The Quintessential Chaos Mage
The Quintessential Chaos Mage front cover
| Author | Patrick Younts |
| Series | Quintessential Series |
| Publisher | Mongoose Publishing |
| Publish date | 2003 |
| Pages | 128 |
| ISBN | 1-904577-54-7 |
| OGL Section 15 | qcmg |
Note: Material in this section may be "mature" in nature.
The material below is designated as Open Game Content
For the Games Master – Creative Licence and the Use of Chaos Magic
In and out of game, the success of chaos magic depends on the creativity of its wielders. A chaos mage who is not imaginative will not survive long and a chaos mage is only as imaginative as the player who controls him. In order to come into its own as a tool for creating exciting gaming, you must be prepared to allow your player’s imaginations free reign.
While the base mechanics of chaos magic are straightforward, the exact outcomes of the many combinations of elements you and your players will create with it are not. This open-endedness can and will lead to the creation of truly bizarre spell effects, things that are only possible with a system as open to interpretation as this one. This is not a weakness of the chaos magic system, but its chief strength.
When a player comes to you, the Games Master, with an idea about a truly unusual chaos spell, a good response will be ‘how can we make this work’ rather than ‘no’. Work with players to incorporate their off-the-cuff creativity as it encourages involved play; which leads to committed roleplaying.
Working with players to incorporate creativity does not, however, mean rushing to accommodate their every whim and bizarre idea. You must be prepared to put your foot down, to say no to combinations which simply will not work in your game. Irresponsible use of ‘NO’ squashes creativity, responsible use squashes indulgence.
