Home-brew Setting House Rules

[ways and means]

I was thinking of running a homebrew setting for a game coming up one in a setting very similar to the Dresden verse but with one major difference magic is evil. To use magic you need to draw on chaos to help get past the natural order of the Universe and the more chaos you draw on the more you are warp until you become a monster. So the premise is that all the supernaturals vampires, werewolves, demons etc where once wizards who drew to hard on the forces of the universe. The PC will be playing either hunters tasked with destroying such abominations or as S013 the Special Magic Unit of the London Metropolitan Police, I am not sure yet.

Now the question is how do you make magic feel threatening and dangerous without making it impossible to use. I was thinking of letting wizards cast of a seperate corruption stress track and consequence tree and any consequences they deal themselves being permanent. So you can safely cast 4 times a day a scene but any more and you are going to destroy yourself pretty quickly. Does anyone have any ideas?     

[UmbraLux]

Now the question is how do you make magic feel threatening and dangerous without making it impossible to use. I was thinking of letting wizards cast of a seperate corruption stress track and consequence tree and any consequences they deal themselves being permanent. So you can safely cast 4 times a day a scene but any more and you are going to destroy yourself pretty quickly. Does anyone have any ideas?   

Have you considered using the Sponsored Magic rules?  When every spell grants a compel towards Chaos you've got the corrupting influence. 

The corruption stress track you mention could work also.  If so, I'd have each spell cause a point of corruption stress instead of mental.  It'll be slower corruption than compels - more manageable. 

How corrupting do you want it to be?

[ways and means]

Well I kind of wanted something that could mount up over time, so that if you aren't conservative with your casting you could end up turning yourself into a fiend for the rest of the party to destroy. So to cast you use the corruption track (take corruption stress) and if you decided to take consequences then they are permanent (separate from normal consequences) and represent scaling deformities or madness. This makes casting beyond your stress track a very dramatic dangerous action and adds to the horror aspect.  I was thinking of using the feeding dependency mechanic (doing corruption stress) for the use of other powers like strength, speed etc.

[sinker]

You could also do the "every x violations gives an aspect change" like with lawbreaker. Or maybe x violations per unit of time if you want the progression to be a little less consistent.

[Sanctaphrax]

How about, whenever you exceed X limit for safe spellcasting you are forced to buy a Power. Maybe you can stop it with a Discipline roll or something, maybe not.

Might even be fun for PCs, as long as you make sure they don't make low-Refresh spellcasting characters. Instant NPCdom isn't great.

[HeadWound]

I might add a corruption stress track that fills up from backlash, instead of the physical or mental stress tracks (as you lose control of the magical forces, they corrupt you). The only way to clear the stress track once a box is filled is with a heavy duty thaumaturgical ceremony that can also threaten you with backlash.

Make the stress track sized with conviction, or even just a set length.

[Mrmdubois]

How about, whenever you exceed X limit for safe spellcasting you are forced to buy a Power. Maybe you can stop it with a Discipline roll or something, maybe not.

Might even be fun for PCs, as long as you make sure they don't make low-Refresh spellcasting characters. Instant NPCdom isn't great.

Oh, I like that.  Or allow them to clear a consequence on their corruption track by buying a power.  Also if you go that route just make sure the powers suitably alter the character's appearance.

[ways and means]

Oh, I like that.  Or allow them to clear a consequence on their corruption track by buying a power.  Also if you go that route just make sure the powers suitably alter the character's appearance.

That's brilliant I will probably go with that allowing pc to clear the corruption track by buying a refresh of power. 

[Sanctaphrax]

Maybe also let people swap out non-corrupt Powers and Stunts, so that you can prolong their inevitable slide into NPCdom.

The threat of losing all your Refresh can be fun, but I doubt you want it to actually happen. So it's best to give people lots of ways to struggle a bit longer.

[studer]

ways: have you read any of L. E. Modesitt, Jr's Recluce novels? There are chaos wizards that work like you are suggesting, order wizards with subtle magics of great long term impact, and a few folks that manage to combine the two. Might be of interest for ideas on the why and how of the magic in your game.