06-27-2015, 03:41 PM | #11 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Path/Book Magic question
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The difference between a path and a book is not the physical medium. In my current fantasy campaign, for example, six of the seven races use path magic, including the race that has invented writing. The seventh, which has Eidetic Memory as a racial trait, does not; they use book magic—even though their "books" are purely oral traditions learned by heart. What makes the difference is that a path is a set of rituals that all have some sort of logical cohesion as far as effects or subjects are concerned. A book doesn't; it's a group of rituals that were put together by an individual mage based on the connections they personally perceived. Game mechanically, the core difference is that every Path defaults to an appropriate Ritual Magic at -6. Books have no defaults at all; you have to study the Book before you can even attempt casting. So if you think the character could puzzle out the basic rituals just from their general knowledge of the tradition, make it a Path. If not, make it a Book. That's from p. 127 of Thaumatology and it's the most important single difference.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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06-27-2015, 04:07 PM | #12 | |||||||
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Path/Book Magic question
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The Paths in Thaumatology are an example set. A GM can merge, split, or totally re-arrange them. Quote:
There are some potential variations in a Book campaign. For example, some Books might have shorter versions, missing some rituals from the full text, but using the same Book skill. Or a secret group of magicians might know Paths, enabling them to use a much greater variety of magic than most magicians, who are limited to Books. But don't think of a Book as being like a D&D wizard's spellbook. It's a lot more like a Call of Cthulhu Mythos Tome, although usually not so injurious to the sanity. Quote:
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If that found book was from a Book system, it is most likely a single Book, although it might be only part of one, or even several collected into a single volume. If a character learned Book magic from it, and them comes across a new ritual that isn't in any of his Books, then he has to learn the Book skill before he can cast the ritual. "Adding it to your book" isn't just a question of copying it into the pages: writing a new Book probably involves redesigning the rituals somewhat to make a new whole. Quote:
You know Ritual Magic skill, Path skills, and possibly Techniques of those Path skills. You also have one or more Book skills, and possibly Techniques of those. Having both is only meaningful if there are rituals in Books that don't make sense in terms of the Paths used in the campaign. To go back to the Call of Cthulhu example, spells for calling the spirits of dead humans would fit into the Path of Spirit, but summoning Great Old Ones wouldn't - they're utterly outside earthly understanding, and rituals for calling them wouldn't fit into a sane Path system. Last edited by johndallman; 06-27-2015 at 04:11 PM. Reason: corrections... |
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