07-20-2017, 12:59 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dobbstown Sane Asylum
|
Pyramid #3/105: Cinematic Magic
In many settings, magic is an invisible, mysterious force -- something that underpins reality but never steps to the forefront -- which mages learn to manipulate to achieve subtle changes to reality. This isn't about that kind of magic. When you're ready to pull off some over-the-top rituals . . . when you're ready to dive headfirst into the cosmic pool of forbidden knowledge . . . when you're ready to kick butt and take names, you're ready for Pyramid #3/105: Cinematic Magic.
Store Link: http://www.warehouse23.com/products/SJG37-2705
__________________
Reverend Pee Kitty of the Order Malkavian-Dobbsian (Twitter) (LJ) MyGURPS: My house rules and GURPS resources.
#SJGamesLive: I answered questions about GURPS After the End and more! {Watch Video} - {Read Transcript} |
07-20-2017, 01:05 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dobbstown Sane Asylum
|
Re: Pyramid #3/105: Cinematic Magic
BTW, if anyone spots any errors or inconsistencies, blame me before blaming the authors. I made some last-minute revisions across several articles for better compatibility with the core rules.
__________________
Reverend Pee Kitty of the Order Malkavian-Dobbsian (Twitter) (LJ) MyGURPS: My house rules and GURPS resources.
#SJGamesLive: I answered questions about GURPS After the End and more! {Watch Video} - {Read Transcript} |
07-20-2017, 03:50 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
|
Re: Pyramid #3/105: Cinematic Magic
Fitting theo-necromancy into a Discworld RPG campaign is left as an exercise. Shouldn't actually be too hard.
__________________
-- Phil Masters My Home Page. My Self-Publications: On Warehouse 23 and On DriveThruRPG. |
07-20-2017, 07:27 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
|
Re: Pyramid #3/105: Cinematic Magic
Some designer's notes for my article.
__________________
My Twitter My w23 Stuff My Blog Latest GURPS Book: Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Thieves Latest TFT Book: The Sunken Library Become a Patron! |
07-21-2017, 05:20 AM | #5 |
World's Worst Detective
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Columbus, Ohio
|
Re: Pyramid #3/105: Cinematic Magic
Chi Sorcery is beautiful and the time-limited attribute rolls make me so happy. It also looks like a good basis for emulating something like Incantation Magic from DF as powers. But, for something like that, I have a question. Can you increase the time for the time-limited attribute rolls? If I take Immediate Preparation Required, 10 minutes, -45%, does that make the time-limited attribute roll from -10 for 10 minutes to -0 for 320 minutes? Or do I prepare for a minute and then use the time-limited roll? Because I'd like to make the time-limited roll work with longer prep time.
__________________
Raekai's links: My blog about conlanging, GURPS, and other stuff! — Using Knowing Your Own Strength with Conditional Injury Simulating multiple attacks Wildcard Power Pool: a flexible magic/powers system Magic to RPM complete conversion v2 (incomplete) Perussinexian Magic 2 (outdated) |
07-21-2017, 07:01 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Feb 2014
|
Re: Pyramid #3/105: Cinematic Magic
There's a lot of interesting ideas in this issue, and I'll post some reactions in a bit. On my initial read, there are some things that are not clear:
1) On page 4, I can't figure out the math for the extra effort example. Professor Arcana spends 5 extra FP (which I assume is five extra levels, since it says on top of the normal cost and the +1 FP for extra effort). If there is a penalty of -4 per extra level, shouldn't the final roll be at -20 instead of -12? 2) For Chi Sorcery, I'm curious why there is a time delay for improvisation (page 13, one min per 25 points full cost). That makes most the improvisation useless in a combat context. Considering that most of the abilities are either combat enhancements or would provide substantial bonuses in combat situations, the time delay seems to neuter the value of improvisation. 3) I was thrown for a loop by Lights! Camera! Magic!'s idea that both Magical Hero and Mundane Hero are zero point traits. Mundane Hero makes sense, but Magical Hero seems like a straightforward violation of the "no modifiers can reduce an advantage below -80% cost" rule, and it's not clear why that's worth violating. Essentially, Magical Hero is buying impulse buys with a limitation that they can't be used directly against mundane heroes (an accessibility limitation, which I would put in the -50% range depending on how frequent Magical Heroes are and how generous the GM is in interpreting indirect effects), and an additional magical power modifier of -10% or whatever. Why did it become a 0 point trait? 4) In terms of lore, the mechanics for Lights! Camera! Magic! seem backwards. The suggestion that the climatic fight is a consequence of heroes normally being able to get the effect they want and now having to grit it out without their magical aid makes sense if the archenemy in the climax cannot be affected by impulse buys (and vice versa: the archenemy can't affect the heroes). But, the archenemy is usually a Magical Hero: it would be bizarre for there to be Magical Heroes and then suddenly the final antagonist is a Mundane Hero. So that implies that the impulse buys should work against Mundane Heroes/Villains (everyone in the runup to the final conflict) but they shouldn't work in the final battle (against another Magical Hero/Villain). That's the exact opposite of the mechanics described in the article. Am I missing something? |
07-21-2017, 07:50 AM | #7 | ||
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Ottawa, ON, CA
|
Re: Pyramid #3/105: Cinematic Magic
Quote:
Quote:
I'm honestly not sure how this would play out in a long-term campaign or if I can envision shoehorning it into an existing game, but it's an interesting idea.
__________________
M2: Everything is true. GP: Even false things? M2: Even false things are true. GP: How can that be? M2: I don't know man, I didn't do it. |
||
07-21-2017, 10:23 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Feb 2014
|
Re: Pyramid #3/105: Cinematic Magic
Quote:
I guess that's a long way of saying that, if the goal is making impulse buys magically dependent, then the article really confuses the issue unnecessarily. If the goal is the show how this ability to magically buy success suddenly doesn't work in the climatic battle, then I still think my criticism of the mechanic as being backwards stands. |
|
07-21-2017, 11:13 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
|
Re: Pyramid #3/105: Cinematic Magic
First, general reactions - I'm very glad to get an article in this issue, because it's in very good company! Chi Sorcery is a great framework for powered martial arts. If I was running a game with them, it would be going in, no question. And with just a little tweaking, it would be excellent for doing a more elemental-themed set of martial arts powers too - Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra, or Naruto, both seem like they'd be naturals for this.
Theo-Necromancy is just a cool concept, and as usual, David Pulver delivers some excellent discussions on it and provides some cool adventure hooks. Gourmet Alchemy is a nifty idea, and I'm glad to see the framework for using Modular Abilities for magic effects being expanded again - the various modifiers to build the Elixers in here seem like they will be easy to tweak for other types of material magic as well. I haven't read the Random Thought Table yet, but it's always good, so I expect this one will be too. :-) The Appendix Z is a neat concept. I'm not sure I'd implement it in a game I ran - its central conceit seems to depend a bit too heavily on the final fight in an action adventure being one-on-one, and with a specific hero and villain combo, both of which are kind of hard to arrange in an RPG. But still, definitely an interesting idea! I wanted to thank PK for the rules tweaks he did on Super-Sorcery! He definitely improved things as far as I'm concerned, and caught a rather significant screw-up on my part that made the template a lot better. (For some reason, I had internalized the notion that Sorcerous Empowerment was actually 20 points per level, rather than 20 points for level 1, and 10 thereafter, which meant the Super-Sorcerer template ended up with several more levels of Sorcerous Empowerment than I originally gave it.) Quote:
|
|
07-21-2017, 11:36 AM | #10 | |
Join Date: Feb 2014
|
Re: Pyramid #3/105: Cinematic Magic
Quote:
I also assume that reading is wrong because the article says, "On top of Sunbolt’s normal cost and the +1 FP from using extra effort, she decides to spend 5 FP, with -12 to the roll." So, the 1 FP for extra effort is accounted for, and there is still 5 FP for 3 levels of extra effort = 1.67 FP per level - again a weird fractional value that seems wrong. …After about 10 minutes of re-reading this section and Sorcery, I figured it out. I needed a sentence earlier in the article's example saying Arcana wanted to raise the level of the spell by 15, which she accomplished by taking the skill penalty for 3 levels (of -12) and 5 extra FP. Without that sentence to frame the numbers, I was assuming that -12 was related to the 5 extra FP, instead of seeing them both as variables that Arcana was choosing to manipulate independently. As a note to the editor: I feel like this is a good example of where GURPS' editing can be improved. The way you worded the example was very concise word-wise, and it had all the information I needed to figure it out, but it was so compact that it was hard for me as a reader to follow the train of thought. As a player, I will be thinking: I want to do X. I have Y ability, and I my choices are A, B, and C. This example instead implied X at the very end, described Y, and listed A, B, and C without any elaboration or context. That made it really hard to parse, even though technically the answer was there all along. Last edited by philosophyguy; 07-21-2017 at 11:39 AM. Reason: Note to editor |
|
Tags |
pyramid, pyramid 3/105 |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|