03-19-2023, 09:10 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2021
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Modifying the GURPS Magic system for a Magic School game
I'd like to be able to run a "magic school" game at some point, and to do that I'm thinking of slightly modifying the GURPS Magic System.
Spell Costs(CP) Specifically, for the first year, I'm considering tuning down the difficulty and costs, while increasing the granularity of the default magic system. The idea is that the spells learned would be tiny, mostly touch only (to encourage wand use), and certainly won't impact worldbuilding except in the most minimal of ways, but would be sufficiently useful for minor conflicts if misused. The idea is to be able to learn a spell and use it for mischief the same day. One problem with this is that even CP is too big for the kind of micro-spells I have in mind, so I'm considering splitting the atom on CPs again, and splitting out CPs back out into halves or even quarters, as well as adding a VE (for very easy) skill level, so that the players can go to class and learn multiple spell every week, while not significantly growing in power or number of CPs. For instance, students would learn Brief Note, and then use it to annoy each other and their teacher with ephemeral paper airplanes and passed notes. Many of these spells most likely won't be used, but in my view add "Magic School" flavor. Code:
[1] "Brief Note" - IQ/VE - Duration: 1 minute This spell allows the caster to create a single sheet of paper, up to one square foot in size. This note lasts for one minute before disintegrating. This spell can be maintained.
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03-19-2023, 11:13 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2021
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Re: Modifying the GURPS Magic system for a Magic School game
Spell Costs(FP)
I'm also considering either Quartering FP for IQ/VE spells
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03-20-2023, 12:49 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pioneer Valley
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Re: Modifying the GURPS Magic system for a Magic School game
Huh. I've either created (or ganked) a heap of petty spells that really fall into the "This is what we teach apprentices so they can get off on the Wicked! Cool! Magics! they've learned, without setting the building on fire or summoning a damn demon." Possibly I should turn it into a blog post.
EDIT: which I just took the past hour to do: https://ravenswing59.blogspot.com/20...ng-school.html
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My gaming blog: Apotheosis of the Invisible City "Call me old-fashioned, but after you're dead, I don't think you should be entitled to a Dodge any more." - my wife It's not that I don't understand what you're saying. It's that I disagree with what you're saying. Last edited by RGTraynor; 03-20-2023 at 01:59 AM. |
03-20-2023, 12:29 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Aug 2021
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Re: Modifying the GURPS Magic system for a Magic School game
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Here are a few I've created (with GPT help). Many of these are supposed to have a dual usage for various pranks. Student College - Available to all students. Some of these spells are taught by various teachers on a personal basis, others will be in the introductory grimoires
Expression College Generally spread in dorms specifically interested in beauty etc. Learning one of these spells requires seeing it cast, or being taught by an older student, but some may be available from sympathetic teachers
Delinquent College Learning one of these spells requires seeing it cast, or being taught by an older student.
Last edited by girllich; 03-20-2023 at 01:04 PM. |
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03-20-2023, 02:07 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: Modifying the GURPS Magic system for a Magic School game
In case it saves you any work, there is GURPS Locations: Worminghall, a medieval university that specializes in teaching magic. It uses image magic: the standard magic system, except instead of standard colleges it uses colleges of the four elements.
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03-20-2023, 09:19 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Aug 2021
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Re: Modifying the GURPS Magic system for a Magic School game
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Art/Pre-Illusion College Many of these are also useful in class. The teachers will have alchemical varnishes that remove the need for maintenance, which can be swiped for looney tunes-style shenanigans.
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03-20-2023, 09:23 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pioneer Valley
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Re: Modifying the GURPS Magic system for a Magic School game
One thing that occurs to me that you may want to incorporate into some of those spells. To wit: any spell that would normally be considered illicit -- pranks and/or other impractical spells without normally useful applications are either going to be passed down hand-to-hand by fellow students, or appear in bootleg "grimoires." As such, they may very readily be glitched: significantly more difficult to cast than their power would normally suggest, greater chance for critical failures, long term side effects of which the upperclassman are unaware (or is his or her own malice at work) ... or heck, the ninth time one casts the Greater Zit Outbreak spell, a Gate yawns open, and a Pus Demon appears. Oops!
(Anecdote: my wife's longstanding PC wizard is now Grand Master of one of the world's largest chantries of magic, but there was a time where she was Apprentice Master in her home city's chantry. And while many apprentices were housed by their wizards, about sixty of them lived in a dormitory annex to the chantry, "supervised" by a couple of put-upon senior apprentices, rather like RAs in American college dorms. Numerous hijinks resulted, and while there were a few nasty incidents, most were innocuous: the botching of a bootleg Bulging Muscles spell, the Master finding four giggly pre-teen lasses putting makeup on a grotesque (but happily passive) frog demon another student had summoned, that sort of thing.) As far as your own spells go, Girllich, I rather like the Activate spell: it really opens the door to applications where a low-level jolt of mana prods something into action. For instance, there's a plant of magical origin in one of Lois McMaster Bujold's works where a sorcerer needs to "tickle" the seeds in order for them to germinate; it's a trivial but essential expenditure.
__________________
My gaming blog: Apotheosis of the Invisible City "Call me old-fashioned, but after you're dead, I don't think you should be entitled to a Dodge any more." - my wife It's not that I don't understand what you're saying. It's that I disagree with what you're saying. Last edited by RGTraynor; 03-20-2023 at 09:31 PM. |
03-20-2023, 11:08 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Apr 2005
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Re: Modifying the GURPS Magic system for a Magic School game
Canonically, "cantrip" type spells are purchased as Perks and can be cast without FP cost in 1 turn by making an IQ or Will (player's or GM's choice) roll. See GURPS Magic - The Least of Spells.
Several other ideas: Allows "defaults" from prerequisite spells to more powerful spells at -2 per missing prerequisite. Penalties can be made up by Taking Extra Time, using material components, etc. Allow optional specializations for spells. Initially, you buy a spell as an Average (for normally Hard spells) or Hard (for normally Very Hard) skill but it only works in a limited fashion (e.g., you can just levitate things 1 yard off of the ground). When you put a second point in the spell you have the option of remaining specialized or buying the full version of the spell. Allow "double optional" specialization to buy a spell at Easy or Average level, but with very limited effects (e.g., you can just levitate feathers). Functionally, these sorts of spells are identical to Cantrips. Allow character points to be spent as "Impulse Points" to quickly learn new spells, etc. which are critical to the plot without having to spend any significant time studying. (E.g., Harry Potter cramming to learn useful spells before the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Hermione Granger conveniently learning to competently brew a complex potion in just a few days.) |
03-21-2023, 02:09 PM | #9 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2021
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Re: Modifying the GURPS Magic system for a Magic School game
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Proposed Movement College
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Last edited by girllich; 03-21-2023 at 02:28 PM. |
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03-21-2023, 04:08 PM | #10 | |
Join Date: Aug 2021
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Re: Modifying the GURPS Magic system for a Magic School game
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