Setting building help with intrigue and sci-fi

[weby]

Originally Posted by Arith Winterfell

When I mentioned psionics I was mostly talking about mind manipulation/mind control, mind reading, and some telekinesis. But generally if I lean toward magic, I'd want to make it subtle and hidden (so no fireballs, but very possibly manipulation of chance, transmutation of substances, and mind control/manipulation/reading powers).

For subtle magic none of the GURPS ready systems works as such directly.

Using a powers based system with very limited allowed things and harsh requirements for spell casting, particularly long preparation/casting times will force the casters to work in secret. I have been working on a simplified such a system for a while.

An excerpt from the intro in the current version

Originally Posted by Creating Historical Spells With Powers

Many of the magic systems in historical traditions and literature have described spells as being very difficult to cast and yet very subtle in effect. In fact often the effect is so subtle that you cannot even know if it actually happened. That is in high contrast to typical high fantasy spells and magic effects that create flashy instant effects.

And so on..

Alternatively Thaumatology has an expansion to the ritual magic based casting. Such casting combined with heavily pruned spell lists might work too.

Note that the psionic system is more subtle and suitable for hidden powers thing by virtue of it's design. so using it you would likely need to prune less than using any of the published magic systems, but still some.