Converting Shadowrun Magic to GURPS

[Jürgen Hubert]

Shadowrun has a great setting marred to a succession of frequently frustrating game systems. Therefore, I've always been tempted to simply port it over to GURPS - but considering the complexity of the system and the setting, this is not a trivial task.

For the purpose of this thread, I'd like to focus on the magic of Shadowrun. I don't necessarily want to do a 1:1 conversion of every magical power, but I do want to get the general flavor right.

Let's start with spell-based magic, leaving things like Initiation, adepts, metamagic, different schools of magic and so forth for later. Before we tackle individual spells, I'd like to establish a list of the general "rules" of Shadowrun spells.

- Each spell costs the same effort to learn, and there are no prerequisites.

- Spells are primarily balanced by how fatiguing they are.

- Spells can be cast at different "Force" levels. The higher the Force, the more potent the effect - but the more fatiguing the spell will end up being.

- More skilled spellcasters will be able to generate more powerful effects even with the same Force.

- More potent spellcasters will generate more powerful effects, and their potency determines whether the spell is merely fatiguing or actively damages them.

- Low-Force spells are hard to detect, while high-Force spells are easy to detect.

- Strong-willed spellcasters will end up being less fatigued by spells than weak-willed ones.

- Apart from ritual magic (a topic for later), spells are cast instantaneously (i.e. a single "Concentrate" action). The only exceptions are spells which cause a permanent physical alteration.

- For permanent physical alterations which are not directly damaging, artificial objects are harder to change than simple, "natural" objects. Cybernetic and other implants count as "artificial" and make it more difficult to cast such spells (such as healing spells) on their owners.

- Spell ranges are Self, Touch, or Line of Sight (meaning purely optical Line of Sight). Detection spells can also have a range of tens or hundreds of meters. For area effects, the radius will be determined by the spell's Force.

- Spells that affect both living creatures and unliving objects are more fatiguing than spells that merely affect living creatures.



What are your thoughts so far?