HAX the profit system ---> Magic Systems

[jamesdigriz]

So I have fallen in love with the profit system, and have been thinking about hacking it into a dark fantasy/future fantasy setting.

My beginning ideas run something along the lines of:

Wizard: INT Based
Is spellbook/spell tablet based.
Can have up to charges spells prepared, can sub them out over night.
Spends Charges to cast spell (as defined by spell)
Spells are purchased as upgrades.

Sorcerer:
Could be a physical/Cha based
Spends rations/endurance/humanity to cast.
Limited to spells upto primary stat potential.

Gageteer/Totemist:
INT or ADP based
Tied to stat potential
Spells have their own charges, but are external and on a critical fail stop working until they have a chance to fix them... or explode?

Not sure I care about divine or arcane, but would probably look at something like Savage Worlds for inspiration for spells and bonuses for burning more resources to cast spells.

Just curious if anyone else had started thinking down these lines as well.

[ericbright2002]

I thought about this as well here: http://www.redmarketsrpg.com/LifeLines/index.php?topic=291.0

But the big problem was integrating the mechanics into the setting.  It's such a tight fit between theme and mechanics in Red Markets already that it's hard to translate over into a new system.  What is bounty in a fantasy world?  Why do you need it?  Here's the document I started before abandoning the project:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rn2sr5hcmcanumd/Red%20Markets%20Fantasy%20Conversion.pdf?dl=0

Would love to hear where you take it.

[jamesdigriz]

So a buddy and I have been kicking around the an idea for a while. Basically it is a near future fantasy world where at a critical point in the past (think great old one awaking), all the high level characters (both good and evil) had to go into epic battle to save the world. In a classic curse your inevitable betrayal moment, the bad guys turn on the good guys, kill them all, and take control of the world.

They then have centuries to figure out how to remain in control of the world, and it ends up pretty much Red Markets where Jobbers are just fighting to get by. It was more the profit system fit in to what I had been thinking about more than just wanting magic in Red Markets.

Instead of repressing magic, we kind of want a world where it and tech developed hand and hand. I also have this mental image of a Holy Avenger that has been sitting in the basement of some mega corp, driven insane as it is both sentient and surrounded by evil on all sides. It is also helpless to do anything as the last LG Paladin that could have wielded it died out long ago, and 99% of the sparks it sees of goodness are trounced by the poop around it. 

[CodeBlue]

someone on FB spoke about Red Markets: Dwarf Fortress.  and now I totally want to run that with magic like this or similar...

[Freebird]

I've kicked around similar thoughts, with a project based around imagining what life would be like in a typical D&D world for level-zero characters living in the wake of a 20th-level D&D adventuring party's triumphant campaign.

The old style (3rd-edition and earlier) D&D arcane magic system actually lends itself very well to the Profit System. Magic items like scrolls and wands already have charges that you expend by using them. Plus the concept of a spell component pouch full of rare ingredients (that mostly got ignored in play to expedite the game) is a method of imposing cost upon the use of any magic spell.

My recommendation is to keep the focus on economic scarcity and a single currency of cost that affects everything. Even if you want to go "high magic" and have magical stuff be widely available, make sure that every way to use it has a cost.

[CodeBlue]

I haven't read the full thread but here's how I view it

your tough spot is Mage, which gives you one set of bars for magic usage, and you lose 1 refresh.

You buy spells to work with at perhaps slightly less than buying specs and firearms, with standard upkeep, because you need components or a special diet.  All spells go off of the 10 charges, so clairvoyance (using Ubiq to contact someone) and an energy bolt (firearm attack), both use that same amount, Magic is not refreshed during a job.  So it gives a bit of versatility, with the counter that you can't refresh it very easily during a job.  Perhaps there's a potion out there that allows that, but I'd give it a cost similar to Suppressin-K

[Teapot]

Depending on how important you want magic to be and what the limits of tech are you can resin a lot of the gear as spells. So in a D&D world, Ubiq specs and laptop get smoothed together as "mind magic." Mechanically the same, can talk to people far away, can better find loot and such, now the upkeep is just ritual animal parts and herbs.

I like @CodeBlue's idea of making magic a spot but I'm sot sure how to balance it. A lot would depend on what you want it to do.

[CodeBlue]

I think the way to do it in a simple way is to make magic ubiquitous, the ten charges of magic can be used for anything that needs charges.  attack magic is represented by firearms, but the charges are knocked off of the magic gauge,  first aid for healing, again not using the med kit but the magic gauge.  Could also work for sneaking and lockpicking.

So you do need the skill involved but it gives you more versatility.  And you can also have things that take stun and kill from magic but not from firearms.   

In this setup, I think removing two refresh or one refresh and added upkeep