[RPM] Simulating AD&D 1st Edition Spells

[GameBuddah]

I just bought Ritual Path Magic about a week ago and I must say I love it. This is the magic system that GURPS should have shipped with as the default years ago. That being said, on reading the system, I got the feeling that you could do old school AD&D style magic with it. However, I can't seem to figure out how to work it.

Here's my thought. Many years ago, my fellow gamers and I were trying to make some since of the whole 'studying your spells' shtick that you had to do in AD&D. We kind of figured that you did a lot of pre-work, rituals, etc before hand, and the actual casting was just completing the spell. Since there was a limited number of rituals you could complete in a day, and the time was limited by the complexity, it made since.

When using RPM, could you do a gathering phase for say several spells back at your tower, and then a casting phase in the field? How would you accomplish this? I know you can do something similar with Charms, but I really would like to more closely emulate AD&D with RPM if possible.

Any help is appreciated.

[Diomedes]

That's basically what conditional rituals (including charms) are; you cast the ritual ahead of time, and trigger it when the situation warrants.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Diomedes

That's basically what conditional rituals (including charms) are; you cast the ritual ahead of time, and trigger it when the situation warrants.

Pretty much this. Just keep in mind that you can't have more than a single spell effect on at a time (One Greater Create Energy, one Lesser Create Energy, etc.). I'd say you could buy a perk that would let you increase this cap by one, but you would have to be specific. Stackable Spell (Lesser Create Energy) works, but not Stackable Spell (Create Energy).

[GameBuddah]

But could you make it work in such as way without gamemaster hand waving where the system had the same in-world game effects as an AD&D 1st edition spell caster?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by GameBuddah

But could you make it work in such as way without gamemaster hand waving where the system had the same in-world game effects as an AD&D 1st edition spell caster?

You're going to need to be specific as to exactly what you are trying to emulate.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by GameBuddah

But could you make it work in such as way without gamemaster hand waving where the system had the same in-world game effects as an AD&D 1st edition spell caster?

Those rules have enough scope for interpretation that I saw groups, back in the day, who had quite different ways of running them. You'll need to describe the actual mechanics you want.