Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Dungeon Fantasy with only one Spellcaster "Class"

Colarmel · 10-04-2017, 02:56 PM

We've run GURPS: Dungeon Fantasy that way, sort of. Really more adding healing to the repertoire of professions that don't get it normally. And I think this is probably the best way to handle it. Don't suddenly open the floodgates and let everyone cast everything – that way madness lies.

But if you've got someone who wants to play a wizard, and no one who wants to play a cleric, you'll have a lot more fun letting that guy do heals than you will having some player "jump on the grenade" and play a character they're not interested in.

The limited spell trees are there for three reasons, as near as I can figure.

1) Flavor: A wizard whose favorite spells are all about controlling trees, should just call himself a druid and have done with it. It's weird if your cleric focuses on hurling explosive fireballs, etc.

2) Niche Protection: This is the most important reason, but, when you've only got one caster, it's moot. Unless you've got a Holy Warrior and a wizard who keeps casting very clericy spells.

3) Player guidance: Often overlooked and shouldn't be. One of the best things about DFRPG is that we're back to being able to pretty quickly create characters around the table. I can't remember the last time I felt like I could do that with GURPS, just because of the massive amount of options provided by our gaming group's rather expansive library.

10-04-2017, 02:56 PM	#6
Colarmel Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Northeast Kansas	Re: Dungeon Fantasy with only one Spellcaster "Class" We've run GURPS: Dungeon Fantasy that way, sort of. Really more adding healing to the repertoire of professions that don't get it normally. And I think this is probably the best way to handle it. Don't suddenly open the floodgates and let everyone cast everything – that way madness lies. But if you've got someone who wants to play a wizard, and no one who wants to play a cleric, you'll have a lot more fun letting that guy do heals than you will having some player "jump on the grenade" and play a character they're not interested in. The limited spell trees are there for three reasons, as near as I can figure. 1) Flavor: A wizard whose favorite spells are all about controlling trees, should just call himself a druid and have done with it. It's weird if your cleric focuses on hurling explosive fireballs, etc. 2) Niche Protection: This is the most important reason, but, when you've only got one caster, it's moot. Unless you've got a Holy Warrior and a wizard who keeps casting very clericy spells. 3) Player guidance: Often overlooked and shouldn't be. One of the best things about DFRPG is that we're back to being able to pretty quickly create characters around the table. I can't remember the last time I felt like I could do that with GURPS, just because of the massive amount of options provided by our gaming group's rather expansive library.