I make no apologies for my blatant rip off of something I
saw on Babylon 5 years ago (or the name I've given it). There was a
drug that allowed normal people to use psychic powers. I think they just called it
'Dust'. The Psi Corps
needed to keep it under control because the raw psychic power was lethal to
them. I adapted the idea for my
current GURPS campaign. It's still
rough, but I like it.
Some creatures that have innate magical abilities possess
have a mana gland that hunters can harvest.
It's this gland that alchemists use to make the malgic concoction. It is a difficult process and illegal. Mage Guilds will hunt anyone who is
creating malgic. But because of the high
profit and the power is can grant, malgic continues to be made even though the
risk is great.
Malgic allows a normal person to use mana in a raw
form. They don't cast spells as much
pull raw mana from the environment. Only
those with a strong will have any sort of control. Most users become open vessels that the mana
pours into and essentially becomes a mana bomb.
This can have several horrible affects on mages. The following is a short
list of things I've come up with, if you can think of other effects please add
them in the comments. Like I said still
working this out.
1. Mana explosion.
Mages take 1d6 damage/magery level.
2. Mana burn. Mages
are burned by the intensity of the raw mana unleashed. For the next 1d6 weeks the mage will be
unable to cast any spell that is not instantaneous due to the intense pain.
3. Mana void. The
area becomes a mana dead zone.
4. Mana surge. All
spells work at maximum capacity and use maximum fatigue.
5. Mana rift. Tears
the plane and allows passage.
6. Mana bomb. Combine
1,3 and 5.
PDF
Intriguing approach and very intuitive.
ReplyDeleteMaybe:
Mana fusion - Under pressure the mana is forced into the very being of the mage, who thus becomes a highly valuable, a potential resource for any who would attempt extraction...
Mana turbulence - The flows of indrawn mana interact in a manner which spirals out of control, altering the spell being cast to another similar spell, even one not usually available to the mage.
Mana inversion - The mana is compacted under pressure, producing rare variants. The mage is permanently subject to mana turbulence, while the surrounding area is also contaminated, affecting any mages casting there in the same way; both mage and area become interesting subjects of study.
Groovy concept!
ReplyDeleteMalgic Dependency: Must use a certain number of doses of Malgic every day at minimum or begin deteriorating.
ReplyDeleteMalgic Sensitivity: Become weakened or paralyzed in the presence of malgic / especially magical creatures.
Malgic Aversion: Phobia of Malgic use, must pass willpower roll to use it every time.
Wide Malgic Pipe: Must pass willpower roll to avoid using too much Malgic every time you use some, which results in waste but with the same chance of mana-related harms as if used normally.