Fantasy magic styles and alchemy

Devil_Dante · 06-13-2018, 01:20 PM

Hi!
I'm here to ask you some question, looking for advices.
I'm going to start a fantasy adventures soon, as DM. I'm setting the world and was studying magic, because will have an important task.
I'm dividing magic among the users:

1)any magician, sorcerer or "arcane-ish" mage will use the standard GURPS magic
2)any cleric, or "divine" caster, will use the clerical version with the Threshold variant rule (thaumatology p 76)
3)any "druid-ish" spellcaster will use the symbolic magic

4)then, i want, in my world, the alchemy, but not the baroc alchemy; just a more "fantasy oriented" alchemy. To make some example, like the alchemy from the witcher, where you have potions or decoctions that can emulate some spells or simply improving physical abilities (like a spell would do). To do this, i have picked the rules from pyramid 3-82, dungeon brewmasters, p4. In this way, brewing is faster and cheaper, and can be a reliable sorce of power.
On top of this, i 'd like to let my (eventual) PCs create their own potions using the rules from this thread: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=136646
Not the most important stuff, but i just want to give you the idea behind my choices.

now, i'm asking 3 things:
1)is symbolic magic too difficult to handle? i have no experience with no standard magic version. I'm scared to slow down the game, or simply see my PCs going crazy, or use all their fatigue to cast a simple spell and be totally useless for the rest of the fight/day
2)About threshold, are the cataclisms too punitive? I'm looking for tweaking the effect a bit probably, but still, how is it feel?
3)about alchemy, i'd wish to recreate the chance to harvest any material from the nature, in this way they can prepare their stuff without spending precious money, because alchemy in general is way less strong than spells (as it should be imo). Any suggestion about this part? I don't want to see a brewing factory, but i don't even want to see a PC being useless cause he can't use his "alchemy" because of high prices or very long brewing time.

Thanks for answers!!

06-13-2018, 01:20 PM	#1
Devil_Dante Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: Italy, Rome	Fantasy magic styles and alchemy Hi! I'm here to ask you some question, looking for advices. I'm going to start a fantasy adventures soon, as DM. I'm setting the world and was studying magic, because will have an important task. I'm dividing magic among the users: 1)any magician, sorcerer or "arcane-ish" mage will use the standard GURPS magic 2)any cleric, or "divine" caster, will use the clerical version with the Threshold variant rule (thaumatology p 76) 3)any "druid-ish" spellcaster will use the symbolic magic 4)then, i want, in my world, the alchemy, but not the baroc alchemy; just a more "fantasy oriented" alchemy. To make some example, like the alchemy from the witcher, where you have potions or decoctions that can emulate some spells or simply improving physical abilities (like a spell would do). To do this, i have picked the rules from pyramid 3-82, dungeon brewmasters, p4. In this way, brewing is faster and cheaper, and can be a reliable sorce of power. On top of this, i 'd like to let my (eventual) PCs create their own potions using the rules from this thread: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=136646 Not the most important stuff, but i just want to give you the idea behind my choices. now, i'm asking 3 things: 1)is symbolic magic too difficult to handle? i have no experience with no standard magic version. I'm scared to slow down the game, or simply see my PCs going crazy, or use all their fatigue to cast a simple spell and be totally useless for the rest of the fight/day 2)About threshold, are the cataclisms too punitive? I'm looking for tweaking the effect a bit probably, but still, how is it feel? 3)about alchemy, i'd wish to recreate the chance to harvest any material from the nature, in this way they can prepare their stuff without spending precious money, because alchemy in general is way less strong than spells (as it should be imo). Any suggestion about this part? I don't want to see a brewing factory, but i don't even want to see a PC being useless cause he can't use his "alchemy" because of high prices or very long brewing time. Thanks for answers!!