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white_dog · 01-17-2023, 02:20 AM

Hi all, I've been away from the GURPS system for a while, and I'm happy to see it's still got an active community. And it's still in its 4th edition! I'm so used to systems feeling like they need to update every couple of years and make everyone buy a bunch of new rulebooks and/or models (coughing in games workshop's direction) that GURPS feels like a really nice breath of fresh air, like it's made by enthusiasts, and not just a money spinning endeavour. Anyway....

I'm currently putting together a fairly traditional fantasy game and something that struck me with the rules as-written is that using FP to power spells didn't quite sit right with me. If you build a spellcasting character you'll want them to have a lot of mystic/arcane resources to draw upon, so buffing their health, or FP specifically would be the obvious route. But then you'd have a wizard who's super fit and healthy, and can run or hike for hours on end or whatever. Nothing wrong with that of course, no reason you couldn't have a really fit wizard, but I felt like there should be something separate. I browsed the Fantasy book but didn't quite find what I was looking for. I did see in the Magic book there was an option for FP that has the restriction of only being usable for spells at -10% cost but this wasn't quite working for me either - it did get me thinking though.

Here's what I've come up with; an additional character resource called Magic Points, or Mana points, or something like that. This starts at zero for each character, and you get a certain amount - 3 or 5 or something - for each IQ point over 10 you have. This can be used only to power spells, and certain spell-like/supernatural abilities other characters may have. Once drained to zero, MP cost starts to come off FP, then HP, like normal.

I'd love to know other people's thoughts, and I'm open to a suggestion of what increasing MP independent of IQ might cost in terms of character points. since it's like FP but less useful I suppose it might be 2 points per +/- or something like that.

01-17-2023, 02:20 AM	#1
white_dog Join Date: Jan 2023	A new spellcasting power resource Hi all, I've been away from the GURPS system for a while, and I'm happy to see it's still got an active community. And it's still in its 4th edition! I'm so used to systems feeling like they need to update every couple of years and make everyone buy a bunch of new rulebooks and/or models (coughing in games workshop's direction) that GURPS feels like a really nice breath of fresh air, like it's made by enthusiasts, and not just a money spinning endeavour. Anyway.... I'm currently putting together a fairly traditional fantasy game and something that struck me with the rules as-written is that using FP to power spells didn't quite sit right with me. If you build a spellcasting character you'll want them to have a lot of mystic/arcane resources to draw upon, so buffing their health, or FP specifically would be the obvious route. But then you'd have a wizard who's super fit and healthy, and can run or hike for hours on end or whatever. Nothing wrong with that of course, no reason you couldn't have a really fit wizard, but I felt like there should be something separate. I browsed the Fantasy book but didn't quite find what I was looking for. I did see in the Magic book there was an option for FP that has the restriction of only being usable for spells at -10% cost but this wasn't quite working for me either - it did get me thinking though. Here's what I've come up with; an additional character resource called Magic Points, or Mana points, or something like that. This starts at zero for each character, and you get a certain amount - 3 or 5 or something - for each IQ point over 10 you have. This can be used only to power spells, and certain spell-like/supernatural abilities other characters may have. Once drained to zero, MP cost starts to come off FP, then HP, like normal. I'd love to know other people's thoughts, and I'm open to a suggestion of what increasing MP independent of IQ might cost in terms of character points. since it's like FP but less useful I suppose it might be 2 points per +/- or something like that.