Modern Dark Fantasy Magic

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

My campaign doesn't use magical corruption, but the utility of magic in a world that doesn't believe in it, plus the need to keep the secret because of the catastrophic affect it has when witnessed by mundanes, creates ethical quandaries that fuel a *lot* of questionable activity.

Originally Posted by exalted

One way of doing it is just adjusting the spells that are available, if they are sufficiently disturbing no sane person will use them lightly and the only really kind of good way to use them is on even worse people. Even better if they are convienet and simply to use if you have no morals.

Did it or some demonic and underworld themed powers in my exalted campaigns and it ended up with anyone even partially decent renoncing such powers eventually. In such a scenario you pretty much don't need corruption mechanics because frequent use the convieint powers is the corruption.

Just so.

You don't need a numerical representation of corruption, you just need to make the path to power easier and more convenient if you are willing to harm others for your own benefit.

[naloth]

I once did a campaign where all spells were fueled by HP loss rather than fatigue loss. It turned dark pretty quickly. A few things affected the value of the HP (Magery and racial IQ affected the value, stealing from other sources halved the effect, etc).

[RyanW]

You could take a page from Dragon Prince: humans aren't inherently magical, so (unless they have a rare focus object) they must "borrow" the life force of a creature that is. Usually by killing it.