What are the best magical systems in GURPS?

[hal]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Honestly, the simplest magical system is probably Magic as Powers when the GM is willing to do the heavy lifting of designing abilities.

Just an observation - and I'll note that it is largely a function of "preference" here...

Creating a framework in which the GM can create new spells or let his player create new spells is nothing new. If you're familiar with HARN MAGIC, then you will know they have had that capability for YEARS before GURPS ever started to experiment with alternatives to GURPS MAGIC.

Do you want to know why I never went over to that kind of game system for magic?

You're at the table with players, and they went in a direction you didn't plan on. Rather than railroad them with forcing them to go the way you're prepared to go, you wing it. Then they run into a random encounter with a mage of some sort.

QUICK! List all of the spells this Mage has! Oh wait, No two spells are the same nor have the same effects because each spell is truly individual. Well, there goes the ability to wing it unless you pre-create your mages in advance. That's fine, but sometimes what you spend 2000 hours creating only to use 10% of - makes you realize that you have a better use for the other 90% of the 2000 hours you spent - could have been directed at something else.

Then comes the persnickety mathematical precision necessary to describe the spell as an advantage - not as if GURPS doesn't have a plethora of possible ways to build any given advantage, and some are not so readily apparent as to how they're used! That's just for Spells as Advantages. Using any of the other magic systems - I find is VERY open to abuse, allowing for things undreamed of in GURPS MAGIC. Be aware, I am only TOO aware that my preferences are not universal nor always shared by anyone else. I'm GLAD that GURPS VOODOO came out, but saw issues with that. I own copies of other game systems such as PENDRAGON, Chivalry and Sorcery (every edition that ever came out including the 5th edition). I owned copies of TFT (The Fantasy TRIP) WIZARD and even SPI's DRAGON QUEST. If you want to have some fun - take a peek at EDEN STUDIO's WITCHCRAFT/ARMAGEDDON series of books, and see how the Path Magic SHOULD Have been done with GURPS VOODOO (Incidentally, the same author who gave us GURPS VOODOO also gave us WITCHCRAFT and ARMAGEDDON). Sadly? Despite what we have with GURPS CHARACTERS and GURPS THAUMATOLOGY, there is no way to actively and accurately - simulate the magic system of EDEN STUDIO despite its relative simplicity!

Well - that's my take on games that give you the ability to create customized spells where no two characters create the exact same spells. It is great if you like to do that level of customization, but it can interfere with the ability to throw in spur of the moment characterizations.