So this is going to be a small series of articles I write while I'm finishing up the pathfinder campaign within Synthacrosia. I have grand ambitions for the eventual complete world! Grand I tell you! — Me, writing this article
Rules of Magic
What I want to cover today, is
Magic. Seeing as my campaign, Tower of Souls, is a pathfinder campaign, the magic has followed pathfinder's system of magic. That being, a little bit of a
clusterfuck. In pathfinder, your magic comes from your class. Wizards learn it, sorcerers are born with it. Druids get it from nature, clerics and oracles get it from gods. Some classes commune with the occult for their magic powers. This is also ignoring the amazing feats that physical combatants can pull off, rivaling the magic that casters can do. It is so ridiculously
varied, which works perfectly for a tabletop RPG! However, it makes writing a cohesive system, especially for a first timer, very difficult.
So lets take a look at this world, and see what we can do about this magic problem.
Problem 1
Everyone's dead
First big problem about magic in Synthacrosia. How do you deal with the fact that everyone has died, and has arrived in this unknown place within purgatory? No two people have to come from the same place. Everyone's lives before they died could've been full of different kinds of magical phenomenon. If someone is born with latent magical energy, if it's in their blood, do they still have that power when they arrive in purgatory? And those with arcane knowledge, how does that magic even work -- would it continue to work within purgatory?
Problem 2
They're too powerful
Second problem, with the beginning of my story. I had my players start at level 8 -- now, if you've never played Pathfinder before, you might not realize how powerful level 8 is. Pathfinder maxes out at level 20, a level most campaigns never reach. Most commonly a campaign will have characters start either at level 1, or at level 5. Campaigns that start at level 1 often peter out when you hit the level 8-10 range; level 5 campaigns make it a little farther. This means that the characters I started everyone with in this world came into being with some considerable power.
Lets look at these two problems together. If I want to create a new magical system, I'm going to need to figure out where the characters get the power from, and whether or not they need to learn it. The other problem, is the start of the story happens pretty quick. People arrive, get processed, get into a fight, and are thrust out into the world.
So, onward to the solution.
The bracelets
Every single resident in Synthacrosia has a bracelet marking them. The person arrives, a little clockwork man leads them through
Processing, and they're marked with a crystal bracelet upon their dominant wrist. It, to me, is a perfect system of granting the superhuman powers of magic. Hell, I think it'd even work to give the combat and melee folk their considerable power.
It's already broken down into two sub types, as well.
Basic
There are the basic bracelets, for the regular common folk. This bracelet is dull, and barely glows. It essentially grants no powers, though I'm sure I could find a way for it to do something.
Vibrant
The other type is the
Vibrant bracelet. This one, I built to give extra bonus powers to the characters in the story. The glow brilliantly, and clearly indicate the wearer is powerful.
Here's my idea. The characters appear at the same time, at the bottom of Synthacrosia within the
Coalescent Dome, just as in my pathfinder campaign. However, instead of being powerful from the beginning, each character is just a regular person that died at some point in their life. Maybe their life experiences lean towards the arcane (they were a scholar, a professor, a scientist), or maybe they lean towards a melee fighter (soldier, guard, blacksmith). Whatever the case, everyone is
regular when they arrive.
Then, instead of very quickly moving through the
Coalescent Dome, they get to spend time here. I'm thinking of creating a small town, or community of "non marked" people. People who have arrived at Synthacrosia, but have never gone through processing. Here I can start to weave in stories or whispers of the bracelets, and of
Processing. Once I've built up the story enough, I can have the characters finally start their journey.
They'll gain their bracelets, become marked as Vibrants, and be immediately thrust into confrontation. I want them to have to panic, and be surprised by their powers. They'll just barely make it out of the initial confrontation alive, and then find out that they're now stuck in the wasteland of
The Floor of Strength. They'll roam floor 1, learning of their powers at a slower pace than the pathfinder campaign took.
Footnotes
This was a pretty rambly article I wrote in one draft. I think I'll leave it as it is as well; this is mostly for me to get words down, so I don't forget it. However, if there's people reading this, let me know what you think! Does this plan sound good to you?
I'm likely going to do a part 2 to this, where I dive deep into
how the bracelet gives the user their power. Where does the energy come from? How do you learn to control it? I'm excited to see where this takes me, and hope to reach a satisfying answer.
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