Campaign Advice needed for Modern Fantasy Setting

[christ0pher]

I'm planning a modern/urban fantasy game of the Wainscot variety where the PC's will be playing 150 point magic users, and I need some advice on handling the magic system.

Setting Magical Mechanics:
Uses Standard GURPS Magic with several tweaks.
No Spell prerequisites other than IQ and Magery level.
Magery caps at level 10 for PC’s
Enchanting costs are divided by 10; quick and dirty enchanting.

I plan on limiting PC access to spells by making advanced grimoires rare.

Thoughts? Critics?

[(E)]

Questions
- Mana levels?
- Frequency of mages
- involvement in Government etc?
- Magics relationship in different cultures

[Phantasm]

Is magic generally hidden or well-known in society?

[christ0pher]

Originally Posted by (E)

Questions
- Mana levels?
- Frequency of mages
- involvement in Government etc?
- Magics relationship in different cultures

Mana level is generally normal with lows and highs in places of interest.

I'm thinking about 1in a million. Globally, about 7,000 or so born with some level of magery.

No involvement that the PCs are aware of.

Most every culture on earth will have some form of magical knowledge / folklore / myths.

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Is magic generally hidden or well-known in society?

It is generally hidden from society.

[GodBeastX]

Originally Posted by christ0pher

I'm planning a modern/urban fantasy game of the Wainscot variety where the PC's will be playing 150 point magic users, and I need some advice on handling the magic system.

Setting Magical Mechanics:
Uses Standard GURPS Magic with several tweaks.
No Spell prerequisites other than IQ and Magery level.
Magery caps at level 10 for PC’s
Enchanting costs are divided by 10; quick and dirty enchanting.

I plan on limiting PC access to spells by making advanced grimoires rare.

Thoughts? Critics?

Trying to understand what you're going for with the magic system. Is it so players can learn any spell without prerequisites?

My own humble opinion is this feels like it might break the idea of a mage a bit and make it feel more divine. Instead of learning the fundamentals of magic and how they relate the spells will feel disconnected from each other and the idea of Colleges goes out the window.

Now, that's not necessarily bad. It can be neat.

I'm mostly looking for the explanation of thought in that design.

[christ0pher]

Originally Posted by GodBeastX

Trying to understand what you're going for with the magic system. Is it so players can learn any spell without prerequisites?

Yes, that was my thought.

Originally Posted by GodBeastX

My own humble opinion is this feels like it might break the idea of a mage a bit and make it feel more divine. Instead of learning the fundamentals of magic and how they relate the spells will feel disconnected from each other and the idea of Colleges goes out the window.

Now, that's not necessarily bad. It can be neat.

I'm mostly looking for the explanation of thought in that design.

I'm toying with the idea that "spells" in game describe a mental/spiritual/astral construct that the the mage can throw power into and get results, but even though "Create Fire" and "Fireball" might be similar constructs, I don't see why you can't learn "Fireball" first.

[(E)]

Work on the in game rules of magic. Have a few things that mages can't do. This is a great way to add depth.

Are there any illegal spells? Mind control, time travel etc. If so who enforces the rules?

Paraphernalia and trappings of magic use. Work the details out sooner.

edit

One thing I have discovered is that the realism of your magic has to compete with the realism of the real world, so work the consistency.

[AlexanderHowl]

Magery 10? 10% enchantment costs? There is no way that magic can be secret under those conditions. Heck, it would be cheaper and easier to do some stuff with enchanted items than to use technological items.

If you want secret magic, take a look at Path/Book ritual magic in Thaumatology.

[panton41]

I love Wainscott urban fantasy (Charles de Lint and Neil Gaiman are among my favorite authors and I write in the genre (signature link)) and can't imagine it working with standard GURPS Magic at all ever since Ritual Path Magic came out. (And before then I was looking into Path/Book or Realm/Power Magic.)

The idea of keeping standard GURPS Magic secret is simply impossible unless you cull the list so much you're talking maybe 1/10th of the total list. At that point you might as well start looking into RPM.

[(E)]

Ben Aaranovitch's Rivers of London has a magic system that has a passing similarity to standard gurps magic. Rather than fatigue there is a chance of brain damage.