Thoughts on Powerstones

[benz72]

FWIW I prefer to generalize the Powerstone idea to 'item of appropriate value, form, and function' whether it is stone or not. Gems add value (and thus capacity) at a very light weight and are thus good choices for traveling magi. However, looking at things like sacred architecture, silver pentagrams, druidic groves, special dwarven alloys, the bones of a dragon, and all manner of other things that might make good repositories of magical power in a game means, to me, that a strict limitation to stones is not just unnecessary, but overly restrictive for a generic system.
I follow a similar thought process with Staff and Scroll spells. There is just too much storytelling potential being dismissed with those requirements. YMMV

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by benz72

FWIW I prefer to generalize the Powerstone idea to 'item of appropriate value, form, and function' whether it is stone or not. Gems add value (and thus capacity) at a very light weight and are thus good choices for traveling magi. However, looking at things like sacred architecture, silver pentagrams, druidic groves, special dwarven alloys, the bones of a dragon, and all manner of other things that might make good repositories of magical power in a game means, to me, that a strict limitation to stones is not just unnecessary, but overly restrictive for a generic system.
I follow a similar thought process with Staff and Scroll spells. There is just too much storytelling potential being dismissed with those requirements. YMMV

I agree---


With the caveat that they should all remain thematically appropriate and individual campaigns should have limits.

[shawnhcorey]

My thought was to make them cardinal gems, one for each of the elements. But fitting them to the schools of magic will require some imagination.

• Air: amethyst (purple) – Rare and precious in the Old World until large deposits were found in Brazil.
• Earth: emerald (green)
• Fire: ruby (red)
• Water: sapphire (blue)
• Spirit: diamond (transparent)

[hal]

For what it is worth, I've been trying to come up with a structure describing a powerstone via GURPS POWERS as well as the powers rules in GURPS CHARACTERS. The foundation for this is the approach that a powerstone is an energy reserve (Magic) worth a base 3 character points per power level, modified by the gadget modifiers for size, steal-ability, and DR 2 or less, for a total discount of -55%.

Any other limitations (such as a quirk) further discounts the power/item. I'll be digging into various sources such as Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Crystal,Gem, and Metal Magic, GURPS CABAL (or GURPS THAUMATOLOGY as you might utilize) and give some structure for use with powerstones.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by hal

For what it is worth, I've been trying to come up with a structure describing a powerstone via GURPS POWERS as well as the powers rules in GURPS CHARACTERS. The foundation for this is the approach that a powerstone is an energy reserve (Magic) worth a base 3 character points per power level, modified by the gadget modifiers for size, steal-ability, and DR 2 or less, for a total discount of -55%.

Any other limitations (such as a quirk) further discounts the power/item. I'll be digging into various sources such as Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Crystal,Gem, and Metal Magic, GURPS CABAL (or GURPS THAUMATOLOGY as you might utilize) and give some structure for use with powerstones.

Energy Reserves replenish at a rate of 1 per 10 minutes, while Powerstones replenish at a rate of 1 per day. Takes Recharge, 10 minutes isn't an option (it goes from 15 seconds for -20% to 1 hour for -30%), but I'd eyeball it at around -25%. Replacing that built-in Limitation with Limited Use, 1/day -40% would be a net change of around -15% (arguably -13.33%, but I'd rather just round that to -15%). That implies the Powerstone would have a total of -70% worth of Limitations on it to start with; if you treat each Quirk as -5%, that means 1 Quirk would reduce price to around 83% normal, and 2 Quirks or more (you hit the -80% cap) would be 67% normal. I'd probably just make it something like 80% for 1 Quirk, then -10% for each additional Quirk, down to a minimum of 5% (for 9+ Quirks). Alternatively, maybe once you hit 20% (7 Quirks) each additional Quirk simply halves the value. You could do just a straight -10% for each Quirk (hitting the minimum 5% at 10 Quirks), but I think the above would be more appropriate considering the demand for a "proper" Powerstone would be much higher (sorta like how you can get a 0.9 carat diamond for much cheaper than for a comparable 1 carat, because the demand for reaching that arbitrary cutoff of 1 carat is so much higher).

EDIT: Just noticed your other thread... you can probably largely disregard this post.

[hal]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Energy Reserves replenish at a rate of 1 per 10 minutes, while Powerstones replenish at a rate of 1 per day. Takes Recharge, 10 minutes isn't an option (it goes from 15 seconds for -20% to 1 hour for -30%), but I'd eyeball it at around -25%. Replacing that built-in Limitation with Limited Use, 1/day -40% would be a net change of around -15% (arguably -13.33%, but I'd rather just round that to -15%). That implies the Powerstone would have a total of -70% worth of Limitations on it to start with; if you treat each Quirk as -5%, that means 1 Quirk would reduce price to around 83% normal, and 2 Quirks or more (you hit the -80% cap) would be 67% normal. I'd probably just make it something like 80% for 1 Quirk, then -10% for each additional Quirk, down to a minimum of 5% (for 9+ Quirks). Alternatively, maybe once you hit 20% (7 Quirks) each additional Quirk simply halves the value. You could do just a straight -10% for each Quirk (hitting the minimum 5% at 10 Quirks), but I think the above would be more appropriate considering the demand for a "proper" Powerstone would be much higher (sorta like how you can get a 0.9 carat diamond for much cheaper than for a comparable 1 carat, because the demand for reaching that arbitrary cutoff of 1 carat is so much higher).

EDIT: Just noticed your other thread... you can probably largely disregard this post.

Hi Varyon - all thoughts are welcome - especially if it ignites some creativity in others where they are struck by an idea and run with it. The guy who wanted a list of various "quirks" for powerstones - got me to thinking that if one pulls things out of thin air - there won't be much in the way of consistency. On the other hand, building a structure first and then building quirks off of that is probably going to be more consistent or at least, internally consistent.

:)