Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno
Probably, but GURPS Magic has very little to say on the subject. A mind-control ray-gun would come with an LC rating - spells don't.
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Ironically enough, GURPS FANTASY does have that concept where spells would have a legality rating. Problem is, GURPS FANTASY for GURPS 4e, has been out ALL this time, and NO ONE, and I do mean NO ONE, has picked up the ball on this one and run with it.
I started to create a Magical Control rating and a legality rating for spells - based on the premise of Magic Guilds and the like. I used the guidelines set in GURPS FANTASY. Then I ran into issues where a given spell itself would qualify for a less strict legality rating, but its prerequisite would have had a harsher control rating. How does one resolve the issue of Legality issues if the requisite spell is worse than the current spell? Under those circumstances, outlawing a requisite spell also outlaws any subsequent spell that uses it as a requisite. I really wish that SJGames had thought this one through a little better. If any given requisite is rendered illegal, then perhaps a "second requisite could have been generated to get around that particular issue.
it was an inherent contradiction that I could not resolve - that and the fact that there are essentially some 800+ spells in GURPS MAGIC for 4e, that makes the entire task a tedious one.
In the end, if I were to rewrite the Requisite system for GURPS, I'd pare down on a fair number of them (as has been attempted by the original poster of this thread), and then toss in the following:
Each "College" has its Thaumatological lore. This Thaumatology(College) should have been usable as a requisite substitute - allowing one to learn how to cast fireballs without first learning to ignite fire - but only because they have the College Lore that teaches them the theory behind lighting a fire even if you can't actually LIGHT the fire.
GURPS MAGIC in its initial publication did not suffer from requisite creep. GURPS MAGIC over time, suffered requisite creep in a big way. Perfect example? DESTROY MANA. Because Destroy mana's requisite chain was already published before GURPS GRIMOIRE came out, the authors had to use the original pre-existing chains and any new spells had to add on requisites to what already existed. Why for instances, didn't GURPS MAGIC for 4e make it such that Drain Mana was a requisite for Destroy Mana instead of the original "vice-versa" set up that currently exists for GURPS MAGIC 2nd edition coupled with GURPS GRIMOIRE 1st edition?
So, yes, I see why so many people are DOWN on GURPS MAGIC. It is an arthritic survivor of aging, with an accumulation of issues that have never been cleaned up - Magical control ratings/legal ratings being one of them. :(