Hi all-
I have a “hack” question for you. I’m working on a few major changes to Blades in the Brokenlands based on initial feedback. The biggest is to create formal character playbooks instead of 20+ “archetypes.” Part of this is limiting choices for magic type playbooks. Right now, I’m thinking about organizing around the three “areas” of hermetic magic + sympathetic magic (4 total). So:
Alchemy
Divination
Evocation / Theurgy / Shamanism (using good & bad spirits)
Sympathetic magic
My question — Sympathetic magic is a horrible name! Any thoughts on what I should call it? Witchcraft is too loaded of a term. Primitive magic? Nexus?
what qualifies as sympathetic magic? There are a few other common names for lesser workings such as Hedge Magic, Petty Magic, Breath Magic, or even just The craft.
Is it [horrible]? The term “arcane sympathy” gets more than one mention in the Advanced section of my hack, also I think I still mention nexus (nexii?!) somewhere too. The strange pluralization might earn that a term change – but then again maybe not, since it has a ring to it I like 🙂
My point: sometimes the word I want is the word I want – and when it’s not an actual term I will simply define it and continue using it.
It follows two rules – similarity (imitating the effect) and connection (stronger effect if there is a tangible connection). Think needles and voodoo doll.
Mark Cleveland Massengale oops 😉 It may fit perfectly well in your context but doesn’t feel right for this one. Is yours cyberpunk?
Perhaps you could use an “ad hoc” term, like the Leech from Blades. Like Linker or Chainer, Eyer or Dollmaker.
What are the names of the other booklets?
(So that we can check the tone of the terms you’re using.)
Andrea Serafini it is high / heroic fantasy, so playbooks have fairly vanilla title. For the magi, it is: Alchemist, Oracle, Theurgist, and ???
You could toy around the terms curse, fetish, bewitching. (Bewitcher is pretty cool, but i fount out it’s also the porn parody of “the witcher”)
Perhaps ‘resonance magic’ as you are looking for some connection to make things work.
Eric Brunsell ah ok
yep, Runners in the Shadows
Mark Cleveland Massengale yeah – sympathetic works for that because it is a modern “sounding” word.
Wesley Williams Andrea Serafini thanks for those suggestions. The comment about an ad hoc term got me thinking more about tying the name to culture since they would each have thier own twist on how magic is done (eg every culture had unique divinatiom approaches). So, the Esharran spellcasters would be called Negasu and focus more on binding demons to do magic effects and the Val-Tiva called Vissandi and harness the winds of life, etc.