Sorcery Repair Attempt #23897

[RPGPundit]

What if: Sorcery, as I said in other posts, is supposed to be a kind of crappy "weak" power, but the problem is that its too easy to abuse.

What if the power of sorcery, being "power of shadow" had its power level depend not on the user himself so much as the power level of place he was casting it?
You could rank each shadow as having different qualities or levels of "sorcery power", no-mana, low-mana, mid-mana, high-mana, and just how complex and how much oomph a spell can have would depend on where it was being cast?

There could also be a way to factor in the alleged superiority of Logrus-users in sorcery into this: the Logrus might allow you to "hang" spell energy from higher-mana shadows and cast them in lower-mana shadows.

RPGPundit

[Klaus]

I recall a campaign where something similar happened: Logrus users could use Logrus tendrils to reach into adjacent shadows and draw magic from them, allowing them to cast spells in no-magic shadows.

I think that you solution would go a long way to restrain Sorcery. If low magic shadows are common enough, it might even make Sorcery too expensive.

The method I'm familiar with makes spells take longer to cast depending on the scope of the effect, both initially and to release lynchpins. A spell to create a tidal wave of lava is very strong, but if you have to spend a day casting it and stand around for thirty seconds concentrating to release the lynchpins, the odds of someone shooting you in the face and ruining the spell go way up.

[Ivanhoe]

For a Logrus users, one could consider Sorcery to be a special use of Logrus tendrils where one would create a temporary tendril stretched between a place in a shadow and another. The user only has a little tickle to do in order for the tension to become a force. For instance, one could create one between a retreat and oneself. On the first notice of danger, blam, teleport. A link between a furnace (or a sun) and a predetermined place provides a decent fireball. Sorcery becomes then just a matter of triggers. One could imagine a tendril left in a place as a booby-trap.

For Pattern users, Sorcery can easily be considered as a special use of the shadow pockets advanced power. I mean, I do have a flamethrower in this shadow pocket and it is working fine, thanks. Sure I can not bring it back and use it as a weapon but I surely can make the flame come here. Burning gases are still burning gases. They can also provide a retreat from where you will have the time to safely use a trump.

I usually dislike Sorcery because for most of what Erik and Zelazny intended it, I consider it included in the other powers. All it takes is a bit of imagination and a little flexibility from the GM. I prefer to have my players designing a clever way to get an effect from the powers they already have than them saying "I use mystical power to destroy this thing"

[scottishstorm]

There may be something to this rating of shadows and "sorcery power" thing.  In addition, there may be a bridge here to put tha sorcery DRPG power into perspective.

Imagine, for a moment, that (base) sorcery stays as a 15 point powers and shadows are given a sorcery rating of 0-15.  Then, each character may have their own "sorcery power" of (points spent in sorcery) divided by 5.  That is 3 for base sorcery, and enough to give a good variety for utility and have a bit of combat application.

From here, a character could get point-spent items specially to raise his orher "sorcery power".  It could even be agreed that an effective increase of 2 points in sorcery power is "free" with conjuration.  Major powers might also give an effective increase in sorcery power at a set rate for basic & advance level.  Additionally, it'd be possible to put, say, 40 points in sorcery and have a base of 8 sorcery power (though remember the upper limits are set by the location as well)

I'm just throwing out math here, I know.  My point, if I have one, is that some system could be implemented so that a sorcerer has some competent versatility was sorcery as a "weak power".  Ideally, maxing out sorcery power would be cost prohibitive and probably only seen in NPCs or PCs willing to sacrifice general power in favour of a sorcery-based concept (*).

(*) Note, I advocate putting more points into sorcery here to indicate a sorcerer's potential for power, but not necessarily reflecting skill.  Hypothetically, there could be two characters (one with 15 points spent in sorcery, another with 30).  In a shadow with "magic power" rating of 3, both characters have the exact same capabilities.

Obviously, this is (very) raw here and none of it may even be considerable.  Just felt like babbling.    I do like the feel of magic for an Amber game, but I don't like the "D&D-styled wizard" as an Amber DRPG character.  I think those are best used as npcs.



Additional note:

In respect to npcs, and maybe even a few PC concepts, I see no problem with characters having an intrinsic modifier to "sorcery power" built within them for a specific shadow.  The evil baddie archmage may have +5 because of the circumstances of his birth... he's drank the blood of a god... whatever.

[jibbajibba]

didn't we talk to this point back on the Alternative sorcery sticky link back in July? I mentioned every spell needing a power source ranked 1-10 with the logrus and hte pattern as possibles but with places like the font of power being high up there.

[scottishstorm]

didn't we talk to this point back on the Alternative sorcery sticky link back in July? I mentioned every spell needing a power source ranked 1-10 with the logrus and hte pattern as possibles but with places like the font of power being high up there.

Quite possibly.  I only registered in September, however.  Forgive noobish repetition!