Quote:
Originally Posted by Qhaysh
Ars Magica is a great game: it has a wonderful system for spellcasting and spell-design, and the setting is interesting and quite well-written. The problem is that the rest of the system is kind of low-resolution. So, being the GURPS fundamentalist that I am, I decided I'd try to convert the AM's magic.
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Compared to Ars Magica's high-simulation character advancement rules, GURPS' low-resolution ones are a
complete joke.
And this
is important, given that an
emergent effect of Ars Magica's high-simulation character advancement rules is that spellcaster player characters, as well as spellcaster
non-player characters, spend a lot of time worrying about how they can advance themselves
most efficiently.
That's much of what makes Ars Magica great. That it's not about killing monsters and dragons because the GM tells you to, but about seeking to become a better scholar, facilitated by rules that actually acknowledge that some learning processes are
much better than others.
A magi character, whether PC or NPC, can expect something like 400-700 seasons of lifespan, total, after apprenticeship. Most seek to spend those wisely.
Why waste a season being taught by a fellow Covenant member, in a skill you find valuable, when you can gain 30% or 40% more XP in that same skill, per season, if you can get a more skilled teacher, from another Covenant, to teach you instead? He won't spend a season teaching you, let alone two or three, out of the goodness of his heart, of course, but those Faeries he'd like you to deal with, in exchange for teaching you, can't be that dangerous, can they...?
Same with books. The primary kind of treasure in Ars Magica is the high-Quality book, because when you have it, you can study from it more efficiently. Covenant libraries are filled with trash books that noboy wants to read, but dangle a supreme-Quality book in front of a magi character and you'll have instant motivation. Instant
in-character motivation.
What are your plans for drastically improving the simulativeness of GURPS' character advancement rules, so as to achieve an emergent effect that is at least somewhat comparable to what Ars Magica's rules achives?