Reactive Reality, Raw Mana and Distortion Points

[Dark Archon]

I'm building Realm magic system, and I'm going to use Reactive Reality rules. There is couple of questions related to...

In my magic system, mages can't use inner forces to cast spells - there just isn't enough energy inside human to power them. They have to use mana - but unfortunately, most of mana is stolen from the world, and natural mana sources redirected into another dimension. Only a little untapped amount of sources remain, and they are object of constant war. There is another sources - but they are difficult at best, immoral and dangerous at worst (like fighting spirits, human sacrifices and soul eating).
But, (un)fortunately, all mages have access to another power source, limitless and always at hand - Sea of Chaos. The problem is that power of Chaos changes everything, including one who uses it. Use it too much, and madness, mutations and general weirdness garanteed.

Mechnically spells don't have energy cost, and all syntactic parameters counted through MoS. And there I have a couple of design questions:
1) I want to use Reactive Reality rules, because I don't want spells to have energy costs and work with them, but I'm not quite sure, which kind of working dub as "more distortive". I thought of making creating and destructive magic more distortive than changing existing things, but this: a) Not sounds right; b) makes higher level Realms more dangerous and kinda more useless, and I don't want that.

2) Raw Mana. I want it to have several uses - to stabilise magic and make it more strong (+X to skill), to enpower it instead of Chaos (magic grants no DP), or to "heal" existing DP by stabilising oneself. My questions is numbers. I see them as +2 to skill per RM point, -1d6 DP from spell per RM point and healing 4 DP per RM point. Should make RM useful and expensive. But those numbers are taken from the celling. Does anyone knows better way to determine them?

3) I also want enchantment to be MUCH more faster (say, a good magical item in week or so), but requiring large amounts of Raw Mana. Any idea how to write that?

[GodBeastX]

Originally Posted by Dark Archon

1) I want to use Reactive Reality rules, because I don't want spells to have energy costs and work with them, but I'm not quite sure, which kind of working dub as "more distortive". I thought of making creating and destructive magic more distortive than changing existing things, but this: a) Not sounds right; b) makes higher level Realms more dangerous and kinda more useless, and I don't want that.

Using realm magic and reactive reality tends to follow concepts of World of Darkness Mages.

Basically a mage tries to accomplish their goals in believable ways instead of trying to twist reality. To give you simple examples to compare and contrast:

Creating a Fireball - This is against reality because it's not believable.
Making a powerline snap and zap that guy standing in a puddle of water - This works with reality and therefore tends to be 0 DP.

You try to use coincidental effects or very subtle changes to the world to accomplish what you want. If you're doing it right, nobody will truly realize you did magic at all. That's the idea.

3) I also want enchantment to be MUCH more faster (say, a good magical item in week or so), but requiring large amounts of Raw Mana. Any idea how to write that?

Playing with enchantment rules isn't that difficult. It's mostly the economic impact of enchantments you have to worry about when you allow faster enchantment, depending on availability (You did say it'd require mana). The 33$ per 1 energy point is figured based on standard enchantment rules at TL3 (You can see the math used in the section that outlines it in GURPS Magic), so if you up the energy one can put into an enchantment per day or create at different tech levels, the cost per energy point changes.

I've improved enchantments in the game before and had the $ amount reflect this. It didn't cause too many issues.

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by Dark Archon

But, (un)fortunately, all mages have access to another power source, limitless and always at hand - Sea of Chaos. The problem is that power of Chaos changes everything, including one who uses it. Use it too much, and madness, mutations and general weirdness garanteed.

That sounds like a job for the Corruption rules in Horror.

[Dark Archon]

Originally Posted by JCurwen3

That sounds like a job for the Corruption rules in Horror.

Those rules works with energy costs or penalty skills. First ones aren't involved, second ones leave a choice - to use or not to use additional bonuses, and most mages are intelligent enough to not use them.
Although I have an idea - give any spell penalty equal to sum of all involved Realm levels, which can be bought off only by tapping Corruption. It also make two uses of Raw Mana the one. But that still makes higher level Realms more dangerous and kinda more useless.

[Jerander]

Originally Posted by Dark Archon

Those rules works with energy costs or penalty skills. First ones aren't involved, second ones leave a choice - to use or not to use additional bonuses, and most mages are intelligent enough to not use them.
Although I have an idea - give any spell penalty equal to sum of all involved Realm levels, which can be bought off only by tapping Corruption. It also make two uses of Raw Mana the one. But that still makes higher level Realms more dangerous and kinda more useless.

The Corrupting limitation can be applied to Advantages. It gives 1 pt of Corruption per x pts (I forget the exact value...) of Advantage when used. It's been a while since I've looked at Realm Magic, but I believe there are Realm Levels to buy, correct? Apply the Corrupting limitation to those levels for Chaos Mages.

[Dark Archon]

Originally Posted by Jerander

The Corrupting limitation can be applied to Advantages. It gives 1 pt of Corruption per x pts (I forget the exact value...) of Advantage when used. It's been a while since I've looked at Realm Magic, but I believe there are Realm Levels to buy, correct? Apply the Corrupting limitation to those levels for Chaos Mages.

This mechanic still penalises strong magic too badly. Corrupting limitation gives 1 pt per point taken from cost of advantage, and single working of Realm 5 is going to give 10 points of corruption, which is turning strong wizards to Chaos spawn almost instantly.

[Jerander]

Originally Posted by Dark Archon

This mechanic still penalises strong magic too badly. Corrupting limitation gives 1 pt per point taken from cost of advantage, and single working of Realm 5 is going to give 10 points of corruption, which is turning strong wizards to Chaos spawn almost instantly.

What I've done is adjust the price of Corruption to match the number of corruption points I want the trait to give.

For instance, if Corrupting, -40% gives Magery 1 [10] a "cost" of 4 points of Corruption, then Corrupting, -10% gives Magery 1 [10] a "cost" of 1 point of Corruption.

I don't have the time to pull out the book now to give you exact figures, but this should give you the idea.

Also, you could only apply the Corrupting limitation to the earlier Realm levels. Then you pay the corruption, but higher levels aren't penalized more.

[Genesis]

Or powerful mages just have to bank up/find raw mana in order to safely use their big guns - that's not unfamiliar in these sorts of genera.

I'm confused about your desire to make higher-level realms 'safer' than low-level workings. Doesn't it seem reasonable that more powerful magic would be more distorting to reality?

[Dark Archon]

Originally Posted by Jerander

I don't have the time to pull out the book now to give you exact figures, but this should give you the idea.

And that is nice idea. -10% Corruption Limitation and 1-5 cp two times more acceptable than 2-10, thanks.

Originally Posted by Genesis

I'm confused about your desire to make higher-level realms 'safer' than low-level workings. Doesn't it seem reasonable that more powerful magic would be more distorting to reality?

It's about control over power source. Higher-level realms aren't safer, but they are used by much more skilled sorcerers, which can subvert stuff of Chaos with less personal danger.

[scc]

I'd treat this Sea of Chaos as an Assisting Spirit (See page 90, Thaummatology), basically what happens is that the Sea of Chaos provides the energy, not the caster, of course when you use too much you start to suffer problems