[Magic] New Disadvantage: The Hunger

[roguebfl]

The show Ascension of A Bookworm has an interesting disorder called The Hunger. Now in the setting the Nobles consider magic their exclusive domain (saving for a few magical items the let the merchant guild use to do things like magically binding contracts) so as season 2 we've seen very little of the nobles so far so I can not definitely say if this disorder is something that all mages have deal with, or if there mages born that don't have it.

What the Hunger is if your have ER (magical) and it stay full for prolonged period it turn on the mage is acts like a degenerative fever if the isn't relieved. Such relief comes from casting spells or using magical items (or even just recharging an item that can be charged)

But commoners with the hunger typically don't have access to any means to achieve such a releases so typical die between the ages of 6 and 10. And given nobles generally don't want acknowledged that mage born commons exists; and magery and ER is part of what determines a nobles peeking order, that number sckews heavily to the low end of the range, as the commoners don't even know the cause let alone possible mitigating treatments save for a few wealthy families the have regular dealing with the nobles. They do not know it exists nor that the willful pursuit of a passion helps slow down the effect but depression accelerates it. But eventual that is not enough and the only option is to enter into an agreement with a noble who will supply them child with quirked or otherwise defective magical item the lets the child spend the ER, often overloaded the magical item to its destruction. (the only other character other than the protagonist that is known to have the hunger is the granddaughter of the guildmaster of the merchant guild who's agreement is when she comes of age she will become the noble's concubine)

Game Mechanics:

I'm think for every time period divided by magery level that character ER (Magical) remains full, they need to make HT check have have a fever bout that permanently reduces the character HT Stat by 1.

Cost would be Base Cost * (Magery/2) with either and -80% mitigator for knowing knowing spell the costs ER (magical) cost. Or a -60% mitigator for having access to magical its that that ER (magical) to use

[oneofmanynameless]

Interesting idea, although have you considered Dependency (expending energy, common, [appropriate period] xX, fatigue* -50%, Only while above Y percent of energy -Z%.)?

*: stolen from weakness. Naturally I'd treat this fatigue loss as "hazard" so it couldn't be recovered until the condition was met.

Not sure the values for X, Y, or Z off the top of my head: X and Y you'll have to decide on based on in-world conditions and Z will be based on Y and how easy it is to get yourself below Y energy. But you could potentially figure out a way to work up having the time you can go between expenditures vary based on the percent of energy by setting accessibility values for different ER levels and then using the process for determining the variable ER cost limitation value (in Powers, pg. 101.)

[Varyon]

I'm not familiar with the series, but from your description it sounds like Terminally Ill (1 year, maybe?) with a Mitigator of "Expending Energy." For mages, this is probably -80%, and in fact it may be more appropriate to call the Hunger a Quirk for such characters. For those who need an expensive magic item (maybe even need them every so often, as with those that break), it's a more standard Mitigator. It may often be associated with social Disadvantages, however, such as Duty, Enemy, Secret etc, depending on how the character has staved off the Hunger up until the start of the campaign. Of course, there can also be social Advantages that justify the Mitigator, such as Patron, Ally, Rank/Status, etc.

[AlexanderHowl]

Since it takes more than two years to kill them, it would likely not be Terminally Ill (anyway, Mitigator has a minimum value of -70% for a monthly mitigator). A possibly better option would be to take Chronic Pain with Mitigator, with it progressing in strength the older the individual is, to the point where the Chronic Pain can potentially kill them. For example, Chronic Pain (Agonizing, 8 hours, 15-; Mitigator, Daily, -60%) [-36] would represent the horrific pain that would lead to an early death (the associated penalty to IQ and DX would make an early death highly likely).