Sorcery and Threshold System

[Kesendeja]

Not to high jack another thread but I'm trying to get threshold and the sorcery systems to work together.

My first thought was to have "extras" add to the threshold as well as costing extra points to cast in additionto the standard point. (I'm using Quentessence to base magic off of so fatigue isn't that big of a deal so far.)

So far threshold is set by Sorcery rank and Quentessence. Sorcery rank + (Quentessence - 10)

I was wondering if anyone had any advice?

Also, not sure if it matters in this case but the group and I are considering moving the sorcery "spells" closer to how the psionic powers are presented.

[Anders]

"extras"?

I would charge Threshold only for Hardcore Improvisation. That means that as long as you stick to what you know, you only pay FP. But try to go off-road and things get dangerous.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Kesendeja

Also, not sure if it matters in this case but the group and I are considering moving the sorcery "spells" closer to how the psionic powers are presented.

Simple enough. Psionic Powers uses the same rules (Power Stunts, Abilities at Default, etc.), just a specific illustration of them.
the techniques just buy off the penalty for improvising. I would allow casters to use that and then trade it in for Learned Spell once they had spent enough points.

[dataweaver]

Right. The only thing missing is that Sorcery doesn't have anything equivalent to Psionic Skills for the Power Techniques to default off of; so you'd either need to have them default directly off of Will or you'd need to bring a skill or skills into the picture.

GURPS Supers goes out of its way to associate skills with each of the Power Modifiers —though it phrases it in terms of “analyzing powers whose source is…” So Bioengineering is used to analyze Biological abilities; Engineer is used to analyze Electronic, Mechanical, or Nanotech abilities; Esoteric Medicine is used to analyze Chi abilities; Expert Skill (Psionics) is used to analyze Psionic abilities; Hidden Lore (Wilderness) can be used to analyze Nature abilities; Philosophy can be used to analyze Moral abilities; Psychology (Experimental) is used to analyze Savant abilities; Ritual Magic is used to analyze Spirit abilities; Thaumatology is used to analyze Magic abilities; Theology is used to analyze Divine abilities; and Weird Science is used to analyze generic superpowers and powers that are rooted in Super-Science.

The book doesn't say anything more than that; in particular, it doesn't say anything about how to use the analysis of an ability in the game. But if a given power source is amenable to power stunts, as most of them are, I could see “knowing how these abilities work” as a reasonable justification for basing the stunts off of those “analysis” skills.

Sorcery, being a type of Magic, might therefore base Hardcore Improvisation off of Thaumatology.

[Rindis]

First thing, is any spell casting causing Tally? Or just when "pushing" it? You're a little unclear there.

Either way, you might want to look over Extra Effort on Powers 160 and substitute Tally for Fatigue.

It seems to me there should be a "Costs Tally" modifier to go with Costs Fatigue and Costs HP; I suspect it should be -10% since it 'heals' at a rate closer to HP, and might be as fatal.

This implies that if all spells always cost a Tally, your Sorcery power modifier is -20% instead of -15%. Also, you'd presumably pick up 1 tally per 10% of Extra Effort effect (judge by +5% as normal for the Will roll; also if its FP/Quintessence for casting, per +5% should be fine anyway, since people will probably hardly ever touch their Tally, especially if its floating high already.)

[Anders]

Christopher Rice has Adds to Tally at -20% and it adds 1/5 of the advantage's unmodified cost to Tally. So Warp (Adds to Tally, -20%) costs 80 points and adds 20 to Tally.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Anders

Christopher Rice has Adds to Tally at -20% and it adds 1/5 of the advantage's unmodified cost to Tally. So Warp (Adds to Tally, -20%) costs 80 points and adds 20 to Tally.

Note this implies an option for adjusting Tally - you can adjust the Limitation value down, and however many points it saves you at that level, that's how much Tally it generates on use. So if you want a character who can Warp for only +1 Tally, you adjust the Limitation to -1% (EDIT: note that's specifically for Warp, as it has a base cost of [100]; if you instead wanted to make a 3d cr Innate Attack cost 1 Tally per use, you're looking at around -7% - specifically -6.66...% - instead). This could be useful for representing a character who has trained the ability enough that it's more efficient than for most, much as how high-skill mages have reduced FP costs (and thus Tally accumulation) to cast the relevant spell.

Essentially, this changes Adds to Tally to be "Gain Tally equal to however many points the Limitation saves on the Advantage, to a maximum savings of 1/5 the ability's base cost."