So how edgy is it, on a scale of 1 to edge...

Depends on the setting

It's not edgy. That's really cool. Making the system work right and not just "heh DM fiat"

What game system? Maybe different classes of spells effect different bits of nature?

Preservers are a thing though. Magic isn't inherently bad in Dark Sun; defiling is, and defilers have suppressed knowledge of any other way to use magic

It's not objectively good so much as it doesn't destroy everything around it for power.

Preservers aren't really 'good magic users', though. They just aren't life-draining nutbars.

I don't know what it is, but I absolutely hate the post-apoc fashion.
>half-naked
>leather straps
>funky hairdos
>spiked everything

I mean I can get the whole scrounging up whatever weapons and armor you can find, and thus getting a really ramshackle look, but all that other stuff just really shifts my pantaloons.

Then the only way to save things is with the help of the NEUTRAL MAGIC USERS

user's complaint is still valid. Magic and the battle between magic users of different persuasions is central to the plot

>Then the only way to save things is with the help of the NEUTRAL MAGIC USERSE
Except that's also false, preserves are just one faction. It's hardly central to the "plot" the background mabye. But it's hardly front and center especially when most PC's are going to be Psionicists and gladiators.

I don't understand how that can ever be edgy. It can be used by a DM to excuse anything, which is terrible storytelling sure but not "edgy".

Magic is inherently something... "weird". Divine, ethereal. Volatile perhaps. It makes sense that magic comes at a price, whether tame enough that it only drains your mana temporarily or harsh enough that any magic invariably corrupts your soul or something. I always understood magic as a force of change.

Something that turns one energy into another. Human emotions can be extremely powerful so that being used as a fuel source would be very interesting, things like being so grieved about the death of a pet that you might actually be able to bring them back to life, because that emotion is so strong for example.

I don't think it's edgy at all to make magic drain from nature's lifeforce, so you may be able to cast fireball but its like salting the earth. Shit withers around you the more you use it. This is basically what Tales of Xillia is about, Elympios uses spirits to power technology. No spirits = nature withers = World dies.

And the PCs also won't be able to affect the overall setting. Playing in dark sun usually means you're just trying to survive in a hopeless world, largely because the affairs of sorcerer-kings are too far above the PCs

>So how edgy is it, on a scale of 1 to edge, to make magic in a setting drain and corrupt the life force of nearby people and nature itself? Creating freak storms, droughts as well as monsters as the more it is used?

...

Fossil fuels are magic?

It's not edgy, but you and your players should be on board.
If they wanna go Thief, Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, telling them that the Wizard can grow an extra arm every time he casts or that the Cleric can get sucked into hell every time he prays is gonna be a bit hard on those two.
There should be no minor spells like cast Light or whatever, but bigass scary ones like Life Transfusion and Risky Resurrection (if it fails, both the caster and the target die and raise as wights).

In other ways, it's a pretty good idea. Magic's like radiation, causes fallout where it happens, people know this, spellcasters are burned at the stake. Lots of big things can happen, such as the discovery of good magic/worse magic, fighting back an invasion of otherworldly creatures, hunting rogue mages...

Its not edgy edgy.
But more like comprehension failure edgy.
If Magic really causes freak accidents in the weather system, and drains the local life, it just means the mid level mages will setup towers on desolate mountain peaks, to acquire freedom from watching their nearby wildlife die.
It also usually fails to try to map out HOW the weather system gets fucked, because in most cases: A severe imbalance will just even itself out once enough magic has been used to reverse the disaster.

Dark Sun runs the concept by the logical conclusion, by making Magic a mid to high tier power source.
It also runs on the idea that once escalation of power gets around, the post Apocalypse wars will be far larger in scale than the pre Apocalypse wars.

Meh.
So long as you represent it properly, it shouldn't be considered edgy.

Song of Swords has done that with the Dark Pyromancy update recently, and I quite liked the Idea and execution so far.

Dark Pyromancers have a stat of how much 'Fire' (Magic points, basically) they can store, and can fill that by drawing from their environment (any excess fire above their threshold adds to a chance of self immolation if not expended immediately).

>Drawing Fire
>In order to perform a Spell, a Dark Pyromancer must “Draw Fire” from the environment into
>himself. Drawing Fire is easier the more life the surrounding area has. The act of Drawing Fire
>takes a full Phase, and is an Art+Willpower Test rolled at TN determined by the surroundings,
>as shown on the table below. The amount of Fire drawn is equal to the number of successes on
>this roll.
>Drawing Fire causes damage to the environment. Every point of Fire extracted from the area
>creates a 1 yard region of desolation around the Pyromancer in which nothing will grow for at
>least 2-3 years. People or animals in this area will become nauseous. Those with weak
>constitutions may even grow sick. The ill may perish.
>Additional Fire can be drawn using Rituals and Sacrifices.