Quote:
Originally Posted by momothefiddler
I guess I'd just really like a treatment of what can be done without Altered Traits. Like how T:RPM discusses what Lesser and Greater effects can do - I want to know what they can do without extra spell effects so I have some way of knowing which effects need to be added and which are redundant. Like, Lesser Strengthen Body "can improve someone’s physical attributes or secondary characteristics by up to about 30% (rounded up)". I presume that requires Altered Traits. I suppose it's too late now, and it would have added a lot of extra wordcount, but it might have been nice to have something more like "Lesser Strengthen Body can __________. With the addition of Bestows a Bonus, it can ______________ and with Altered Traits it can _________________." or something similar. Because you reference the things the effects can do by themselves and I have no clue what those things are.
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It would have added a HUGE amount of word count. I think a lot of
GURPSers get hung up on RPM because it is a very Rules Zero system (so is
GURPS itself, but don't tell some folks that - they get pissy). Yes, RPM has a framwork, yes it has a very defined set of what it cannot and can do...and yet it doesn't. That's the problem with all freeform magic systems, and to a larger degree magic systems in general. It's like the old saying "Fast, Cheap, or Good. Pick Two." Except in this instance it's "Coverage, Flexibility, Balanced. Pick Two." RPM is both flexible and balanced, but the edge cases are not covered in any high degree. If I were to write a theoretical "
GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic Companion" this is one of the things I would cover in some detail. But even with such detail there would still be things I couldn't go into or cover and the GM would be in the same position. The best way to learn what is possible and impossible is to question and experiment. That's how I learned.