In the course of the game I’ve been running, our Barbarian has described a pretty awesome place of origin.
In the course of the game I’ve been running, our Barbarian has described a pretty awesome place of origin. I’m thinking of making it a potential destination, and to differentiate it from the rest of the world, give it a full Swords & Wizardry makeover. Specifically, I’d like to put a twist on the magic of the Bard and the Cleric. In the land of barbarians, magic doesn’t simply “work”. Sorcerers are evil, and bring plague and suffering! They sacrifice princesses to dark gods to power their evil magics! I’m thinking something like a move, triggered on them casting/playing.
For the Cleric, it could be a chance that the spell fails because their god isn’t present here, or perhaps an outsider listening in and allowing the spell to be cast, but with a twist (Demon? Lovecraftian horror? Who knows?!).
For the Bard, perhaps a “deal with the devil” could be in order, where some local outsider (see above) is willing to give them back the power to cast, but with a price.
Is this the right way to go? I’m a big fan of the S&W genre (Conan, Thongor, etc), and I’d like to get some of that into DW rather than switching over to Barbarians of Lemuria or something while we’re in the Barbarian’s homeland. Do you guys and gals have any ideas? Have you done something like this before? Maybe a compendium class or three is the way to go? Should I just do this in fiction, moves be damned?
(For reference, the party is a Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, and Thief, and I’m not worried about the Barbarian and the Thief fitting in)