New Pyramid, New Thau'

[The Fox]

And a new forum post to encourage discussion, inform the public, and other such what-have-yous. First, the obvious: Pyramid #3/4: Magic on the Battlefield is here for subscribers to download, non-subscribers to purchase, and me to hawk.

The truly newly one, however, is GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles. I actually don't know what's in that one. Haven't cracked it open yet. But with a title like that, I'm just gonna go out on a limb and assume you guys can puzzle it out.

[Not another shrubbery]

I'll always get these anyway, ya know :/

Good to see the fast turnaround on Sean's styling ;)

Edit: Ooh... Twilight 2013, too?!... Shiny!

[AOTA]

Sweet downloaded and reading.

[baakyocalder]

Both were interesting reads and will prove useful for days to come in GURPS campaigns.

Pyramid 3/4 had one article I couldn't use, as I lack Power-Ups 1. The Recommended Readings overlapped a great deal and there wasn't that much specific information on how to use the products. If you're telling me to use a game to help with a mechanic, I'd rather see more detailed advice on using one game that gives me a basic understanding of the game than listing a number of games and briefly discussing them.

The articles on battle magic were excellent. The Society of Siege Engineers was crunchy enough that I could easily use it in mass combat and had enough room for seasoning for adjustment to a higher TL group using similar tactics ala GURPS Technomancer). The Vulture squad had a good premise for why they did it and is simple enough to adapt; that's a nice group of NPCs right there with good suggestions on use in a campaign.

Magical and Naval Warfare was the best article. It went into all the issues in Mass Combat, but also discussed how to season a high fantasy and a low fantasy campaign with those elements. Since so many people like pirates and I've never been satisfied with naval warfare in fantasy RPGs (even my favorite product from my favorite non-Steve Jackson Games Company suffers from serious rules issues), this is a nice quick way to do pirate ship fights in GURPS. The general advice should work well for non-GURPS gamers.

Overall, I got my money's worth from Pyramid 3/4 as a read and will get more from it when I use it for ideas.

Thaumautalogy Magical Styles left me wanting more. It's clear there's a ton of information in the book on how to make magical styles and like most Sean Punch work, it's crunchy but clear with a nice side of humor. GURPS Magic is a robust system, but it's always been a pain to use because there are so many options for mages. GURPS Wizards was one good way to handle the problem in GURPS 3e. This book should replace Wizards in the design of styles for 4e. The GM has more work to do than with those templates, but a greater ability to produce the magic-user types he or she wants. I'd have liked another example of magical styles to show me some of the diversity beyond what is in the Onyx Path. It's quite clear the book is a toolkit, like Powers, but I find having two or three examples is better than just one. When there's only one example, you worry about how eccentric it is. . .

These two new products tie nicely into recent releases. They won't be for everyone who plays GURPS, but I think for anyone trying to work some magic, they'll be nice additions to the library.

Good work!

[bobrunnicles]

So, Fox, these are both in glorious full colour, right? ;) Any word yet on restoring the colourised versions of the DF files or Spaceships? :)

[Steven Marsh]

Originally Posted by bobrunnicles

So, Fox, these are both in glorious full colour, right? ;) Any word yet on restoring the colourised versions of the DF files or Spaceships? :)

The problem is that untangling this is going to probably going to require chatting with Phil Reed. Those of you who've read the Daily Illuminator in recent days know that Phil has been out of town at an intimate little get together called Toy Fair. And when he gets back (this Friday, if I recall correctly), it'll probably be a few days to deal with whatever crises have arisen in the week he's been gone.

Honest, we haven't forgotten about this! But we'd much rather get it resolved correctly than half-fix it and have it be a bigger problem down the road.

Thanks, as ever, for your patience!

[bobrunnicles]

Originally Posted by Steven Marsh

And when he gets back (this Friday, if I recall correctly), it'll probably be a few days to deal with whatever crises have arisen in the week he's been gone.

Hell, I can go away for 2-3 days and my work inbox has 300-400 emails to wade through when I get back - I don't envy Phil at all :)

[happylrac]

Originally Posted by baakyocalder

Thaumautalogy Magical Styles left me wanting more. It's clear there's a ton of information in the book on how to make magical styles and like most Sean Punch work, it's crunchy but clear with a nice side of humor. GURPS Magic is a robust system, but it's always been a pain to use because there are so many options for mages.

I'm thinking there could be a series here like Spaceships.... Horror style cults would be cool...

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by The Fox

And a new forum post to encourage discussion, inform the public, and other such what-have-yous. First, the obvious: Pyramid #3/4: Magic on the Battlefield is here for subscribers to download, non-subscribers to purchase, and me to hawk.

Is there any content in it that interacts with the Mass Combat rules?

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Is there any content in it that interacts with the Mass Combat rules?

Yes... quite a bit of it, in fact. An article on magical sappers; one set of game-aid cards; and an article on magic in naval combat.