Notes
Newton Fletcher is a respectable accountant (and an exceptionally good one), with hobbies that are often not seen as all that respectable: he's a life-long gamer and fantasy nerd. He also has a great love of food, which is rather more respectable. In many ways, he can be likened to an over-tall hobbit (though he does wear shoes, at least). Out of his group, he is the most 'plugged-in' to the growing paranormal community/developing subculture, and thus possesses some knowledge of Current Affairs in that community.
Point Bank (Strength) just means that he's been working on his muscles, but has yet to get far enough for another ST level.
Owning a copy of GURPS Thaumatology, he is aware of the Decanic modifiers (GURPS Thaumatology pp83-86 & 248-252), and has begun studying Astronomy (Observational) and Fortune-Telling (Hermetic Astrology), in the hope of being better able to take advantage of them.
Uses Symbol Drawing (Tengwar) as a Complementary Skill for Thaumatology; tends to cast spells in Quenya (though he can write spells in English for use by others), which has lead to improved ability in the language.
For critical failures, Newt rolls on the standard GURPS Critical Spell Failure Table, and dreads the day he rolls a demon attack. It hasn't happened, yet...
Jacksonian Magic is basically the standard GURPS system as a modified Path/Book style, rather than the Ritual Magic version.
The College of Enchantment in this style does not require a skill level of 15 or higher, as it's still a Path/Book style - on the other hand, the Enchant ritual is effectively Fetish with a different name, still having a default penalty of -8. At the moment, Newt will mostly be using this College to help him understand other people's magic items, and to make scrolls.
A scroll takes half-again as long as a charm for the same ritual, and is, in effect, a charm useful as a teaching tool, that must be read to activate it (taking twice the time for the spell
with the standard system, not the longer time for Path/Book magic). The only real advantages it has over other charms, are that you can carry more than one scroll of the same type, and they tend to last longer than other charms of the same material. Temporary Enchantment is very similar, save that the result is neither useful as a teaching tool, nor does it take longer than normal to activate, but most can be used several times. In an Energy Accumulating style, the cost of creating a scroll is 120% of the cost of casting the spell (minimum +2), and the cost of a Temporary Enchantment is 15% of the cost of a Fetish, per use (minimum 3).
The Ley Line Map spell comes from
an old Free Pyramid article. Ley lines provide greater energy for Energy Accumulating spells, or a skill bonus for Effect Shaping spells, but tend to be Aspected.
The Sense Sanctity spell is simply an adaptation of the Sense Mana spell on pM101. Because an area's sanctity, by its very nature, always has several levels for different Aspects, the penalty is only -2 if you're asking 'which Aspect has the strongest sanctity level, and what level is it' or 'what is the sanctity level of
this Aspect', or similarly simple (in the GM's opinion) questions. More complicated questions require greater penalties.
As suggested in Mark Langsdorf's
Spells are easy, college is (very) hard, I'm changing the default penalty for Standard GURPS Ritual Magic spells to '-(prerequisite count/2 +2) for spells with a prerequisite count of 4 or more.' The progression will thus go 0, -1, -2, -3, -4, -4, -5, -5, -6, -6, -7, -7, et cetra (so for example, Great Wish, with a prerequisite count of 18, would have a penalty of -11, and Transmogrification, with a count of 32, has -18). I am not currently planning to use other elements of that alternate system, but the prerequisite count issue is something that's been bothering me. Will change some numbers, where appropriate (Temporary Enchantment being as hard or harder to cast than Enchant makes little sense in this context, for example). The alternative is to see if there's an existing Path/Book ritual similar enough, and use a default within a few points of that.
Then again, maybe it would work better as an Energy Accumulating style, using, say, double the given cost for most spells (and better, worse, or just forbidden for some, due to the limits of psi powers in the setting), but basing Enchantment costs on that of Fetish (Thaumatology p161, both main and boxed text). Opinions?
Since gaining spellcasting abilities, Newt has been working on his physical fitness (he was Fat [-3] in January, 2013), and taking Aikijutsu at his friend Walter's dojo, because he's pretty sure adventure is going to come and find him. The fact that the other members of his usual gaming group (mostly GURPS, with occasional forays into D&D & the Classic World of Darkness) have also begun to change seems to be an indicator in that direction, as well: Teresa appears to be turning into a Vulcan; Geoff has demonstrated abilities close to a more limited version of his favorite oWoD PC (a Son of Ether); Leslie, the second woman in the group, is turning blue, losing weight, and can feel the Force flowing through her (yes, the two women fight a lot, but it never gets physical, just snarky); Stuart has become a symbol wizard; and their usual GM for GURPS, Walter, has begun displaying the cinematic abilities of his martial arts style (he's a professional Aikido & Aikijutsu sensei, though his style draws on elements of Jeet Kune Do, among others). The fact that both of the girls have grown in beauty makes him wonder about the source of these powers (OOC, it's the result of both of them strongly
wanting to be prettier).