Alternate Calamity Table for Threshold Magic

[Blood Legend]

Quickly looking over the table in Thaumatology, I can safely say none of my players nor I would appreciate using a system that resulted in several dozen points of permenant disadvantages, and permenantly lost spells.

I'm looking for a calamity table with more temporary issues. More actiony problems should occur much like an alchemist using the wrong potion at the right time. Spells that backfire, spells that do half damage to the user but go off more or less successfully. Minor inconveniances like apparently supernatural features, or major inconveniances like a torrent of wind encircling the user.

That said it does seem like I have a few of my own ideas but I dont know how to order them and I've not got a head for judging whats too much or too little on the Calamity scale since I've never done Threshold Magic before.

Assuming the basics, a mage with 30 Threshold and no funky advantages, what sort of effects would you add to the list for more 'instant' catastrophies? Where on the scale (to maintain the same feel of disaster at the appropriate level) would you put 'Caster takes half damage from his own missile spell, otherwise, the casting is successful' ?

Whats worse to you, A spell that does normal damage to the enemy but half damage to you, or a spell that veers off and hits unintended targets?

Purely for asthetic, reading through threshold magic, I envisioned my current players stumbling upon a haughty wizard collapsed in a forest surrounded by torrential winds and phantom screams eminating an uncontrollable light flickering like blue fire around his body. He seems unable to pick himself up, and once standing probably would have difficulty keeping his footing with all the wind. Where would you place an effect like that?

I dont want my threshold magic to have a dark demons feeling to it, I want it to feel like the players are screwing with mother nature and bad things happen when you tamper with the order simply because things get out of order.

[Phil Masters]

You're missing the point of Threshold calamities, which is that using this system only "results in" this sort of stuff when you do something stupid. Using magic beyond your innate limits happens to be defined as "something stupid", that's all. Do you dislike the combat system because a 50 point character jumping into combat with three trolls may get his legs chopped off?

[Blood Legend]

?

Uh... I...just want a different Calamity table? Says so right in the book you can make your own. The one in the book is too slow and too permanent for episodic gaming that doesn't keep track of what week the adventure is on. I want to form a Calamity table that better represents epic level action style magic, where you cast beyond your means and bad things happen now and its very bad now. Where the threat of overreaching is a little more serious than a -5 point delusion but worth less risk than permanent ability losses.

I couldn't sell 'Go to high and lose some IQ points' to my players in a million years. And your analogy doesn't fit since what I'm looking for is casting the right spell at the wrong time and getting a limb blown off. Finding a cleric who can regenerate missing legs is considerably easier than earning back 10+ points in stats. I don't want to tone down the table, I just want to make it more available to a group of munchkins who see a few dozen points in stat/skill loss as too much. The alternative is not using the system at all since I wont be able to get anyone to use it.

Edit: Let me clarify. Part of the fun for my players is doing something stupid. Doubly so for those of them what have Daredevil on their sheets, but reduced effectiveness isn't something any of them will go for. Getting to the Calamity table is either going to be inevitable or incredibly improbable. They'll risk a 'temporary' disadvantage like getting their arm blown off because the setting has healers. While regenerating a limb is still expensive and very hard-line miracle, the option to get rid of the disadvantage 'right now' (as in, in a few days or so) is incredibly plausible. Most of our Gurps games involving medieval fantasy typically assume all of the spells in GURPS are available in one form or another, secret spell, hidden, no one knows how to teach it, but it exists somewhere. So my players know if they lose their left eye they'll only have to put up with it until strikes from their left side gets old.

[Asta Kask]

Originally Posted by Blood Legend

?

Uh... I...just want a different Calamity table? Says so right in the book you can make your own. The one in the book is too slow and too permenant. I want to form a Calamity table that better represents epic level action style magic.

Isn't it better to simply tweak the threshold and recharge rate? That would allow for plenty epic-style magic of the kind you want.

[Blood Legend]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

Isn't it better to simply tweak the threshold and recharge rate? That would allow for plenty epic-style magic of the kind you want.

Not really. That changes the power level of the magic, before the risk factor. The problem isn't the seriousness of the risk factor, its making up for it. I want my players to be slinging around gigantic spells 'often enough' and dealing with the risks instead of carefully making sure they don't peek their threshold, which they will, since "stat loss is uncool." A sentiment I share with my players.

Increase threshold and they wont worry about it. Set it too high and we'll never even get to use the Calamity table. Shorten the recharge rate, "Meh, I'll cast it tomorrow." If I didn't want any drama in it, I'd just stick with the current magic system and give them 100 FP. I want them to take risks, but I know they wont with those sort of penalties. Earning temporary disadvantages in play for 'x' amount of weeks is fine enough, so is exploding to death. Losing spells and stats isn't, mostly because if my players explode "at least I can make a new character at the same point level as everyone else."

We game maybe once a week if we're lucky, so our games tend to have heavy action and mystery to squeeze in a 6 hour session. I can use a few of the Calamity results as is but the rest aren't instant enough (not that I want completely instant) to be noticed in a play-through. I wouldn't have time in the game's plot to set up one of the players as a mana scar and have every Tom, Dick and Harry with a crossbow chase them down and still have enough time to cover all the points I need to in that session, and stuff like that. I need to light the firecracker and after 5 seconds it goes BANG with lots of pretty colors. Just got through reading Thaumatology last night and I think it would solve the sleepy-mages casting tiny spells issue in our group, which is why I want to use it. They cast the occasional Lightning bolt, but they wont bother with sundering the land with fiery death from above in an area bigger than a campfire. The other players realize FP regenerates 1 point every five minutes and would go nuts with 30 energy/threshold and quickly become inferior to the rest of the party to the point where they're asking me to make a new character, which I'd let them because there's no fun playing the Level 5 amongst the Level 10s. I don't like doing that though and neither would they since we get attached to our characters.

I dont want something less harsh than stat loss, I just want something different. A parallel risk. All I can think of though doesn't some up to much more than a complex critical failure table. Now I said the Nightmares calamity is ok for us, but just as an example; instead of having Nightmares for 4d6 weeks, they get Bloodlust at six for 4d6 days. Problem being is my ideas don't fill up a quarter of the Calamity table, I spent all night thinking up the few in the first post and the examples and I can probably start play with that. Probably. So I turn to the forums to help me fill the lines. I need ideas that are more bang for your buck that still feel like Calamities, and since I'm new with Calamities, I don't think I'm much of an authority for what would be balanced.

[benz72]

The easy answer is to make the current table effects temporary (until power tally returns to zero). The caster can rest up enough to 'recharge their mana' and recover from whatever inconvenience they caused themselves. If that's too lenient, make it 2 points of IQ, or a level or 2 of Magery, or whatever... but it thematically ties back into overexertion of the spellcaster's magical abilities and the requisite healing of those abilities.
If you want to make the recovery a little more harrowing, require HT rolls at some interval (after complete power tally recovery) to get those traits back. Perhaps a critical failure on a recovery roll would warrant a permanent loss since that's more in line with a crit fail HT roll after getting a limb mangled... either way it will give them pause without scaring them away from overexertion entirely.

EDIT: you might consider adding a fright check (with penalty equal to overexertion) to those situations when they cast beyond their means as well... that way they get two chances to be messed up, but each one is less severe...
explain it as the conscious minds inability to cope with the warping of the natural order.

[Blood Legend]

Originally Posted by benz72

The easy answer is to make the current table effects temporary.

Hm. Not exactly what I had in mind but I can definitely do that while I fill the table on my own time. Thanks, solves it nicely.

[Ego Archive]

If I was going to modify the Calamity table, I would probably add some minor effects to the begining, and space some of the nastier effects out, by adding effects from the critical tables. This creates a deeper table, that ramps into the nastier/permanent effects. This would allow your players to skirt the line of danger/push the envelope, without it being a sudden drop into crippledville.

Something like the table below would allow your players to push the threshold limit, but wouldn't get into the nastier and more permanent effects until they were running at around 10+ and rolled really badly. If I used something like the table below, I would probably go 5-10 points below what the typical threshold for the campaign type was, but that's me.

Die Roll Effects
3-8 Nothing happens – this time.
9-11 Spell produces a weak and useless shadow of the intended
effect.
12,13 A brief rain of golden flowers falls on the caster, or over the
target area of an Area spell.
14,15 Spell seems to work, but this is only a useless illusion.
16 Spell produces nothing but a babble of incoherent voices,
flickering images and lights, bizarre odors, etc.
17 Spell is cast on something – anything – other than its intended
target. Roll randomly or make an interesting choice.
18 Spell is cast on a nearby foe (roll randomly). If it’s harmful,
then the target automatically makes any HT rolls required as a
result, and is filled with hatred for the caster
Spell fails entirely. Caster takes 1 point of injury.
19 Spell fails entirely. Caster sees a wondrous vision of a mystical
otherworld, and must make an IQ roll or be mentally
stunned.
20 Spell is cast on one of the caster’s companions (roll randomly).
If it’s beneficial, then the target is also stunned (IQ-2 roll to
recover).
21 Caster must make a Fright Check at -5 as horrific visions of the
afterlife of the damned fill his eyes.
22 Spell fails entirely. Caster takes 1d of injury
23 Spell produces the reverse of the intended effect.
24 Spell fails entirely. Caster suffers the equivalent of an occurrence
of the Phantom Voices disadvantage at the -10-point
level, lasting 2d minutes.
25 The caster is covered in glowing sigils and is +2 to hit, and causes hatred in enemies for the next 5 minutes.
26 The caster succumbs to the wild powers and gains the disadvantage Beserk for the next 30 minutes, the caster must make an immeadiate will roll to avoid beserking.
27 Spell fails entirely. Caster temporarily forgets the spell. Make
an IQ roll after a week, and again each following week, until he
remembers. Studying the spell before then is a waste of time.
28 Spell fails entirely. Caster takes 2 points of injury, and the wound
immediately becomes infected (see Infection, p. B444).
29 Spell has the reverse of the intended effect, on 1d+1 different
targets (roll randomly).
30 Spell fails entirely. Caster suffers Nightmares (p. B144) and
Sleepwalker (9) for the next 1d+2 nights.
31 Wizard’s grasp of his own magic weakens. Reduce his
threshold by 2d+5 for the next 1d weeks. The wizard is
aware that his threshold has fallen, but not by how
much.
32 Wizard suffers from the Nightmares disadvantage
(p. B144), with a self-control number of 9, for 4d days.
33 As (22), but threshold reduction is 4d+10 and the effect
lasts 2d weeks. In addition, all of the wizard’s spells are
at -3 to skill for 1d weeks.
34 Wizard’s Magery gains the Radically Unstable Magery
limitation (p. 26) at the -30% level. If he already has this,
then it becomes the -50% version. If he already has that
– or if he lacks Magery – then any attempt to cast a spell
results in an automatic critical failure. In all cases, the
problem lasts for 1d+1 weeks.
35 Spell fails entirely. Caster temporarily forgets the spell. Make
an IQ roll after d6 weeks, and again each following week, until he
remembers. Studying the spell before then is a waste of time.
36 Caster gains a -5-point disadvantage of the GM’s
choice. After 3d days, he has the option of buying it off
for 2 bonus character points (it simply fades away). If he
lacks the points, or doesn’t want to spend them, then the
disadvantage becomes permanent. Any disadvantage is
possible – the wizard can become ugly, marginally
insane, etc., at the GM’s whim.
37 As 36, but the disadvantage is worth -10 points, and
costs 5 points to buy off.
38-39 Wizard loses the ability to cast a single spell, chosen at
random from his spell list, permanently. The Caster may relearn the spell as normal.
40 As 36, but the disadvantage is worth -15 points, and
costs 7 points to buy off.
41,42 Wizard’s skill with all spells is reduced by 1d+3. This
penalty “heals” at a rate of -2 per day.
43 As 36, but there are multiple disadvantages worth -30
points in total, and costing 15 points to buy off.
44 Roll again with the same modifier. The result affects a
randomly chosen companion of the wizard! If it’s one
that affects spellcasting and the wizard has no casters
among his companions, or if the wizard is operating
completely alone, then roll twice (with the same modifier)
and apply both results to the wizard himself.
45 Wizard’s skill with all spells is reduced by 3d+5. This
penalty “heals” at a rate of -1 per day.
46 As 45, but “healing rate” is only -1 per week.
47 The Wizard loses the ability to cast all spells for 1d+3 days.
48 Wizard ages 1d+4 years.
49 The Caster gains a glowing brand upon his face, or some similar feature. This has no effect, other than being obviously unnatural, and likely causing social modifiers.
50 Wizard ages 2d+10 years.
51,52 A plague or a curse (locusts, storms, etc.) descends on
the region, lasting for 3d weeks. No one will be able to
trace this to the wizard, but he’ll be aware that it’s his
fault. This can drive a benevolent wizard mad as he witnesses
the suffering and destruction. Even vicious wizards
may be inconvenienced – and worry that they’ll
somehow be blamed. The GM should be grotesque and
cruel.
53,54 Caster becomes a living “mana-scar”! Within a 3d-mile
radius of the wizard, casting and maintenance costs double
(in terms of tally additions and, if regular spellcasting
is possible in the setting, energy cost), and tally recovery
halts. This effect lasts for 3d weeks. It also ends in the
event of the wizard’s death. Enemies or impatient allies
may decide on a quick solution . . .
55+ The region becomes a "mana-sink"! Within a 2d mile radius the land becomes one mana level lower then the norm. If you are not using mana levels, use the rules for "Twisted mana" (p.60) for the effects of this region on spellcasting.

[TroyGuffey]

Here's a mildly funny, and mildly dangerous effect:

A Brontosaurus takes a dump into a dimensional rift and 1d6x100 lbs. of herbivore excrement lands on you!

Switch gender! The character believes they have always been that sex. Equipment does NOT change. For extra spice have new turned females begin menstruation! (Temporary and Permanent versions....)

More dangerous:

Spell Swap. Swap the effects of two spells in the mage's grimoire. When the mage attempts to cast one of the spells, the other takes effect instead. (Suggestion: NEVER swap out Healing spells for anything but other Healing spells)

[Flyndaran]

The O.P. seems to want something like the paradox effects from Mage the Ascension.
The one nasty effect I remember was when you character's digestive system reverses. You eat through you anus and defecate from your mouth.
Magical glows that are best when magicians are seen as dangerous nutbars.

I can't find my Gurps MTA, but here are some examples from the Whitewolf version.
Many are versions of supernatural flaws like milk curdling when looked at, or electricity running backward shorting things out.
Sense of timing is altered, and sounds and sights go from faint to overwhelming randomly.
Visions turns upside down, bones have the weakness of hard wood.
Personal possessions turn to glass, and as mentioned attributes may become much lower for a time.