[DF] Placing areas of different mana in Dungeon Fantasy - Page 4

Michael Thayne · 11-10-2021, 09:30 PM

In GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, nature's strength and sanctity are pretty straightforward: the nature's strength rules come with very clear examples of various penalties, while areas of high/low sanctity presumably correspond to good/evil temples (at least ones above some threshold of importance). But it's much less clear how one should go about placing areas of high or low mana, much less very high or no mana, even though some parts of the game clearly require such areas in order to make sense: liches can only be killed permanently in no-mana areas, and the faerie folk's Dependency on mana is a free 25 points of no-mana zones aren't encountered occasionally.

If we look to DFRPG for guidance, Spells indicates that areas of high/low mana are actually supposed to be more common than areas of high/low sanctity—but "random", which could explain that while clerics often operate in cities (with historic temples), wizards tend to end up making their bases in random spots of wilderness. But the answers in Spells still aren't wholly satisfactory, because it indicates areas of no mana should be plot-device level rare—which causes real problems for explaining how PCs are ever supposed to (permanently) defeat a lich.

So I'm left feeling I don't have a wholly satisfactory approach here. What have people on the forums done in their own campaigns?

11-10-2021, 09:30 PM	#1
Michael Thayne Join Date: May 2010	[DF] Placing areas of different mana in Dungeon Fantasy In *GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, nature's strength and sanctity are pretty straightforward: the nature's strength rules come with very clear examples of various penalties, while areas of high/low sanctity presumably correspond to good/evil temples (at least ones above some threshold of importance). But it's much less clear how one should go about placing areas of high or low mana, much less very high or no mana, even though some parts of the game clearly require such areas in order to make sense: liches can only be killed permanently in no-mana areas, and the faerie folk's Dependency on mana is a free 25 points of no-mana zones aren't encountered occasionally. If we look to DFRPG for guidance, Spells* indicates that areas of high/low mana are actually supposed to be more common than areas of high/low sanctity—but "random", which could explain that while clerics often operate in cities (with historic temples), wizards tend to end up making their bases in random spots of wilderness. But the answers in *Spells* still aren't wholly satisfactory, because it indicates areas of no mana should be plot-device level rare—which causes real problems for explaining how PCs are ever supposed to (permanently) defeat a lich. So I'm left feeling I don't have a wholly satisfactory approach here. What have people on the forums done in their own campaigns?