GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic

[Langy]

Excellent, excellent stuff!

I'm looking forwards to messing around with this once I have the time. Just spent the evening reading it through, and I love it just as much as I expected. Just reading it through gave me a lot of ideas for things I could do...

I'll probably have a thread up next week with a discussion on some alternative things that could be done for RPM (a fleshed out alternative path skills set, use with effect shaping style magic rather than energy accumulating, or maybe a set of rules for 'Knacks', innate traits that require no training but allow people to do, say, Lesser Control Energy effects).

Would it be reasonable to allow someone to buy up a single effect as a Technique from a path skill, and should that be able to go over the Magery limit or not?

[Kalzazz]

Ive used RPM in TL 3-4ish Fantasy no problems

[PK]

Originally Posted by Langy

Would it be reasonable to allow someone to buy up a single effect as a Technique from a path skill, and should that be able to go over the Magery limit or not?

Definitely not. Compare Ritual Mastery, which is a better deal than a technique but must be bought for each ritual (and is thus FAR narrower than an "effect" technique). A technique would be too good a deal.

Separately from that, an open-ended technique that ignored the Path cap would be unbalanced. So even if you ignore my advice above and allow it, it should only be allowed up to the standard Magery/Thaumatology cap, and thus not useful for maxed-out Paths.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by PK

Definitely not. Compare Ritual Mastery, which is a better deal than a technique but must be bought for each ritual (and is thus FAR narrower than an "effect" technique). A technique would be too good a deal.

Thought that may be so. Any other way you can think of to improve one (or just a few) effects of a Path, instead of always improving either just a single Ritual or the entire Path as a whole? I kinda like the idea of someone who is good at, say, just Sense (Specific Path) rituals but isn't so good at Create (Specific Path) and all the others.

[SCAR]

Originally Posted by Langy

Thought that may be so. Any other way you can think of to improve one (or just a few) effects of a Path, instead of always improving either just a single Ritual or the entire Path as a whole? I kinda like the idea of someone who is good at, say, just Sense (Specific Path) rituals but isn't so good at Create (Specific Path) and all the others.

That sounds like it could be a specialised version of Higher Purpose (Tradition).
e.g. Higher Purpose (Sense Undead), could improve any ritual which uses the Sense effect of the Undead path.
The 'tradition' might be a little too focused for [5 points] (2 or 3 'effects' would be within the scope for this Higher Purpose), but the concept at least fits.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Langy

Thought that may be so. Any other way you can think of to improve one (or just a few) effects of a Path, instead of always improving either just a single Ritual or the entire Path as a whole? I kinda like the idea of someone who is good at, say, just Sense (Specific Path) rituals but isn't so good at Create (Specific Path) and all the others.

That might be part of a Tradition. For example, RPM mentions Divination as an example Tradition, which would mostly involve Sense effects.

Another thought would be to treat a single effect as an optional specialization of a Path skill. You'd improve the skill more cheaply, but all other uses of it would be at a penalty. It would still be subject to the usual IQ+Magery cap of course.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

That might be part of a Tradition. For example, RPM mentions Divination as an example Tradition, which would mostly involve Sense effects.

Another thought would be to treat a single effect as an optional specialization of a Path skill. You'd improve the skill more cheaply, but all other uses of it would be at a penalty. It would still be subject to the usual IQ+Magery cap of course.

Optional specializations don't significantly reduce the point cost, unfortunately. Still, that helps.

Making it a Tradition makes sense. Maybe it could have a higher cap than just the normal +3, to make up for the fact that it's less broad.

Would make it so a Knack in both a specific effect and path is 10 points for IQ+0 (assuming IQ+Talent is 12 or less; figured as Thaumatology and Path skill both bought as Specializations for 4 points each plus Magery 0 bought with -60% in limitations for 2 points or Magery 0 with -80% in limitations plus a 1 point perk) plus 5 points per +1. Add 10 points or so to cost if they cast as if they are a Ritual Adept.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by Langy

Optional specializations don't significantly reduce the point cost, unfortunately. Still, that helps.

I'd actually be in favor of the Technique approach. Optional specializations generally feel overpriced for what you're getting: effectively, +2 to a single area of skill for [4] points. Either way, the limiting factor is that you're still capped by Magery. I know PK has advocated using Higher Purpose (Traditions) over limited Magery for representing "specialized" mages, but it would be interesting to use limited Magery (one Effect only) to raise the skill cap, and then a Technique or Specialization to raise the skill. This would of course also give you a pool of mana that can only be used on rituals with that effect.

Making it a Tradition makes sense. Maybe it could have a higher cap than just the normal +3, to make up for the fact that it's less broad.

Hmm... if a narrower Tradition is less expensive than 5 points per level, you could cap Higher Purpose (Traditions) by number of points spent rather than total levels. Get it down to 3/lv and you could have up to +5. Not sure if such limitations are valid on Higher Purpose though.

[cultureulterior]

For the evil, or Anita Blake-style ritual magician, sacrifices sound pretty flavorful.

From a cursory look, the best animal to keep if you're a ritual magician seems to be large boars, each of which will give you 14 points of energy when sacrificed. Each boar seems to cost approximately $500 (http://www.wildfarming.co.uk/Wild%20Boar/wboar.htm)

Ideally, you'd keep them in another universe with a pocket doorway, or your own Pocket Dimension. Of course, if you're not the nomadic type, you could just have them as guardbeasts for your tower, or, in modern surroundings just have a boar farm.

Note that you can extend your Pocket Dimension for about a year with the sacrifice of a single boar and your own energy.

[JP42]

Originally Posted by cultureulterior

For the evil, or Anita Blake-style ritual magician, sacrifices sound pretty flavorful.

From a cursory look, the best animal to keep if you're a ritual magician seems to be large boars, each of which will give you 14 points of energy when sacrificed. Each boar seems to cost approximately $500 (http://www.wildfarming.co.uk/Wild%20Boar/wboar.htm)

Ideally, you'd keep them in another universe with a pocket universe, or your own Pocket Dimension. Of course, if you're not the nomadic type, you could just have them as guardbeasts for your tower, or, in modern surroundings just have a boar farm.

Note that you can extend your Pocket Dimension for about a year with the sacrifice of a single boar and your own energy.

I foresee a villain who has a day job/cover as a butcher of exotic meats...

"Kosher? Well, we do observe all the appropriate rituals..."