Secret Magic

[AllenOwen]

What exactly is meant by "secret magic"? Not the "secret spells" in GURPS Magic on pg 9. I've seen in referenced in older GURPS supplements, like GURPS Conan.

[Refplace]

I interpret it as a setting thing. That magic, or maybe a certain type of magic is secret and most people don't know it exists.

[zoncxs]

I think it's just a concept for whatever game you are running. If magic is not well known (secret) then it would most likely require an unusual background for any PC to start with the ability to cast spells.

I actually use this concept in my game world, but instead of an unusual background they have the secret Disadvantages potential death. So if any npc finds out they are mages, then that will turn into enemy hunter.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Refplace

I interpret it as a setting thing. That magic, or maybe a certain type of magic is secret and most people don't know it exists.

Yeah, this. Though even the most mage-centered media examples like Harry Potter seldom restrict themselves to only magic and spellcasters. Generally a broader-based supernatural community is involved.

So not just Harry Potter but Buffy and Charmed and many many other TV shows and book series. Sometimes called "wainscott fantasy" after the idea tha the supernatural world is hiding from the non-supernatural inside societies walls and only coming out through little hidden mouse holes.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Refplace

I interpret it as a setting thing. That magic, or maybe a certain type of magic is secret and most people don't know it exists.

You could also use the term for magic that is known (or at least generally assumed) to exist but is secretive to the point that most people don't know much about it. "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards" is a likely resulting sentiment.

[AlexanderHowl]

'Secret' magic is a bit of a misnomer, as something like 99% of people in 2020 believe in fate, luck, magic, supernatural forces, etc. (and they are rational compared to the lunatics that believe in a flat Earth). 'Secret' magic should probably be referring to that effective magic is secret while common beliefs in magic are inaccurate (sometimes purposefully done by practitioners who wish to maintain their monopoly, by antimagic organizations who wish to exterminate magical use, or both). Unless an individual belongs to the primary magical organization or some magical group small enough to be ignored or large enough to survive, they will not be able to learn magic.

'Secret' magic settings usually have a combination of a) a central magical organization that seeks to monopolize magic, b) a nonmagical organization devoted to destroying magicians and/or evidence of magic, and c) massive disinformation about magic created by both groups. In the case of the former, they support pagan authors to create ineffective magical guides and to function as distractions for their enemies. In the case of the latter, they support religious leaders who mobilize popular outrage against nontraditional practices and scientific researchers who disprove mystical events.

[pestigor]

It is a type of magic system campaign style referenced in Conan (and it looks like the term was coined in that book).

In Gurps Conan, it is defined as:

we recommend a secret magic campaign, in which ordinary folk may
know only a very few simple spells. Monsters can have magical powers, and
NPCs can (of course) possess great knowledge of the secrets of sorcery. GMs
can be somewhat arbitrary about the use of magic.
Secret magic campaigns use the rules for magic on pp. B146-154. The GM
should select a few spells available to the PCs (a suggested list is provided in the sidebar), and improvise more powerful NPC magic where necessary.

I don't think there is a codified system anywhere that will give you concrete rules under which to operate, it appears to be a suggestion as to the style and feel of how Magic in a Conan game should be handled. I think it's just a books writer telling would be GM's "If you want to have your games feel like the books, run it this way." Looking any deeper seems to go nowhere (I have several 3e books on PDF and did a text search and found nothing).

So in essence a Secret Magic campaign is whatever the heck you want it to be.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Refplace

I interpret it as a setting thing. That magic, or maybe a certain type of magic is secret and most people don't know it exists.

That's closer to a Wainscott Fantasy (Harry Potter, Dresden Files, Call of Cthulhu, or for a 'olde tyme' fantasy The Garret Files), where the supernatural exist but is hidden from everyday perview. The PCs might be hip deep in it (and usually are), but your everyday Joe is far removed from spells, zombies, vampires, and werewolves, which are myth and legend territory to them.

Then there is what we used to call "low fantasy", like Conan*. Magic and supernatural powers exist, but they are rare and out of the hands of PCs (and regular work-a-day Joes), but not unknown. If you find a powerful spellcaster, chances are it's either the BBEG or your new Patron who needs you to go fight the BBEG Wizard. Call of Cthulhu can easily fit here if "evil magic and monsters" are known about, but not commonly encountered by average Joes and they'd would call in the Church (or the cops, or the PCs) to deal with nasties in the dark if they stumbled across them.


* See also Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, or The Gentlemen Bastards for a newer take.

[The Colonel]

Going to "me too" evileeyore and pestigor with the note that, even in the Conan books quite a lot of the "magic" used by practitioners - especially in combat - was closer to alchemy (note how many times a "magical attack" in the series is delivered with a handful of some kind of powder). Also magical items (typically unique artifacts made by superhuman - or at least inhuman - powers) play a massive part.

As the name implies, in a secret magic setting magic needn't be a secret, but ought to be composed of secrets: for all of the old pulp writers magic was dearly purchased by long study and, typically, traffic with things best not trafficked with. Wizards were odd, power hungry and ruthless (things best not trafficked with rarely accept AmEx in payment). "Good" wizards are still worrying and are often reformed villains or theurges - and still have only one or two useful tricks (usually in the form of warding off the BBEGs spells). A wizard's grimoire is as likely to be a demonic telephone directory as a list of actual spells (see also Moorcock's Elric saga in which there are lots of sorcerers, but they can do little, if anything, that most people would regard as magic and have to work almost exclusively by getting demons to do magic for them). Essentially, magic is something other people do.

Many RPG systems aren't set up for this - and many players won't be adjusted to it as it makes the idea of a party wizard more or less unviable. Handily, of course, GURPS is classless and supports the possibility of a character that can use a spell or two if they find it but doesn't rely on that sort of thing.

[bocephus]

Other interpretations could be that magic is known, but the people that know it guard some facet of spell casting jealously even violently.

1 A Mage might take on two apprentices and pit them against each other to gain his favor as he doles out low level spells/techniques to them but never giving the secrets of the higher level spells/techniques for fear of being supplanted/replaced/having the magic diluted what ever floats your boat. Ultimately only one apprentice survives to potentially become the new mage.

2 Spell power may be inversely proportional to the number of people casting spells or casting your style of spell, or using your formula. To many people using the same variation and it looses potency or something.

3 Socially unacceptable because the Church has outlawed it. Any magic users faces potential death and certain exile. Gotta keep it a secret.