Incentivising "Secret of Magic" for players

[Mehmet]

Originally Posted by cultureulterior

Let me recommend the Twenty Palaces series of books as an inspiration- it's about the secret magic cops trying to keep magic a secret from the mundanes. Their main method is ripping the head off anyone caught with magic or trying to acquire magic.

Nice approach... Although I have a sneaking suspicion that this is going to be a bit extreme for what the OP wants. I believe the best way to do it is having a pact between the players and the GM - along with a not-really-needs-to-be-plausible explanation that anyone revealing the secrets will be eaten by the boogeyman.

@cultureulterior
The thing about good narrative is, either they don't make good gaming or I'm rubbish at it. Ask my latest Culture citizens ;) I'm not Banks and there were moments in my game (although we had fun) that I wished I was just for a bit.

Cheers :)

[Michael Cule]

How about: Mana is a finite, though renewable, resource.

It isn't like oil or the mana in Larry Niven's MAGIC GOES AWAY sequence. It will regrow after use.

It is like the fish in the sea. It can be used up so that there is no more ever again but if you harvest responsibly you can have it for future generations.

If you go with the standard rules, mundanes can't use mana except in High Mana areas (and good luck finding any of those on modern Earth!) but there are all these pesky hedge wizards and no-talent Magery 0 types who can and do use it if they get the knowledge. But they are never going to get as good as the really talented sorts who can become skilled enough to use mana efficiently. (The reduced cost for high skill rule.)

So the more powerful and gifted mages as well as the mana-dependent species have agreed that only those who require mana and those who can use it efficiently can have the knowledge of the existence of magic and it is not to be spread among the hoi-polloi.

Which gives them the moral high ground and the excuse to go around wiping out careless people who let the ignorant masses know the secret. And gives the PCs (if they want it) a good, moral reason to keep it themselves.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I don't think Duty works. A Duty has to require you to actively perform certain tasks or functions, or at least to be physically present. It can't require you simply to refrain from doing certain things.

If nothing else, any assignment of frequency seems arbitrary. You must always keep the secret? Right, and that means that when I'm hiking in the mountains, or sitting at my computer, or taking a shower, or sleeping, I have to focus my attention on not revealing magic to anyone, all the time, and take actions to keep it hidden? It doesn't sound that way. It sounds as if you're talking about just not casting spells. So am I "not casting spells" 100% of the time (including when I'm asleep), or whenever I'm awake, or whenever I'm around other people who could see me, or only when I actually think of casting a spell, which might be more or less frequent? It just seems like any frequency makes as much sense as any other.

Duty could be appropriate if you're required not only to keep your own magic on the down low, but also to cover up for other mages, and possibly other supernatural creatures, whenever they risk blowing the secret. That makes it actually an active duty to look out for situations that might reveal the existence of magic to the uninitiated, making it no longer 'occult', and kill or Obliviate or what have you the witnesses and discourage the perpetrators from repeating their stunts.

Of course, then you have to define how often this duty to cover things up actually comes up in the average mage's life.

Originally Posted by whswhs

Secret just seems to fit a lot better. I'm not sure I'd go for "possible death," though. Does any mage who reveals their powers immediately have people trying to kill them? Or might they be locked up, or need to flee to a distant city? Or would it simply change their whole life, as they face the attention both of the mage enforcers and of the press and the government?

In some parts of the world, being suspected of being a witch can still get you killed, but I'd agree that for most characters you'd want at most the next level down of Secret.

Originally Posted by whswhs

A third option is Enemy (Watcher). That would work if all mages are monitored by a "secret police" agency that wants to track every time they use magic. This might be the equivalent of a city police department [-20], Watcher (x1/4), present on a 15 or less (x3), for a net [-15].

Bill Stoddard

The Watcher needn't be looking out just for violations of the secrecy statute, but also breaches of any other 'laws of magic', as in the Dresden Files.