Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Updating/recreating GURPS Mage the Ascension to 4ed

starslayer · 06-07-2013, 11:29 AM

As long as you are runing a mage game, and everyone is a mage then there is no problem using the rules as written for MtA.

However, if you are using multiple magical system or not everyone is a mage then you may be giving a serious imbalance to mages (wither for or against I am not sure).

I would strongly suggest the following changes:

->Moving the pricing scheme fully to realm based magic (actually makes it cheaper)
->Have the energy be 'free', the cost comes in the form of paradox
->Magery == Avatar
->Arete is a single bang skill (call it arete! if you want, I would call it Magic! just to get the point across) and continues to be the single control skill for all realm spheres. If you want to strengthen the dissociation between the ability to work magic and the intellect of the worker have it be based on a base 10 stat rather then IQ. Have magery limit the maximum of this skill as per RPM magic (skill can be no higher then 12+magery value).

The existing paradox rules in GURPS MtA are actually pretty succinct, but you might enjoy a more negotiable methodology, turning paradox into a form of threshold based magic (with more mage appropriate calamity checks), the reason why I would want to look into this is because it allows for more flexibility and differentiation between mages/traditions. One mage could be extremely resistant to paradox (increase threshold), able to work vulgar effects more reliably and regularly, another could have virtually no tolerance for paradox (decreased or potentially no threshold), but be a stronger mage (due to increased points from giving up that threshold).

06-07-2013, 11:29 AM	#8
starslayer Join Date: Dec 2006	Re: Updating/recreating GURPS Mage the Ascension to 4ed As long as you are runing a mage game, and everyone is a mage then there is no problem using the rules as written for MtA. However, if you are using multiple magical system or not everyone is a mage then you may be giving a serious imbalance to mages (wither for or against I am not sure). I would strongly suggest the following changes: ->Moving the pricing scheme fully to realm based magic (actually makes it cheaper) ->Have the energy be 'free', the cost comes in the form of paradox ->Magery == Avatar ->Arete is a single bang skill (call it arete! if you want, I would call it Magic! just to get the point across) and continues to be the single control skill for all realm spheres. If you want to strengthen the dissociation between the ability to work magic and the intellect of the worker have it be based on a base 10 stat rather then IQ. Have magery limit the maximum of this skill as per RPM magic (skill can be no higher then 12+magery value). The existing paradox rules in GURPS MtA are actually pretty succinct, but you might enjoy a more negotiable methodology, turning paradox into a form of threshold based magic (with more mage appropriate calamity checks), the reason why I would want to look into this is because it allows for more flexibility and differentiation between mages/traditions. One mage could be extremely resistant to paradox (increase threshold), able to work vulgar effects more reliably and regularly, another could have virtually no tolerance for paradox (decreased or potentially no threshold), but be a stronger mage (due to increased points from giving up that threshold).