05-19-2012, 09:55 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Musings about draconomancy
I've been musing about the Draconomancy magic system from GURPS Dragons pp. 137-9. Its an interesting attempt to use GURPS Magic in the way it should be: boiling it down to a short list of spells appropriate for a particular campaign. In this case, the list of draconic-themed spells (with a rough prerequisite count) was:
Its premises were:
Unfortunately, I'm drawing a blank on how people would use this kind of magic. Obviously Halt Aging is an attractive goal for anybody, and some might explore these spells out of sheer curiosity or religious devotion, but I’m drawing a blank on other uses, especially for the simpler spells. Does anyone have suggestions? What if draconomancy reappeared earlier in the 20th century?
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05-19-2012, 11:23 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Upper Peninsula of Michigan
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Re: Musings about draconomancy
The list seems very useful to me.
Gift of Tongues and Gift of Letters both suit a researcher or a diplomat or translator. Memorize, Recall, and See Secrets are good skills for a private eye. So are the next line. Aura, Detect Magic and Identify spell are useful to supernatural investigators. Compel Truth would be a regular in interrogations, official or otherwise. Aura, Fascinate, Suggestion, and See Secrets empower a master manipulator. Armour and Might make a powerful street fighter, even if guns are around, since guns aren't always in a given situation. Watchdog might be a military standard protocol. |
05-20-2012, 10:20 AM | #3 | |||||
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Musings about draconomancy
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Someone obsessed with the occult might research the second three spells. In the base setting, they won't have much of other people's magic to cast Identify or Detect Magic on, so they might use Controlled or Mastered animals as subjects. Quote:
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I can also imagine someone who does a martial sport wanting to punch above their weight class with Might, and take hits better with Vigour. That might lead to adventures when someone powerful loses a lot of money on bets, or sees their favourite child knocked out. I'm not sure about Watchdog: it affects a small area, and I think professionals are likely to use other kinds of alarms or keep a watch. It also has lots of prerequisites. I have trouble imagining an agency putting people through two years of school to learn it at a useful level and its prerequisites. Remember that spells are Hard skills, so they are about as hard to learn as a undergraduate math or science subject (or the 'practical understanding of people' kind of psychology). Most people won't learn them unless they have a formal curriculum telling them to, a practical reason to be interested, or are academically minded.
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05-21-2012, 11:57 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Musings about draconomancy
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05-21-2012, 07:41 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Musings about draconomancy
The assumption of the setting is that draconomancy is the only type of magic known. Some people with a knowledge of medieval Byzantine theology and Tang dynasty magic might go "ooh, cool!" at the ability to command birds and grow dragon claws, but I don't think there would be a lot of them. I'm not devious, so I'm trying to brainstorm why someone who would see one of these spells and think "excellent! I can use that to ..."
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05-21-2012, 08:45 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Musings about draconomancy
This is kind of a side point, but the proper form of the name would have been dracontomancy. The original Greek is drakon, drakonto-, and the genitive stem is the combining form.
Bill Stoddard |
05-22-2012, 06:12 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Upper Peninsula of Michigan
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Re: Musings about draconomancy
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In other words, from the in-universe point of view, you didn't set out to learn how to command birds, but your studies of the fundamental nature of language (leading to Gift of Tongues) has also made clear to you the words which echo in the minds of birds. |
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05-22-2012, 09:05 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Musings about draconomancy
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05-22-2012, 10:30 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Musings about draconomancy
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It looks like we have a few ideas, but I'd be interested in more. A criminal might be interested in the "wings" form of partial shapeshifting (and would be more likely than average to be interested in Armour, Might, Vigour, etc.) A GM could have fun with a person from the wrong side of the tracks who decides to go straight, but sees the potential in some of the things that his crazy Religious Studies professor talks about and is tempted back into crime. Or, if you really want to be fussy, δρακοντοθυοεργιά or dracontotheury. This art seems more like invocation than divination to me. I could have fun working up rules for the risks of using this kind of magic without a good level in the appropriate languages and humanities skills. In the long run they would probably work out the underlying theory, and translate spells into modern languages, but at the start the theory is likely to be embedded in medieval Taoism and heretical Byzantine theology.
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"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature Last edited by Polydamas; 05-22-2012 at 07:23 PM. Reason: Spelling |
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05-22-2012, 01:12 PM | #10 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Musings about draconomancy
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I presume what you mean to say in the Roman alphabet is "drakontotheurgy," though for some reason your velar consonants have deleted themselves. I'm not sure why "-the-" is in there, as I don't see a role for the divine. If you're going to call it an -urgy (which I agree would be closer, though -mancy is sometimes generalized, as in "necromancy"), I would think it would be just draconturgy or dracontourgy, or perhaps dracontothaumaturgy. Bill Stoddard |
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