10-21-2019, 02:04 PM | #11 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Purchasing Magery Variation [Thaumotology/RPM]
Yes, the intent was a permanent sacrifice. If you sacrifice one point of ST or HT permanently, you get one level of Magery permanent. A temporary sacrifice could be modeled as an alternative ability, but I think that would be too abusive for most settings.
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10-21-2019, 03:07 PM | #12 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Purchasing Magery Variation [Thaumotology/RPM]
But what does sacrifice mean in this context? In the real world, a sacrifice is, for example, cutting an animal's throat, or burning hell money, or throwing gold into the ocean, or entering into combat without the normal armor and thus offering your life if the god wants it, or inviting a loa to ride you while you drink clairin or smoke cigars. There's a physical process that results in the destruction of a physical thing. What sort of physical ritual are you envisioning as producing the grant of permanent divine favor?
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10-21-2019, 05:20 PM | #13 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Purchasing Magery Variation [Thaumotology/RPM]
In GURPS terms, sacrifice can also mean the sacrifice of character points (as represented by the Corruption rules from Horror). In the case of the previous rule, it would either represent the wasting of muscle tissue (representing the loss of ST) and the weakening of the cardiovascular system (representing the loss of HT). It is thematic of one of the most famous examples of sacrifice in European mythology, the crucifixion of Odin on Yggdrasil so he could gain the secrets of runic magic.
In order for a character to gain access to Magery through sacrifice, they would probably either have to suffer crucifixion (with each day allowing them to sacrifice one dot of Attribute for one level of Magery) or to suffer starvation (with each week allowing them to sacrifice one dot of Attribute for one level of Magery). In either case, the sacrifices are permanent, though they could be regain latter through spending CP. In the case of sacrificing DX or IQ for Ritual Adept, they would either have to suffer four days of crucifixion or four weeks of starvation to exchange one dot of DX and one dot of IQ for Ritual Adept, representing them suffering permanent neurological and psychological damage through their sacrifice. |
10-21-2019, 11:11 PM | #14 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: Purchasing Magery Variation [Thaumotology/RPM]
My first question is "Why?" What's the point of this rule? Is this the only way to gain more Magery? Is it a shortcut to power? What's this modification trying to solve. If it's just change for the sake of change I doubt it'll be used the way you think it will. Standard Magery (RPM) is meant to have theoretically unlimited levels. ST and HT is set at 20 max for human targets. So do you just buy more ST and HT and then convert to Magery? That seems a bit...pointless. Again, what is this trying to solve is the question you should be asking yourself.
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10-22-2019, 04:21 AM | #15 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Re: Purchasing Magery Variation [Thaumotology/RPM]
Quote:
It's not difficult to think up ritual that permanently damages the initiate.
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10-22-2019, 05:27 AM | #16 | |
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: Purchasing Magery Variation [Thaumotology/RPM]
Whatever it's needed to mean one would imagine.
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10-22-2019, 11:47 AM | #17 | |
Join Date: Aug 2018
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Re: Purchasing Magery Variation [Thaumotology/RPM]
Quote:
For example, let's say I wanted Warp [100] because I'm trapped in a room with a bomb that's about to explode. If I could just trade DX 5 (at [20] per point) to get that ability, that's just of net benefit to me, and I could always buy back that DX later on with character points I'll earn in the future due to not having died. It seems like there should be some kind of net loss to this kind of exchange. Or some kind of uncertainty about it, like maybe there's a chance of permanently sacrificing that ST but not getting Magery, or getting a limited version of it worth less than the ST you spent? What if instead, the GM allowed some kind of "Using Abilities at Default" rules for temporarily getting Magery, but you could supplement your FP with Corruption (which could reduce your ST if it gets too high) and you could use future character points to permanently buy magery once you've used it enough times, like how you can buy skills you use at default. |
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10-22-2019, 12:56 PM | #18 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Re: Purchasing Magery Variation [Thaumotology/RPM]
It might work better as a Modular Ability.
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10-22-2019, 01:16 PM | #19 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Purchasing Magery Variation [Thaumotology/RPM]
Quote:
And it rather seems to me that what this thread is doing is first proposing a game mechanic and then trying to come up with a rationale for using it in a campaign, which is way too gamist for me: I want to see it emerge from the nature of the game world (simulationist) and from the flow of events in an ongoing conflict (narrativist). Ritual that permanently damages the initiate is obviously possible; you could put out an eye, or cut off a hand, or the like. But that by itself doesn't convince me that "lose one point of ST/HT" is a plausible form of damage. Can you point to anything in the published rules where some form of inflicted damage reduces an attribute or secondary characteristic in that way? Can you, for example, point to a poison that is defined game mechanically as doing so? At the most basic level, my take on this sort of thing is that character points DO NOT EXIST in a game world, and the characters have no awareness of them. They exist only as a formal convention by which the players and the GM keep track of certain things. You may be able to say, as a player, that X is worth n points, and Y is worth n points, and therefore they're in some sense equivalent; but that doesn't compel me, as the GM, to allow you to remove X from your character sheet and add Y. In fact I would say that the equal character points are irrelevant, because it's entirely in my power to give your character a new trait that doesn't conserve character points at all.
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10-22-2019, 01:59 PM | #20 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Re: Purchasing Magery Variation [Thaumotology/RPM]
Alcoholism works exactly this way. Roll once per year against HT+2 or lose a point in an attribute. And there are fungal toxins which damage your kidney and liver permanently - representing that by HT loss wouldn't be unrealistic.
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“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...” Marcus Aurelius |
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