I prefer the magic of The Witcher novels where the first thing most sorceress do is glam themselves up permanently to look like how Triss Merigold and Yennifer appear. 

Russian Roulette magic is fun for short games, but long campaigns need that player to be an asset and not a wasted effort with an annoyed player.  But that's just our way.  Your table, your rules.

I always found it ironic that "spell misfires" come from the same 'system' that spawned Vancian Magic in D&D which has no such mechanics.

I'm in the camp that says "Magic should be Dangerous"... BUT... I'd add a caveat. I want the *really* good Magicians to be able to 'Ride the Tiger' if they're good. This is to directly address the issue of longevity mentioned above.

The root needs of this narrative requires 1) Spellcasting is a skill and *must* be rolled. 2) Spellcasters should have means to contend with difficulties through ritual/gear/externalities of preparation or training 3) Results should/could have degrees of success or even failure.

Talislanta's spellcasting is close to this. All spellcasting is a skill check. Each school has bonuses/penalties to different types of effects. But the Caster sets the level of the spell, with that level being the penalty to cast vs. their skill rating. The system uses a universal table with degrees of success cooked in. So a good spellcaster can frontload their spells and be very dangerous - if they're willing to take the risk. I've had players nuke their characters into ash "playing the odds", but I've also had them take risky moves that pulled the party's ass out of the fire. Or you can play it safe to make it virtually impossible fail... with very predictable results.

Exalted 2e is a surprisingly not woke game with a good system but a bad setting. Use Quixalted Extended for 2e's setting.

QuoteI prefer the magic of The Witcher novels where the first thing most sorceress do is glam themselves up permanently to look like how Triss Merigold and Yennifer appear.

For nerdism sake: while glamours are definitely in Witcher sorcereress repertoir - their general good and sexy look is more actual biomantic transformation, on material level, not mere illusion for senses, and it's done yet in schools by their mentors to fit proper expectations.

Some in my group, including me, have been using Microlite20 and Microlite2020 as a basis for creating our own rules and they have worked pretty good. When we need something more 'crunchy' (I still don't really know what that means... does it just mean more complex and confusing so that rules lawyers have an advantage???) we have been playing Savage Worlds which I really like. Savage Worlds is a nice balance between the more typical complex rules and rules-lite. We still play 5e because we all have invested the time and money to figure it out, but I don't see us buying into anything else from WotC.

In my system, "The Arcane Confabulation", you can do a lot to mitigate the risk of spell backfires if you put the time and effort in.  Particularly drawing ambient power before casting and ritually cleansing the aether after casting but even taking time between spells helps as the natural flow of the aether will eventually cleanse itself.

Quote from: weirdguy564 on November 22, 2022, 12:47:46 PM
I prefer the magic of The Witcher novels where the first thing most sorceress do is glam themselves up permanently to look like how Triss Merigold and Yennifer appear. 

Russian Roulette magic is fun for short games, but long campaigns need that player to be an asset and not a wasted effort with an annoyed player.  But that's just our way.  Your table, your rules.

But even in the Witcher books - There are real risks to channeling too much magic. The sorcerers don't default a whole lot to big boom D&D style combat magic as their go to.

This is reflected in an aside in the books where they talk about how the mages/sorcerers daily bread and butter is actually earned through the practice of Alchemy; selling cures, potions, and elixirs. Most of which is gussied up by adding meaningless mysticism so the plebs believe you need to be a mage to do it - preserving their trade from being widely practiced and driving prices down!

I believe that there is a risk/reward balance RPG's could do a better job of striking for magic users.

I do like the concept of a Alchemist/Sorcerer - doing most things through alchemy and only going to channeling magic when the risk calls for it. But it would be a trick to 'balance' in a game. Even the Witcher RPG breaks out the way sorcerers are portrayed in the book to separate alchemist, sorcerer, and doctor roles.

Quote from: jeff37923 on July 20, 2020, 04:55:06 AM

Quote from: S'mon;1140142PHB-DMG-MM really are not. Nor are the early campaign adventures. It only went full Woke when Jeremy Crawford got to turn FR into his Magical Realm with Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. Mearls is a weak left-liberal not an SJW.

Hmmm, I dunno. It was Mearls who did the infamous tweet where he fired all of us.

Funny, I don't "feel" fired?

Quote from: 1989 on July 20, 2020, 01:21:53 PM

Quote from: Orphan81;1140776There was no "Homosexual and trans agenda" in the players Handbook. There was a boiler plate hamfisted sidebar to cover asses.

There's a lot of woke garbage in the world, but the players Handbook is not it.

Acknowledging gay and trans people exist is not "an agenda".

I don't believe in transgenderism. I won't use the pronouns they wish for me to use. I don't believe in celebrating mental illness or sodomy.

I don't want sodomy forced into every adventure I could potentially buy as is now the official policy at WotC.

It is very much an agenda -- an agenda to get society to tolerate, accept, and now celebrate. This is not news to anyone, certainly not to anyone old enough to be a parent.

I completely agree.  Bravo!!!

You're not any better off with Paizo products, either.

Quote from: Shasarak on July 20, 2020, 05:43:05 PM
I remember back in the old days of roleplaying when there was just an empty space where you could write your characters sex.

Ah, those racist bigoted good times.

That's my preference.  Just write whatever you want to on your character sheet.  It's your character.  It's yours to run.  Have fun with that.

I'd rather not be preached to on such subjects, by a rules book.

Here are a few fantasy games that I like, but no hint of real world politics.   And they're all free to download.

1.  Pocket Fantasy.  Super rules lite, and free. It's all about playing an RPG using just a single D6.  And it works.  Since it's free, just download it.

2.  Mini-Six Bare Bones.  Another rules lite game that is free.  This time it's classic Star Wars D6 rules.  I'll admit that I find the magic system a bit underwhelming.  It's easy enough to change.  In my case I prefer having weaker effects using lowered difficulty numbers rather than the fixed spells in the book.  I also love it for a set of sword dueling rules called Dueling Blades by Griffon Publishing you can download.

3.  Shinobi & Samurai.  Free rulebook again, but this time we're using D&D rules in a Japanese samurai setup.  The game is a bit light on background culture and has no assumed setting.  It could be 1500's Japan.  It could be an alternative universe.  It could be a far away land in your D&D universe.  It's a bit too D&D for me, but maybe you like that stuff. 

pathfinder 1e

Quote from: Jaeger on December 22, 2022, 04:01:41 PM

Quote from: weirdguy564 on November 22, 2022, 12:47:46 PM
I prefer the magic of The Witcher novels where the first thing most sorceress do is glam themselves up permanently to look like how Triss Merigold and Yennifer appear. 

Russian Roulette magic is fun for short games, but long campaigns need that player to be an asset and not a wasted effort with an annoyed player.  But that's just our way.  Your table, your rules.

But even in the Witcher books - There are real risks to channeling too much magic. The sorcerers don't default a whole lot to big boom D&D style combat magic as their go to.

This is reflected in an aside in the books where they talk about how the mages/sorcerers daily bread and butter is actually earned through the practice of Alchemy; selling cures, potions, and elixirs. Most of which is gussied up by adding meaningless mysticism so the plebs believe you need to be a mage to do it - preserving their trade from being widely practiced and driving prices down!

I believe that there is a risk/reward balance RPG's could do a better job of striking for magic users.

I do like the concept of a Alchemist/Sorcerer - doing most things through alchemy and only going to channeling magic when the risk calls for it. But it would be a trick to 'balance' in a game. Even the Witcher RPG breaks out the way sorcerers are portrayed in the book to separate alchemist, sorcerer, and doctor roles.

This I think is a critical point. If you want to do the whole "magic is unpredictable and likely to blow up in your face" thing and still keep wizards as a player class, there need to be other useful things for them to do that aren't casting spells. Modiphius Conan 2d20 tries this with its system of "petty enchantments" (which are things like firebombs, sleeping potions, etc), but due to the generally shoddy way that game writes it's magic rules, it falls down in execution.

Quote from: squirewaldo on December 22, 2022, 11:05:19 AM
Some in my group, including me, have been using Microlite20 and Microlite2020 as a basis for creating our own rules and they have worked pretty good.

Slightly off-topic, but have you used the optional FEATS rule in your games? If so, would you mind sharing any that you've come up with?  A couple of members of my group and I are able to come up with them, but a few other members of the group would appreciate more of a shopping list of available feats if possible.