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Old 02-29-2016, 12:11 PM   #1
Chaorain
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Default Competing Magic Systems

I am working on a custom fantasy setting, I want to make the theme of the campaign to be conflict, between the races, religions and the magic systems.

I read through Thaumatology and came up with what I thought what a good plan. I wanted three different major systems:
  1. Arcane", the traditional generic magic system in GURPS. Also worth noting is that Magery is going to be a racial trait.
  2. "Divine", this uses Clerical Spell-Magic (Thaumatology p.65) and Threshold-Limited Magic (Thaumatology p.76) and is slightly different for each religion in the campaign, most religions are race specific but any member of any race can get Divine spells.
  3. "Shamanism" is the final form and used Assisting Spirits (Thaumatology p.90), this type of spell casting is gained by signing a contract with one of the "Great Spirits" of the world, worth noting that the Great Spirits do not care about race or religion. In theory it would be possible for a single individual to gain all three types of magic.

There were a few other things, Verb Noun magic practiced exclusively by the immortal demi-god kings, arcane magic practiced by a race that shouldn't be able to, and universally forbidden Blood Magic.

All this depends on the spells in GURPS Magic though, which I recently found out was less than ideal. As far as I can tell these are the major problems:
  • Immunity spells, some spells grant outright immunity.
  • "Uncapped" spells, some spells can get quite ridiculous, ex. Enlarge
  • Prerequisites don't correspond at all to power of the spell.

As I see it I have two options:
  1. Balance every single spell, this is an intimidating task, specifically I don't think I'll be able to get them balanced against each other, let alone against non magic users. Actually I could try and recreate the spells using advantages and check their point values but that would be a lot of work for 850-ish spells.
  2. Use a different system(s), I actually like this option a lot more. I was thinking of using Thaumatology - Sorcery for the Arcane spells, Powers - Divine Favor for the Divine spells. But I don't know what I should use for the Shamanism spells. I'm hesitant to bring in Ritual Path Magic because it is so different from the others. Same goes for Path/Book, realm or verb noun magic. Maybe something with spirits as Allies but I'm not sure how to work that.

So basically I want to have a lot of interaction between multiple magic systems but I'm worried about balance with both option. so my questions are these:
  1. Is there already something that would work based on Advantages for Shamanism?
  2. Are there any minor variations I could do for added flavor, i.e. Blood Magic?
  3. Is there a faster and / or easier way to balance the default spells?
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