Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Spellbooks
 

How would you write one up as an example?

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Spellbooks
 

No the Well written is not sure thing. Sure it might be well comment, for the person who wrote it has meaning but unless you have the same personality and skill quirks, it might not be helpfully to you

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Spellbooks
 

Apprentices Wand (DR 1, HP 6) - 4 points
Magery +1 (DR 1, -20%; SM -5, -10%; Stealable using a contest of ST, -30%)

The apprentices wand is fragile, a 1 foot long pointer made of light wood. Weighs 1/2 lbs.


Junior Spellbook (DR 5, HP 7) - 2 points
Super Memorization: 1 point spell slot (DR 5, -15%; SM -4*, -15%; Stealable using a contest of ST, -30%, Spells only, -20%)

This is a big, solid tome with a hardwood cover. Weighs 5 lbs. Once the apprentice FINDS a spell in the spell book, a quick read imprints it in his memory (at a VERY basic level). Because the book can only impart one character point worth of spells, the Junior Spellbook only contains spells with no prerequisites.

* Book is 12"x12"x4" CORRECTION 9 1/2" x 7 1/4" x 2". Blocky enough to be effectively SM -4.

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Spellbooks
 

Hey, I almost can see here an excellent forum resource of Fantasy / Dungeon Fantasy crunchy and ready to play goodies.

Another "It Came from the Forums!" collection, but regarding other crunchy bits (mostly equipment) different than Kmunoz's forum monsters compilation.

For instance, "Power Items Ransacked from the Forums".

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Spellbooks
 

Yaeh i single point is what 200 or 400 hours of self study - that could be reading a big book - or it could be reading a short cryptic page from book with dozens of spells and think about it a lot or it could be arduously repeating some excercises detailed in a fev pages, ("Every morning you should snap your fingers 20 time think of candles and and flintstones - if you have a candle and flintstone it helps to look at them when doing it - then jump up and down and yel UMUMUMUMUMUFHUUSH on top of your lungs" point at some flammable materials - after doing this for a week or so you may set the flammable material on fire - continue doing it and you might later be able to set the fire by just concentrating and snapping your fingers..")

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Spellbooks
 

While "big book, lots of study" is a valid and fun model, I like to mix that up with things like spells as koans or obscure poetry (haiku is like that for me), where you have to sit around and think about it for ages until you get this "a-ha!" moment and learn the spell.

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Spellbooks
 

The intellection moment ;)

Some fleshed out example about how do you actually make that work inside the game would be great stuff...


Actually I think the "a-ha" achievement of the koan and haiku approach could be the pinnacle of typical Dungeon esoteric obstacles as puzzles, enigmas and riddles, being something different than straightforward mathematical calculations (1).

Very interesting.


(1) "The way of the koan is to break down logical tought, not promote it, for something beyond logic is involved." (Zen Buddhism: Belief and Practices, Merv Fowler)

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Spellbooks
 

I think it sounds very boring.

What about College-specific Magery with some kind of Gadget Limitation, and some kind of Takes Extra Time Limitation? It would be possible to get a total Limitation value of -80%, assuming that One-College alone is -40% and "any 3 Colleges" is -30%.

The idea is that the Wizard has his normal innate Magery, anywhere from 2-5 levels, which he uses during crisis situatons, but some spells, from some Colleges, are most often cast outside of combat, so it isn't really crippling to consult a tome of magic for such spells, and spend several minutes in order to get a bonus to the spells, of perhaps +1 or +2 or +3.

Divination and Information-style spells, for instance.

Such magic tomes would also make great keeping treasure.

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Spellbooks
 

Another take on it would be to forget about the notion of spell books, and instead have the book give a bonus to useful wizard skills such as Thaumatology, Occultism, a particular Hidden Lore, or even Hazardous Materials Handling (Magical) or Theology.

There are some rules for libraries and consulting books in "GURPS High Tech", but it ends up being quite heavy, so I think some variant of the Lighten spell might be in order.

Also perhaps a rule about how a Fine-quality library weighs less (fewer books, or maybe just one thick book, instead of half a shelf) because the material is of very high quality and superbly cross-indezed. And Very Fine-quality librariers weighing even less, to the point where they can often be single tomes and still give a skill roll bonus.

Such rules, for Fine and Very Fine libraries, would cause problem in any setting where printing presses exist (or can be invented by PCs), but for a low-tech setting where all books are hand-copied, it might not unbalance things.

Re: [Dungeon Fantasy] Spellbooks
 

I suspect that in a campaign using GURPS Magic, it'll be better if no character is allowed to have the highest level of Magery without Limitations.

Assuming a world maximum of 4 levels of Magery, all characters could be limited to 2 levels of full Magery. The last 2 levels have to be Limited in some way, although it can be in the form of One-College or Song Magery, or a Gadget Limitation, or an Accessibility Limitation.

That way, you get much more flavour and variety.


The same would work for a Dungeon Fantasy campaign, I think, except that of course the recommended Magery maximum is higher. 6 IIRC. So you could set a max on full Magery at 4 levels (or 3 if feeling stingy), and require the last 2 (or 3) levels to have some Limitation.

Something similar might also be done for the DF version of Clerical Power Investiture, and whatever it is Druids get (I don't remember), but I'm not sure how well that would work.