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Old 05-24-2016, 10:54 PM   #1
Tallor
 
Join Date: May 2016
Default Magic Revamp: Fast Recharge with Limited Pool

I was thinking about The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim when it hit me--that's a good system for magic, why not make it in GURPS?

My concept follows--a character has a pool of Energy Reserve they use for magic, and that energy reserve regenerates rapidly (1 per 2 seconds, maybe?). Fatigue Points simply act as they do for everyone else--after a fight, you have less, but you're not crippled by using magical powers.

I guess my goal was to make mages a little more artillery-like without having to be 100 points ahead of the rest of the group. What do you think?
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Old 05-25-2016, 12:04 AM   #2
Refplace
 
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Location: Yukon, OK
Default Re: Magic Revamp: Fast Recharge with Limited Pool

The standard way to do this is give them Regeneration (FP only).
If you want to give it to them for free you can but its a pretty powerful bonus compared to nonmages.
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Old 05-25-2016, 03:40 AM   #3
Imion
 
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Location: Germany
Default Re: Magic Revamp: Fast Recharge with Limited Pool

Energy Reserve [3/lvl] with -5% to Power Modifier for not being able to use FP to power magic.
Regeneration (Very Fast; ER Only, +0%) [100] (or thereabouts.)

see Powers, p. 119.

If you want a high-powered, cinematic campaign that is focused on magic-users that use their powers left and right, go ahead, bash your head in. But I daresay that players of non-magical characters will be less thrilled.
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Old 05-25-2016, 03:47 AM   #4
Nereidalbel
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Ellicott City, MD
Default Re: Magic Revamp: Fast Recharge with Limited Pool

Quote:
Originally Posted by Imion View Post
If you want a high-powered, cinematic campaign that is focused on magic-users that use their powers left and right, go ahead, bash your head in. But I daresay that players of non-magical characters will be less thrilled.
If the goal is to be similar to Skyrim's magic, those casters are still going to be in a lot of trouble when Ogg hits them with his axe. Throw in some enemies that spells just aren't so effective on, and the non-mages will be happy.
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Old 05-25-2016, 07:47 AM   #5
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Magic Revamp: Fast Recharge with Limited Pool

While I don't think everyone in The Elder Scrolls can use magic, it's certainly the case that every player character can. Extending this a bit, it should be appropriate to give every PC the free ER and Regeneration (ER Only), with mage characters spending extra points to boost their ER and/or Regeneration rate. All characters will be capable of at least some magic, at least at default level. Alternatively, if you don't want everyone to be capable of using magic, you can come up with alternative uses for their ER. I did something like this with my Soul Energy system - in that, everyone could use SP to reduce the price of Extra Effort, act without burning AP (from "The Last Gasp"), gain a temporary boost to Move, Damage, and BL, or heal more rapidly, while mages and specialists could get more utility out of it.

Back to The Elder Scrolls, from what I recall of the series you had a separate skill for each magic school, which dictated both what you could learn and how effective such spells were. Spells themselves you simply purchased (or found in the form of spellbooks) like gear, but once you had done so you knew the spell permanently, without need of carrying the books around with you or anything like that.

To mimic this in GURPS, Ritual Magic seems the closest match. You have a core "I know magic" skill (not present in TES), then subskills branching off of that to match each of the colleges/schools/whatever. Individual spells are Techniques on the main skill. However, a lot of GURPS spells aren't available (and perhaps shouldn't be available) in TES, and Basic Magic is infamous for its various issues, so it might be worthwhile to simply redesign all the spells. I'd suggest using Ritual Path Magic, but use the rules for the Effects Shaping variant (Pyramid #3/66). As an added bonus, that same Pyramid issue also has rules for making it so that only spells for which the character has Ritual Mastery can actually be cast - studying a spellbook thus allows you to purchase this trait*. I don't think there's an option to actually replace casting times with spending FP/ER, however, so you may need to figure some of that out. This assumes, of course, that you're trying to match TES magic, and not just the fast-regeneration of Magicka.

On that topic, I should note that GURPS isn't as fine grained as TES in this regard - TES characters start with something like 100 Magicka, while I'd expect your characters to start with ER 10 or so. You could have spells with fractional ER costs if you want, but that's probably more hassle than it's really worth. With that in mind, simple Fast Regeneration may be sufficient, with dedicated mages picking up Very Fast Regeneration if needed.

*I personally would replace Ritual Mastery with an equivalent of Dabbler - a single Perk allows you to cast 4 spells, but at no bonus. In fact, instead of just having a spellbook let you purchase the ability to use the spell, you can use the rules for Intensive Training (say the methods by which you learn a spell actually destroy the book - this would fit with the way it works in TES; in this case, the cost of the book replaces the need to hire a teacher). 25 hours of study (Intensive Training gives 1 character point per 100 hours, IIRC) grants you the ability to cast the spell.
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Old 05-25-2016, 03:28 PM   #6
starslayer
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Default Re: Magic Revamp: Fast Recharge with Limited Pool

??

Sorcery already exists. Why are we trying to recreate this?

The magic of skyrim is so radically reduced in utility, power, and versatility compared to the earlier else scrolls games that it is a very good comparison of gurps magic/rpm and gurps sorcery.

Sorcery does not need to have an energy cost and can use takes recharge ( which maps quite closely to skyrims I can cast fireball all day, just not at 1/second)
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