Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-03-2016, 12:44 AM   #1
Henchman99942
 
Henchman99942's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Default Wandering Mages

Suppose magic worked thusly in your game world:

Users of magic, that is ot say, mages, wizards, witches, oracles, druids, clerics, soothsayers, necromancers, fortunetellers and anyone who casts spells in any form are limited by the amount of mana or magic energy that resides in the ground itself. When they cast their spell, the mana in that area is drained away from the ground, through the mage and produces the magical effect. That energy then needs to replenish. The rates of drain and replenish can be altered to fit the GM's desired game mechanics. I was thinking that the default mana level would be normal mana. For every point of energy used in spells reduces the mana level by one step in one hex. A step here represents a -1 penalty to spell casting. Each hex surrounding 'ground zero' also looses mana at a rate of one step less. The total 'mana' lost is equal to that required to cast the spell. Example. Say a mage casts a spell that costs 8 energy points and he/she casts this spell from a fresh mana zone. The spell is cast at no penalty. The effect of having cast that spell is as follows: The mana zone in the hex where the mage was standing suffers a reduced level of mana equal to a -2 penalty. The six hexes immediately surrounding the 'ground zero' hex (1 yard radius) suffer a reduced mana equal to a -1 penalty. This mirrors the 'area of effect' of area spells. If the amount of energy required doesn't generate a precisely depleted circle, start from the center and work your way outward selecting remainder hexes at random. The mana zones replenish at a rate equal to whatever the GM chooses, but I would suggest a rate of +1 penalty reduction per day (per hex).

This creates several interesting effects. Firstly, mages cannot sit in one place and cast spells indefinitely. They must take to wandering the land in search of fresh mana zones. Secondly, Mage circles are effectively rendered useless. Ceremonial magic and any spells that require a LOT of energy will 'poison the water hole' for a relatively long period of time. Cities can protect themselves from attacks by mages by depleting the local mana. Magic items will be rare and magic shops will be virtually unheard-of. Mages can still produce some fairly powerful spell effects, but they will be limited to their own fatigue (and possibly power stones. I would only allow disposable power stones that take the form of living things like frogs and rabbits. You drain the life of one rabbit, you get one energy point). Mages now become the dungeon clearing mercenaries they were meant to be all along. No more sitting in the royal court chanting in a circle to protect the idiot son-in-law. Mages have to get their hands dirty. Or maybe they push little carts around selling their spells to the locals. The Magic industry becomes a zero sum gain. Mages cling to their arcane knowledge like it's the first place wining BBQ recipe ten years running. Magic becomes a competitive, rather than a cooperative endeavor.

Thoughts?
Henchman99942 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-04-2016, 03:46 AM   #2
T.K.
 
T.K.'s Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Default Re: Wandering Mages

Mechanically, don't see this working very well.

- The first thing to me would be: tracking!

How do you plan to track all the different zones overlapping and in place for all the different penalties?

My games we run with a Chesex mondo vinil grid and minis and even with watermark markers when I make encounters with many ground based effects or spells it considerably slows down gameplay (at least for our normal pace).

- Second thing would be the opposite of what you think might happen: Magecracies!

If magic is taken from ambient, why wouldn't a mage or council of mages go to a city and use all its magic to produce items or effects for them and keep depleting the city to maintain their effects or make new items for them?!

That means they would be absolute on their rule, being the only beings around with vast amounts (at least comparable to other people) of magical items or effects active on them.

A wandering mage just arrived at the city would be unable to manifest anything due to heavy penalties already in place while local magecracy would be unstopable.

- Next...doesn't make much sense: Druids depleting nature?!? Clerics?? Necros?!

I believe more nuances would live up your system quite some...for example, you could make some tweaks for some different groups like this:

Druids/Clerics/Fortunetellers use Threshold Magic - Basically up to their threshold they can gather energy harmlessly without destroying ambient mana. Above threshold they start to havish ambient.

This would make them perform magic slowly and steadily, always watchful of their effects so not to pass their threshold and destroy nature and alike.

Necromancers - Why not use sacrifice rules spiced up? Make sacrifical energy really good the more inteligent the target or the more powerful. So Necros will search people and adventurers to sacrifice for really juice amounts of mana.

Mages/Wizards - I personally like to make a distinction between "arcane casters", so an easy one would be to determine one of these to be your normal Wizard that depletes ambient like you described and the other to be a more personal, focused, conduit of power. Something akin to Thaumatology - Sorcery, even using spells as advantages so that they have very narrow effects, but considerably powerful and that do not deplete the ambient so much (only 1FP to activate everytime).

- Last thing...give prop ups not bog downs!

What I mean with this...if you want mages to go out and about adventuring and not staying still and brooding, give them incentives to do so!

What if dungeons are the only places that very specific materials crystalize from pure mana and these items are the only things that can produce permanent magical effects or can considerably increase the mage power for a while...or even, what if a Wizard can consume this materialized mana to permanently increase their Magery level?!

Make them want to be in the places you want them to be instead of making them NOT want to be in the places that you don't want them to be...if you understand me!
T.K. is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-04-2016, 08:34 AM   #3
ericthered
Hero of Democracy
 
ericthered's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
Default Re: Wandering Mages

One thing you may want to consider is how to avoid 'first shot' syndrome -- the first person to cast in a magical duel gets all of the magic and denies it to the other guy.
__________________
Be helpful, not pedantic

Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog

Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one!
ericthered is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-04-2016, 08:50 AM   #4
evileeyore
Banned
 
evileeyore's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
Default Re: Wandering Mages

Quote:
Originally Posted by T.K. View Post
Druids/Clerics/Fortunetellers use Threshold Magic - Basically up to their threshold they can gather energy harmlessly without destroying ambient mana. Above threshold they start to havish ambient.
Someone's been reading Dark Sun...
evileeyore is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-04-2016, 09:21 AM   #5
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Wandering Mages

I think this would be a nightmare in play. Say someone casts a 20 energy spell. What's the penalty? Say you shoot for -5. That's the hex and 3 surrounding it at -4, and a fourth of the surrounding at -3. You could instead say it's -4, in which case you've got 5 adjacent hexes at -3, 1 at -2. Which is correct? Now, you could go through and make a table that will speed things up a bit, but you'll still have to randomly assign hexes during play.

I don't think this actually does what you seem to want, either. Sure, it makes a mage unable to stay in one place and keep casting spells, but he only has to move a few yards between spells to keep going without penalties. For magic items, Quick and Dirty enchantments will require the craftsmen to move around frequently (if you make 100 energy enchantments, those take 15 days to recover; if you do one a day - I don't know the time needed for Q&D - you'll need a 1 yard by 30 yard corridor as your workshop to get away from taking penalties; a 10 yard by 5 yard room would also work), but Slow and Sure won't, as the mana drain rate will match the recovery rate. Also, you note that massive spells will be avoided on account of making magic unusable for a long period of time, but you're looking at somewhere around a recovery time of a month for every 200 or so energy, and that's just in a small localized area (7 hexes). As for making a hex unusable to a mage, that requires either a string of (increasingly-penalized) low-energy spells or one really big spell - getting a -10 penalty in one go requires something like a 76 energy spell.
Varyon is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-04-2016, 09:29 AM   #6
ericthered
Hero of Democracy
 
ericthered's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
Default Re: Wandering Mages

Quote:
Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
I think this would be a nightmare in play. Say someone casts a 20 energy spell. What's the penalty? Say you shoot for -5. That's the hex and 3 surrounding it at -4, and a fourth of the surrounding at -3. You could instead say it's -4, in which case you've got 5 adjacent hexes at -3, 1 at -2. Which is correct? Now, you could go through and make a table that will speed things up a bit, but you'll still have to randomly assign hexes during play.

I don't think this actually does what you seem to want, either. Sure, it makes a mage unable to stay in one place and keep casting spells, but he only has to move a few yards between spells to keep going without penalties. For magic items, Quick and Dirty enchantments will require the craftsmen to move around frequently (if you make 100 energy enchantments, those take 15 days to recover; if you do one a day - I don't know the time needed for Q&D - you'll need a 1 yard by 30 yard corridor as your workshop to get away from taking penalties; a 10 yard by 5 yard room would also work), but Slow and Sure won't, as the mana drain rate will match the recovery rate. Also, you note that massive spells will be avoided on account of making magic unusable for a long period of time, but you're looking at somewhere around a recovery time of a month for every 200 or so energy, and that's just in a small localized area (7 hexes). As for making a hex unusable to a mage, that requires either a string of (increasingly-penalized) low-energy spells or one really big spell - getting a -10 penalty in one go requires something like a 76 energy spell.
Using bigger hexes might work --- or it may be just as annoying. I'm not seeing this working with out some really nice tracking tools.
__________________
Be helpful, not pedantic

Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog

Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one!
ericthered is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2016, 09:00 AM   #7
T.K.
 
T.K.'s Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Default Re: Wandering Mages

Quote:
Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
Someone's been reading Dark Sun...
Oh, I survived through the arid lands of Athas for an almost 2ys campaign irl.

Fond, fond memories...
T.K. is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2016, 09:11 AM   #8
malloyd
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: Wandering Mages

Quote:
Originally Posted by Henchman99942 View Post
Cities can protect themselves from attacks by mages by depleting the local mana.
Mages now become the dungeon clearing mercenaries they were meant to be all along.
I think these two are sort of mutually exclusive. If cities can deplete mana to keep out rival mages, the inhabitants of a dungeon should have an even easier time doing it, what with the smaller area and a higher proportion of them being magical.
__________________
--
MA Lloyd
malloyd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2016, 09:24 AM   #9
Curmudgeon
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Default Re: Wandering Mages

Quote:
Originally Posted by Henchman99942
This creates several interesting effects. Firstly, mages cannot sit in one place and cast spells indefinitely. They must take to wandering the land in search of fresh mana zones. Secondly, Mage circles are effectively rendered useless. Ceremonial magic and any spells that require a LOT of energy will 'poison the water hole' for a relatively long period of time. Cities can protect themselves from attacks by mages by depleting the local mana. Magic items will be rare and magic shops will be virtually unheard-of. Mages can still produce some fairly powerful spell effects, but they will be limited to their own fatigue (and possibly power stones. I would only allow disposable power stones that take the form of living things like frogs and rabbits. You drain the life of one rabbit, you get one energy point). Mages now become the dungeon clearing mercenaries they were meant to be all along. No more sitting in the royal court chanting in a circle to protect the idiot son-in-law. Mages have to get their hands dirty. Or maybe they push little carts around selling their spells to the locals. The Magic industry becomes a zero sum gain. Mages cling to their arcane knowledge like it's the first place wining BBQ recipe ten years running. Magic becomes a competitive, rather than a cooperative endeavor.

Thoughts?
It's a roughly workable system but ...

I'm dubious about there being magic items at all in such a world. Although it basically occurs as fluff text, magic items either: 1) cast the spell they contain themselves; or 2) allow the user to cast the spell. In either case, the magic item should require the presence of ambient mana to utilize its spells. I suppose it would be possible to use a magic item if you moved around a lot but each use of a magic item or attempts to use more than one magic item should drain the ambient mana just as if a user of magic was casting the spell.

In a world like this, I could even see enchantments as not being done because magic items are good for one use only before the enchantment "burns out", so no one much bothers with enchanting magic items. The closest thing to a magic item would be a staff while a staff spell is active on it, allowing the mage to temporarily extend his reach.
Curmudgeon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2016, 09:49 AM   #10
Toptomcat
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Default Re: Wandering Mages

Can mages who are aboard a ship cast spells? Will the world have substantially more ocean than dry land, like Earth? If so, then enchanting, large-scale ritual magic, and the like will still be feasible, since there's a lot of seafloor out there to work with and a sailing ship will automatically move into zones of fresher mana as the work proceeds.
Toptomcat is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
mages, wandering

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:36 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.