01-15-2014, 11:40 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Re: [THM] Realm-Based Syntactic Magic and Effect Shaping Paths
There is a couple of things I have problems with in your metaphysics and it's various magic systems. I think that you've come up with a fictional world and are now trying to put rules to it. Unfortunately this is difficult, because fiction is balanced by an author's plot. A GM can't do this because the players are the ones who mainly create the plot while the GM mainly creates the setting.
I think that you have several months before you can get all this down. Naming the the most difficult, while the realm based one might be the easiest if no PC can use it. OK here are my thoughts on your various systems. I didn't like PM for years until I actually understood it for the same reason I dislike one of the central premises: you are distancing man too far from nature. Even man can follow his own nature. PM is a couple of things, and one of them is a Taoist story. Another is looking at it as not technology against nature, but rather greed vs nature. It isn't technology that was really the problem in PM, it was the greed of the human leaders who had gone against nature to increase their own power and wealth through bad technology. That is, technology isn't bad in itself, but the humans were using technology that was highly polluting in order to create extra wealth for the leaders. I think that you've gone too far in separating mankind from nature. Mankind's intelligence sometimes gets in the way of him seeing the balance, of seeing his own nature. On the other hand, it also allows him to choose his way. And please don't forget certain other intelligent beings who can also choose, such as demons and dragons. Sorry, but I had to get that out. :) OK, your clerical system. I'm very against calling what they do miracles. Mainly because people have different ideas about what the word means, but in almost all cases the miracle a are chosen by a deity, not by a man. In addition, you are having them done at no cost to the pious priest. I prefer to think about an FP cost as a sacrifice rather than a cost. As a GM I think in terms of it balancing the game a bit. I don't think I would base a naming system as realm based magic, unless each name is a realm. I'm not sure I'd ever do a system based on naming, because while it did well in the Earthsea stories, I can't imagine it as being done well in a game, except perhaps by the very best GMs (A-List GMs of which there might be a couple dozen in the world) who is absolutely trusted by his players. I'd leave this system for the extremely rare NPC. I would use Magery with naming, but as a limiter, with the various name skills having a limit of, like RPM, 12+Magery. I'd still base this around IQ. Effect shaping has as many rituals as you want to write. Right now my real based system is being held up purely by my haven't created enough rituals yet. I have many things in my system that must be done by rituals rather than as spells (in other words they take a long time to do, such as transmutation of elements and major spiritual linkages). I don't know what you're giving normal mages. It should probably be balanced against the other systems that are allowed to players. Good luck!
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01-15-2014, 11:46 PM | #12 | |||||||
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Re: [THM] Realm-Based Syntactic Magic and Effect Shaping Paths
Thanks to everyone for all of the feedback. I'll try to address each of your points in turn.
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One of the possible solutions I've considered is to simply use the minimum cost for Realm-Based magic. Assuming there are at least dozens of potential Names, the number of Realms + Weaknesses will exceed 13, and drop the cost down to 1/2 of the standard pricing. Players will have opportunities to learn Names, and I can tell them when they ask whether or not Plant or Wood is too powerful. Quote:
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Again, the cost of only 1 CP seems a little cheap. Even a Word of Power costs 10 CP, and it (while very powerful) is extremely costly and not at all controlled. Quote:
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As far as whether or not humans are distinctly separate from the rest of the world, or whether they're the "younger brothers" of it (like how humanity was essentially angels v2.0 in the Bible) sort of remains to be seen. And to clarify, the natural world doesn't dislike or disrespect humanity. But they recognize them as something of a wild-card. Something powerful, and something unpredictable. Quote:
Also Naming (while difficult) is essentially meant to be overpowered. It's sort of a fundamental force of creation. Expensive and difficult, but it's the sort of thing that a man who has mastered the Name of Fire can engulf a whole building in a blaze with little to no effort. But he'll probably have spent at least 50 on his mastery of that ability. Quote:
Thanks again to everyone who's been tossing things out, it really means a lot. Hope to hear more from you. Jinumon |
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Tags |
magery, magic, ritual path magic, syntactic magic, thaumatology |
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