Ways of using spellbooks

[tantric]

I'm curious about different ways y'all have tried for modeling magic systems that require spellbooks. I'm familiar with Vancian/supermemorization, of course, but that's not exactly what I'm looking for. I'm considering a system in which mages lose points in spells if they don't study everyday. Thoughts? Thanks.

[Stone Dog]

I would never take somebody's CP away for not keeping up with their daily spell studies, but if you wanted that sort of degrading mechanic I think I would tolerate taking a -3 penalty for spells that I haven't given 10 minutes or so restudy in the last couple of days.

Or you could cap the level of a spell at IQ and say that bumping it up past that requires the study of putting it in a modular ability every day.

[MKMcArtor]

Originally Posted by Stone Dog

Or you could cap the level of a spell at IQ and say that bumping it up past that requires the study of putting it in a modular ability every day.

I'm no GURPS expert at all, but I would favor this solution. Giving a bonus to those who take the time to do something extra is a more rewarding experience than applying a penalty to those who forget to do it.

[Kissamies]

Probably not exactly what you are looking here, but one way might be treating it like some sort of Required Behavior Power Modifier to Magery. I have Jedi analogues with magic-based powers that basically do this, though they meditate instead of studying.

[Gudiomen]

Originally Posted by tantric

I'm considering a system in which mages lose points in spells if they don't study everyday. Thoughts? Thanks.

Why? What is your goal... do you want mages to have to study a little every day? What's the problem you're trying to fix?

It's easier to make sugestions when you know the problem. Instead of one proposed solution.

And I agree with the guys above, unlearning, loosing CPs is probably not a good idea.

[tantric]

It's not a problem, it's an aesthetic I'm trying to encode. I'm thinking out loud and inviting others to participate. In regular GURPS magic mages have no use for spellbooks. I like spellbooks, thus I'm trying to explore different mechanics that make spellbooks important to magic. For instance: if you have your spellbook open in front of you, your skill level is increased by N. Alternately, there's the gadget limitation per Thaumatology p. 24.

I call this type of magic Lorecraft. It is juxtaposed with Spellsong, which is syntactic musical magic.

[sir_pudding]

What about Book magic?

[Ts_]

Originally Posted by Stone Dog

Or you could cap the level of a spell at IQ and say that bumping it up past that requires the study of putting it in a modular ability every day.

I like that. Modular abilities seem to fit the concept of don't-hurt-the-player, especially because I think of them as "Woot! My mage has modular abilities!".

One similar concept, where points invested in IQ essentially replace the modular abilities, could be:

I would base "Lorecraft" spell level on 10+Magery instead of IQ+Magery, modified as usual by invested skill points. If the player does his morning studies, he can raise the base from 10+Magery up to IQ+Magery at a rate of 1 point per hour or whatever it takes.

So everyday studying gives you the part of the skill that comes from your IQ. The more intelligent you are, the more you can benefit from "cramming". On the other hand, invested skill points are "work", not intelligence, so you've already done the studying for them. I think one plus side would be that there is more reason to put lots of skill points directly into spells (assuming magery levels are limited). The standard magic system sometimes lacks this ...

The ingame reasoning could be that spells are very complex formulae and you cannot remember them very well, so you go and look them up every morning. Of course, the mechanics also suggests that IQ is not really needed for casting the spell itself, just for learning it. That might fit a world where reading spells from scrolls is common. A truly desperate magician might even get out his spellbook and "burn" a page from there as if it was a one-time scroll. Afterwards, the spell won't profit from studying in the morning anymore, because the mage doesn't know it any better than what he remembers from his studies represented by skill points.

I'm lacking a good ingame arguements why all spells benefit equally from studying in the morning, though it's not completely implausible. I guess you could also have a more evolved system of spell levels decaying back to 10+Magery by 1 point per day, and studying raises all or individual spell levels back to IQ+Magery. Especially the last option requires a lot of bookkeeping, though.

Regards
Ts

[RogerBacon]

Ars Magica uses spellbooks the same way a chef today would use a cookbook. A mage using a spellbook could cast any spell in it without knowing the spell. It doesn't disappear or any such nonsense like that because it is nothing more than a formula or series of steps, just like a cookbook. The time required to cast the spell is longer, just like using a cookbook rather than working from memory. Also the chance of making a mistake, called a botch, in Ars Magica, increases. For GURPS, consider any failure to bea critical failure.

In this case using a spellbook is an advantage and not a limitation. I think you were looking at ways for making spellbooks a limitation but there is no reason they need to be limiting. Since GURPS doesn't mention spellbooks at all it makes sense to assume that mages would introduce them only if they granted some sort of benefit.

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by tantric

I'm curious about different ways y'all have tried for modeling magic systems that require spellbooks. I'm familiar with Vancian/supermemorization, of course, but that's not exactly what I'm looking for. I'm considering a system in which mages lose points in spells if they don't study everyday. Thoughts? Thanks.

The phrase "lose points in spells" is a particularly bad one. It conjures the image of the utterly immature GM uttering something like "Ok, you awake from your coma ten minutes too late! You didn't study within a 24 hour frame and thus the 64 CP in Spells you invested in are PERMANENTLY erased from your character sheet!!!!! You are so foolish! BWAH HAhahahaaaaaaah!"

Destroying CP is not the usual mechanic utilized in GURPS. Duplication can hit this penalty IF your dupe gets killed, as opposed to you being killed and needing to make a new character. Sig Gear can suffer from this as can Weapon/Equipment Bond.

But aside from those cases GURPS stays away from this Mechanic.

If CP destruction was not your intent, please reword.

I would probably do it this way:

New Limitation on Magery: Requires Daily Study. A wizard with this restriction can no more cast a spell on awaking and not hitting the book(s) than a daylight magery character can cast at night. At this point, the limitation is pretty indistinguishable from Requires Preperation. It can be further limited to Vancian it.

Slotted: You can only cast so many spells per day. This will almost certainly be mechanically different from the existing Limited Use Limitation to fit Vancian/D&D style casters. Have fun designing it's mechanics!

Pre selection Reqired. You have to choose which spell goes into which slot when studying for the day.