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Old 10-31-2020, 10:21 AM   #11
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: What magic system is best... for what?

GURPS Conan uses the standard magical system, if I remember correctly, which is laughably inappropriate for the Conan setting.
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Old 10-31-2020, 10:24 AM   #12
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Default Re: What magic system is best... for what?

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Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
The pdf of Gurps Conan is available for $9.99.
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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
GURPS Conan uses the standard magical system, if I remember correctly, which is laughably inappropriate for the Conan setting.
Yeah, I have that and the standard magical system is not a good choice.
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Old 10-31-2020, 10:53 AM   #13
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: What magic system is best... for what?

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
GURPS Conan uses the standard magical system, if I remember correctly, which is laughably inappropriate for the Conan setting.
It's a more mixed bag than that. In spite of what I've said about P/BM and conan there are a number of examples of non-ritually produced magical effects, perhaps mostly in People of the Black Circle particularly when Khemsa is showing off for his girlfriend.

So it's sort of "magic in Conan is ritually based ....except when its' not".

Yet I'm pretty sure that mages in Conan do not have access to a fully flexible magic system either.

You'd need to bolster the Ceremonial Magic rules and perhaps even make Magery (non-Ceremonail) a resticted ability but standard Magic can be made to fit.

Also of course, it was the only Gurps magic system available when Gurps Conan was written. So there really wasn't any other choice.
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Old 10-31-2020, 01:34 PM   #14
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Default Re: What magic system is best... for what?

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Also of course, it was the only Gurps magic system available when Gurps Conan was written. So there really wasn't any other choice.
3e had a form of Rune Magic (found in GURPS Magic Second edition, and maybe other books), but I'm not sure when that first appeared... and it's not really fitting for Conan, either. Path/Book Magic works much better (or for 3e, Ritual Magic).
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Old 10-31-2020, 02:26 PM   #15
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: What magic system is best... for what?

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3e had a form of Rune Magic (found in GURPS Magic Second edition, and maybe other books), but I'm not sure when that first appeared... and it's not really fitting for Conan, either. Path/Book Magic works much better (or for 3e, Ritual Magic).
Gurps Magic and Gurps Conan are both copyright 1989. There was probably soem back and forth while they were being written as Curtis Scott (author of G:Conan) was given a credit for "Useful Suggestions" in Magic.

Scott would have had the 1st ed. of Gurps Fantasy to guide him as that was the real origin of the system that went into Magic. Rune Magic (mostly Futhark) was in Magic 1st ed but not Fantasy 1st ed.

Gurps Voodoo was the intial book for 3e's Ritual Magic but I hope you will excuse me for not digging that out this afternoon. I'm sure it was later, more or less in the mid-90s. Note that it was not as developed (many fewer rituals)as the version you see in Thaumatology or even in the late 3e book, Spirits. Voodoo also ahd an idiosyncratic "Initiation" system that Spirits later stripped out to amke it more generic.

Straight Voodoo wouldn't have suited Conan as well and indeed it is mostly Thaumatology's idea of reorganizing the Paths into Books that fits Conan. However, we don't even have a write-up for the Book of Skelos and we'd need several more Books to go with it.
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Old 10-31-2020, 03:51 PM   #16
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Default Re: What magic system is best... for what?

I've found flexible magic systems like Realm, Syntactic, Ritual Path, and Incantation to be useful for a wide number of genres, from superhero to urban fantasy to straight fantasy.

Path/Book magic is good for when "I found these rituals in this book or was taught them by the shaman" and "magic is meant to be slow and powerful, not combat-time" are both desired elements. As has been said, modern-day magical practices but also the fantasy mage who specializes in summoning.

The default magic system isn't that bad for sword-and-sorcery fantasy, but the individual spells run the gamut.

Sorcery is fairly useful for and can be fluffed for nearly any genre, but I find it most useful for "wild magic" that manifests without study.
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Old 10-31-2020, 03:59 PM   #17
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Default Re: What magic system is best... for what?

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I support Sorcery for high fantasy magic.
It not only does allow the mage to hurl fireballs and do other fancy stuff but it also makes the life of a GM easy: It's so wild and personal, it's effect on the world at large can be limited. As in, no one asks "what about using earth to stone to build castles?" or "how can magic improve an army?" because each sorcerer can be so different from the other it can't be normalized in order to adapt it in strategic level.
I like Sorcery. I'll be using in my next SF campaign, along with psionics and one other.
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Old 10-31-2020, 04:07 PM   #18
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Default Re: What magic system is best... for what?

A standard magical system that used the rules from RPM would be an interesting variation. You would replace Paths with Colleges, rituals with spells, and the base cost of the effect with the base cost of the spell (greater effects could be ignored). Magery would work in the fashion of RPM, and College Adept would replace Ritual Adept. Mana levels would be unnecessary, magical items would be replaced by magical gadgets, and duration for most spells would be dependent on the energy added to the spell.
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Old 10-31-2020, 08:54 PM   #19
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Default Re: What magic system is best... for what?

Conan Magic.

I haven't read all of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, just two paperback books' worth. And I saw a couple of the movies, but not the most recent one.

But my understanding is that magic was really not defined in Conan. It was just something unknown and dangerous that those weird, crazy wizards did.

So I think any GURPS magic system could work for Conan.
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Old 10-31-2020, 09:53 PM   #20
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: What magic system is best... for what?

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Conan Magic.

I haven't read all of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, just two paperback books' worth. And I saw a couple of the movies, but not the most recent one.

But my understanding is that magic was really not defined in Conan. It was just something unknown and dangerous that those weird, crazy wizards did.
I have read all of REH's Conan stories. I've even read the non-Conan stories REH re-wrote into Conan stories and the non-Conan stories that L. Sprague de Camp re-wrote into Conan stories and ... a bunch of other stuff too.

There are enough scenes showing magic users from the viewpoint of an omnisicient narrator that you can get a decent idea of what they were doing internally. For example, Xaltotun was summoning spirits to produce physical effects.

A lot of it does fit P/BM but quite a bit looks more like limited telepathy or the most cinematic forms of hypnotism. Nothing is a perfect fit but I think you can get a good enough handle on it.. Most of the spells Curtis scott added to standard Magic in G:Conan are pretty good.
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