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Old 01-06-2016, 01:57 PM   #1
(E)
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
Default [Magic] powered by youth

I have had an idea kicking around for a while and I am planning on using it for a Merlin like cross time NPC (taking the long way) Although it could possibly be used in a solo game.

Anyway the power for spells come from the characters youth. More mana spent equals older character.

The character as a side effect is immune to all age related magic. The character regains lost youth off camera at a rate of about 3 to 1. Though all this figure and all others here are not set in stone. So the character is at full power about once a generation presuming he started with nothing.

In gurps terms this works out as a power pool of quite a large size that is replenished once per campaign.

The special effects attached to it are youth related disadvantages when at full power and when it is starting to get depleted there will be a simplified aging mechanic or maybe a pre rolled table of standard aging rolls.

At one mana per year it equals about 80 power at one point per lunar cycle it is closer to 1040. I may yet choose/create something in between.

Thoughts? Any game mechanics I may have missed that would make things easier?
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Old 01-06-2016, 02:07 PM   #2
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: [Magic] powered by youth

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Originally Posted by (E) View Post
At one mana per year it equals about 80 power at one point per lunar cycle it is closer to 1040. I may yet choose/create something in between.

Thoughts? Any game mechanics I may have missed that would make things easier?
Well, you've invented a system even slower to replenish itself than Threshold Magic. Now you need to invent spells that are worth making yourself old to cast. Nothing so valuable currently in Magic occurs to me off-hand.
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Old 01-06-2016, 03:20 PM   #3
mr beer
 
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Default Re: [Magic] powered by youth

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Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
Well, you've invented a system even slower to replenish itself than Threshold Magic. Now you need to invent spells that are worth making yourself old to cast. Nothing so valuable currently in Magic occurs to me off-hand.
How about every 3 years you put a point into a Powerstone, then after a century you have a 30 point Powerstone and can finally cast spells?

Really the way I see this working is that just about all wizards are also horrible necromancers who wander around with a 'battery' of children to power their spells with.
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Old 01-06-2016, 04:42 PM   #4
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Default Re: [Magic] powered by youth

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Originally Posted by mr beer View Post
How about every 3 years you put a point into a Powerstone, then after a century you have a 30 point Powerstone and can finally cast spells?

Really the way I see this working is that just about all wizards are also horrible necromancers who wander around with a 'battery' of children to power their spells with.
The power source is the casters youth not someone else's.
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Old 01-06-2016, 06:15 PM   #5
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Default Re: [Magic] powered by youth

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Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
Well, you've invented a system even slower to replenish itself than Threshold Magic. Now you need to invent spells that are worth making yourself old to cast. Nothing so valuable currently in Magic occurs to me off-hand.
There are tons of spells worth casting even if it makes you old in Magic, as long as wizards are exceptionally rare and magical defenses don't exist (why would they if magic is this rare).

Greater haste, force dome, teleportation, and mind control all spring to mind immediately, and I'm sure there are a host of other spells that are possible.

A wizard in this style of setting will need other skills to fall back on, or allies to protect them. A Gandalf (wields a sword instead of slinging fireballs) or Merlin (Has the protection of the king, or stays hidden) character is what I would expect out of this idea.

If the exchange rate between years and FP is appropriate, you may still be able to sling missile spells at a regular rate, but then more powerful spells wouldn't have the high cost I think the OP wants.
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Old 01-06-2016, 07:51 PM   #6
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: [Magic] powered by youth

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Originally Posted by mr beer View Post
How about every 3 years you put a point into a Powerstone, then after a century you have a 30 point Powerstone and can finally cast spells?

Really the way I see this working is that just about all wizards are also horrible necromancers who wander around with a 'battery' of children to power their spells with.
You could cast Steal Youth on the children. That would only make you 10 years older for every year you got in exchange or a net loss of 9 years. You'd become old slightly less fast than other mages.

Really, there's no way I'd spend pts for this. not even if you rated this Limitation at -80% enabling you to get a level of Magery for 2 pts. 80 pts of spells per century is nothing.

If you wonder, this system has been implemented in fiction once. It was in this movie

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071569/?ref_=kw_li_tt

.....which you have almost certainly seen on TV at some time or other. I suspect it was influential on D&D's ideas about unnatural aging. At least there you could be trading 5 years of aging for a Wish spell. Here you'd be doing that for 1 minute of Missile Shield.

While 1 use of that spell could save your life it would only do it once. Spending the same number of cp on other things could save it many times.

That's what putting a cp cost on everything means. You can spend x quantity of pts on anything in the GM allows that adds up to x. Changing what you get by spending pts on one thing but not others usually makes those other things more attractive.
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Old 01-06-2016, 08:02 PM   #7
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Default Re: [Magic] powered by youth

While the replenishment rate for youth based magic would be slow the power pool would potentially be immense depending on the exchange rate set. In a mythic powered game/era set the exchange rate to one day per point?

Remember area spells are very effective when cast large.

Also the big thing here that I didn't express very well is the time factor. The NPC with this might only appear on the scene once a generation and spend the rest of his time in recharge mode. It seems like a perfect justification for the powerful mage who doesn't intervene until the end of the story.

In a solo game skipping between historical "key events" and writing off 10 years in a sentence is acceptable in a one way time traveling game. (My fantasy world is multi age)

I pictured the NPC who had this power waiting in his/her lair or just wondering around until the time came for him/her to intervene. All the while aging backwards. When the time comes the gloves come off, power to burn, but only for a finite time and if the limits are pushed there is the risk of pushing it too far before there is a safe period to recharge.
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Old 01-06-2016, 08:02 PM   #8
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Default Re: [Magic] powered by youth

Enchantments seem the only way to make this work.
Golems, Body Swaps, etc.

How do you gain skill without practicing as that would quickly kill?
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Old 01-06-2016, 08:07 PM   #9
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Default Re: [Magic] powered by youth

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Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
You could cast Steal Youth on the children. That would only make you 10 years older for every year you got in exchange or a net loss of 9 years. You'd become old slightly less fast than other mages.
Part of the package was immune to all age related magic. With the exception of the recharge. Call the recharging "mage sleep" or something like it.
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Old 01-06-2016, 08:15 PM   #10
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Default Re: [Magic] powered by youth

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How do you gain skill without practicing as that would quickly kill?
That I hadn't thought about. Slowly would be the answer. Or with a hand wave. . Crystal practice cave in a high mana area type thing.. . . . . Not ideal though.

Backwards aging while recharging does give you a lot of time for theoretical practice even if there is no practical practice.

Could work as a curse cast on a high level mage trying to completely cheat aging.
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