Help me Brainstorm! [Powers]

[Mgellis]

Originally Posted by Bookman

My kids (8 and 10) asked if I would run some role-playing games for them while we are home this summer, and in talking about what they would enjoy doing we came up with the following vague idea.

My daughter, 10, loves the Harry Potter books and likes the idea of being students in a school that teaches "magic". It makes sense, and playing students with the kinds of relationships young people have is doable for both kids. So that's good.

My son, 8, wants fighting. <grin>

So, the idea that is forming in my head is a kind of cross between a fencing salle and Hogwarts. The magic would not be based on GURPS magic, rather I'd like for it to be telekinesis based. I think that the two of them can draw some inspiration for what they can do from the way swordplay is shown in Star Wars.

I'm imagining a world where the ruling class these powers, but the common people do not. The powers would be sufficient to allow PCs to face cinematic odds with swords without just having high skill and being able to use complex combat options. The kids characters would be young nobles sent for instruction, allowing some non-lethal fighting and learning how to use their powers, before thrusting them into some kind of adventure that no one expects kids to be able to solve.

So, what ideas does anyone have for structuring the Power? It would be advantage based (though probably based on Alternate Attacks). Some ideas that occur to me are:

• Innate Attack, perhaps like the TK projected pebbles from Eragon.
• Damage Reduction of some kind. A Force Field would work, but perhaps something more like an active defense (force block or something - not sure how to build this off the top of my head).
• Force Shove (a la Star Wars)
• Something to let them fall from a height (fun with defenestration!)
• Maybe a grapple, but that opens up a lot of complexity in the fighting that I would rather avoid. Perhaps a "grab and hold" power is something that advanced practicioners (i.e. NPCs) can do.

I don't imagine that the power allows for fine manipulation.

I welcome people's ideas on the powers and the setting. This is a brand new idea (like 10 minutes ago), so I haven't thought through it much at all. If anyone has run a rules-light roll-and-shout style swashbuckling game and has some tips for streamlining combat (while still making it fun), let me know.

Thanks in advance to all who reply.

First idea...with kids of eight and ten, keep the magic system SIMPLE. (This is a good reason to avoid the standard spellcasting system.) Maybe just use the sample abilities listed in GURPS Powers; a person might only know a couple of spells, but they're very powerful. The abilities all have the Magical, -10% modifier, and perhaps also the Requires incantations, -10% modifier.

[Captain-Captain]

GURPS Power Ups 1: Imbuements might be useful here. It allows you to add enhancement effects and other things to otherwise normal attacks. A lot of the effects you're looking for might lie there.

[Nymdok]

If I were to do it for children of those ages Id break it down by magic type. NOte that below when I say wand, a wizards sword might be his wand or the wand might be buit into the hilt requiring a grip change to use wand magic.

Potions - Useful for nearly anythig, but take take time and forewarnign to be effective, and not usualy as powerful. Use alchemy as Written.

Wand Magic - One or two word incantations that have an instantaneous effect when the wand is pointed. Limited use(Costs Fatigue) but always available. The wand is required. Use standard powers/advantages write ups.

Spell Magic - Long winded and complex verbal components combined with intricate hand gestures and maybe some small portable components. Cost fatigue but not as much as Wand magic. Wand not required. ONLY pick th e spells from GURPS magic that you want to use.

From there you simply pick a set of powers, and tie them to the magic type.

Lets take a few and see if we can flesh them out a little bit.
Expelliamos
Potion - As for Concussion grenade, does knock back only.
Wand - Innate Attack, KnockBack Only, Costs Fatigue.
Spell - Not available

Expecto Petronum
Potion : One dose of this potion is enough to cover a circle of 1 hex size. Those inside the circle (not more than 2 humans) recieve +2 to will rolls to resist spells, 10 dr (Ablative for the area, both directions). Note that mlultiple doses can be used for larger areas. the height of its protection is 6', tall people may have to duck.

Wand: This wand spell is dr5 force field that appears in front of the casters wand. Its duration is instantaneous and costs 4FP. For multiple attacks, it must be used several times.

Spell: covering a 3 hex radius, this spell requires a solid glass marble as a mterial component although a solid diamond would grant bonuses. Anyone in the radius gets dr15 in the area to all attacks and will bonus of +4 versus all spells. This is for all spells into and out of the dome. The oter shell is impenatrable except for creatures moving at move 1 (or less).


Varying the magic like this allows more variance in the charachters. Under the format the way you have it written, most of the charachters will have High DX, Will and FP. This way, the Wand Magic Gets will and DX, The Poition magic gets IQ and the spell guy gets IQ and FP.

[Kuroshima]

Sincerely go for imbuements with limited skill selection for the inborn powers. They simply look cool, and since you're only allowing them 1-4 skills, it ought to tune down the complexity.

You could also have magically based TK, check the GURPS Psionic Powers for excellent, ready to play writeups. As for the grapple thing, binding is your friend.

[rcarter]

maybe your kids would enjoy playing in an ayn rand flavored rpg?

[Figleaf23]

This is one of the (very) rare situations that I think would actually be ideal for using a selected list of GURPS Magic spells rather than Powers. They would allow more customization, and perhaps feel closer to the Potter trope. Make a short list (maybe 20) of spells taught in the fencing academy (which therefore focus on stuff that helps swashbuckling) and give them Latinesque names. Consider the Body Control college, movement college, some blocking spells and the like.

That said, regarding your original list, mechanics wise:

-"Innate Attack, perhaps like the TK projected pebbles from Eragon."

Regular TK power will cover this, you might want to add a skill requirement or refinement though.

-"Damage Reduction of some kind. A Force Field would work, but perhaps something more like an active defense (force block or something - not sure how to build this off the top of my head)."

If you're okay with it being an active defense, the rules on "power blocks" will probably already cover this use of TK.


-"Force Shove (a la Star Wars)"

Regular TK would do this for you too.

-"Something to let them fall from a height (fun with defenestration!)"

Sufficient TK power will cover this too.

"Maybe a grapple, but that opens up a lot of complexity in the fighting that I would rather avoid. Perhaps a "grab and hold" power is something that advanced practicioners (i.e. NPCs) can do."

The Binding Advantage has all the necessary mods available to build that.

[hari]

There were defensive imbuements in one of the recent Pyramids as well. Those might be helpful. Otherwise, yeah, my first thought was Psychic Powers (I'm fiending to get my hands on it still) and imbuements.

Do you have any ideas for an adventure for them?

[mehrkat]

I read three times "Re: Help me Banestorm [Powers]" :)

However, I ran a game for my son where I stapled Harry Potter, the Tortall Books from Tamora Pierce and Mercedes Lackey Valdamar novels with maybe a small inspiration from Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels.

Essential elements:
1. There were paths of study:
a. mages (the people who could "create spells" basically magical powers based on focused will but once you create an effect you have to make a new one to get a new but similar effect)
b. healers college -- a group who had body manipulation abilities including healing and some rather extreme abilities to manipulate their physical being (give themselves physical extras)
c academics -- basically someone studying a path of knowledge like architecture or history.
d. warrior path -- training to be a warrior and some tactician for a group of warriors.

2. Each student had a spell cast on them that provided them a familiar from a group of animals. The familiar is fairly smart and tends to see things from an outside perspective.

3 The school purposefully gave each a small amount of cross training forcing interaction with others on the other path.

4. The school was split into houses (literally where they lived) but they all ate communally. There was a certain amount of rivalry between the houses.

Two things you have to allow fast advancement to get the Harry Potter feel and the powers are expensive often for what they actually do so the characters will tend to have a lot of points.

I would really like to make this the beginning of a group of adventurers some day starting them out as talented children going to the school.

[Not another shrubbery]

Psionic Powers strikes me as a good solution, although my first thought was to just make a short list of appropriate spells from Magic.

I would never use ‘em for my own game, but I would be interested in hearing how it worked out for you if you decided to use Imbuements.

[Brandy]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

Psionic Powers strikes me as a good solution, although my first thought was to just make a short list of appropriate spells from Magic.

I bought Psionic Powers (and a couple of other titles I'd been putting off -- Mass Combat and Power-Ups 2) and it is a great fit. Good book.

I would never use ‘em for my own game, but I would be interested in hearing how it worked out for you if you decided to use Imbuements.

I was really off-put by Imbuements because of the extra die-rolls they create. I haven't really given them a chance, but I probably should.