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Old 07-11-2013, 03:33 PM   #24
Mr_Sandman
 
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: L.I., NY
Default Re: Updating/recreating GURPS Mage the Ascension to 4ed

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jachra View Post
That, sir, is how Mage is played.
Some settings are just unfair to norms, it is true.

That said -

Sandman, I would recommend against qualifying everything with lots of enhancements/limitations. You are making this for a single setting that (probably) won't cross over with any others. If you want it to be point-consistent with GURPS in general, I suggest putting the formulae in the back so people can see.
Try to emulate the setting's feel first, make the mechanics match that.

A critical thing about M:tA that I think even the oWoD game didn't do very well is making sure you felt like a reality-bender from the very earliest stages - your arete scores started out so crappy you were lucky not to blow it on the first try. nWoD's Mage at least let you add enough dice that a starting char had a passable chance to work effects (though even that one fell short, most of the time.)
I'm ok with just setting costs that work for a game with only Mage PCs, and not worrying too much about balance. For the most part, I'm using the point costs directly from the GURPS: Mage the Ascension book (or the errata page). For some of the advantages, they already exist in 4ed, or are easy enough to replicate that I figured I might as well see how the points come out if I rebuilt them in 4ed. Dream, for example, now exists as the GURPS advantage Modular Abilities, but its cost in G:MtA is way off from the RAW 4ed GURPS, so I adjusted it. That way if I (or anyone else who grabs these notes and fiddles with them) want to use norman humans, werewolves, vampires, fairies, ghosts, etc. along with mages, they'll be a bit closer to balanced. Making familiars as Allies was more of a challenge, just to see if I could do it by GURPS RAW.

When I ran and played G:MtA back in the 1990s, we never felt that starting characters were underpowered or had trouble successfully creating effects. Beginning Arete wasn't limited in the GURPS version, and 400 points made a pretty effective character in GURPS 3ed. In fact, I was just looking at starting CP levels and was thinking that I might have to tone down from 400 to 300 points, and require at least 75 or 100 points spent on mundane traits. For this particular game, I want the PCs to be recently awakened. I don't want to have PC starting with any level 5 spheres, or multiple level 4 spheres.
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