Magery advantage (buy / increase)

[GURPZine]

Is it possible to acquire/buy the Magery advantage or even level it up after character creation? It's not clear to me. I've always understood that after character creation (so throughout the adventures and campaigns) it would not be possible to acquire this advantage or even improve it if I already have it, because it seems to me to be an innate gift. I thought it would only be possible through divine grant, powerful rituals, extreme situations.

[Refplace]

This is a setting decision.
If Magery is a trainable advantage, especially levels above Magery 0 than it can be bought up.
Other settings its a innate advantage that one is born with and can only be increased through extraordinary events, such as Great Wish, divine action, etc.

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by GURPZine

Is it possible to acquire/buy the Magery advantage or even level it up after character creation? It's not clear to me. I've always understood that after character creation (so throughout the adventures and campaigns) it would not be possible to acquire this advantage or even improve it if I already have it, because it seems to me to be an innate gift. I thought it would only be possible through divine grant, powerful rituals, extreme situations.

This is the definition of a 'GM Call'...it will vary from GM to GM and sometimes from campaign to campaign with the same GM.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by GURPZine

I thought it would only be possible through divine grant, powerful rituals, extreme situations.

Depending on the campaign, some of these may be reasonably readily available.

In my Infinite Cabal campaign, the PCs spent much of their time working for a Grand Master of the Cabal. who was relatively sane. Buying up Magery was something he expected them to do; buying IQ to higher than his was more politically difficult.

In the occult WWII campaign, we encountered an ongoing ritual that was providing magical power across most of the Western Pacific Ocean. We blew up the connection between the ritual site and the full-size coal-fired power station that was supplying the raw magical energy (generated by prayer wheels rotated by the turbines) which released a lot of magical power until the power station was shut down. The GM said anyone who wanted to buy up their magical abilities, or start new ones, was at liberty to do so. Then we blew up and burned down the power station, to make recovery harder.

[Willy]

As far as I remember it was not allowed in the 3rd Ed, but in 4th Ed it´s possible to gain more magery for the standard system.

It is a often discussed question,

I would discuss it with the GM, if you plan to upgrade your Character later, to avoid problems. I
It´s allways a GM call, I would say.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Willy

As far as I remember it was not allowed in the 3rd Ed, .

It wasn't discussed in the core 3e rulebooks but it was possible in individual settings such as Cabal and Myth. Those allowed levels beyond 3 too.

I think it's RAW in DF (4e) too.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by GURPZine

Is it possible to acquire/buy the Magery advantage or even level it up after character creation?

B291 mentions Magery typically requires extraordinary circumstances (like diviine revelation or ritual ordeal) to be acquired. Not sure if that applies to improving.

Horror Magic 9 has a spell called "Invest" which can give Magery 1 (with limitations) "for free" which I would gather means not needing to spend bonus CP per usual.

It mentions "The subject can buy Radically Unstable Magery down to ‑10% with earned points, but cannot remove the limitation completely."

Removing it completely comes on learning the spell later. "if they learn Invest, they can use points it earns them to eliminate the limitation."

Doesn't mention anything about buying extra levels, but I think the implication is there, because the spell has a prerequisite of Magery 6, so clearly it assumes you are able to buy up that Magery 1 up to Magery 6 using bonus CP.

Thaumatology pg 20 explores this under Maximum Magery and points to the possibility of making Unusual Background prereqs to high levels, like Banestorm does with "Archmage"