Post originally by Decurio at 2004-02-13 11:29:02
Converted from Phorums BB System
The first character I ever ran in an RPG was a magic-user back in the early 80's in a local ADnD campaign and have been hooked on magic-using characters ever since. The problem with "magic" as its been presented in some RPGs-not all-is mechanistic at best. While I enjoyed playing MUs I never really liked the magic system; it seemed to have had all the 'magic' drained right out of it. There have been systems which presented magic in a way I really enjoyed: Ars Magica, Pendragon, Stormbringer (later Elric!, then Stormbringer again), and Call of Cthulhu from what I hear TROS also has a very interesting magic system that I haven't seen...yet
. Some of the above systems were mechanistic but made up for it in setting and mood. Magic is supposed to be dangerous, not well-understood, and a little mysterious, not an exercise in slot-loading.
After running a campaign since the game was released, and having two players running sorcerer ("scholar") characters, I can say with confidence, I love sorcery in Conan the RPG.
I could go into detail about the game mechanic merits of the way the authors have treated magic (and there are many); in brief, sorcerers draw power from a variety of (mostly outside) sources: drugs (various distallations of the lotus..especially Black Lotus), other people directly (you are able to drain helpless victims by touch), from other sorcerers in a "war of souls" which feels like psionic combat (we're back to that 'primacy of the Self' thing again), human sacrifice, and the list goes on...rules for insanity, corruption, demonic pacts, etc., are all in there, but the real deal-clencher, despite the long list of colorful goodiesthat make playing sorcerers so damn COLOURFUL, is that magic equates to the magician forcing his will upon the world at large; sorcery boils down to the primacy of the Ego and the Self at the expense of the External. The sorcery system in Conan captures that feeling very, very well and it echoes Howard's narrative presentation of magic and magicians.
The rest of the game is easily as entertaining as the magic system. This is one gem of a game and you would be doing yourself a huge disservice if you didn't pick it up. Its well worth the price!
Linear Mode
