[wellspring]

Originally Posted by Mithlas

I'm unfamiliar with how Ritual Path Magic or Sorcery does so, though I might be missing a reference. Could you point me at something specific?

I'm not sure what you're asking, but I'll take a swing. In GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic, spellcasting is mostly spontaneous. The player comes up with a spell effect and then negotiates an energy cost and magical skill prerequisites on the fly. So if you want a spell that works a certain way to match another RPG setting or a fictional world like Harry Potter or Song of Ice and Fire, it's simply part of the normal task of mapping it into the RPM framework.

GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery takes another approach. There you have spells designed as advantages in advanced and added to a fixed spell list available for the campaign. The GM builds an advantage that models the intended spell effect, then applies the Sorcery power modifier, which adds all the game mechanics specific to Sorcery. At that point, if the player spends the points, he can buy the spell.

Now let's look at the default Magic system (which I agree is not broken). If you have a specific effect in mind, perhaps drawn from some other fictional setting, you have two choices: A) find the closest spell that kind of/sort of fits and use that, or B) create and balance your own new spell by eyeballing it.

While RPM is designed more for spontaneous on-the-fly magic systems, and Sorcery more for spamming a few signature spells the way you see people do it in D&D with the Sorcerer or Warlock, both systems are flexible enough to allow enormous scope for customization and adaptation. Default Magic is quite good... but Sorcery and RPM are better, and more in keeping with the GURPS philosophy.

Originally Posted by Mithlas

The poster seems to have a very clear goal of consolidation, which I think is one step toward fixing the problem of a large and inconsistent spell list. Powers seems complicated, I'm curious how you fared and what your focus was.

Well, as I said in the post you're replying to, I don't agree that reducing the spell catalog to a smaller but still fixed list is the solution. I'm fine with a long and rich list of spells. IMO, there are no prerequisite chains. GMs come up with prereqs to match the requirements of the setting and story, but they shouldn't affect point costs.

My goal was to take what was best about default Magic and try to retrofit a spell creation system to it. I mostly like default Magic. So I took "Skills into Powers" and worked it backwards as "Powers into Skills". Here's the link.

Such a concept also allow you to turn any advantage into a supernatural skill the way GURPS already does with the Bard and Ninja skills. You start by designing an advantage to reflect the game mechanics of the spell effect you want. You convert it into a supernatural skill. Then, much like with Sorcery, apply modifiers to convert and fit it to the magical spell system.