Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr_Sandman
Thanks for the input.
In my game the PC would most likely all be Mages. Although if I get really ambitious I might try to convert the other WoD books and eventually allow vampires, werewolves. changelings, etc. That would be quite a bit to balance however. Standard GURPS spells as skill will be for non-Mage NPC hedge wizards, no other magic systems. I'm trying to recreate the G:MtA experience relatively closely.
I think, although I haven't really tested it, that Mages using MtA spheres or realms will come out more powerful than the users of most other magic systems, or non magic using characters, at most reasonable point values. The system allows for both tremendous flexibility and impressive power.
Is there a particular reason that you have for making Arete a bang skill and having it cover all spheres, instead of keeping individual sphere skills? Other than simplifying the character sheet a little, I'm not seeing any major advantage.
Paradox I'll probably keep as is in G:MtA. I'm not looking to reinvent the game, just update it.
|
If your ultimate goal is to convert vampires and werewolves getting mages more solidly into the GURPS 4th way of doing things may be beneficial to avoid imbalances between them (the orriginal books did have horrible imbalances so you do have some work ahead of you).
The paradox system presented in the MtA book is still really good, I would just take that and call it the 'standard' threshold response, allowing mages to then make it more or less dangerous to accumulate paradox. I also always did have a fondness for the marauder paradox immunity as well- as while the marauder was immune, none of its allies were so they still had to watch there casting 90% of the time, but they were crazy and well and did not know to watch casting.
More powerful is an interesting term. Ideally they should be 'balanced', in that 'for the massive point budget required to be a mage I could ...' and you'd end up with some interesting builds. Realm/sphere based magic is EXPENSIVE, but it does grant fantastical variability.
The reason why I would convert Arete to a bang skill instead of having each sphere be its own skill is actually a 'be more faithful to the original source material' concession. In the WoD mage your Arete represented your dice pool with all magical actions, a mage had the same 'throw weight' with all magic, spheres only representing the complexity of the effect they would be throwing. By having a single bang skill to cover all magical workings you achieve a similar effect.