Re: GURPS MIDNIGHT Conversion
 

This world is under siege. Magic is illegal for everyone except the minions of the dark lord. It is still taught, much like the Irish taught thier native tongues to keep it alive, in secret, under pain of punishment. There is a level of training (you have to choose a feat). What does this represent? How was magic taught in the world of Midnight before the dark times fell.

I'll be getting the book back this weekend and we'll try to figure it out.

Re: GURPS MIDNIGHT Conversion
 

That makes sense. Actually, I was meaning to ask how the dangers of non-mage magic manifested ... do non-mages have higher critical failure rates or something similar? Or is that aspect mostly just flavor, with no real difference in the rules themselves?

Re: GURPS MIDNIGHT Conversion
 

That's what I get from what I've read so far ... it seems even to be a High Mana world, though the areas affected by the anti-mana stones would be lower in proportion to how close you were to the stone.

Re: GURPS MIDNIGHT Conversion
 

Flavor, I don't see game mechanic ramifications or prevention or inhibition for non-mages from learning/casting "half-baked magic".

So, no "dangers" per se.

There are some ancilliary consequences:

The book does recommend a 20 point Unusual Background and a "very good explanation" for a non-mage to know one-or-more (or many, I suppose) spells. And a huge unspecified negative reaction from proper witches and wizards if the non-mage casts a spell in their vicinity (magery allows witches/wizards to detect others with magery advantage).

Since Magery • 0 (in GURPS/4e) is 5 points...

(I presume G4's Magery • 0 is the analog to G3's "Second Sight" (CI43).)

Re: GURPS MIDNIGHT Conversion
 

Yeah, that would make non-mage casters a pretty rare breed, I'd imagine ... at least among PCs.

In 3e, since we used a variant on Umana (where mages have a threshold equal to Magery * IQ), non-mage casters needed an outside source of mana -- they had no ability to tap into the "ambient mana," so they had to use powerstones, or proper material components that contain mana (an adaptation of the Vis rules from Ars Magica). I imagine we'll preserve these rules in 3e ... we usually try out the default system for a while, but those aspects of magic haven't changed much in 4e.

For Midnight CS, I'm thinking that we just use the rules for a High Mana region. There aren't enough mages around to effectively "scorn" non-mage casters ... the Shadow's Legates do them one better and hunt all magic-users, so there are enough reasons not to practice magic already.

Re: GURPS MIDNIGHT Conversion
 

I've just created a Yahoo Group so we can work on this project. Anyone interested the group is at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/GURPS-Midnight/

Nothing there now, but together we can change that. This will allow us to trade ideas, take polls on how game rules should work, view playtest files and eventually allow us to provide a comprehensive PDF document for playing Midnight under GURPS 4e.

--Eric

Re: GURPS MIDNIGHT Conversion
 

Got my Midnight book back. I'm going to do some reading to delve into the world againand make notes which I will post on the Yahoo group.

Re: GURPS MIDNIGHT Conversion
 

My copy's on its way, and I've signed up for the Yahoo group. Still, I think once we start putting together stats, I'd like to toss them up here to see if we can get any feedback -- I've found the input from this board to be absolutely invaluable in my current campaign.

Re: GURPS MIDNIGHT Conversion
 

That'scool Iagree, but the Yahoo group can be a good place to store everything. I have a bunch of notes on magic I will post later.

Re: GURPS MIDNIGHT Conversion
 

Woohoo! My Midnight Core Book (and Crown of Shadows adventure) arrived today. I might not have time to do too much reading this week, but I'll post any thoughts as I have them.

First off, the magic system seems perfectly tailored to GURPS magic. The basis on a series of feats, and the fact that magic isn't tied to any one class (except Channellers, who are better at it by virtue of bonus feats) makes it very much like Magery 0++. I'm haven't finished reading about it, but it seems to me that each School of Magic (i.e. GURPS College) is a seperate feat ... so maybe each College that a mage can learn requires a 5-point Unusual Background?