GURPS Ars Magica

[lederhosen]

Ars Magica has been applauded for its treatment of magic, creating a system that covers the whole experience of being a mage. I am sure I am not the only one that wanted to port that magic system over to GURPS. I made some early attempts, but the mechanics of the two systems are very different and I could not see how to resolve some fundamental issues.

Three years ago, I picked up GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery and the system it described was pretty much a tailor made solution on how to accomplish the whole thing. Both the publication and this summary rely heavily on the material in GURPS Powers. The main points are as follows:

1. Spontaneous magic is purchased as a Modular Ability. This allows spells (powers) to be cast that are up to 1/10 the point cost of the Modular Ability.
   
2. Formulaic spells are purchased as Alternative Abilities to the main ability. This allows spells (powers) to be purchased that are up to 1/5 the point cost of the Modular Ability.
   
3. The point cost of a spell is further limited by scores in the fifteen magical Arts. Buying points in the main ability gives you points to spend on the various Arts. The maximum ratio that can be justified is 5 points to spend on Arts for every 1 point invested, assuming an 80% discount from limitations that then apply to all spells, both spontaneous and formulaic.
   
4. Parma Magica is purchased as a separate Ability.

While there are lots of other details that I have worked out during the campaign over the past two years, the main points above are the essential parts that make everything work.

[Phil Masters]

Note that GURPS Thaumatology has whole sections on things like Verb-Noun Syntactic Magic and the Stuff of Raw Magic. Not that my personal gaming and writing history is at all relevant here.

[Michael Cule]

I somewhat sublimated my ARS MAGICA urge when I ran my DAWN OF MAGIC game set in the reign of Charles II of England, Scotland, Ireland and France (1) when that arsehole Isaac Newton released the suppressed Words of Magic and left other people to clear up the mess.

I did it that way because I could not stand the mess that is the Oath of the Order of Hermes and wanted to see if my players and I could come up with something better. We had fun for a while but eventually my enthusiasm for politics and diplomacy wasn't shared by the players.

Out of the many good things in THAUMATOLOGY I chose a Verb-Noun Improvised Magic system (p 179 et seq of THAUMATOLOGY) with the magicians capable of buying spells they had researched as Perks that allowed them to reduce to one the number of dice rolls to invoke the effect.

For extra flavour I threw in the thirty six words from CABAL as a sort of higher power of magic with each word possessing and infusing one of the leading magicians.

I found interestingly that I had to start to write limitations into the magic to ensure that the mages had some problems to compensate for and a reason not just to take over the world. I'm convinced that a similar set of considerations gave us the system in ARS MAGICA but that it's buried so deep in the history of the game and the flavour text of the setting that you'd have a hard job making sense of it now.







(1) What it said on his business cards in memory of the claim of Henry V.

[Michele]

And will you tell us more about this?

[lederhosen]

[Reply to Phil Masters]

That is absolutely true. GURPS Thaumatology has a framework for verb-noun syntactic magic that treats verbs and nouns as skills, and does an excellent treatment of that concept.

This is conceptually different from a framework that treats verbs and nouns as advantages, which then works to separate power from skill. While the framework for realm based syntactic magic does separate power from skill, it defines power as authority rather than the more familiar system of power as a function of base effect, range, duration and scope.

I won't go into the advantages of separating power from skill, or the advantages of leveraging the familiar here, but in general I think it is better to do those things unless there is a compelling reason not to do those things.

[Michael Cule]

Well, I based the magic system on the Verb-Noun list on page 185 of THAUMATOLOGY combined with the Magical Scope Parameters on p 242. I added one Noun which was Gate. (Cost 5 Time to cast 5)

Unless you had learned the spell as a perk you needed to roll your skill in all the words used in the spell. With the perk you only rolled the lowest.

Spells were paid for in fatigue as usual but there was a special effect: magic when being cast or when active was infuriating to non-Mages, like the most horrid sensations and sounds you can imagine. Within range of magic people formed spontaneous lynch mobs to kill the mage. For non-Mages that was (Total energy cost) squared in yards from the mage.

Eventually they figured out a method of muting the effect but much of their research had to be done a long way from people. Never did figure out a way to make Gates tolerable to the non-gifted though

The Decans listed on p 248 were present as spirits that possessed suitable Mage 3 characters including the player characters and such historical notables as:

Nell Gwynn

Titus Oates

William Chaffinch (King Charles' 'pimpmaster general' and also in my game his spy chief)

Aphra Benn

King Louis XiV

La Voisin a noted witch of the French court

and others more obscure and mostly fictional.

They gave the people possessed by them a bonus in casting all magic within their area of effect and the chance to speak the name of the Decan and trigger a wild release of the Decans magical power. Only to be used in emergencies since the energy cost was enough to certainly knock you out and might be enough to kill you. And the effect on non-magi was something ferocious for miles around.

They were managing the research to mute the irritating effect of magic and discovering the magical effects of wands and similar aids when the campaign collapsed.

The following was the oath they came up with at their founding international conference:

I (NAME) hereby swear to The Council of Magic allegiance and obedience governing my use of magic. I shall aid those who swear to this oath to grow in the knowledge and use of magic.

Lest the wrath and hatred of those without magic fall upon me and my colleagues I promise that I will not use my gifts to oppress them, that I will not seek to rule them by the right or the might of my magic and that I will live among them obeying all just laws of the peoples I dwell among.

I shall not attack my fellow magi by any means nor those who have accepted my fellows’ protection. I understand that each of the Thirty Six may, once in their lives, challenge another of the Council to a feud to the death without blame under the laws of the Council provided it is done without harm to others.

I shall not practice diabolism nor other arts that the Council may condemn as unclean. I shall follow the standards laid down by the Council for the professional practice of magic.

I shall not use my magic for military service unless the Council shall permit.

I shall refer all disputes between myself and other magi to the Council for judgement by its laws and accept its judgement. I shall accept the judgement of the Council’s courts in complaints against me by those without magic.

I shall keep secret those matters the Council holds secret. I shall not keep secret from my colleagues anything that might endanger the Council or mankind in general.

I shall not train any in the Arts of Magic unless they shall first swear to abide by this oath. I shall care for and protect my pupils while they are under my instruction and see that they are trained to the best of my ability before I release them. I shall be responsible for their behaviour while they are under my care and discipline them in accordance with the codes of the Council.

All this I swear by those things I hold most sacred.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Note that GURPS Thaumatology has whole sections on things like Verb-Noun Syntactic Magic and the Stuff of Raw Magic. Not that my personal gaming and writing history is at all relevant here.

It is to your fans. I like your Verb-Noun system because, like Ars Magica, different groups of mages can have different Nouns and Verbs giving them different limits and strengths.

[dataweaver]

Originally Posted by lederhosen

[Reply to Phil Masters]

That is absolutely true. GURPS Thaumatology has a framework for verb-noun syntactic magic that treats verbs and nouns as skills, and does an excellent treatment of that concept.

This is conceptually different from a framework that treats verbs and nouns as advantages, which then works to separate power from skill. While the framework for realm based syntactic magic does separate power from skill, it defines power as authority rather than the more familiar system of power as a function of base effect, range, duration and scope.

I won't go into the advantages of separating power from skill, or the advantages of leveraging the familiar here, but in general I think it is better to do those things unless there is a compelling reason not to do those things.

You might want to steal some ideas from Alternative Realm Magic. In particular, I have an option in there designed specifically for Realms that represent how much you can do instead of what sorts of things you can do. I was designing it with the intent of replicating GURPS 3e's approach to Psionics, but in a more generally applicable way.

In particular, look at the Realm Magic as Alternative to Powers section, and the Choose Your Own Progression part right near the end of it.

[Ultraviolet]

Being a long time Ars Magica player, and really deep into the system and setting, as well as a GURPS veteran, I see some fundamental differences that need attention if GURPS is to used for the system.

For one, the Techniques and Forms need to follow a specific range of values, to fit togetehr with the spell level guidelines and actual spell levels - unless that is to be re-written.

Another thing is that where GURPS uses 'skills based on characteristics, and a roll-under mechanic', Ars Magica uses 'ability + characteristic + die versus Ease Factor'. And GURPS uses open-ended die rolls (for some situations) and GURPS handles that differently with Critical Success

So the range and values of GURPS skill levels for magic and spell will be relative to the magus' IQ, which is contrary to Ars Magica.

That being said, I'm sure GURPS can be used as the platform for running a Mythic Europe/Order of Hermes saga.

If it were me, I'd use the numbers of Ars Magica guidelines and spel lists as is, and reverse engineer from that. Those numbers are beyond the skill ranges of GURPS.
I would have Arts be bought as Advantages and using the pyramid scale (e.g 1 = 1, 2= 1+2, 3= 1+2+3 etc). But I would need to look at how many points magus characters should be built from.
When casting spells, or performing spontaneous magic, I would not do that as skills, but rather add the Arts, Technique + Form, into a casting total. I'm not sure how to add a random element here, perhaps something related to HT (since Ars Magica uses Stamina for spell casting!).
And when you've invented a spell, it's a binary thing and you know it. So perhaps list it as an Advantage/Perk?
But furtehr training - known in ArM as Spell Mastery - could be learned as a skill, propably HT based. When casting the spell you could roll the Mastery Skill, and add the margin of success to the spell casting total. And I'd use the realative skill level to add the Mastery options like Multicasting, Fast-casting etc.
And the way casting total relates to spell level determines Penetration, and those numbers need to fit.

All non-magical things I'd do as skills just as standard GURPS, I don't think that causes any problems.

Parma Magica I'm not sure how to do, but it needs to mesh with the ranges of casting totals and spell levels. I think it needs to be an Advantage, with pyramid cost like the Arts, with Resistance calculated as Parma Magica x5, like in ArM.

And after some thinking, I'm sure I would never do this!
I like Ars Magica, and will continue to use and support that product.
And I also like GURPS for everything else.

[lederhosen]

[Reply to Ultraviolet]

If it were me, I'd use the numbers of Ars Magica guidelines and spell lists as is, and reverse engineer from that... I would have Arts be bought as Advantages and using the pyramid scale (e.g 1 = 1, 2= 1+2, 3= 1+2+3 etc)...

That is exactly what I did. I created an advantage called the Arts and gave 50 points to spend on the pyramid scale for every 10 points spent on the advantage. As an example, spending 30 points on the advantage gave 150 points to spend on the pyramid scale, analogous to a starting character.

When casting spells, or performing spontaneous magic, I would not do that as skills, but rather add the Arts, Technique + Form, into a casting total...

I separated the strength or level of the spell from casting skill altogether. Your scores in the Arts determines the level of spell that you can cast and the fatigue cost. This results is slightly lower spell levels as compared to Ars Magica since IQ and Magic Theory do not factor into things.

Casting skill is simply whether or not you can perform the task successfully in your current circumstances (bad footing, avoiding attacks, etc.). It is a single skill that applies to all spells, so it can't be responsible for things such as reducing fatigue or it becomes too powerful for a skill.

And when you've invented a spell, it's a binary thing and you know it. So perhaps list it as an Advantage/Perk...

Formulaic spells are treated as an Alternative Abilities of the Arts, costing level x level / 100 points, rounding up. Learning a level 10 spell is 1 point, while learning a level 40 spell is 16 points. This is always very close to 1/5 of what is required to be spent on the Arts in order to learn that spell.

For example, to learn Pilum of Fire (CrIg 20) costs 4 points. Getting a score of 20 in Creo Ignem would cost at least 110 points on the pyramid scale, or 22 character points (as each point spent on the Arts gives you 5 points to spend on the pyramid scale).

But further training -- known in ArM as Spell Mastery -- could be learned as a skill...

Spell Masteries are essentially buying off limitations that normally always apply to spells, and making an exception for this particular formulaic spell. This is around a 25% increase in cost per 5% of limitations when going from an 80% to 75% discount.

For example, Quiet Casting is essentially removing the limitation Requires Incantations (-10%). Spending 25% of the cost of the spell halves the penalty for casting silently and spending 50% eliminates the penalty altogether.

The rule in my campaign was that you could only take one spell mastery for every 5 levels your Arts score exceeded the level of the spell. If your Arts score in Creo Ignem was 30 and you had Pilum of Fire (CrIg 20) as a formulaic spell, you could buy off 10% of limitations. This was to ensure the Alternative Ability did not exceed 1/5 of the amount spent in the Arts.

Parma Magica I'm not sure how to do, but it needs to mesh with the ranges of casting totals and spell levels. I think it needs to be an Advantage...

Parma Magica was implemented as a leveled advantage that conferred improved magic resistance. There was no Form bonus as it needed to be its own ability, that could always be on (at least until the next sunrise or sunset). It was actually implemented as an advantage (improved magic resistance for self) with an Alternative Ability (improved magic resistance for a group at half resists).

And after some thinking, I'm sure I would never do this...

It definitely was not Ars Magica. What it was, was a surprisingly workable system within GURPS.