02-07-2021, 01:49 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Jun 2010
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Secret Magic in 1970 East Berlin
I've got this idea for a GURPS Cold War secret magic campaign.
It's set in East Berlin, the year is 1970. The magic system is Effect-Shaping Book Rituals (see Chapter 5 of GURPS Thaumatology). Magic is both secret and illegal - the Communists officially deny magic is real but they treat magic as basically SUPER contraband. PCs are all partisans, criminals, rogues, hedge witches, hunted men and possible undercover spies (for NATO or the Stasi) newly initiated into a spiritualist cult/crime gang of underground magicians in East Berlin. The cultists must undertake illegal black ops on behalf of their occult conspiracy under the nose of the Communist state...or secretly pursue their own hidden agenda... Have you got any general suggestions? Advice? Cool historical things to include? In particular, any ideas for a Ritual Book? Like, who it was written by (one should definitely be authored by Rasputin), what Rituals it has, the title, and so on?
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02-07-2021, 04:53 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Sep 2013
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Re: Secret Magic in 1970 East Berlin
Maybe this is of interest to you, a German TV documentary:
https://www.rbb-online.de/berlin-sch...jahr-1970.html German Language, but a pictures says more than a thousand words. :-)
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""The origin of everything good is due to games." - Friedrich August Wilhelm Froebel, creator of the kindergarten. |
02-07-2021, 08:21 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Snoopy's basement
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Re: Secret Magic in 1970 East Berlin
Potential 'Books' authors to consider could be:
-Guiseppe Balsamo ('Count Cagliostro') -the Golden Dawn Society -Aleister Crowley -Carlos Castaneda or his apocryphal mentor Don Juan Matus -Pythagoras -Dr. John Dee -Edgar Cayce -Helena Blavatsky Many of them have published works already that could be adapted to have 'secret' versions containing additional magical knowledge that serve as effective magical rituals. |
02-07-2021, 10:47 AM | #4 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Secret Magic in 1970 East Berlin
Howe's Primer was collected by Ellic Howe during the 1930s and early 1940s. It's not entirely clear how it showed up in East Berlin, but it is quite useful. All of its rituals create documents which affect the first person to read them after their creation and require a successful Forgery roll in addition to the casting roll. They can be about any non-technical subject.
It contains versions of Cloud Memory, Hallucination, Liar's Charm, Lust, Suggestion, Dream Shackles, Dream Visitor, Night Terrors, History, Scry, and Astral Projection.
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
02-07-2021, 10:56 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: One Mile Up
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Re: Secret Magic in 1970 East Berlin
Quote:
Dramaticheskaya Smert' na Steroidakh: Effect Shaping: (As-Yet Untitled Book of Rasputin) -12, 1 Hour Energy Accumulating: 20 Points You can be killed while under this masterful and impressive enchantment, but your demise will be the stuff of legends! You suffer full effect from Stunning, Shock, and crippling injuries, but all rolls to remain conscious succeed automatically. Death checks are made when appropriate, but once one is failed you have 1d x 10 Minutes in which to continue to act, or until you reach -10 x HP, whichever comes sooner, at the end of which this enchantment ends and you drop dead immediately, even if you have regained HP by means magical or otherwise after failing the roll for death. |
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02-08-2021, 01:28 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Udine, Italy
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Re: Secret Magic in 1970 East Berlin
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02-08-2021, 01:39 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Udine, Italy
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Re: Secret Magic in 1970 East Berlin
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02-08-2021, 06:09 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: Secret Magic in 1970 East Berlin
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02-08-2021, 07:54 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: One Mile Up
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Re: Secret Magic in 1970 East Berlin
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02-09-2021, 01:25 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Jun 2010
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Re: Secret Magic in 1970 East Berlin
Thanks, these are all useful suggestions.
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Tags |
cold war, east berlin, path and book, secret magic, thaumatology |
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