- Joined
- May 15, 2017
- Messages
- 7,518
- Reaction score
- 19,301
The question is - how much does a mage charge for his services when they reduce his ability to do magic?
so, this can be in any setting, and probably a number of systems, but it came to my mind in the context of using Mythras to do a Shadowrun setting. My intention is to use the Sorcery rules as built in Mythras, because I like them a lot, because I'm lazy a lot, and because they do a pretty good job of emulating SR magic with some constraints.
With that having been said, I was looking at Enchant, and how a Person of Means might use a mage to cast spell resistance on him, and then keep it up via Enchant. This reduces the mage's magic points by the cost of the Enchant and the spell (1 for enchant, 1 for spell, and probably 1 or more for other aspects). Lets say it's Spell Resistance. 1 for Enchant, 1 for Spell Resistance, and 1 for increasing the Magnitude (he can get it to a 6, which will block spells of 6 or less magnitude).
Now he's reduced his ability to cast spells by, say, 1/5 (he's got 15 magic points). How much does he charge?
My gut feeling past the "what the market will bear" is "One day's wage per day of enchanted spell running on you". So if he farms out all his magic points on enchants, he's effectively fully rented out. He's sitting pretty and all he has to do is precisely nothing. He tracks payments (credit sticks and automatic deposits, etc), but he can live pretty damn well like this.
now enter extralegal operatives (aka shadowrunners). They like these guys too, but they also know about them, and need to eliminate a target who is using a mage wage slave. This becomes a vulnerability to the Person of Means. The wage slave can be bribed or offed. He might spend some cash on bodyguards.
Now the price of doing business starts going up. He's gotta protect himself after all. Person of Means wants to make his mage wage slave immune to bribery, so he pays him quite a bit more, maybe gets him some illegal stim packs and that trid porn star he likes.
I guess for me this is a thought experiment on the rental model for one's magic points. It has sort of fascinating implications for an economy, at least in my mind. even low level mages could make a pretty decent living like this. It's sort of like the wizard version of a bodyguard, I suppose.
so, this can be in any setting, and probably a number of systems, but it came to my mind in the context of using Mythras to do a Shadowrun setting. My intention is to use the Sorcery rules as built in Mythras, because I like them a lot, because I'm lazy a lot, and because they do a pretty good job of emulating SR magic with some constraints.
With that having been said, I was looking at Enchant, and how a Person of Means might use a mage to cast spell resistance on him, and then keep it up via Enchant. This reduces the mage's magic points by the cost of the Enchant and the spell (1 for enchant, 1 for spell, and probably 1 or more for other aspects). Lets say it's Spell Resistance. 1 for Enchant, 1 for Spell Resistance, and 1 for increasing the Magnitude (he can get it to a 6, which will block spells of 6 or less magnitude).
Now he's reduced his ability to cast spells by, say, 1/5 (he's got 15 magic points). How much does he charge?
My gut feeling past the "what the market will bear" is "One day's wage per day of enchanted spell running on you". So if he farms out all his magic points on enchants, he's effectively fully rented out. He's sitting pretty and all he has to do is precisely nothing. He tracks payments (credit sticks and automatic deposits, etc), but he can live pretty damn well like this.
now enter extralegal operatives (aka shadowrunners). They like these guys too, but they also know about them, and need to eliminate a target who is using a mage wage slave. This becomes a vulnerability to the Person of Means. The wage slave can be bribed or offed. He might spend some cash on bodyguards.
Now the price of doing business starts going up. He's gotta protect himself after all. Person of Means wants to make his mage wage slave immune to bribery, so he pays him quite a bit more, maybe gets him some illegal stim packs and that trid porn star he likes.
I guess for me this is a thought experiment on the rental model for one's magic points. It has sort of fascinating implications for an economy, at least in my mind. even low level mages could make a pretty decent living like this. It's sort of like the wizard version of a bodyguard, I suppose.