Unstable Mana: magic system variant.

[Giovanni]

I love a lot random spell effect tables I found on the net. I wonder how to use them with GURPS. I have thought about this system...it's a bit an unfinished job but with some adjustments I think it could work well.

This variant use the spells from Magic.
I actually play 3rd edition so I have in mind the relation between Strenght and FP but with 4th edition it should work also.

How it works?
* Each morning a magic user convert some FP in 'mana dice': 2 FP generate a mana dice. Any number of dice can be generated this way: 4-6 mana dice are recommended.
* When a magic user attempts to cast/mantain a spell it rolls all mana dice he have in the pool:
- if a dice shows a result from 2 to 4 then 1 point of spell cost is covered.
- if a dice shows 1 it is exausted and forever eliminated from the pool.
- if a dice shows 6 something strange happens: you can use a table of random magical effects on the net. The more 6 are present in a roll the bigger the trouble.
* when the magic user sleeps all mana dices are lost.

That's all.
Of course smaller mana dice pool will be safer but they will deplete soon and they will also make difficult or impossible to cast or mantain spell with high cost.
Larger mana pool will be riskier to use but they will also allow very costly spells.