GURPS M:tA

[dataweaver]

Right. The real touchstone of the Euthanatoi isn’t so much about death as it is about balancing the scales of karma.

[lugaid]

Well, now I feel like I have a better handle on their philosophies, but have lost any idea of their magic.

Perhaps I'll come back to this when I can present what I'm trying to do in a more coherent fashion. To me, it seems as though much of the discussion here has ended up moving the idea in a direction very different than I'd intended. I've been calling this other direction "simulating the WW game" when I describe it to myself, and that's not exactly what I was hoping to do. Since that's what more than one person seems to want to do, though, it is clear that I am failing at communicating my intention. Sadly, I think that any attempt to further elucidate my original intent will appear as being merely argumentative.

Anyway, given what I had originally thought and some of the changes in that thinking that develop from the excellent conversation here, I think I have enough. I can just remove the CoX and Euthanatos from what I work up. Thank you for all of your help.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

Right. The real touchstone of the Euthanatoi isn’t so much about death as it is about balancing the scales of karma.

Exactly. And they except that their backs are the pivot on which it will be balanced.

[Gef]

I agree with you lugaid, M:tA didn't do enough to differentiate the traditions. That said, I think that if I were to use the setting, I'd use a common system for all traditions but customize it for each one, much as Dataweaver suggested, probably with mandatory modifiers (mostly limitations) on their Realm Magic advantages.

However, I do have experience with mixing magic systems. In fact, the basic concept for my fantasy campaign was "Mix all the weird stuff, but without making it goofy like IOU."

I'm a bit behind, though; I haven't quite figured out how to work in all the ideas in Thaumatology. Still, I've got plenty.

The standard system is the magic associated with wizards, what most people think of as magic. It's famously tactical: Most of the spells take a moment to cast, just a word and a gesture. Ceremonial spells are possible, but they're mainly for enchantment: Making items which can cast a spell in but a moment.

Master wizards also use the system called "ritual magic" in 4e, though I hate the name because there's nothing inherently ritualistic about it. In my campaign, it's called "arcane" as in in secret, because nobody teaches it to foolish young apprentices. In addition to allowing a wizard to improvise any spell he can think of, it also uses the "threshold" system instead of fatigue.

A form of magic granted by a divine agency is also possible, Power Investiture, but for cosmological reasons, it's rare. Priests mostly use effect-shaping book magic (another awful name). It's strategic rather than tactical. Spells take a long time to cast but can be really powerful, cast over any distance with indefinite duration (using a fetish to maintain). Priests who cast a lot of spells are like hackers, using "social engineering" to get true names and hair samples.

Wannabe wizards without Magery can use Rune Magic or Words of Power, that is written or spoken syntactic magic. The spoken form is more powerful, but all the words are bang skills and the energy cost is higher. Mortals can bear the high cost, barely, if they don't overdo it, because again I use the threshold system. Syntactic magic is slower than standard, faster than book magic. It's more flexible than standard, too. While arcane is just as flexible in theory, it takes hefty penalties for complex spells, so there's a niche for syntactic casters.

One God grants Divine Favor, and another grants pact magic with spiritual distortion.

Some people have a magic gift that breaks the mold, doesn't even require mana. That's psionics.

Everybody knows about legendary warriors; what they don't know is that those warriors are a special kind of magician. They use the magic of motion, or kinemagic; notice how it kinda sounds like cinematic? Call it ki for short.

And then there's chaos mutation, which can do anything a super power can do. Dwarves can have elemental powers instead.

The Society of Geometers have found that when they contemplate the ideal shape, with understanding, they unlock powers of the hyper-intellect, including gadgeteer. What they do seems like magic to common folk.

Basically, it works. Yes, there are balance issues that are a work in progress. A fetish created by a priest can be a lot cheaper than a powerstone. So, maybe it should only work for priestly magic? That's no good, effect-shaping doesn't cost fatigue. I suppose I could use Energy Accumulation, maybe switch to RPM, but that version is more time-consuming in play. Basically, I rule that all the powers interact. Dispel Magic (standard system) and Dispel Ritual (priest magic) and Neutralize (psi power) and the imbuement Strike of Negation (ki power) all do the same thing.

You can easily make the case that Effect Shaping is the most powerful and kinemagic is the weakest, but a wizard is faster than a priest and a power blow is faster than a spell. Psi is expensive in points, but cheap in fatigue cost, and it's not obvious when in use. If players know what they're getting, going in, then the balance is close enough.