I'm getting a new skill set in my next LARP, but for my character to be able to do that I need to have discussions with other characters and become more wise. Last event was chaotic and I didn't get a chance, so hello fellow traveler! Would you care to discuss Draecon's Dogma with me?

1: Ensure that magic is used, but that no one is used by magic. On the one hand, this means, "make sure magic gets used," i.e. try to talk people out of shunning magic who may be afraid of it, or superstitious about it. Spread the word that magic is a good, or at least a neutral, thing. A tool. Like a sword, it can be used for good as easily as for evil.

On the other hand, I think "Ensure that no one is used by magic," goes a bit deeper than just mind control or necromancy. How many stories have we heard about someone going mad or doing stupid things for want of the Sword of Ultimate Everything Slaying, or the Ring of Perpetual Sneakiness, or whatever the thing-of-the-week might be? Those people are under no charm or compulsion, but they are being "used" by magic just as surely. Your description of "make sure they don't become obsessed with it" covers this point pretty succinctly.

You need to make sure that people have a relationship with magic, but you also need to make sure that that relationship is a healthy one. That their lust for knowledge does not lead them to a bad end.

2: Defend Draecon's magic by word or sword. This is where I begin to disagree with /u/adrmlch's interpretation. I don't think you could possibly envision a sect of Draeconians who wish to control or contain magic-users. If you are killing mages, you are - by definition - attacking Draecon's magic, not defending it. Draecon has (in rule 1) decreed that magic is to be used. If you are stopping people from using it at all, rather than stopping them from using it unwisely, you are at best a heretic.

3: Magic may be used as sword or shield but never as dagger. I think "never behind the victim's back" is a better interpretation of this than "only as a reaction, never as a first measure." I think it's perfectly fine to use magic as a first measure, so long as you do so with certain things in mind:

  • Do so openly, like a knight with sword and shield, not skulking about like a thief. Remember the words of Captain Mal, "If I ever kill you, you'll be awake. You'll be facing me, and you'll be armed."

  • Do so honestly. Don't hide the fact that you are a magic-user. Don't make yourself look like a peasant with a quarterstaff, then call down fire and lightning the instant someone picks a bar fight.

  • Do so appropriately. This one is less about honesty and forthrightness and more about wisdom in general. Personally (and I play a mage myself) I find that it's very easy to fall into a certain degree of overkill. If some bandit pulls a knife on me, am I going to use the same spells on him that I would if I were fighting a mountain giant? No - there's no reason to, and that kind of excess is at best unbecoming.

The idea here is measured response, and it goes back nicely to point #1, not being used by magic. Don't allow anyone (yourself included) to get so power-drunk that they don't know where the line between "magic" and "overkill" is.

/r/LARP Thread