Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-20-2017, 06:07 AM   #1
JoelSammallahti
 
JoelSammallahti's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default [magic] spell to find members of a group of people?

One of the players in my campaign about vampires wants a spell that can find the descendants of his tribe, who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago. We're using the standard magic system, but I'm not too familiar with it.

Is there a spell that can do this? Find members of a specific group of people, but not necessarily specific members of that group?

If there isn't, how would you write one up? Most importantly, what would be the prerequisites?

(Leaving aside the fact that due to basic population dynamics, pretty much everybody in their area is going to be a descendent of the tribe since it lived so long ago. I think I might rule that descent is strictly patrilineal, since that's the way the tribe in question reckoned kinship. That way members of the group remain just a subset of the total population, barring unusual events.)
JoelSammallahti is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-20-2017, 07:59 AM   #2
spacemonkey
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Default Re: [magic] spell to find members of a group of people?

Chop off a hand and cast Ancient History on it.

But more seriously, there's a branch of divination on examining a subject and answering questions about him. Sense Life can also be dialed in to a specific kind of life, family would make sense. Retrogression would make for great flavor if it followed bloodlines the way it does in Wheel of Time.
spacemonkey is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-20-2017, 08:49 AM   #3
JoelSammallahti
 
JoelSammallahti's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: [magic] spell to find members of a group of people?

Quote:
Originally Posted by spacemonkey View Post
But more seriously, there's a branch of divination on examining a subject and answering questions about him. Sense Life can also be dialed in to a specific kind of life, family would make sense. Retrogression would make for great flavor if it followed bloodlines the way it does in Wheel of Time.
Thanks for the great advice! Divination and Retrogression seem like they're good for asking the question "is this person a descendent of my tribe?", but not really "are there any descendents of my tribe here?". Sense Life, on the other hand, is a perfect match. Of course, it's super expensive to cast on a large area, but he'll just have to use blood sacrifices.
JoelSammallahti is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
magic, spell design

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 02:38 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.