[Advantage] No Mana to Higher Mana Level?

[Sunrunners_Fire]

I would like to design an advantage that allows a character to treat No Mana areas as Low Mana or Normal Mana areas in absolute terms (spell-limited range and area, as if casting in a Low Mana environment; effectively infinite with enough skill or modifiers). Mana Enhancer doesn't do what I want it to do at anything resembling a reasonable price. (I don't consider spending over 600 points on a single limited use advantage to be reasonable.)

In this case I am the GM, and thereby don't have anyone else to ask. So I ask y'all for your opinions and suggestions. Assume an area-variable mana-level world that this advantage is intended to level out for specific characters.

[PK]

Think about what you're asking for.

"I want the ability to make radical changes to the world around me, affecting the world for at least miles around me, if not for thousands of miles. This ability should make my character better than any other mage who doesn't have the same ability -- I'll be able to defy metaphysics while others find their magic completely useless."

What you're describing is about a 600-point advantage. If you don't want to pay that, then all I can suggest is handwaving the price since you're the GM. Because a point-based system is going to charge you based on utility and power -- and you're describing a (low-level) godlike ability, quite frankly.

[vierasmarius]

Also consider that a small-area Mana Enhancer could still cast Missile Spells and Touch Spells in combat. If you really want him to be able to use magic regularly in a no-mana zone you could rule that such zones don't block the path of any spells and merely disrupt the casting of magic. This would change the game world in unforeseeable and possibly unbalanced ways. It would also render the Mana Dampener advantage much less useful.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Having looked over my books some more ... I retract my question. The Cosmic modifier (applied to Magery) can be interpreted to do what I want done. I'm still going to tack on an Unusual Background.

Thank you for your opinions and suggestions.

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

Having looked over my books some more ... I retract my question. The Cosmic modifier (applied to Magery) can be interpreted to do what I want done. I'm still going to tack on an Unusual Background.

Thank you for your opinions and suggestions.

Personally, I don't use Mana per se in most of my world settings, though I do use aspects and such.

Basically what people would call a "No Mana Area" is just an area where most people don't have the capacity to use the available ambient energy, but there's no reason why in any given setting you wouldn't have people capable of using magic in otherwise "No Mana Areas".

You can do it with cosmic as you're suggesting, or you can just make it a part and parcel of your setting, and don't worry if some other GMs seem caught up in running some sort of Nivenian abortion type of magic system.
That awful Nivenesque influence is the biggest non-generic problem with GURPS Magic.

[Bruno]

I'm not seeing much connection to The Magic Goes Away in the idea of mana levels. If "mana level" was a number and casting spells depleted it until there was no more mana left, THAT would be very much like what Niven's fantasy world was like. Sort of a reverse of the Threshold magic system - as you cast more spells, reality gets LESS weird, not MORE weird.

The GURPS mana levels are static environmental features and by default only adjustable through deliberate effort. I see it FAR more in common with Piers Anthony's Xanth and the border effects between Xanth and "Mundania", where magical effects weaken and then vanish if you get too far from Xanth. Complete with items with Mana Enhancer that you could carry with yourself to stay in the High Mana area.

EDIT: and then there's Reverse Wood, which is actually a gold mine of ideas for annoying the crap out of DF characters.

[Corlock Striker]

The Mana level idea also reminds me slightly of Robert Jordan's world, at least with no mana zones being stedding. After that, the entire world has a constant mana level. It's more the caster's themselves that have varying mana levels, but I'd just represent that as a predetermined max level of magery for the character.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Bruno

I'm not seeing much connection to The Magic Goes Away in the idea of mana levels. If "mana level" was a number and casting spells depleted it until there was no more mana left, THAT would be very much like what Niven's fantasy world was like. Sort of a reverse of the Threshold magic system - as you cast more spells, reality gets LESS weird, not MORE weird.

The depletion is discretized and attenuated for gameability, but in rereading the stories this week, I see mentions of Very High Mana conditions where spells become so powerful they can kill the magician attempting to use them, certain enchanted items serving as Mana Enhancers creating bubbles of "normal" magic conditions in an area of lower mana, stationary patches of higher and lower mana, etc. There's even one with a sort of early Technomancer-like scenario with mana inflow from the sun being largely blocked by fields surrounding the earth.