ogbendog wrote:The problem with saying "Magic can hose you permanently, so you should be careful of using it" reminds me of my Jedi characters in my d20 Star Wars game. Jedi were headed a lightsaber and a bunch of force powers, then told that per the Jedi code, violence and force use should be a last resort.
"here are some cool toys, avoid playing with them"
I'd be willing to somehow, forgo the insanly powerful results, if I could avoid corruption.
The problem is that Gygax set our expectations with his very stable and enthusiastic play group, and Gygax's assumptions don't work for the typical gamer group.
Gygax was surrounded by enthusiastic wargamers who were willing to make huge sacrifices of time in order to advance characters. If one player dropped out, there was a waiting list. Gygax could provide very effective incentives and disincentives, particularly because he was doing it for the first time and there weren't many books written about it. The players had very few alternatives and a lot of motivation to cooperate with the DM.
The typical gaming group has to bribe its players with pitches like, "Come on, grind through the boring low levels and I'll give you a neat power for the second play session." The players have many alternatives and few reasons to cooperate with the DM.
Even if you manage to get loyal players who are in the habit of showing up every week, you have an essential problem.
Permanent damage, disfigurement, and death of the player-character are only scary if the player-character is either (a) of sentimental value or (b) irreplaceable in terms of time investment. If you really want to play out the powers of a level 11 wizard, and if you have sunk six months of free time into advancing your level 9 wizard, you're not going to take many chances with that wizard character.
However, if using those powers is a 99% risk of immediate death, and the only way to keep the character alive is to avoid using those powers, those six months of your time have been wasted. Getting a level 11 wizard and not being able to use the cool powers just means the DM was jerking you around for six months.
I have often seen a lot of DMs keep the players through several weeks of a boring campaign by slowing down advancement. Then, when the players finally get the particular powers that had been motivating them, the DM often throws up his hands because the game is supposedly unplayable at high levels.
I like to play characers who are rational and intellectual. If I were a player in a DCC game, the best class choice would probably be a Neutral cleric of Amun Tor. Their magic is not very useful, but the god is the god of riddles and mysteries, so the player-character can act out the fun of investigating the campaign world. The character's primary motivation is collecting data about a fantasy world in order to form general insights about how the fantasy world works.ogbendog wrote:
I'd be willing to somehow, forgo the insanly powerful results, if I could avoid corruption.
Also, previous posters have suggested that ritual magic might reduce the risks, but we don't have any rules about ritual magic yet.