[Powers, Magic-as-Powers] Stimata and other 'physical' Illusion modifiers

Prince Charon · 07-01-2021, 08:17 PM

GURPS Powers (pp94-95) introduced the Illusion advantage to GURPS 4e, and added an advantage called 'Stigmata.' This +100% enhancement, which had another +100% enhancement (Mental) as its prerequisite, allowed illusions to be so realistic that the stress of an illusory attack could cause some physical effects. In GURPS Magic (p97), the Phantom spell does something similar, but by combining illusions with knowledge of Movement spells. In certain classic fantasy games from other companies, 'Shadow' magic and other semi-real illusions also exist in various forms (and tech-wise, there's Star Trek's holodecks and the X-Men's Danger Room), so it seems to me that we could model more enhancements and other modifiers to grant the Illusion advantage some physical or semi-physical effects.

The lowest-effort enhancement of this type that I can think of is 'Phantom, +200%,' which is just adding the costs of Mental and Stigmata together and assuming that the background logic is slightly different. Other such modifiers ought to be possible, of course; more specialized and thus lower-cost, for example.

Thoughts?

(I was working on yet another idea that will probably get posted to this forum, when the need for this one occurred to me. The quirks in my .sig are not a joke.)

07-01-2021, 08:17 PM	#1
Prince Charon Join Date: Dec 2012	[Powers, Magic-as-Powers] Stimata and other 'physical' Illusion modifiers GURPS Powers (pp94-95) introduced the Illusion advantage to GURPS 4e, and added an advantage called 'Stigmata.' This +100% enhancement, which had another +100% enhancement (Mental) as its prerequisite, allowed illusions to be so realistic that the stress of an illusory attack could cause some physical effects. In GURPS Magic (p97), the Phantom spell does something similar, but by combining illusions with knowledge of Movement spells. In certain classic fantasy games from other companies, 'Shadow' magic and other semi-real illusions also exist in various forms (and tech-wise, there's Star Trek's holodecks and the X-Men's Danger Room), so it seems to me that we could model more enhancements and other modifiers to grant the Illusion advantage some physical or semi-physical effects. The lowest-effort enhancement of this type that I can think of is 'Phantom, +200%,' which is just adding the costs of Mental and Stigmata together and assuming that the background logic is slightly different. Other such modifiers ought to be possible, of course; more specialized and thus lower-cost, for example. Thoughts? (I was working on yet another idea that will probably get posted to this forum, when the need for this one occurred to me. The quirks in my .sig are not a joke.) __________________ Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.