Ravens N' Pennies - GURPS Content Posts

[Humabout]

Fair enough!

[Kalzazz]

Ghostdancer's post on Gate Magic is very cool and I can't believe I missed it

I think this should be a great help in playing my Gate Mage when such a happy event occurs in the future

Here's a link to her sheet (which was created before the awesome blog post in question, so could probably stand to be redone)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...Wc&usp=sharing

[Christopher R. Rice]

Gamemaster's Guidepost: Ritual Path Magic, Wishes, and Permanently Granted Traits

Wishes...they can be the life long quest of a player character or NPC. They ought to let you do anything...but sometimes have rules (you can't bring back the dead, you can't kill anyone, and you can't make anyone fall in love...and no wishing for more wishes! What about wishing I could wish for more wishes?). In most magic systems there is a way to do this. Inspired by a posts by Peter Dell'Orto. Today I sit down to ruminate over how this might look in Ritual Path Magic by looking at the way Dungeons & Dragons and GURPS 4th edition "basic" magic did it.

[Kalzazz]

The picture won't show up for me. 3000 to fling a 200 energy spell does seem a tad high to me.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

The picture won't show up for me. 3000 to fling a 200 energy spell does seem a tad high to me.

Try it again, if it still don't sure up, it's just a picture from Aladdin. And yeah, it DOES seem high, that's why I say playtest it and tell me what's up. :-D I'mma try it myself tomorrow and see what my players think.

[Kalzazz]

I once allowed something semi similar in the form of 'Potion Stock', which actually now that I think of it is not actually that similar. But will share it as may be amusing/useful

Its based off the booze from A Bertrand Chandler's sci fi books which included the idea of a base and then flavor additives

Potion stock was where you bought the 'Base' (aka Potion Stock) which has normal weight, and then Additivites which have Neg weight (and normal cost). Potion Stock has cost based on 'Purity', and you can only mix additives into stock of sufficient purity (equal to the cost of the additive)

I used that for a few plot points and things but was never super popular, but didn't seem to broken either

[Kalzazz]

As for pricing Wish, hmm

Well, the main use of the spell (as you presented) seems as a Conditional to cast whatever 200 energy spell off the cuff

Now, using the Quick and Dirty Charms rules, assuming we don't want to blow ourselves up to often, we want to succeed on say a 12

To hit 200 energy with a 12 we need to exceed our safe threshhold more than 3 but less than 4 times, so, 19 skill (now, I don't at all understand how Quick and Dirty works . . . . I can't see hitting 200 energy with 19 except once in a blue moon, I see getting around 150 give or take)

To do the same with a Wish at 3000 energy, we need to hit Safe Threshhold of 750 or so to have 'less than 4' which requires skill of oh, 88.5 or so (round up for 89)

Assume we have a +2 charm lab, +10 grimoire, and a +5 place of power we still need 72 skill

Eating the -10 penalty for instant casting, our 72 skill fellow can throw downrange way bigger than 200 energy spells

[Kalzazz]

Anyway, my best guess at a 'Fair Price' then is that this spell should be around 'the energy a guy who can pull off a 200 energy spell at -10 can pull off', so, a skill 29 guy based on the notion above a skill 19 guy can pull off a 200 energy spell

So, around 620 energy

So I would price 'Potential Spell' as being '3x energy'

Potential Spell
Greater Create Magic[6](),
Lesser Control Magic[5]();
Potential Energy: 200 [200].
Cost: 633
This spell unleashes potential energy that the caster can immediately use as a spell of their choice.

Except . . . . this breaks down hard and horribly if we consider the Skill 19 guy casting a 200pt 'Potential Spell', that person can easily hit 50 energy of Potential Energy no problem. A skill 19 caster will be rolling vs 9 to try to cast a spell with -10, which is well, laughable

So, hmmm, I have no idea! I like the idea of Potential Spell though.

I have allowed a perk (with thanks to Celti for letting me bounce off and discuss with) I call 'Conditional Cannibal' (which is not very descriptive, but very amusing to me) where a caster can for _one_ ritual (chosen when take perk) cannibalize a conditional spell and use 1/2 its energy to 1 round cast that specific ritual

This works very well for mimicing DnD 3.0 style 'Clerics can cannibalize a memorized spell to cast the equivalent healing spell'

[Christopher R. Rice]

Interesting approach - not how I'd do it...but you did give me a idea on a way to knock this down a bit more...hmmm. Yes. Using Abilities at Default with rituals...hmmm

[Christopher R. Rice]

First three people to agree on what Thursday's post is will get said post...options to pick from:

• New Monster
• Something MAgic Related
• Something GM related
• Designer's Notes
• Something Combat Related

Ready? Set? GO!