Arcane Backgrounds in Savage Worlds have done a great job in standardizing all kinds of supernatural powers within their system. Unfortunately, by doing so, the different kinds of powers lost a bit of their "magic" for lack of a better word. To make Arcane Backgrounds (especially magic) a little more "magical" I have added a small Narrative rule to go with Savage Worlds' Trappings. This rule is somehow inspired by FATE's aspects and I am planning on incorporating it into the upcomming Savage Witcher pdf.
A spellcaster chooses one Trapping per their rank. You should can treat it as a domain for the Spells/Powers. Each spell you have should be expressed by one of the trappings you posses. Trappings have don't have any mechanical rules attached to them, so Fire and Ice spells work exactly the same mechanically.
You can use a Benny to invoke a Trapping. By invoking it you can narrate a small detail in the world, that your magic would allow you to make (starting fires for Fire trapping for example, freezing a puddle on the ground with Ice). Gamemaster has the right to veto your narration, but apart from that, whatever you narrate is true in the game world and you can use it to your advantage. GM will incorporate effects of your narration and give modifiers to tests for the players or the NPCs if needed.
You can use a Benny to invoke a Trapping. By invoking it you can narrate a small detail in the world, that your magic would allow you to make (starting fires for Fire trapping for example, freezing a puddle on the ground with Ice). Gamemaster has the right to veto your narration, but apart from that, whatever you narrate is true in the game world and you can use it to your advantage. GM will incorporate effects of your narration and give modifiers to tests for the players or the NPCs if needed.
This rule gives players the opportunity to use their powers in more creative way and make them feel like the magic is more magical than just a list of different Powers. The key to this rule is to keep to small details when narrating the effects, and making the results interesting. This way, the GM will award the invoking player a Benny for a fun idea. The GM can also give the Benny back to the player, if the effect was invoked purely for flavor.
This rule takes a bit to get used to, and requires a level of trust between players and the GM, but in a long run can be very rewarding.
This rule takes a bit to get used to, and requires a level of trust between players and the GM, but in a long run can be very rewarding.
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