[RPM] Gem Lore, Lapidaries and Precious Stones as Traditional Trappings

[Kesendeja]

Speaking of human remains in diamond form, how I did it in my game was the stones were predisposed to being enchanted. Especially into power stones. They would start equal to the FP + power reserve of the individual, and could be enchanted to hold more with less chance of failure.

Turned into a bit of setting, where powerful mages would have there remains enchanted to help there descendants.

I also allowed them to be enchanted as grimores, aspected around the deceased favorite spells.

They were also quite useful for necromancy spells.

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Kesendeja

Speaking of human remains in diamond form, how I did it in my game was the stones were predisposed to being enchanted. Especially into power stones. They would start equal to the FP + power reserve of the individual, and could be enchanted to hold more with less chance of failure.

Turned into a bit of setting, where powerful mages would have there remains enchanted to help there descendants.

I also allowed them to be enchanted as grimores, aspected around the deceased favorite spells.

They were also quite useful for necromancy spells.

It sounds kind of like my idea of using the iron in a person's blood to make a necromantic sword. Of course, the average adult human male only has about 3 g of iron in their body ( a bit less for females), so you would need to exanguinate on the order of 100 people to get your blade. So you end up with a blood iron blade of mass murder - just perfect for your evil undead sorcerer.

Luke

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

It sounds kind of like my idea of using the iron in a person's blood to make a necromantic sword. Of course, the average adult human male only has about 3 g of iron in their body ( a bit less for females), so you would need to exanguinate on the order of 100 people to get your blade. So you end up with a blood iron blade of mass murder - just perfect for your evil undead sorcerer.

Luke

When my PCs arrived in the metaphysical antechamber that would take them to the Dreamlands, equipment suitable for fantasy heroes awaited them. Mostly, these were items that either the lead caster or the other PCs had imagined as suitable and, aside from items brought along as metaphysically bound to the essence of the characters (i.e. Signature Gear), none of it was made from iron, silver or any other substance that might affect supernatural creatures in any dramatic fashion.

With the exception of one weapon that no one had imagined or incorporated into the ritual. A gently curving blade of reddish steel, glowing with a purple glow, melting the ice it was embedded in.

From the design and the similarities of certain sigils on it to ancient African petroglyphs, one PC tentatively identified it as the product of a great pre-Atlantean civilisation in Africa.*

From some sense he got about the blade, he also linked it to an apocryphal story he heard about the origin of ironworking in that great orichalcum-using culture, as a ritual of sacrifice where the blood of victims was alchemically rendered into iron to construct a blade of terrible fury, hunger and portent.


*He has odd notions, but his auto-didactic archeology, anthropology and linguistics skills are surprisingly good.

[Icelander]

Standard GURPS Magic or DFRPG fatigue points (FP) aren't exactly equal to RPM energy, with most authorities recommending multiplying FP costs by x2 or x3 to get ballpark RPM energy.

On the other hand, GURPS Magic and DFRPG assume a more or less TL3 economy, whereas I'm using RPM in a TL8 one.

With that in mind, if diamonds can store gathered energy like DF Power Objects or Powerstones can store FP, what would be a good system to connect capacity with cost?

I'm using diamonds of obscene cost as more or less plot devices, assuming that the least of them have at least enough energy to power typical rituals of 30-50 energy and that the diamonds worth literally millions of dollars are storing at the very least hundreds of energy, but it might be a good idea to nail down the exact capacities, now that the PCs are well and truly on board with using the stones.