Idea for Mordern Magic

[Stone]

Ok, I know the idea of a modern age compaign is nothing new. I just started trying to put together some ideas for a compaign and began to realize I am soon going to have an entire group of magic users on my hands. While I do not want to limit character choices, I do want to prevent my gaming group from taking over the world in short period of time. So here is what I have so far....

 

Point setting - 100 base + up to 50 points in disadvantages

Stats - double point cost for any base stat (STR - COM) over

20

Magic - In order to use magic, PC's/NPC's must purchase a

perk enabling them to use it.

Low Magic - 5pt, no more than 20 active points in a

spell.

Mage Blood - 10 pts, no more than 30 active points in

a spell

Mage Born - 15 pts, no more than 50 active points in

a spell.

 

Low Magic can be purchased with XP pts, but the PC

cannot upgrade later on. Mage Blood or Mage Born

must be purchased during character creation and

cannot be upgraded/downgraded at a later time.

 

World Setting - Magic does exists, but the mass populace is

unaware of its existance (hence the perks).

Those who are aware and/or capable of

using magic take great care in using it and

keeping it secret due to fear of the rest of

world becoming fearful of them and reacting

against them. There are some Mage Councils

that "govern" over geographic areas to

prevent mages from exposing magic of acting

too recklessly. They also can influence who

can and cannot receive training in magic.

 

Reason for the game - Not sure yet. Thats going to kind of

depend on what type of characters my

players make. No one is required to

make magic using characters, but I am

sure there be at least two in a group

of six.

 

Thoughts, suggestions, criticisms?

[tkdguy]

Have you checked out Mage: The Ascension? This may give you lots of ideas for your campaign, and it's set in the modern world.

[Stone]

My mistake. I forgot to mention that trying not to copy Mage: The Ascension as much as possible. While I do find WOD's game interesting, I do not like the clan/tribe/college aspect and the impending doom/madness/defeat aspect the game has. I do appreciate the suggestion though...thanks =)

[Grym]

At that power level, I would suggest Unisystem(All Flesh, Witchcraft, Buffy, etc.) or Unknown Armies before WoD. Witchcraft being a free dl at the Eden Studios site, you might be able to grab some ideas from there. I've always liked Eden's fiction, it is well written. It seems like I go around mentioning these in all sorts of threads, to the point where I may sound like a raving fanboy. I just consider myself a "conissuer" of the less well known systems. Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (book and BBC tv show), and the Underworld RPG are also good sources. I've been wanting to play in or run a setting like this for a long time, so I have a nice little collection of source material.

[Stone]

I'll check them out, thanks =)

[Black Rose]

While I get that you're trying not to use too much WoD info, may I suggest, just for the color, the Crafts book they put out (can't remember the name)? It had what I think the Trads should have been - self-contained worldviews and some interesting looks at magic traditions, but none of the "oh, and we used to rule the world and lift continents for fun, before those cursed Technocrats came along" shite that, IMO, bogs down the setting. Just a thought.

 

Also, take a look at Gurps Voodoo for some good subtle modern magic. Since both sides are using the exact same system, just calling it by different names, you don't have to worry about that, and the magic is cool and laid back.

[BlackSword]

I have often thought about a modern magic game similar to this idea (a few people know what magic is and that it realy exists). Since I have no time and don't know if anyone is interested I haven't gone to too much trouble to work on the actual setting. I have heard that GURPS Cabal has some good stuff on modern magic and secret societies.