Wildcard Magic rule lapse

[maximara]

I noticed a conflict between GURPS Thaumatology and GURPS Power-Ups 7: Wildcard Skills.

"Magery adds to college skills, and hence to spells – but this must be Magery of the correct type, if multiple varieties exist in the campaign" - GURPS Thaumatology 75

But GURPS Power-Ups 7: Wildcard Skills after presenting Magic! and College! says "Magery doesn’t add to these wildcard skills – no player will pay 12 points to improve one wildcard by a level if it costs a mere 10 points to increase all magic-related skills by a level, unless wildcards are rotten with Additional Benefits (pp. 10-15)." (sic)

This forgets that there may be a cap on magery levels ("Most GMs will want to limit PCs to Magery 3 or 4" - GURPS Magic) and so player at magery cap will pay 12 points to improve one wildcard by a level if it costs a mere 10 points to increase all magic-related skills by a level because they cannot raise Magery any higher.

[Celjabba]

It is just a special case of the generic rule : "Talents – including Magery ... never benefit wildcards." (PU7-pg 24) and PU7 - pg 10 : "wildcard and Talent ... are intended as alternatives"

You are of course free to ignore this, but it is not specific to magery.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Celjabba

It is just a special case of the generic rule : "Talents – including Magery ... never benefit wildcards." (PU7-pg 24) and PU7 - pg 10 : "wildcard and Talent ... are intended as alternatives"

You are of course free to ignore this, but it is not specific to magery.

"Example: Thaumaticus- Z6G has IQ 15, Wildcard Magery 2, and 12 points in the Air College! skill. He therefore has Air College!-16, and can cast Purify Air at skill 16, Shape Air at 15, and Lightning at 14." ("Wildcard Colleges", Thaumatology 75)

12 points is Attribute-1 or skill 14 per PU7-pg 24 not 16 (IQ 15+2-1) as Thaumatology clearly demonstrates.

Worse yet PU7 p16 expressly refers back to information in the very box in GURPS Thaumatology that the above appears in (If that seems over-generous, the GM may use prerequisite count divided by two, three (as suggested in GURPS Thaumatology), or more, rounding as he sees fit) .

So PU7 tells you one thing and then referees you to something in other book that contains something that states the exact opposite. Brilliant!

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by maximara

So PU7 tells you one thing and then referees you to something in other book that contains something that states the exact opposite.

You are correct.

That said, Thaumatology p75 does quote "This idea may not be especially balanced, but it is quick and usable".

PU7 expand on the "unbalanced" and advice against it.
Call it the effect of 6 years of rules evolution and maturing :)

There are other exemples of rules conflicting, depending on genre and setting postulates, but usually Gurps does point to them and warn the GM that he have to choose between either approach.

Here, this call back to an example implying the contrary of the rules quoted is unfortunate.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Celjabba

You are correct.

That said, Thaumatology p75 does quote "This idea may not be especially balanced, but it is quick and usable".

PU7 expand on the "unbalanced" and advice against it.
Call it the effect of 6 years of rules evolution and maturing :)

There are other exemples of rules conflicting, depending on genre and setting postulates, but usually Gurps does point to them and warn the GM that he have to choose between either approach.

Here, this call back to an example implying the contrary of the rules quoted is unfortunate.

Given the GURPS 4e rule books have PDF versions it is bizarre that no one spotted the botch up or addressed how Wildcard Magery worked in the referenced book as using the MacOS' Spotlight found it under a minute and I assume that the Windows OS has something similar.

Interestingly the Wildcard Colleges infobox in Thaumatology notes that "Magery adds to college skills, and hence to spells but this must be Magery of the correct type" (sic) with the correct type of magery in the example being "Wildcard Magery" which implies any other type of magery doesn't do this.