[RPM] a collection of questions

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

I guess I'm talking about settings where magic is not so flexible - which I recognize isn't the intention of RPM, I just find it such a useful and interesting system that I try to squeeze it into every nook I can find. For folks who want to use RPM-style casting for settings with mostly-defined spell lists (such as AD&D, or the recent thread about using RPM with GURPS Magic's spell list) it makes sense that, while tweaking individual rituals is easy, casting new ones (ie, those not covered by a character's Grimoires or Ritual Mastery) is harder. In such a setting it might also make sense to have "basic" Grimoires that allow casting at no penalty, but also provide no bonus.

Ah-ha! I see what you're saying. I did this exact thing when running one of my campaigns. I transitioned over from the standard spell system to RPM (which is also when I did my own conversion of Magic spells to ritual path magic spells). At first, I only allowed rituals that duplicated existing spells, then I slowly allowed the PCs (and one in particular) to figure out that spells weren't as rote as they thought. Adding a Armor Disorder to Fireball, increasing the time of the Haste ritual and so on. I treated each "varied" spell as a Simple invention and "new" spells as Average (for 30 energy or less), Complex (for 30 to 150 energy), and Amazing (151 or more energy). It worked pretty well and eventually one new spell lead to the fracture of magical energy that enabled the use of free form spell casting.

Originally Posted by Langy

Yeah. That's basically a setting feature. I'd make it so you can only cast spells you have Ritual Mastery for or for which you have a Grimoire; there'd be no cost alteration required, I should think, unless some people can come up with rituals on-the-fly, in which case they should probably have an Unusual Background.

Pretty much this.

Originally Posted by JP42

Okay, I'll jump in with a question. Enchantments. The rules are clear, but not very flexible. They work under a set of assumptions about paying points for permanent ownership of magical items not of your own manufacture, and paying points (or the equivalent in training time, tricksy rules writers) to create your own.

How can this be modified, or does it need to be, to better suit a Dungeon Fantasy style of game where magic items are not rare and wondrous, but common and expected?

Difficulty. Permenant magic is hard in RPM and that's not a bug, that's a feature. I've got some irons in the fire for a treatise on the topic, so pay attention to Pyramid. :-)

Originally Posted by Humabout

I'll say it again: I'm convinced that the enchantment rules for Symbol Drawing can be adapted. I think it'd actually boil down to finding the right multiplier for energy cost and rolling from there. One of these days, I'll get around to doing an analysis of the differences in casting costs between Spells and similar Rituals. That should help determine the multiplier.

Then again, in a DF-style game, while magic items are common, players don't make them; they loot them. So you still don't need - and probably don't want - enchantment rules. But I get where you're coming from, nonetheless.

Possible. Difficult (I've looked at it before at your behest), but possible.