The lodge had no clue
The soothsayer saw nothing
The books showed too much— Graffiti on an asylum wall
In many genres and settings, magic is a secret – often a
dark one, entangled with curses, forbidden knowledge, and monsters up to and including demons.
GURPS offers several magic systems expressly for this purpose, including most of those in
GURPS Thaumatology and its supplements, particularly Ritual Path magic (which appears in
GURPS Monster Hunters for this very reason). Unfortunately, such approaches are themselves a little entangled . . . in this case, with spell-creation mini-games.
GURPS Magical Styles: Horror Magic takes a completely different tack. It uses the tricks and tools of
GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles to "re-skin" the flashy, fantasy-oriented magic system of
GURPS Magic to better suit games of mystery, horror, and the occult. Gone is the excessive showiness – allowing use in hidden-magic settings – but the clear, quick, ready-to-use spells remain, avoiding the overhead and arguments associated with spell design.
The question is, what will you choose: the ceremonies of Cult Secrets, the fast-but-forbidden Dark Path, or the traditional worldview of Forgotten Wisdom?
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