It started with a random wikipedia viewing of the article on the bag of holding. As I was reading the article I become fascinated with the idea of cursed bags and how you might actually desire the cursed properties. I saw a scenario where a group of heroes wants to get rid of a dangerous artifact. What better way than to drop it in to a bag of devouring and let it be spit out to another plane.

As I thought about this, it struck me. What if there was a role-playing game where every magical item was cursed. When the question become not if it would be cursed but how bad would the curse be. Then I thought better yet, why not draw a theme from Once Upon a Time, and have all magic have a price. My mind raced about dynamics where performing magic would have a cost and being mprudent could kill a PC (or worse), I then wondered if players would just shy away from magic. This was an issue, the point of the game would be to make people weigh the consequences of action and decide what sacrifices would be worth it. I wouldn’t want a bunch of warriors with maces running around whacking magical creatures in the skull and never having to make the choice.

So why don’t we make it more interesting? Make everything magic. Swinging a sword – magic; Gravity – magic; Cellular respiration – magic. Normal day to day actions like walking, making a spark to start a campfire, consuming food would just barely touch your well of magic inside you. Running at 25mph, throwing a fireball at an enemy or draining the life of a captured animal would drain you a bit more. Moving faster than sound, summoning a demon, of snuffing out the lives of village could kill you.

But I want to let you do that, so what if you had different kinds of magical energy. Some would be banal and would be used to walk to the store and push a plow. Sleep, food, drink could replenish that. Others would be your life energy, you could tap it to power your spells, but it would shorten your life. You could replenish it but you have to get the energy elsewhere. While banal energy could be a source to replenish it, which may make you collapse or go off and eat a sushi buffet out of business, you could tap your humanity itself. You’d be alive but at the cost of becoming less of a man and more of a beast. Would you sell your soul to live forever? Or to destroy your enemies? I want people to make that choice.

I’m going to think more about dynamics and try to develop a system and maybe some world details. I haven’t tried to make an RPG system in 15 years, I’m excited to give this a try. The current working name is “A Well of Power”.