Spell research without enchantment

[Whitewings]

Under standard GURPS rules, inventing a new spell requires enchanted equipment. But in a setting I’m working on, the Enchantment college has not yet been created, so there’s no way to enchant that equipment. I’m looking for suggestions on how to adjust the spell research system to fit a setting in which enchantment has not yet been discovered. Or invented, whichever way you want to think of it. The setting does not assume Enchantment is impossible, just not yet available.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Whitewings

Under standard GURPS rules, inventing a new spell requires enchanted equipment.

No it doesn't. It requires a "magical workshop." That doesn't mean the workshop is magical; it means it's a workshop that produces magical things. Its cost is laid out on page 15 of GURPS Magic.

[Whitewings]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

No it doesn't. It requires a "magical workshop." That doesn't mean the workshop is magical; it means it's a workshop that produces magical things. Its cost is laid out on page 15 of GURPS Magic.

Yes, and the cost formula assumes that tools can be enchanted. Indeed, the paragraph explicitly states that the monetary cost can be offset if the researchers do the work of enchanting themselves.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Whitewings

Yes, and the cost formula assumes that tools can be enchanted. Indeed, the paragraph explicitly states that the monetary cost can be offset if the researchers do the work of enchanting themselves.

Which Enchantment spells do you think those are?

[Whitewings]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

Which Enchantment spells do you think those are?

I have no idea, but the need for enchanted tools is quite explicitly laid out, hence my question.

[mehrkat]

I would probably shift to mundane objects having mystical properties. The collection of rarities has a similar cost to enchanting then add a modifier to the cost if the wizard actually quests for the ingredients themselves.

Examples:
ice from the north pole that has never melted
I lock of hair from a deer that was never born yet lives
A still living willow leaf plucked from some specific location inconvenient to get to

Also mundane things like
Diamond dust
Sand

[StevenH]

I would say that since Enchantment spells haven't been developed in your world yet, that magic spell research doesn't require enchanted items in the workshop.

Or, perhaps there are materials that "Slow magic down" enough so the mage can closely examine what he just did. Such as casting a spell at a certain type of crystal that acts as some kind of "mana time trap", slowing the progress of the spell through the crystal, giving the mage a few minutes to examine the magical energies while they traverse the crystal, before emerging out the other side. This crystal could be naturally occurring, and may be expensive or difficult enough to find to be the equivalent in cost to what is listed in the magical laboratory section.

Or perhaps you need a second mage in the lab, equipped with a Real Time Analyze Magic Spell, to examine the experimental results of the spell research. In which case you would need to pay him for his work.

But personally, I like the image of a lone spell researcher casting experimental spells at a big crystal, which he then examines with a complicated system of articulated lenses to see what the heck he just did.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by mehrkat

I would probably shift to mundane objects having mystical properties. The collection of rarities has a similar cost to enchanting then add a modifier to the cost if the wizard actually quests for the ingredients themselves.

Examples:
ice from the north pole that has never melted
I lock of hair from a deer that was never born yet lives
A still living willow leaf plucked from some specific location inconvenient to get to

Also mundane things like
Diamond dust
Sand

Theonly way this works is if nobody has figured out how to make alchemist charms (a different form of "enchanted" item)

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Whitewings

Under standard GURPS rules, inventing a new spell requires enchanted equipment. But in a setting I’m working on, the Enchantment college has not yet been created, so there’s no way to enchant that equipment. I’m looking for suggestions on how to adjust the spell research system to fit a setting in which enchantment has not yet been discovered. Or invented, whichever way you want to think of it. The setting does not assume Enchantment is impossible, just not yet available.

The GURPS approach to that sort of thing is "If you don't have the right tools for the job, take a task difficulty modifier". That being said if you have a wild magician, you get a big shortcut right past experimenation in the lab.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by StevenH

I would say that since Enchantment spells haven't been developed in your world yet, that magic spell research doesn't require enchanted items in the workshop.

Well, if such research is the only way to create new spells, I'd say there has to be a way to do it without enchanted items. Otherwise where did the Enchantment spells come from? No spell can be its own prerequisite.

Reminds me of the Dwarf Fortress questions of how the first anvil was made, since making an anvil requires an anvil.

On the other hand, there could be naturally or spontaneously occurring materials that fill the requirements normally filled by enchanted items. Such could be a sought after commodity among magical researchers.