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Old 12-29-2018, 12:34 AM   #1
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Default Casting Magic or RPM without rituals

Hey how’s it going? I have been reading GURPS' ritual path magic and magic (RAW); I am "designing" a magical style and I got some questions; what can I do if I want to:
  • Cast the spells w/o the need of magery: I’d like these “magical powers” working in non-mana and non-consecrated places.
For this, I am thinking of using a power modifier, for example psi/psionic –10%, plus a talent, to emulate magery. What do you think? What else could work? My power-source is "things man was not meant to know".
  • Cast the spells w/o the need of rituals and have them work instantly (as innate attacks): I’d like to employ the spells from the spells list, to avoid designing them as innate attacks, afflictions, etc.
I think I could use this: Wild Talent (Retention, +25%; Focused (spells), -20%) [21] (B99). If I include cosmic, will it justify avoiding rituals at the moment and in future casting?
Or what else could I do?

Thanks!
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Old 12-29-2018, 07:30 AM   #2
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Default Re: Casting Magic or RPM without rituals

Magery under ritual path magic is not a talent it is:
3 levels of energy reserve (9 points total)
1 point in an UB allowing you to buy up your skills one level higher

It also, normally, does not interact with mana levels, however I at least generally do not reccomend this- without the threat of places where your magic will not work, or works with reduced effectiveness it tends to become the 'one true answer for all problems'.

As for casting instantly:
You can do this in RPM by having enough energy 'on hand' for the spell in question, compartmentalized mind would be the best way to approach it with normal magic; have the compartment handle the concentration and have the 'real' handle casting the spell in what appears to be 'zero' time.
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Old 12-29-2018, 09:03 AM   #3
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Default Re: Casting Magic or RPM without rituals

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Originally Posted by Hide View Post
[LIST]
Cast the spells w/o the need of rituals and have them work instantly (as innate attacks)
RPM does this with conditional rituals ("charms"). They're basically little items that store a spell, so that you can release it instantly, as in combat. You still need to cast a ritual to create that charm, though. Or as Starslayer has, simply have the ability to gather energy quickly enough to cast your spell of interest. (Most of them tend to require more energy that you can gather in a single 1-second turn. But you could fiddle with the gathering rate, which will of course make RPM that much more powerful.)

Quote:
I’d like to employ the spells from the spells list, to avoid designing them as innate attacks, afflictions, etc.
RPM has its own spell design system that is neither Advantage-based nor the spell list out of Magic.

It doesn't sound like you want to use RPM at all (no rituals, instant casting, use the standard spell list). RPM was originally intended for secret magic, urban fantasy games where research and preparation are important.

What other goals do you have for this magic system? And why don't you want to use the standard magic system, given that you're doing 1-second combat casting (like Magic) and using the Magic spell list?

I assume the reason you don't just build your combat abilities as Advantage-based magic (a la Powers) is simply the extra design time to make up a bunch of different abilities. (Sorcery is one place to start if you do go that way; it has a spell list, if a shorter one than in Magic. There's also some fan work given to recreating the Magic spell list in terms of Advantages.)
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Old 12-29-2018, 01:10 PM   #4
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Default Re: Casting Magic or RPM without rituals

Have you considered looking into Thaumatology: Sorcery? Its Spells do what you want. If you want to combine it with RPM, you can replace the Sorcerous Investment Advantage that forms the core of Sorcery with RPM's Magery. This would replace Sorcery's Improvised Spells system with RPM; that is, you'd use RPM and it's Rituals when you want to improvise an effect, and you'd use Sorcery's Learned Spells whenever you want to cast something without any sort of ritual or casting time (beyond a second of concentration). You could also use the “Skills for Everything” option from Powers to assign Paths to individual Spells; but since Sorcery Spells don't usually require casting rolls, these would only come into play when you try to do something unusual with a Spell — again, see Powers' descriptions of the various Abilities and how Talent affects them for ideas about how a Spell's associated Path might be used.

Mind you, the energy pool used for RPM would be distinct from the FP costs of Sorcery's Spells; as starslayer pointed out, RPM Magery is actually an energy reserve, and putting it as the core of Sorcery's “Alternate Abilities”-based setup would mean that it's fundamentally unavailable whenever you try to cast a Learned Spell; so even if you were to reframe the energy cost of Sorcery Spells as magical energy instead of personal fatigue, the RPM energy pool wouldn't be available to power them.
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Last edited by dataweaver; 12-30-2018 at 10:08 AM.
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Old 12-30-2018, 02:08 AM   #5
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Default Re: Casting Magic or RPM without rituals

Thanks for the comments! I will check your suggestions.
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