The question of whether PCs should be sorcerers in a Swords & Sorcery campaign is an important one. To many people, it is high heresy–playing a wizard is why they play roleplaying games. Still, it is an important question to ask for low fantasy settings.
The Case Against Sorcerers
In traditional Swords & Sorcery stories, magic is dark, dangerous and downright evil. Rarely is it good, and even then tends to be a gift from a god, and not something that the hero or heroine willingly partakes in.
The reason is very simple: Many of the classic stories were written during the pulp era, and had strong horror elements in them. Magic was seen as something that mankind was not meant to dabble in, and it has serious repercussions for its use. Losing your soul, being dragged by a demon off to some hell, etc… Nothing good came from using magic.
In keeping with that, the argument could be made that player characters should not be allowed to be wizards or sorcerers. PCs may have some artifact that protects them from evil magic, but they would not be wielders of that magic directly.
This would be in keeping with the atmosphere and general feel of those classic stories–things can happen around them, and even affect them, but they would not be the magical drivers.
Another argument might be that for a game like Blades & Black Magic, nothing is as good a weapon as your trusty sword! As C.R. Brandon says in the rules, Blades is geared for just such a scenario–low magic, classic swords & sorcery. Again, that just fits with the feel of the old stories, and that is what we are working towards for this game.
The Case For Sorcerers
That being said, a counterargument could be made for player characters being allowed to be sorcerers is that players just want to play them! No matter what feel you are trying to have in your campaign, the ability of a player to roleplay a magic-wielding sorcerer or wizard is so baked into the DNA of the game genre that it is just very hard to ignore.
Aside from the players just wanting to play them, the case could be made that a PC wizard would still fit in the feel of a low magic setting. It all depends on how the PC is written. A PC like Merlin or Gandalf would definitely be out of place in a swords & sorcery campaign, but cranky old wizard with magic that is restricted to only healing or protection spells might work. One that might be a priest from a small, persecuted sect of a god of light? One that still has to pay a steep price for his knowledge, let alone his powers.
The key is to understand the role of magic within your campaign setting, and finding a way to fit a wizard within those constraints.
Playing A Sorcerer in the Middle Lands
But what am I doing in my Middle Lands campaign? Well, I’m allowing one wizard in because, dammit, I want to play a sorcerer! I’m going to limit the power of magic to only certain disciplines, and even then limit what they can do.
While I am patiently (ok, not so patiently!) waiting for C.R. to publish the Black Magic side of B&BM, I have been playing with an improvisational magic system for my campaign. The system is based on Zozer Games’ Fast Magic and Dancing Lights Press excellent series of worldbuilding books on magic. It divides magic into various disciplines, or paths, with each having its own particular brand of magic–necromancy, enchantment, conjuration, etc.
My point for doing that is to somehow capture the feel of the different kinds of magic, or how it is used in folklore and myth. A side benefit is allow me to limit what magic a "good" wizard might be able to use.
For example, necromancy and conjuration are flat out for a PC. Those kinds of magic are just too evil for a PC in my campaign. On the other hand, what I am calling Abjuration or Elementalism are perfect for PCs–magic of protection, healing or otherwise somehow related to nature–these are great for allowing a PC to use magic, while eliminating the real heavy stuff.
Since I do all my roleplaying solo, it is easy for me to make decisions like that. Group play may be a little tougher–or everyone may just agree that there will be no wizards, period. That is a decision that each gaming group will have to make themselves.
No matter what, though–make sure whatever you decide fits in with what you want for your campaign. Talk it through, and be open about what you want or don’t want. Don’t be afraid to tailor things the way you want them. Like the old saying, if you’re having fun, you’re doing it right!
Marko ∞
(Originally published on middle-lands.com, on 6/28/2019.)
