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Old 06-12-2020, 02:58 PM   #1
Jinumon
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Default [THM] Book/Path: Energy Accumulation to Effect Shaping

Hey all,

So I'm a big fan of Book/Path Magic as it's presented in GURPS Thaumatology, but feel like I need a larger selection of rituals to make it a truly viable option for players. I feel like I have a pretty solid method for estimating the Energy Cost when using Energy Accumulation, but would also like to be able to use Effect Shaping.

Has anyone figured out a decent conversion for Energy Accumulation to Effect Shaping in standard Book/Path Magic?

I understand that lower energy rituals generally have shorter cast times and lower default penalties, but I don't really have any idea how to assign specific penalties or cast times. Any assistance would be greatly greatly appreciated.

Jinumon
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Old 06-12-2020, 03:12 PM   #2
Mr_Sandman
 
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Default Re: [THM] Book/Path: Energy Accumulation to Effect Shaping

Pyramid #3/66 "The Laws of Magic" has an article on alternative Ritual Path Magic that includes guidelines on changing it from energy accumulating to effect shaping. Effect shaping is also used in Dungeon Fantasy 19 - Incantation Magic. Either of those might be a place to look for guidelines when trying to convert a Path/Book ritual from energy accumulating to effect shaping.
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Old 06-12-2020, 03:40 PM   #3
Jinumon
 
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Default Re: [THM] Book/Path: Energy Accumulation to Effect Shaping

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr_Sandman View Post
Pyramid #3/66 "The Laws of Magic" has an article on alternative Ritual Path Magic that includes guidelines on changing it from energy accumulating to effect shaping. Effect shaping is also used in Dungeon Fantasy 19 - Incantation Magic. Either of those might be a place to look for guidelines when trying to convert a Path/Book ritual from energy accumulating to effect shaping.
I've looked at those, but both determine cast time based on the number of Effects/Greater Effects, which seems to generally indicate a sense of the ritual's complexity. Without Effects or Greater Effects (I'm not using RPM to build the rituals) I don't know how to assign an appropriate cast time.

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Old 06-12-2020, 04:26 PM   #4
Gef
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
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Default Re: [THM] Book/Path: Energy Accumulation to Effect Shaping

Hi Jinumon,

Let me take this opportunity to pimp my Magic Vegas setting in this thread. There are probably multiple ideas you can mine including the Path of Heroes, list of spirits, and maybe the Skepticism mechanic.

I use selected spells from GURPS magic, the relevant section is post 7 in the thread:

"To expand the repertoire from GURPS Thaumatology, some new rituals are based on spells from GURPS Magic. These take at least 10 minutes with base penalty equal to prerequisite count (minimum -1 per 5 energy cost), subject to the usual rules for rituals instead of spells, for instance Sunbolt takes the Damage parameter but requires no Innate Attack skill. Effect levels require margin of success in multiples of the base energy cost of the corresponding spell."

The spells in question are listed in posts 14 and 15.

Now, more than a year after posting that thread, I'm only just getting the opportunity to start a campaign, but I've done a lot of solo scenarios to prep, and I'm pretty happy with the conversion. It does lead to some spells having extreme difficulty modifiers, up to -40 to open a gate to an Otherworld, meaning that you'd typically need an expert magician to lead the ritual with the help of 2 dozen fellow magicians of the same tradition. Again, I'm actually happy with that result.

Energy Accumulation worked fine in its original home, Castle Falkenstein, using a deck of cards. The mechanic of a series of die rolls to accumulate energy is tedious and markedly changes the odds of crit fail. I only ever played around with it enough to find out that I like Effect Shaping better, so I haven't worked on any conversions for it.

That said, rituals take between 10 to 60 minutes to cast, and have penalties averaging around -5, so if I were to ballpark it, assuming you have a source of rituals with Effect Shaping stats, I'd say first) estimate the energy a proficient wizard by your campaign's standard can accumulate on each roll; second) divide by energy needed to get the expected number of rolls; third) set that as the penalty; and fourth) multiply the penalty by -5 minutes to get the casting time. How does that work?

Last edited by Gef; 06-12-2020 at 04:41 PM.
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