are organizing the worship of the crowd. In return the gods allow, randomly, power to them. But nothing is sure in any way, godly beings acts in veiled ways.

Let's crunch it !
Regards

Quote from: Scott Anderson;758676My solution to keeping magic scarce is to limit it racially.

Arcane spells are the purview of elves. Gnomes can also use it. Halflings, dwarves and men are unable to use it. Since neither elves nor gnomes are particularly ambitious in terms of conquering territory or in terms of selling their labor to other races, this keeps arcane spellcasters nicely contained, even though magic items can be plentiful.

A few men can cast arcane spells, but only those with elf blood. Very rare, only a handful alive at any one time.

Thanks !

I think this idea is working for my gnomes, their skills and Alchemy. They're are found of excellence and not even thinking of power and corruption. They simply do not care about it.

But globally I may not be against magical power for everyone and prefer it to be location based. Mostly a matter of taste.

Quote from: bekassou;758893gnomes <...> are found of excellence and not even thinking of power and corruption. They simply do not care about it

Maybe gnomes, as a specie, are inured / immune to the corruption effects of what is necessary to develop magic. And maybe alchemy also has ways of keeping the corruption constrained. Humans who try to cast spells are fully exposed to the corruption, and generally do not last for long until using magic scarcely, and even then they end up corrupted. Corruption might turn to induce mutations. Hence, sorcerers don't want to be seen. Because of the corruption, magic would be seen as intolerable by the population, and thus government forbade it, especially as they don't like the idea of people around wielding powers themselves don't have.

Quote from: Turanil;771273Maybe gnomes, as a specie, are inured / immune to the corruption effects of what is necessary to develop magic. And maybe alchemy also has ways of keeping the corruption constrained. Humans who try to cast spells are fully exposed to the corruption, and generally do not last for long until using magic scarcely, and even then they end up corrupted. Corruption might turn to induce mutations. Hence, sorcerers don't want to be seen. Because of the corruption, magic would be seen as intolerable by the population, and thus government forbade it, especially as they don't like the idea of people around wielding powers themselves don't have.

Thanks for your contribution.
Also an interesting viewpoint. As of today the campaign is launched.

The adventurers started in the gnomish city of Preg as human wardens.
A kobold conspiracy (inspired by the Zobeck setting) has broken during the ClockWork festival. The bunch of official is still surprised by the event.

Meanwhile and far away the orcish army is preparing for war. The orc arcane user are working day and night to try to master the power of the rift. They have in mind a plot to secure a node settled in a yet unknown part of the toundra desert. They no nothing about Preg but one day they may rape and conquer the City of Craft & Arts.

@+++