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Old 03-18-2018, 04:31 PM   #13
Apollonian
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)
Default Re: GURPS Cabal for 4th Edition: Notes and Thoughts

Planar Travel

A character can travel between planes by either projecting their spirit (and creating a ka in Cabalist lingo) or by physically moving between them.

Projection requires a power with Jumper and the Projection modifier (Powers p. 44) or a spell from the Path of Crossroads - Greater Sense Crossroads if the ka will only be able to communicate and perceive, or Greater Create Crossroads if the ka can fully interact with the destination realm. Psychic Astral Projection usually entails a "silver thread" running from the psychic's body on Assiah to their ka in Yetzirah. Only material creatures in Assiah can project.

Quote:
Originally Posted by GURPS Cabal, p. 46
Coming Down to Earth
To enter the Material Realm, Yetziratic entities use some version of spirit materialization powers (p. 96);
spirits don’t leave an “astral body” behind in Yetzirah. Gods and other beings from Briah can, in theory, materialize on Assiah, but usually prefer to cast avatars or other eidolons to do their bidding in the Material Realm. Demons must climb out of the Abyss with the help of a sigil (p. 112).
Spirit Materialization involves the Jumper advantage and a mandatory version of one of the Spirit Metatraits (best found on GURPS Fantasy p. 134) with the limitation (Only in Assiah), to for which I have not yet figured out a value.

Demons might get Jumper with the limitation (Requires Sigil, -40%), but it's implied that they can also materialize on Assiah by spending 10x as much FP as normal spirits. I might need to dig into this later. How much of demon summoning is the caster's work, and how much is the demon's? etc.

Iconic beings creating avatars and eidolons is some form of Ally creating a spirit in Assiah, again with one of the spirit metatraits. As said Iconic Beings are unlikely to be PCs in any games I run, I'm not going to worry about statting that particular trick up right now.

Travel between the Realms and spheres is more often possible by using "natural" paths - places where the borders between the realms are thin and permeable. These are Gates (and thus affected by Path of Crossroads), and can be used by anyone who knows how (or sometimes is just lucky or unlucky). As a rule, Gates only go from a Realm to an adjacent Realm or Sphere; there are few direct paths from Assiah to Briah, for example, but many between Assiah and Yetzirah. Traveling using Gates is by default a form of physical travel, not projection.

Etherealness
Things in Assiah can be either material (which is normal) or ethereal (as most spirits on Assiah are). Ethereal characters have the Insubstantial and Invisible advantages. Ethereal things are sometimes mis-described as “astral.” (The Cabal encourages this to muddy the waters.)

To affect ethereal creatures, abilities will need to have some version of the Affects Insubstantial enhancement.

Ethereal Projection [96]
The character projects his consciousness into the ether of the Material Realm, creating a ka. His ka is invisible and insubstantial. He can affect other ethereal things, like unmanifested spirits, and communicate with substantial characters through magic or mental abilities (such as Telesend).

This ability is largely based on Astral Travel from GURPS Psionic Powers, p. 28. Many of the modifiers have been stripped out to present an expensive version of the ability. Most often it’ll be take as a power with quite a few more accessibility limitations to lower the cost.

Insubstantiality (Ghost Air, +10%; Projection, -50%; Substantial Communication, +40%) [80] + Invisibility (Accessibility, Only while Insubstantial/ethereal, -30%; Substantial Only, -10%; Temporary Disadvantage, Mute with Substantial Only, -22%) [16].

Coming up next: I dunno, maybe some character creation bits.
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