Thaumatology and G:In Nomine: Recreating Songs

[LoneWolf23k]

Just something I've been wondering lately... How would one go about using Thaumatology to recreate In Nomine's Song system in GURPS terms, but differently from GURPS In Nomine's system?

[The Bearded One]

One could translate them as powers, but that would take a lot of work.
My preference would be to treat them as Clerical spells; they are granted by Divine/Infernal powers after all. This is less work, but the translation is a lot less accurate.

[LoneWolf23k]

A good, efficient concept indeed.

One possibility I've considered was adapting Realm magic, with each Song being a seperate Realm, with three levels of Mastery...

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf23k

One possibility I've considered was adapting Realm magic, with each Song being a seperate Realm, with three levels of Mastery...

It's not a bad idea, at all. I think it would really make Songs more like miracles, rather than the rather mechanistic effects they currently are.
If each Song is a Realm, then there's obviously going to be more than 13 of them, so the Realms will be cheap. Level-wise, you could go with only one level in each Realm - that would model In Nomine most precisely, really. However, I think a slightly finer split is a better idea. What I'd probably do is divide it up into 3 levels. The first level would be "detection and minor control", the second would be "major control and creation", and the third would be "Symphonic control". The first two levels would be available to regular celestials, while I'd restrict the third to Superiors, or word-bound angels who's Word directly affected the Song. There should probably be a hypothetical fourth level, reserved for Lucifer and God, that offers total Symphonic mastery over the area in question. The extra levels will let you step up the miracles a bit, I think, rather than having everyone with the Song producing identical quality of effects, just with less chance of success and quantity.
For example, if you knew the Song of Healing at the first level, you'd be able to sense how injured someone was, and do whatever healing the GM decided counted as "minor" - fixing physical wounds, curing diseases and such. Level two would be able to heal gross wounds, regenerate severed limbs, cure normally-incurable diseases, etc. The third level would probably be able to raise the dead, at least if they weren't dead for very long.
Add in Realm skill to cover actual skill with the Song, and you're good to go. That would work out to costing 8 points per level in each Song, if I'm doing the math right (60 points divided by 4 for the levels, halved again for 13+ Realms).

[Rasmus Wagner]

I would like a 4-tier system, where tier 4 is "beyond" capability; but the first 3 tiers are not so much ranked as differentiated.

The Corporeal Tier deals with gross, physical effects. The Ethereal deals with thoughts and perceptions, and the celestial level deals with supernatural interactions.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by Rasmus Wagner

I would like a 4-tier system, where tier 4 is "beyond" capability; but the first 3 tiers are not so much ranked as differentiated.

The Corporeal Tier deals with gross, physical effects. The Ethereal deals with thoughts and perceptions, and the celestial level deals with supernatural interactions.

Oops, good point. I wouldn't call those tiers, though, since they're really separate-but-equal. Really, the Corporeal/Ethereal/Celestial distinction is better modeled by making each Song into three Realms: Corporeal Healing, Ethereal Healing, and Celestial Healing, for ex.
Hmm. Overall, given that there are a lot of very specific Realms with this system, I'd say it would be reasonable to divide the base cost by 3 instead of 2, which means any given level would only cost 5 points.