Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnome
I'm generally of the opinion that a PC should be able to improve almost anything, because it's more fun to advance your character without being hamstrung by "realism"--after all, it's fantasy, right?
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The idea of magery as a special gift which only some people have is also yucky (like "obviously aristocrats are better at everything than commoners" yuck or "person from my culture is shipwrecked in a distant land and soon does everything better than the natives because he is from my cultures" yuck), and I am having trouble thinking of stories where magic works that way. Making it specifically genetic is even more mid-20th-century-yuck. And does it make for better stories? You don't need it to tell stories about the person with potential in humble surroundings, or the person who is expected to do more than he or she is capable of.
I think GURPS Thaumatology has a list, but magery could be:
- a Talent (and Dexterity and Intelligence are talents too!)
- an initiation (Magery 0 is an obvious candidate, but maybe to use Magery 2 spells you need a pact with greater spirits, and Magery 3 archangels)
- a metaphysical attribute of people in a setting (maybe people's star sign determines which magic they can use?)
- ...