GURPS Magic - Creating gemstones

[joppeknol]

Originally Posted by Kromm

and say that anything created this way lasts for one day unless irreversibly consumed (e.g., air is breathed, water is swallowed, or coal is burned).

Wouldn't that get into a munchkin discussion on what counts as consuming? I just googled that gold reacts with some other elements. Isn't that similar as consuming air or eating food?

I had the idea to have it randomly revert back after it is hit by a random local no-mana wave (*insert some magical mumbo-jumbo here*). It normally only can happen after a month. This makes eating some magical food fine, but you cannot live on it forever. Conjured valuables (or stone) can be detected by magical aptitude or elixirs and distributing them without consent is punishable as counterfeiting.

It might however, still be feasible to create temporary manastones.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by joppeknol

Wouldn't that get into a munchkin discussion on what counts as consuming? I just googled that gold reacts with some other elements. Isn't that similar as consuming air or eating food?

Only if the GM puts up with it . . . and I'm not that kind of GM! I don't run fantasy games where real-world science operates behind the scenes and the locals just aren't aware of it yet. I run the kind where magic replaces science, where there really are just four or five elements, and alchemy works "because magic." When players try to use science to explain nature in a fantasy campaign (whether to invent gunpowder or cheese the way spells work), I ask them to word it in a way their character would understand in a TL3 setting with wizards, where everybody believes in spirits, curses, and alchemical transformations.

For me, "consumed" is "gone." You eat food, drink water, or breathe air and it's gone, transformed into vital essence. You burn fuel and it's gone, transformed from solid or liquid to gas. Whereas tarnish and patina are just materials getting old and showing the magical traces of their long lifespans.