GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 19: Incantation Magic

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

I posted a longish review on my blog. The short version: a thoroughly successful attempt that brings a streamlined, but fully thought-out and very genre-appropriate version of Ritual Path Magic to Dungeon Fantasy. It will even be of use for folks who wanted to use RPM in other genres, but didn't find it hard-and-fast enough, when it comes to statting all effects and modifiers.

This is a fair and honest review. Thank you.

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

Congratulations on a very impressive debut book for Messrs. Rice and Monrós!

Thanks. :-)

Originally Posted by kmunoz

I've picked it up but I am deliberately not reading it until I have cleaned my plate of other things, because all of the reviews and comments are telling me that I am going to want to spend the subsequent 2 weeks attaching hooks, buttons and velcro to the system for use in my fantasy foundation project. I am insanely excited.

MUST NOT LOOK. MUST NOT LOOK.

Go ahead. Look a little. I mean, it probably wouldn't help if I, you know, write up a new spell on my blog? A classic spell. An OLD SKOOL Spell.

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

Actually, we kept them mostly because we knew people would want them. Not needing a circle more often than not just gives you a slight bonus to your roll, since a quick and dirty circle will just impose a modest penalty. Reducing casting time from minutes to seconds will won't let you do much until your paths are sky high and you can absorb the penalty for 1 second castings AND you can also absorb the penalty for the regular casting. You're still casting WAY weaker spells than what you could have in a slot.

That was also a deciding factor.

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

Actually, we kept them mostly because we knew people would want them. Not needing a circle more often than not just gives you a slight bonus to your roll, since a quick and dirty circle will just impose a modest penalty. Reducing casting time from minutes to seconds will won't let you do much until your paths are sky high and you can absorb the penalty for 1 second castings AND you can also absorb the penalty for the regular casting. You're still casting WAY weaker spells than what you could have in a slot.

Thanks.
I missed at first the bonus of taking extra time in town ... which also explain why the table on p17 goes so far.

That said, an adept taking 24 minutes in town for attaching an incantation gain a +5 bonus over a non-adept taking 30 minutes (for an 1 effect spell, at least).

[Diomedes]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

Actually, we kept them mostly because we knew people would want them. Not needing a circle more often than not just gives you a slight bonus to your roll, since a quick and dirty circle will just impose a modest penalty.

Does it? The text doesn't mention any penalty to using a quick circle (apart from the time to set it up). Do you men the penalty for not using a circle?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Diomedes

Does it? The text doesn't mention any penalty to using a quick circle (apart from the time to set it up). Do you men the penalty for not using a circle?

He's specifically referencing p. 17 - the Circle (which takes 1d minutes to create regardless of Adept). Without it you're still taking a -5 to your rolls. Field Caster eliminates that penalty completely.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Celjabba

Thanks.
I missed at first the bonus of taking extra time in town ... which also explain why the table on p17 goes so far.

That said, an adept taking 24 minutes in town for attaching an incantation gain a +5 bonus over a non-adept taking 30 minutes (for an 1 effect spell, at least).

Where are you getting 24 minutes?

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Where are you getting 24 minutes?

from the casting time table,
adept : read hours as minutes.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Celjabba

adept : read hours as minutes

Ah! Yes. Sorry. It's been a CRAZY 72 hours for me and I'm trying to do my best monitor this thread and answer questions.

Back to your question: Yeah, it allows you some unfairness. That's what Ritual Adept does in the regular system and that's what it does here. If I had bundled it with an Unusual Background there would have been even more grumbling. That's why I left it firmly in GM hands: if the GM wants to forbid a power-up he can. If he wants to allow it he can. This is one of the few non-prescriptive things that I was able to leave in. It's just like "Secret Teleportation Spell" - just because you have the points for it doesn't mean the GM is going to let you have it.

[Pseudonym]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

It's just like "Secret Teleportation Spell" - just because you have the points for it doesn't mean the GM is going to let you have it.

"Hey, GM, I just happen to have accidentally amassed 100 character points without spending them at the recommended rate of 2-5 points per session, making this almost half a year at the most liberal estimate. Is it ok to buy Warp?"

Somehow, I find this hypothetical situation humorous.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Pseudonym

"Hey, GM, I just happen to have accidentally amassed 100 character points without spending them at the recommended rate of 2-5 points per session, making this almost half a year at the most liberal estimate. Is it ok to buy Warp?"

Somehow, I find this hypothetical situation humorous.

It's happened before in a game I ran. Dude bought four extra lives and slaughtered a legion of demons over the course of a 8 hour combat.

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Ah! Yes. Sorry. It's been a CRAZY 72 hours for me and I'm trying to do my best monitor this thread and answer questions.

Back to your question: Yeah, it allows you some unfairness. That's what Ritual Adept does in the regular system and that's what it does here. If I had bundled it with an Unusual Background there would have been even more grumbling. That's why I left it firmly in GM hands: if the GM wants to forbid a power-up he can. If he wants to allow it he can. This is one of the few non-prescriptive things that I was able to leave in. It's just like "Secret Teleportation Spell" - just because you have the points for it doesn't mean the GM is going to let you have it.

Since it is basically a +5 bonus with the added advantage of allowing tactical improvised casting, I will probably reprice it at 25 and see what happen.

I got some of my players late yesterday for drinks, and we played a bit with the system ... they grasped the mechanic quickly, now I just want another Gurps GM around so I can play an incanter.

Another question : for town casting (GM made rolls), I imagine the GM can and should use luck if the player have it, using 'game time' (so, 1/day at the first level) ?