GURPS Magic Flavor

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Question? Are there any martial arts, real or fictional, that focus mainly on the problems of working as a functional team?

There are several pages of stuff in Tactical Shooting (p20-25) about this. They are largely about who moves when and in which direction, which GURPS doesn't make into skill rolls, so they don't fit the Martial Arts framework. Players also tend to want to do stuff individually.

[davidtmoore]

There is also the Teamwork perk, which gives the PCs combat bonuses if they work together...

[doulos05]

Originally Posted by davidtmoore

There is also the Teamwork perk, which gives the PCs combat bonuses if they work together...

This and shield wall training are the two game-mechanical expressings of what you're asking about (at least those two come to mind). But most military martial arts emphasize, to greater or lesser degree, teamwork and coordinating action on the battlefield.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by davidtmoore

There is also the Teamwork perk, which gives the PCs combat bonuses if they work together...

The Teamwork Perk would be vital to any system of teaching Battle Mages and Warriors to work as a team. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by johndallman

There are several pages of stuff in Tactical Shooting (p20-25) about this. They are largely about who moves when and in which direction, which GURPS doesn't make into skill rolls, so they don't fit the Martial Arts framework. Players also tend to want to do stuff individually.

Would any of this info be useful to someone working out a system for Mages and conventional warriors working as a team? Would even the framework provide useful pointers?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Would any of this info be useful to someone working out a system for Mages and conventional warriors working as a team? Would even the framework provide useful pointers?

Well, it's mostly about how to use and deal with cover when you're armed with deadly ranged attacks that are quick to activate. Spell casting is generally a lot slower (a whole second) than firing a crossbow, and warriors can generally carry a lot more armour than magicians, so the translations of these tactics will be mostly about the warriors. The obvious role of magicians in this kind of fighting is to remove or negate cover and barriers.

So I'd guess it would be useful: not so much as something to directly translate as a set of example problems to test your ideas against.

[doulos05]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Would any of this info be useful to someone working out a system for Mages and conventional warriors working as a team? Would even the framework provide useful pointers?

It seems to me the most useful point of reference would be pike and shot formations. Early gunpowder weapons are similar to magic attack spells. High damage, but long reload/recharge times. Depending on how long it takes mages to recharge themselves, you'd vary the ratio from 25%/75% pikes to mages to 75%/25%. More downtime your mages need, the more mages you need to maintain your base of fire.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by Gnome

In my current long-running campaign, I wanted to restrict generalism without putting insane amounts of work into creating Magical Styles, so I simply decided that each college of magic is its own style.

I have considered only allowing one-college Magery in the past, as an even blunter instrument.

[simply Nathan]

Originally Posted by martinl

I have considered only allowing one-college Magery in the past, as an even blunter instrument.

Would you allow someone to buy two separate one-college mageries to get, say, Healing and Light or Plant and Fire? I can see up to three colleges being workable at those prices, as much as I'd grumble about being made to pay through the nose, and four happens to be about as many as my character concepts have ever called for.

[ericthered]

unless of course youwhat to make a gate mage or a meta magic mage. I suppose you can just pay the unusual background to not have the prereqs though.