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Old 09-19-2015, 12:06 AM   #28
Peter Knutsen
Banned
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
Default Re: Making Magic Mysterious and Eldritch

Here are some of my ideas. Not for GURPS, for a different system, but they can all be used in GURPS:

1. Have multiple magic systems in the world, not just one.

2. Create broad random-roll tables to determine the consequences of magic use Fumbles. Instead of just one 3d6 table with 16 different outcomes, try something like first a 1d6 roll to determine which of six 1d18 sub-tables to roll on. Magic mishaps should be able to produce a very wide variety of undesirable effects, ranging from the annoying or embarassing to the truly dangerous, preferably with more powerful magics being more likely to produce the truly dangerous ones. Ideally each magic system should have its own set of Fumble tables, thus if your world has four different kinds of magic then you'd need 6 times 18 times 4 outcomes, but fortunately in some cases it makes sense to have a smaller and less broad table, for instance Divine magic can use just an 1d6- or 1d12-based Divine Displeasure Table.

3. Magic should never work all of the time. Unlike AD&D and D&D, this is already an intrinsic element of most GURPS magic systems (so this won't induce cognitice dissonance in you guys), with GURPS Powers as the exception where you have to actively apply one of the several available "doesn't work 100% of the time"-Limitations to achieve this.

4. Keep the characters guessing as to what is and is not magical. In one of my posts on my OdinsDay Blog, I rant against the super-availability of Detect Magic in AD&D and D&D. In most cases it's a 1st level spell, and the exceptions means it's a zeroeth level spell or a constantly available ability. That's exactly the wrong way to go about it. Instead, it should be difficult to determine whether magic is actually present, e.g. in an effect (a warrior moving very swiftly in battle, dodging blows with superb grace - is he or is he not subject to a spell buff?) or an item (a very good sword might be magical or it might not; after using it in a few fights you have a sense of how sharp and balanced it is, but you cannot be sure if it is extraordinary because of magic or merely because it was made by a very skilled smith). Detect Magic should probably still be a possibility, just not something as trivially easy as the equivalent of an AD&D 1st level spell (and detecting exotic kinds of magic should be harder). TvTropes has the MaybeMagicMaybeMundane trope, and that's a good place to start. Decipher's "Lord of the Rings" RPG also has an interesting page on different ways for magic weapons (or other items) to have bonuses, rather than everything just being due to Enchanting.

5. Avoid generalist magic users being the norm. Instead, try to have most magic users have an easier time learning some kinds of magic and a harder time learning other kinds, with different magic users finding different kinds of magic easy or hard. That way you get specialist casters being the setting norm, and so not everyone will have access to the Detect Magic Spell (which doesn't mean you can downgrade Detect Magic to a "1st level spell" again!), and when you're preparing to fight a magic-using enemy, part of the intel you'll want to gather on him is what kinds of magics he actually can use - something that is nonsensical in worlds where the magic system makes it easy to be a generalist magic user, such as GURPS Magic or AD&D/D&D.

6. Have exceptions occur. In some RPGs, the only way to get that, for a player, is to perform a sexual favour for the GM, but GURPS has this wonderful mechanic called the UB, which facilitates the resolution of such desires without needing to stoop to the metagame level. In this way, exceptions from the setting's usual cap can exist, and can surprise the other characters ("I didn't think that was possible!"). For instance, instead of setting a hard cap of Magery of X levels, say that the cap can be exceeded by two (i.e. to X+2), the first such additional level costing an UB of 5 points, and the second additional level costing an UB of 10 or even 15 points (an even more sophisticated implementation would base the UB not on levels of Magery but rather on points in Magery). The UB mechanic can be used for a lot of things, including starting the game having training in a magic system that is ultra-rare in in-world terms, adding to the surprise value.



It'll add to the mystery if the player characters don't always immediately (or at all) share capabilitistic information with each other. Not always sharing information is bad tactical practice in a Dungeon Fantasy paradigm (the party leader needs to know how badly the Wizard's spellcasting ability becomes gimped if he gets a ferrous dagger stuck into his body, as just one example), but makes sense in a lot of other fantasy settings (although the benefits can be mitigated if character creation is an intensely collectivist activity where the players almost sit on each other's shoulders when they make the characters).
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