GURPS Fairy Tail

[AcetheSuperVillain]

I'm new to GURPS, but the first thing I thought as I started reading was, "I bet I could make Fairy Tail with this". I hoping some more experienced GURPSers can help me brainstorm this and point me to the right books. I'd also like to help develop some source books or Pyramid articles if I can do so legally. I saw a few posts here about Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayers, but this is just a small part of the Fairy Tail world.

You can watch Fairy Tail on Hulu: http://www.hulu.com/fairy-tail Hulu and Funimation currently have 52 episodes, but the show has 175 episodes and is still going.

You can get a lot of info on Fairy Tail here: http://fairytail.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page but LOTS of spoilers! Includes blow-by-blow coverage of episodes, which might help when trying to work out how some of their magic works.

Basically, Fairy Tail is a cross between MMOish Low Fantasy and Super Heroes. Magic is ubiquitous across the Kingdom of Fiore, used by everyone and sold at every shop and street corner. People who specialize in the use of magic are called Wizards. Wizards assemble into Guilds where they accept jobs from the general populace, and complete them for a fee.

Although magic is accessible to everyone, and falls into several overarching categories, the expression of each form of magic is unique to the wizard casting it. A great example of this in the show is the magical styles of Grey and Leon. Despite being trained by the same teacher to use the same form of magic (Ice Maker) they both have very distinctive sets of spell. Grey specializes in recreating inanimate objects, while Leon recreates living things. Perfect for a table-top RPG and especially perfect for GURPS.

There are zillions of forms of magic, http://fairytail.wikia.com/wiki/Magic (spoiliers!) so I figure it's best to start with the styles used by the 4 main characters, Natsu (Dragon Slayer), Lucy (Celestial), Grey (Creation), Erza (Requip). Upon examination, it seems that their magic is ultimately the product of several fields used in harmony. After all, they have been studying their fields of magic for decades by the time the events of the show take place. In GURPS terms, this means many prerequisite features before getting to the good stuff. A lot of Fairy Tail characters are going to be on par with Super Man in point costs. (In fact, Erza in particular has some powers that would make Super Man blush)

Dragon Slayer - This magic let's the user's body take on the qualities of a dragon's, under the logic that only the powers of a dragon can defeat a dragon. For a fire dragon, like Natsu, this includes a dragon's belly to eat fire, dragon's lungs to breath fire, dragon's scales to deflect fire, and dragon's talons wreathed in flame. Other dragon slayers would have powers corresponding to their particular element; in the show we see Iron, Air, Thunder and Venom dragon slayers. In GURPS I see each of these bodily powers equaling a specific benefit, for example, Dragon's Belly allows the slayer to restore mana/fatigue/health by consuming their own element, dragon's talon applies an elemental bonus to barehanded attacks, and so forth. Once your Dragon slayer character has mastered these basics, they can start learning the fun moves like Karyu no Tekken (Fire Dragon's Iron Fist) or Tetsuryuken (Iron Dragon Sword).

Celestial Magic - By forming a contract with celestial spirits, a celestial wizard can summon them to do her bidding. These contracts often include seemingly trivial details like what days of the week the spirits are available to be summoned. Summoning a new spirit drains the mana of the celestial wizard, and a great deal of mana is required to summon more than one celestial spirit at a time. A particularly powerful and compassionate spirit can use its own magical energy to summon itself in times of crisis. Spirits will also de-summon themselves and return to the spirit world if they feel unneeded or in danger. Although spirits who "die" in the human world just return to the spirit world, they still feel pain.

Creation Magic (or Maker Magic) - allows the wizard to spontaneously create objects out of a particular material. The main Maker Wizard in the show is Grey who uses Ice as his material, and one of the background characters uses Wood. The material does not have to be present to use maker magic, i.e, if no ice or water is in the vicinity, Grey can create it out of thin air, however, he seems to be capable of more powerful feats when water is available. The material used impacts the utility of the power. For example, items created with Ice Maker will melt if exposed to flames or when Grey stops concentrating on keeping them cold. Ice Make Floor creates a slippery surface because Ice is slippery; Wood Make Floor would just be a normal floor. It seems to me that while the Ice-Makers can make ice creations of the fly, they can do it more efficiently and accurately when it's something they've practiced. Different prerequisites for this magic could include creating the material, shaping the material, controlling the material (i.e, shooting an ice lance at someone, or controlling a snake made of ice) and warping the material (for whacky applications like Ice Make: Cannon) Success/concentration time is impacted by the availability of the material (if water or ice is already present), and the familiarity and complexity of the desired creation.

Requip - My personal favorite form of magic, Requip is essentially hammer space, a pocket dimension where various items, such as armor, weapons or outfits can be stored or retrieved. It's a little tricky to tell what "normal" requip magic is like because the main requipper in the show is Erza, who is an incredibly powerful wizard. Erza specializes in Armor, with different outfits that give her different fighting abilities, such as her Adamantine Armor of ultimate defense or her Thunder Empress armor which grants her lightning powers. It's unclear where Erza's armors come from, since the show never depicts her obtaining one. It's also unclear whether Erza's ability to change armor instantly or via magical girl cutscenes is an aspect of requipping or an extra trick that Erza knows. The amount of material a requipper can store is based on their own magical power. I see this as trading mana points for a certain kg of space. When Erza fights, it's hard to tell if she's using magic or just particularly outrageous wuxia martial arts and the effects of her magic items. For example, when Erza "flies", is it because she's using magic, because her armor has wings, or because she's just that good?

Other prominent forms of magic are Take-Over (Strauss family, Vulcans), Script Magic (Freed, Levy), Doll Magic (Sherry, Bickslow) and elemental magic (Element 4). There is also the occasional "Unison Raid" where two wizards can combine their powers into a force stronger the sum of the parts. This is generally spontaneous and something of a Deus Ex Machina effect.

[zoncxs]

requip is built with snatcher with recall, we were shown Erza's room at one point and she has all her weapons and armor on display in it. She does go out and find the armors and weapons she has before she can use them as she started out without having anything! there was a thread that went into more detail. I have not looked for it yet.


creation magic is 3 advantages, Control, Create, and Modular ability. all with environmental (half power normally) and elemental.


Celestial magic is allies. its the easiest one to do! (for the player).


from recent chapters, Dragon slayer magic can be better described as "A magic style that allows one to consume an element and infuse oneself with said element and use it in battle." with that in mind you can go many routes, I created gajeel using a combination of advantages and imbuements, same with natsu and laxus and cobra. Wendy was harder cause you never see her fight (till next chapter!)

using imbuements for dragon slayer magic (or for most combat magics) makes it easier to create different "spells". for example, natsu fire dragon iron fist is simply Incendiary weapon. Fire Dragon Brilliant flame is Burning strike + Incendiary weapon + shockwave as a dual weapon attack.

Gajeel Iron Dragon sword is Reinforced weapon + telescoping weapon + Cutting strike.

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Ah, hello. I recognize you from the other threads. You're more familiar with the manga, right? I've only seen the TV show. (up to episode 127)

I haven't seen Erza's room yet. Quick look for it seems like this might be part of an OVA instead of the main series.

What GURPS books do these powers come from? Powers? Magic? Martial Arts?

I'm mostly taking Happy's description of Dragon Slayer Magic from the first episode.

Wendy does her fair share of fighting though, doesn't she? I've seen her do Sky Dragon's Roar, Sky Dragon's Wing (which she learns from watching Natsu), Arms, Vernier, Arms X Vernier (both at the same time) and her healing powers. Allegedly, she can sheath her body in "sky", the same way the others can with fie and iron. The wiki has quite a few spells for her, which seem to mostly come from the Grand Games Arc.

[zoncxs]

I have watched the anime, but since it was behind I also keep up with the manga.


the OVA is based on one of the extra special chapters that was made for the series. she tends to go on missions by herself when the reward is something rare for her collection.

GURPS Powers and GURPS Power-ups 1: imbuements, defiantly want Martial arts for some of the flashy fighting, and a few pyramid articles about imbuements.

At first I was also going off of what happy said, but as the story progressed you get to see more, I thought is was by simple element and that is it, till natsu

Spoiler:  

consumed a god flame then lightning

then I had to re-think it.

wendy was hard because she can heal others, no other dragon slayer can do that.

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Originally Posted by zoncxs

At first I was also going off of what happy said, but as the story progressed you get to see more, I thought is was by simple element and that is it, till natsu

Spoiler:  

consumed a god flame then lightning

then I had to re-think it.

I've seen that part as well, but the way Makarov explained it afterwards, it seemed like Natsu's ability to do that is above and beyond what a Dragon Slayer is meant to do. Like he's combining his own experience as a Wizard with the powers of the Dragon Slayer to create a new ability.

[zoncxs]

Originally Posted by AcetheSuperVillain

I've seen that part as well, but the way Makarov explained it afterwards, it seemed like Natsu's ability to do that is above and beyond what a Dragon Slayer is meant to do. Like he's combining his own experience as a Wizard with the powers of the Dragon Slayer to create a new ability.

wait till you get to the end of the grand mages tournament arc,

Spoiler:  

gajeel does it and so does rogue.

it was above and beyond what they thought a dragon slayer can do. they never seen it before and very little information is available on dragon magic (which is what natsu and the others use, slayer was added later on in history).

[AcetheSuperVillain]

Originally Posted by zoncxs

requip is built with snatcher with recall, ... there was a thread that went into more detail. I have not looked for it yet.

So another thread suggests Cosmic Payload for Requip, but Cosmic and Snatcher don't sit right with me. Cosmic sounds like it's more for god-powers and miracles, whereas Requip is common in the world of Fairy Tail, just as any magic wand or hippogriff is common enough in the world of Harry Potter. (Although I could accept it as a catch-all term instead) Snatcher is designed to find a generic item anywhere in the cosmos, which I suspect Erza can do, (i.e in Battle for Fairy Tail) but doesn't seem to be how Requip works in general. It seems to me that what Erza is actually using is Warp, but on items instead of herself and only to or from a specific dimension that she has created or claimed. But again, the 100point Warp advantage presented in Basic Set is far more open-ended than what a Requiper really needs.

(If you're not a Fairy Tail fan yet, but want to chip in, you can find a lot of videos of Erza Scarlet / Titania Erza doing her thing on youtube) (The Fairy Tail wiki also has a helpful diagram)

[Psychotime]

Powers and Martial Arts are all you really need. Supers...isn't too useful outside of one or two modifiers, but that's just my opinion. You might think differently.

I'm a bit busy right now, but I'll come back to toss a few things if I can. But I'll tell you now, the most I know about the series stops at Phantom Lord. I have yet to start any of the arcs afterward.

[Refplace]

For those of us who are not fans what does requip do?
In Naruto they have the ability to summon things from scrolls they place thigns in. This is a gadget based Cosmic payload. Cosmic for the extra dieminesional space to store the stuff so the weight is jsut that of the scroll.

[zoncxs]

Cosmic payload was the other way I forgot about for re-quip. The cosmic enhancement, not the modifier, is mean't to over rule some rules and such. Don't think of it as god like, it was just a power choice of a word to describe that enhancement, I call it in my games what ever they are supposed to do ( cosmic: irresistible attack is just called irresistible attack)