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08-06-2019, 11:50 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Implications of Gurps Magic on a Merchant Princes-like setting - advice needed
I'll be running a Fantasy Venice campaign where PCs are all members of a Merchant Family trying to ascend to glory. I'll be using GURPS Crusade and all the Hot Spots as background, but there will be some supernatural stuff going on.
I've decided to allow cinematic Martial Arts to make duels feel more vibrant, and probably Divine Favor to allow for cleric-like powers to priests and such. Probably a lot of stuff from the Social Engineering series to help emulate the intricacies of the Intrigue and all the Commerce going on. One of my players asked for GURPS Magic, as he is a fan of the Standard magic system; We rationalized Magic could easily be a forgotten science that is being re-discovery during the renaissance. It has been a long time since we used Magic on our campaigns (late 3e), but I have some concerns. A Merchant campaign has a lot of planning trying to predict the demand for goods, as well as travel and negotiation to acquire and sell given goods. If I recall correctly there are a lot of spells that can predict markets, create goods, simplify travel, and facilitate negotiations. My concerns are mostly to think how to avoid a Mage from hijacking the campaign and cheese/shutdown an important part of it. Are there any specifics I should change in the rules to make sure everything works out in the end? Any advice on how to deal with Magical Economies? Thanks! |
08-06-2019, 12:25 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: One Mile Up
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Re: Implications of Gurps Magic on a Merchant Princes-like setting - advice needed
Calliban,
I 100% approve of your goals, and while not exactly being a Machiavellian Master here, I think that the best advice for you that I can give is to trust your instincts and keep your pimp hand strong. Best, -G&AINC |
08-06-2019, 12:27 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Finland, Lahti
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Re: Implications of Gurps Magic on a Merchant Princes-like setting - advice needed
You could ban all Very Hard magic spells at the beginning because they are just not re-discovered yet. And if players tangle too much with magical economy, there will be dire consequences from merchant princes - accusations of counterfeiting, arson, assassination attempts etc.
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08-06-2019, 12:33 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: Implications of Gurps Magic on a Merchant Princes-like setting - advice needed
You don't need to change the rules. Just change what's available. If magic is a lost art being rediscovered, then you have every reason to withhold more powerful spells. You control how many levels of Magery player characters can have. You control what social disadvantages may accompany being a wizard (Social Stigma? Reputation? Odious Personal Habit?).
Unless the magic system is specifically designed to reflect "magic as it was believed to have been" (and, hence, not all that spectacularly effective), it's not going to mesh with an otherwise historical setting. Either just accept that and sweep the contradictions under the rug ("Why don't wizards make their own gold?" "Shh! Don't worry about it.") or find some combination of impediments to magic that explain why the setting remains fairly historical ("Thus far, nobody has managed to rediscover a way to turn lead into gold."). |
08-06-2019, 12:54 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: Implications of Gurps Magic on a Merchant Princes-like setting - advice needed
Give created materials a duration of 1 day.
Weather manipulation causes side effects elsewhere, so if you make it rain for your crops someone else is getting a drought and they wont be happy. Divination could have blind spots or be otherwise less than reliable, getting more unreliable the farther ahead you look.
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08-06-2019, 12:55 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Implications of Gurps Magic on a Merchant Princes-like setting - advice needed
Quote:
Note that after you've done this a single Philosopher's Stone will make you millions of G$ per year but not an unlimited amount. Someone may want to argue that you could do it with a Transmute Earth to Metal but gold is not one of the example metals and it probably requires rules and linguistic abuse to allow the designation of "simple" to become synonomous with "precious". In any event a GM would have to allow Tranmute Earth to Gold. There's no precendent saying he should. The word "allow" would probably apply to a number of other spells in Magic that some people would argue are abusive.
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Fred Brackin |
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08-06-2019, 01:18 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
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Re: Implications of Gurps Magic on a Merchant Princes-like setting - advice needed
I'll echo what the others said.
Do not change the rules. Eliminate all VH spells, from the get-go, and then ruthlessly cull anything you think might create problems. Then make what remains very rare, and perhaps might bring the attention of the Church -- and its Inquisition. As for Alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone, consider that very carefully. If it's known to work, by even a few, the entire trade economy is jeopardized. However, if the possibility of its existence is discovered during the course of events, then it could be a great McGuffin. If people learn the PCs are after such a thing, or are trying to secure the reagents to make one, then said PCs come to the attention of every rich and powerful person in the known world. See the standalone Black Company book, The Silver Spike , for how that would likely play out. :) (Hint: It would totally suck to be the PCs.]
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08-06-2019, 01:33 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: Implications of Gurps Magic on a Merchant Princes-like setting - advice needed
Quote:
Do you have a copy of GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles, or some spare cash to order it? That could be vary useful in determining what spells are available, if you only have access to spells from your own style (because your teacher doesn't know any others).
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08-06-2019, 02:01 PM | #9 |
Aluminated
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: East of the moon, west of the stars, close to buses and shopping
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Re: Implications of Gurps Magic on a Merchant Princes-like setting - advice needed
Some thoughts on that:
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08-06-2019, 02:14 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Implications of Gurps Magic on a Merchant Princes-like setting - advice needed
If you want an approach that's actually consistent with medieval views on magic, I did some research on that for my book on Worminghall. It uses the basic GURPS Magic system, but with some spells excluded, and others regrouped, and it discusses the specific things that were religiously forbidden.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
Tags |
crusades, economics, gurps magic, merchant, trade |
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