08-09-2018, 10:53 AM | #21 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: [Magic] Colleges And Prerequisites: What Are They?
Suddenly I'm amused by the idea of a magic system where you can attempt what you like, but the misfire table is the universe's default response and improved skill is all about modifying or avoiding the misfire. One up on the Cthulhu idea of "summon what you like ... did you figure out how to ward or bind it?"
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08-09-2018, 12:54 PM | #22 |
Join Date: Feb 2011
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Re: [Magic] Colleges And Prerequisites: What Are They?
There's two kinds of prerequisites: spells and conditions.
Spell prereqs tend to be "if you can do this, then you can also do that, so pay the points for both. If you can regrow a limb, then it's reasonable that you can restore a few hit points. Conditions are more distinctly limiters built into the way you cast spells. Minimum IQ 12 to cast a spell implies it's too complex for most people. Minimum magery levels mean that the spell simply draws so much power (or requires such a direct magical connection,) that only great mages can use it. On that note, I wanted to put down some broad advice. If you want to have stringent restrictions on a class of magic, don't make the limitation be "you have to do this involved adventuring task alone in order to unlock this power," unless that option or similar ones are available to everyone. If the party's wizard (and only the wizard) can monopolize hours of game time and thereby get more power than everyone else, and use that to monopolize more game time, you're going to make your warriors and such feel left out. Contrariwise, having single-character spotlights of some kind open to each PC is a great idea. |
08-10-2018, 05:21 AM | #23 | |
Join Date: Feb 2014
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Re: [Magic] Colleges And Prerequisites: What Are They?
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08-10-2018, 05:22 AM | #24 | |||||||
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Re: [Magic] Colleges And Prerequisites: What Are They?
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08-10-2018, 07:19 AM | #25 | ||
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: [Magic] Colleges And Prerequisites: What Are They?
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Any GM can say, "Okay, this is getting out of control, let's make this ability a bit harder to use or a bit less powerful," because it takes a few seconds and solves a well-defined problem. Worldbuilding is more of an advanced GMing skill; a lot of GMs just don't do it, and buy pre-made settings instead, because it takes too much time and is completely open-ended. This makes advice on flavor more valuable overall than strict rulings on power. Moderator: Please avoid the needlessly confrontational tone. Thank you. That's valid for a particular game world, sure. In other game worlds, why not allow people to pick their favorite spells and limit their Magery to affect only those? Power-users can essentially mix and match the same way, defining a power with just their preferred abilities and taking a Talent that works with those . . . and they can even attach Reliable to an ability to be good with just that one thing, and use limitations such as Accessibility and Specialized to pay fewer points to affect only the things that matter to them. If mages and power-users coexist in the setting, it's probably much fairer to allow tailored Magery than to forbid it.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
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08-10-2018, 07:31 AM | #26 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: [Magic] Colleges And Prerequisites: What Are They?
You can change the colleges and prerequisites as much as you want, since they are likely only a human construction (and, even if they are based on fundamental laws of reality within a setting, there will be overlap). In fact, the only reason why colleges and prerequisites really matter is because of ritual magic (Colleges being the secondary skills of ritual magic and prerequisite counts giving a skill penalty). Other than that, they are just themes of a setting.
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08-10-2018, 09:14 AM | #27 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: [Magic] Colleges And Prerequisites: What Are They?
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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08-10-2018, 09:28 AM | #28 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: [Magic] Colleges And Prerequisites: What Are They?
I like the idea that any given mage's view of reality alters how magic works for that person. Even if the way views of reality influence magical laws is completely understood within the game world – turning thaumatology into a de facto science and spells into a kind of technology based on the principles of that science – variations in personality will keep magic strange, unpredictable, and a bit difficult to nail down in practice. That is, magic will remain magical, despite being scientific on some level.
With that outlook comes a comfort with the idea that colleges, schools, styles, and other ways of divvying up spells are totally artificial, not fundamental to the universe. And if personality actually influences magical function, it isn't all that odd that people could have real talent with these arbitrary divisions – some personalities and some convictions are more forceful than others, after all. Not that this is anything new to GURPS . . . GURPS Fantasy proposed Magery limited to one specific spell, a few specific spells, one specific college, and a choice of colleges back in 2004! Stripping it bare, there's really no game-mechanical reason not to let casters pay fewer points for Magery that works with fewer spells. That's pretty much how GURPS works in general: If something that normally affects a broad field affects a narrower one, it costs less. And this is very often at the buyer's discretion, whether that means specifying what weapons are covered by Weapon Master or choosing the conditions of an Accessibility limitation.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
08-10-2018, 11:13 AM | #29 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: [Magic] Colleges And Prerequisites: What Are They?
I would actually think there's a mixture of subjectivity and objectivity in how magic is structured.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLfsE_a2a-c Colleges, as the name implies are just ways of teaching specialties in magic, and specialties are conveniences for the student who rarely has the ability and time to be good at everything. There is no one way to educate students but there are better ways and worse ways. Mr. Parr's complaint about "new math" happens because of an ill-conceived attempt to introduce students to more advanced mathematical concepts at the same time that they were teaching the basics. That's would be not entirely unlike trying to teach your students Fireball as the base spell of the Fire College and building on that to learn things like ignite, flame jet, shape fire. There would be certain advantages to the approach if it weren't for all the resulting dead students. But at the same time, there's an objective reality to the fact that fire spells all share a fundamental commonality because they're all manipulating the same or a similar thing. It would objectively be easier having already learned several ways to manipulate and generate fire and heat, to learn yet another new manipulation of those things. The specific prerequisite chains and college assignments aren't mandatory but the general idea of walking before you can run is just the way things are. Last edited by David Johnston2; 08-10-2018 at 08:32 PM. |
08-10-2018, 07:44 PM | #30 | ||||
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Re: [Magic] Colleges And Prerequisites: What Are They?
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Any GM can say, "Okay, this is getting out of control, let's make this ability a bit harder to use or a bit less powerful," because it takes a few seconds and solves a well-defined problem. Worldbuilding is more of an advanced GMing skill; a lot of GMs just don't do it, and buy pre-made settings instead, because it takes too much time and is completely open-ended. This makes advice on flavor more valuable overall than strict rulings on power.[/QUOTE] This seems to contradict the above, in such cases you'd want all the details locked down, or at least give people recomended controls on them. Quote:
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magic, magical styles, thaumatology |
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