The best power for seeing the future? Plus a magic question

[Gilfander]

I have two questions for characters I'm making for an upcoming adventure.

First, the simple one. Is there a magery limitation for 'can only affect one gender'? I didn't see it in the mods list. What would the reduction % be assuming a 50/50 split between males/females in the world? -50% or less?

Second, I'm trying to make a character who can see the future. I'd prefer to not use a spell if there is an advantage that would work, but I'm open to suggestions. It's more a uncontrolled power where they will see the fate of people they are looking at. What do you think is the best way to work this in the game?

Thanks so much in advance for all the excellent advice.

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by Gilfander

I have two questions for characters I'm making for an upcoming adventure.

First, the simple one. Is there a magery limitation for 'can only affect one gender'? I didn't see it in the mods list. What would the reduction % be assuming a 50/50 split between males/females in the world? -50% or less?

Second, I'm trying to make a character who can see the future. I'd prefer to not use a spell if there is an advantage that would work, but I'm open to suggestions. It's more a uncontrolled power where they will see the fate of people they are looking at. What do you think is the best way to work this in the game?

Thanks so much in advance for all the excellent advice.

The best GURPS way to see the future IMO is to start with Clairsentience and add the Time-Spanning modifier from GURPS Powers.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Gilfander

First, the simple one. Is there a magery limitation for 'can only affect one gender'? I didn't see it in the mods list. What would the reduction % be assuming a 50/50 split between males/females in the world? -50% or less?

Works on about half the population is a -20% Accessibility limitation.

Second, I'm trying to make a character who can see the future. I'd prefer to not use a spell if there is an advantage that would work, but I'm open to suggestions. It's more a uncontrolled power where they will see the fate of people they are looking at. What do you think is the best way to work this in the game?

The usual glimpse the future advantage is Precognition, on p.B77, which seems fairly close even without modifiers. You may want to remove the conscious use option though. Note that it includes Danger Sense, if you pull both than and conscious use your aren't left with much, but then "the GM can provide vague hints whenever he likes" isn't much of an advantage, so maybe 5 points is fair.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by Gilfander

First, the simple one. Is there a magery limitation for 'can only affect one gender'? I didn't see it in the mods list. What would the reduction % be assuming a 50/50 split between males/females in the world? -50% or less?

Accessibility: Only on (gender) is a -20% limitation. This does not prevent you from throwing missile spells at either gender, though.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

Accessibility: Only on (gender) is a -20% limitation. This does not prevent you from throwing missile spells at either gender, though.

Why not? Though I suppose you could interpret the limitation very strictly and rule that since the subject of a missile spell is the missile, and missiles don't have genders, that this limitation should prevent you from ever casting a missile spell in the first place.

Of course limitations on Magery are a questionable way to impose limitations on your *spells*, but they are the standard GURPS method of doing it.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Why not? Though I suppose you could interpret the limitation very strictly and rule that since the subject of a missile spell is the missile, and missiles don't have genders, that this limitation should prevent you from ever casting a missile spell in the first place.

Of course limitations on Magery are a questionable way to impose limitations on your *spells*, but they are the standard GURPS method of doing it.

Actually, the target is yourself. And I would hope your Magery would allow self-targeting...I'd charge a Perk if it normally affects only the opposite gender, though.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

I'd throw on an extra -10% (for a total of -30%) if you are the gender you can't target and don't get an exemption. It rules out a bunch of spells that are intended to be caster-only except as prereqs. If a "symbolic gender-switch" (common in many real-world magical traditions for various reasons) can do an end-run around that, maybe just -25% total depending on how much work is involved.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Gilfander

First, the simple one. Is there a magery limitation for 'can only affect one gender'? I didn't see it in the mods list. What would the reduction % be assuming a 50/50 split between males/females in the world? -50% or less?

Second, I'm trying to make a character who can see the future. I'd prefer to not use a spell if there is an advantage that would work, but I'm open to suggestions. It's more a uncontrolled power where they will see the fate of people they are looking at. What do you think is the best way to work this in the game?

For the second - Is there a reason you would not go with the obvious Precognition? The One Event version sure sounds like what you want.

Regarding the first - You don't often see non-standard Accessibility-limited Magery. Thaumatology (on p26) suggests just using the typical valuation for an Accessibility, which would be -20% for a specific sex. The way other Magery limiters are rated, I would probably call it a -40% modifier, with the stipulation that all spells that directly affected the target were so limited. So with Magery (Males Only), you could not affect the Wicked Witch of the West with your Fireball, but she still might be burned by any ordinary fire that it started. The disclaimer in Thamatology, about not allowing the limitation for a spell list that is largely unaffected by it, should still apply.

[Gilfander]

Thanks for all the excellent advice on both topics. These suggestions really help me out.

[GodBeastX]

-20% on Magery seems utterly cheap for this. For example, if you take "Magery, only affects females" for example, what happens if you try to cast Earth to Air or something similar? Are you going to rule that's "Mother Earth" and allow it or are any spells that don't target people going to fail?

So by that notion, you just cut out TOOOONS of spells out of the magic book.