Genericness of Magic in GURPS

[Harald387]

Alternate Form, for instance, takes 10 seconds by default to change. This makes things complicated, because there is no "reduced time" enhancement, so it would make more sense to make the default 1 second and allow GM's and players to increase the time with limitations if they wanted a slow metamorphosis.

See 'Reduced Time', p. B108, specifically referenced in Alternate Form.

I don't think the system is useless by any means, or bad for that matter. It's just not as generic and flexible as the rest of the system.

I really find the system presented in GURPS Magic to be the most flexible and useful ones for fantasy gaming that I've ever seen; I'll agree that it's not 'generic' as such (even the high-tech spells have a distinct 'generic fantasy world' flavour to them), but it provides an excellent starting point for magic in just about *any* fantasy world.

If that doesn't float your boat, it also presents Syntactic Magic, Magic! bang skill, Clerical magic, and a variety of other alternate rules. If that's still not good enough, Powers gives you ways to do just about anything you want.

I would personally rather see 'Purify Water requires a loop', and decide whether I want to keep that bit of flavour for my game than not have it there at all - frankly, I would never have come up with it on my own and I think it's pretty cool.

[Lupo]

Originally Posted by Harald387

I really find the system presented in GURPS Magic to be the most flexible and useful ones for fantasy gaming that I've ever seen; I'll agree that it's not 'generic' as such (even the high-tech spells have a distinct 'generic fantasy world' flavour to them), but it provides an excellent starting point for magic in just about *any* fantasy world.

I completely agree!
I think that most of the criticism you hear about GURPS Magic is not deserved, and comes from unrealistic expectations about what a "generic universal magic system" would be.

GURPS Powers is generic and universal and is a very good book, but it's waaaay more complex, time-consuming and less "balanced" than GURPS Magic.

[Lonewulf]

Originally Posted by Lupo

I think that most of the criticism you hear about GURPS Magic is not deserved, and comes from unrealistic expectations about what a "generic universal magic system" would be.

And what unrealistic expectations are those, exactly?

Originally Posted by Lupo

GURPS Powers is generic and universal and is a very good book, but it's waaaay more complex, time-consuming and less "balanced" than GURPS Magic.

Uhhh.

How is Powers less "balanced"? Please explain in detail.

[Lupo]

Originally Posted by Lonewulf

How is Powers less "balanced"? Please explain in detail.

Powers offers a greater variety of advantages, modifiers, and different ways to achieve similar results.

So it's inherently harder to balance, compared to a "simple" system such as Magic, that uses only Spells.

So for example, most GMs will allow a fantasy mage to build his PC using whatever spells from GURPS: Magic he likes; on the other hand, the majority of GMs will not allow PCs to use Powers "freely" ("build any power and ability you like").

Of course, some spells might be more efficient or cheaper than others, but this will only lead some PCs to save a few points, nothing more.
PCs using GURPS Powers, on the other hand, will be able to add Limitations, power modifier and so on, possibly greatly reducing the cost of some Abilities and so unbalancing the game.

I wasn't criticizing Powers, just pointing out that greater variety, universalness and genericness imply less simplicity, less balance and so on.

This is a basic point in game design, which some "GURPS Magic criticizers" seem unable to understand...