RPM & Magica Styles

[ULFGARD]

So I was looking through RPM and Magical Styles. It seems that some of the Perks in MS would be quite nice if attached to a style in RPM. In so doing, I would likely create a handful (6 - 40+) rituals to go into the body of the style. Some of these might require Higher Purpose (Theme) and/or a level of Magery. Others might not.

My intention here is to both create an advantage (in the form of a handful of available Perks) to learning some specific body of magical rituals via Ritual Mastery and/or specific points spent in Paths. It would also give a reason for certain groups to have common libraries of grimoires sitting around (beyond the obvious bonuses). Thus the Masons might have some set of rituals focusing, say, on social influence, while a local coven of nature loving Witches might have a similar sized set of rituals based on the druidic magic AND have a Higher Purpose. Both would have Perks, secondary skills, etc. (For instance, the Masons might have "Wizardly Garb" as one of their Perks so as to look impressive to newcomers.)

Obviously the devil would be in the details of the designed rituals; some of them might only be "named" and not fully worked out unless and until players were interested in purchasing them via Ritual Mastery.


Any thoughts on this?

[Ejidoth]

Originally Posted by ULFGARD

So I was looking through RPM and Magical Styles. It seems that some of the Perks in MS would be quite nice if attached to a style in RPM. In so doing, I would likely create a handful (6 - 40+) rituals to go into the body of the style. Some of these might require Higher Purpose (Theme) and/or a level of Magery. Others might not.

My intention here is to both create an advantage (in the form of a handful of available Perks) to learning some specific body of magical rituals via Ritual Mastery and/or specific points spent in Paths. It would also give a reason for certain groups to have common libraries of grimoires sitting around (beyond the obvious bonuses). Thus the Masons might have some set of rituals focusing, say, on social influence, while a local coven of nature loving Witches might have a similar sized set of rituals based on the druidic magic AND have a Higher Purpose. Both would have Perks, secondary skills, etc. (For instance, the Masons might have "Wizardly Garb" as one of their Perks so as to look impressive to newcomers.)

Obviously the devil would be in the details of the designed rituals; some of them might only be "named" and not fully worked out unless and until players were interested in purchasing them via Ritual Mastery.


Any thoughts on this?

Aside from Ritual Mastery, I'd suggest having grimoires and collections available to members in good status, possibly at slightly reduced cost (10% off or so).

[ULFGARD]

Originally Posted by Ejidoth

Aside from Ritual Mastery, I'd suggest having grimoires and collections available to members in good status, possibly at slightly reduced cost (10% off or so).

I think that would come with the Style Familiarity Perk.

Also, I see no reason why someone would couldn't have multiple styles, provided the organizations teaching them were okay with it and that it didn't exceed any Higher Purpose limits.

Obviously I'm still brainstorming this idea.

[Pragmatic]

Last I recall, Ghostdancer had mused about whether or not to create a Pyramid article mixing the two.

The trouble with using "Ritual Mastery" is that, given enough of them, they start to cost as much as multiple levels of "Natural Caster" (the Talent that affects RPM). And the trouble with building a style with RPM (even leaving aside the "Ritual Mastery/Natural Caster" problem) is that so many of the style perks from Magical Styles just don't seem to be necessary under RPM.

But I'm looking forward to seeing the various posts in this thread. :-) RPM and MagStyles are two of my favorite supplements, and I'd love to see them combined.

[ULFGARD]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Last I recall, Ghostdancer had mused about whether or not to create a Pyramid article mixing the two.

The trouble with using "Ritual Mastery" is that, given enough of them, they start to cost as much as multiple levels of "Natural Caster" (the Talent that affects RPM). And the trouble with building a style with RPM (even leaving aside the "Ritual Mastery/Natural Caster" problem) is that so many of the style perks from Magical Styles just don't seem to be necessary under RPM.

But I'm looking forward to seeing the various posts in this thread. :-) RPM and MagStyles are two of my favorite supplements, and I'd love to see them combined.

This is sort of what I'm balancing. It might be that some sort of "Natural Caster" variant would make better sense. And there are several Perks that would work well. Plus I'm sure several more that might be pretty cool -- if only someone would think of them!

(I'm in the same boat; Magical Styles basically redeemed GURPS Magic for me, taking it from something semi-generic, semi-bland that nonetheless begged to be tweaked and gave me the simple tools to tweak things making my fantasy world magic come alive. RPM is a great flexible system that I have played with in that fantasy game and works well with MH or historical games, but lacks a bit of flavor. I think a bit of tweaking between the two could give it back that flavor without losing its advantages.)

[Ejidoth]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Last I recall, Ghostdancer had mused about whether or not to create a Pyramid article mixing the two.

The trouble with using "Ritual Mastery" is that, given enough of them, they start to cost as much as multiple levels of "Natural Caster" (the Talent that affects RPM). And the trouble with building a style with RPM (even leaving aside the "Ritual Mastery/Natural Caster" problem) is that so many of the style perks from Magical Styles just don't seem to be necessary under RPM.

But I'm looking forward to seeing the various posts in this thread. :-) RPM and MagStyles are two of my favorite supplements, and I'd love to see them combined.

You could make Ritual Mastery give a maximum number of rituals based on the SSR table, instead of 1 per level, starting at '1.5' and rounding down. So, like this:

Perk Lvl       # of Rituals you get +2 with
1              1
2              2
3              3
4              4-5
5              6-7
6              8-10
7              11-15
8              16-20
9              21-30
10             31-50

You could expand this further if you really think a character's going to have more than fifty defined rituals.

This might be unbalanced as a general perk, but if you restrict it to defined rituals within a style it should be fine, I think. Call it (Style) Ritual Mastery, maybe.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Last I recall, Ghostdancer had mused about whether or not to create a Pyramid article mixing the two.

The trouble with using "Ritual Mastery" is that, given enough of them, they start to cost as much as multiple levels of "Natural Caster" (the Talent that affects RPM). And the trouble with building a style with RPM (even leaving aside the "Ritual Mastery/Natural Caster" problem) is that so many of the style perks from Magical Styles just don't seem to be necessary under RPM.

But I'm looking forward to seeing the various posts in this thread. :-) RPM and MagStyles are two of my favorite supplements, and I'd love to see them combined.

I have. I've submitted it. No idea if it'll be published or not. But it is (I think) the definitive work on using Ritual Path magic in different ways. Styles is but a piece of it.

[Kalzazz]

They really need to hurry up and sign you up for some book deals before Pyramid becomes the Ghostdancer Show

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

They really need to hurry up and sign you up for some book deals before Pyramid becomes the Ghostdancer Show

Even writing books I will probably always submit to Pyramid because: a) I write too much. Average wordcount per day is about 5,000 and while I can focus on a single project to the exclusion of others I do eventually like to break from it. Since May of last year I've written over a million words (which is a lot even for me) and I have no idea when this particular prodigious outpouring will cease. And b) Steven Marsh is one of my personal heroes and while I wouldn't say I've "made it" - I could never have gotten anywhere without his patience and support. So despite me getting paid to write - I'd submit whatever for free if he asked me to - and I'd be happy about it.