01-02-2020, 06:11 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: The deep dark haunted woods
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Alternate Take On Magery Advantage
The conventional form of Magery (+1 to IQ per level for magical skills) is logical and workable, but it lacks the mythic feel that most magic genres require. After all, the difference between Magery 1 and Magery 3 is rather academic.
So a proposal (I don't know if this has been proposed before, though, and I didn't find it in Thaumatology, but I may have overlooked it) ... Magery is a four-level advantage. No spell has Magery as a prerequisite; rather first-level Magery is needed to cast spells at all. Each level of Magery would lower the difficulty of spells by one level. Spells are M/VH skills at Magery 1, M/H at Magery 2, M/A at Magery 3, amd M/E at Magery 4. This would provide a more cinematic feel to the entire setting. It would also justify that common trope, the talented normal who manages to master magic in a ridiculously short time. Example 1: Doctor Not-Normal (Magery 4) shows up at the Secret Magic School. Student Magey McAverage (Magery 1) is already there. Both study the same spell for 200 hours, earning 1 CP. McAverage learns the spell at IQ-3 level, but Not-Normal has mastered it at IQ level. After learning enough to acquire 8 CP, McAverage has learned his first spell at IQ level, while Not-Normal has acquired eight spells at IQ - an entire prerequisite chain. (In short order, Not-Normal is hailed as the Wizard Supreme With Cheese and jealousy drives McAverage into a Dark and Terrible path ...) This can allow common magic-users (at Magery 1 or 2) to be village-level commonplace but the true powers of the age (at Magery 3 or 4) to stand out before they get gray hair. But an average magic-user can study for many years and live up to the classic image, with a long gray beard and much lore, and be an equal to the talented ones. Example 2: Young Protagonist McScarface is a Child of Destiny. As such he is subject to attacks by dark spirits and must learn a spell to repel them. The vast majority of mages are Magery 1 with a few at Magery 2, thus all spells are considered difficult, and the repelling spell has a number of prerequisites, so few people manage to learn it in a reasonable time. This means few even try to learn it. But McScarface is a Child of Destiny with Magery 4, so with some intense tutoring, he masters the repelling spell in a short time. Does anyone have any comments? Suggestions? Observations?
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01-02-2020, 06:28 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Denver, CO
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Re: Alternate Take On Magery Advantage
My first impression is that you don't seem to have done much.
The difference between "+1" and "The skill is one category easier to learn" is entirely semantic. They are mathematically equivalent. Then, you're making spells all (except for a few) start harder to learn than the default system and tacking on some extra bookkeeping. And this caps Magery at the equivalent of the old version of Magery 3. That's pretty powerful, but not epic. If memory serves, DF suggested a cap of Magery 5. That's epic. The removal of Magery prerequisite for spells is pretty trivial overall. There's nothing wrong with your system, it just seems unnecessary. Personally, I have no problem using the default Magery mechanic to paint the narrative that some people have an easier time than others learning magic. Perhaps what you want is to say that Magery can't be bought during play, but is an inborn talent? YMMV. |
01-02-2020, 07:09 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Alternate Take On Magery Advantage
One alternative would be to take the rules from RPM and apply them the following way to standard Magery:
1. Magery does not add to spell skill levels but, instead, serves as a cap on skill levels (12+Magery). 2. Magery is open-ended, and it can be improved after character creation as long as the character possesses Magery 0. 3. Magery gives mages an ER equal to (Magery x 3) and allows mages to store spells equal to (Thaumotology + Magery). With those three changes, Magery matters a lot more than in the standard system. Someone with Magery 0 is only a dabbler while a professional mage really needs a minimum of Magery 3. It also gives a Vancian feel, as mages have spells stored for future use (making Thaumotology a critical skill for any professional mage). For additional fun, make it a Ritual Magic and/or Threshold-limited system (where the ER is instead Threshold buffer). Last edited by AlexanderHowl; 01-02-2020 at 07:35 AM. |
01-03-2020, 07:25 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: UK
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Re: Alternate Take On Magery Advantage
Just popping in to say how much I love your off-brand character names.
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01-04-2020, 08:22 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Poland
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Re: Alternate Take On Magery Advantage
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I'm in the "make it just a talent, with 4 levels cap, and decouple damage off it" camp.
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01-04-2020, 03:33 PM | #6 | ||
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Sumter, SC
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Re: Alternate Take On Magery Advantage
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Magery is not the only way to cast spells in GURPS. One has to remember that with a System (unlike a patchwork quilt of rules like AD&D1-2 were) is that changing one part can have unexpected effects elsewhere. There is a reason Super 1e's Magic Power 40/level advantage (which worked much like you are suggesting IIRC) disappeared within a year - it was a major pain the the butt to balance with the rest of the system.
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01-04-2020, 06:35 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Alternate Take On Magery Advantage
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01-04-2020, 09:13 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: Alternate Take On Magery Advantage
In 3e Eidetic Memory gave mundane mental skills a multiplier to points put into them, so you learned them vastly more cheaply. For spells it 'only' gave a flat bonus. For a mage who was never going to have many non-spell skills it generally wasn't worth it over more IQ, but for a well-rounded mage with lots of skills it was absolutely worth getting (after magery 3 and plenty of IQ of course).
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01-04-2020, 09:15 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: Alternate Take On Magery Advantage
That depends on which spells you intend using a lot - if you're going to focus on those with caps on level, high Magery is very useful as it raises the cap - assuming you have access to enough energy to take advantage of this, of course.
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01-04-2020, 10:39 PM | #10 | |
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Sumter, SC
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Re: Alternate Take On Magery Advantage
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