Interest check: Symbaroum

Who would be interested in this setting?

I have made modifications to the Corruption rules, which now greatly discourage mystics from slinging spells around in combat. If you don't want your PC to become an NPC Abomination, a several-hour long ritual is the way to go.

I've played Symbaroum a few times over Google Hangouts. It's a decent setting but the system is a bit clunky - rules at kinda scattered about.

How did you modify Corruption? It was already pretty caster-adverse.

Yes, but in a very strange way for my tastes:

1. You gain a permanent corruption just for knowing each spell - unless it belongs to your tradition, then none. So what? You don't learn spells outside of your tradition.
2. You gain a permanent corruption whenever your total exceeds half your Resolute - essentially limiting you to a few spells per action scene, unless in dire emergency. The idea is not against my likes, but too flat and boring.
3. All temporary corruption goes away at the end of each scene, no lingering effect or long-term self-control necessary. Too easy for my tastes.

My version:

1. No corruption for knowing powers or rituals. - knowledge itself does not corrupt, the act of disrupting nature does
2. Within your tradition, 1 permanent corruption for using a power, none for conducting a ritual.
3. Outside of your tradition, 2 permanent corruption for using a power, 1 for conducting a ritual. - yes, this is basically as easily avoidable as earlier, but you can learn any power or ritual, and they'll be tempting you to use them
4. No extra permanent when exceeding Corruption Threshold, 1. and 2. are strict enough.
5. I raised Corruption Threshold and Abomination Threshold considerably, but lowered the dissipation speed of temporary corruption considerably, too - you can take more, but then you'd better refrain yourself from accumulating more for a while.
6. Temporary corruption is based on the level of the power or ritual you used. - the more you disrupt nature, the more corruption it uses to retaliate

So with 2. you gain a permanent corruption everytime you use a power? So casters can cast like 10 spells in their lifetime?

Or just for the first time using any new power?

Ok, I forgot one important thing:

7. You can cast a power as a ritual to imbue an item, for one use. Since in my version more temp corruption is accumulated at each casting and it 'evaporates' slowly, this seriously limits the amount that can be kept ready at any time (without gaining heaps of temp corruption): 1 or 2. These can be invoked as an action at any time the item is at hand.

Taking all this into account, casters can cast about 20 powers spontaneously in their lifetime before reaching a level of permanent corruption that obviously marks them as tainted and get hunted down, and about double that amount before turning into an Abomination.

However, two things: they get no permanent corruption from performing rituals within their tradition, so that's not limited in the long run. Also, according to the math (which is not here), they can prepare two novice level powers or one adept level power into an item via rituals, per week, also without accumulating permanent corruption, as in 7.

This whole thing I made up is supposed to strongly push mystics in a direction where magic is rituals, taking hours of chanting, meditating, drawing symbols, burning incense, etc.; and not a superhero power that can be used casually in action scenes. Or, only in a real life-or-death situations, and even then with grim consequences.

Yeah, I see what you're doing there. Interesting. Have you playtested this at the table?

Nope. I just cooked it up. That's why the interest check: I'd like to see it in action. And probably adjust, as all this is theory so far.

Cool. I'm in. Dark Fantasy ftw!

Ok, I'll wait a few days to see if anyone else is interested.

I threw together the changes I made

Since interest is really low, I'm going to start the game at another site with already two players. It is not a secret, but I don't want to divert other players from this site, so I'm going to send the link to you, Qralloq, in pm.