Talk:Sword & Sorcery

Tropes discussion?

So, there's a lot of different Sword & Sorcery games and splats out there in the wider world, and each puts more of its own definition on what does or doesn't define the S&S genre - for example, below is what the "Monster Island" splatbook for Runequest says on the nature of magic in an S&S game. Should we make this page into a gathering point for these different interpretations?--QuietBrowser (talk) 21:33, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

Corrupting Power of Magic

Magic in Sword & Sorcery tends to be a dark, perverted art limited to a few specialist sorcerers, priests, and shamans. Only those willing to make great sacrifices in time and perhaps personal morality have any chance to master it. Whilst not all magic is evil per se, the majority of practitioners tend to become corrupted by its use – psychologically more than physically – whether in the manner of the deals required to learn it, the methods used to cast it, or the power it provides the practitioner over others.

Whilst many claim the genre lacks ‘flashy’ magic, nothing could be further from the truth. There are examples of flaming spheres of death, induced earthquakes, monstrous transformations and even the summoning of demons so huge their galloping hooves crush an entire nation underfoot. But whatever its source and however it manifests, magic is always time consuming, terrifying and deadly; the latter being why its secrets are long searched for and jealously guarded.