[Worminghall, MH] Symbol Drawing and RPM

[Kalzazz]

Does anyone have any ideas on how to use a form of the Symbol Drawing rules from Worminghall with RPM magic?

It would be particularly cool to have ideas for RPM magic both the form in Champions, and the form in Quick and Dirty Charm Creation in Sidekicks

[Stone Dog]

You may not have long to wait... Ritual Path Magic should be out pretty soon and I'm sure it will have all sorts of side rules like that.

Isn't it in post production now or something equally promising?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Stone Dog

You may not have long to wait... Ritual Path Magic should be out pretty soon and I'm sure it will have all sorts of side rules like that.

It does.

Originally Posted by Stone Dog

Isn't it in post production now or something equally promising?

No clue, hopefully soon... >_> I'd like to see the finished product.

Ghostdancer

[Kalzazz]

Im definitely eagerly awaiting the RPM book when it comes free into the light of day!

However, I'm still interested in thoughts on this topic now

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

No clue, hopefully soon... >_> I'd like to see the finished product.

Last update from Kromm on his blog was in August:

• Both GURPS Thaumatology: Chinese Elemental Powers, by Bill Stoddard (whswhs), and GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic, by PK (peekitty) moved ahead in production.

There's rumblings that Chinese Elemental Powers might be slowly breaking free of the Ogres mighty grip (I'm expecting more November/December than imminently, but I'll be thrilled to be proven wrong). If it is, then RPM can't be too far behind it.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Bruno

There's rumblings that Chinese Elemental Powers might be slowly breaking free of the Ogres mighty grip (I'm expecting more November/December than imminently, but I'll be thrilled to be proven wrong). If it is, then RPM can't be too far behind it.

I would be delighted if that were so, but I think Underground Adventures may be in the queue ahead of it.

Bill Stoddard

[SCAR]

The 2 Thaumatology items in the queue are the things I'm most interested in seeing, but there are only 6 (maybe 7) non-Pyramid release Thursday's before the Christmas break, and a lot of new items jostling for position in the release Queue, so without multiple releases on a Thursday (perhaps a bumper pre-Christmas release?), we're not going to get everything this year.
Fingers crossed though.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Does anyone have any ideas on how to use a form of the Symbol Drawing rules from Worminghall with RPM magic?

For anyone reading this without GURPS Locations: Worminghall, it's worth noting that the Symbol Drawing rules in that book are the standard ones from p. B224, along with the assumption that only the learned scholars of Worminghall have access to that skill.

RPM touches on Symbol Drawing as a way to consecrate an area quickly, but not as a direct spellcasting aid. That was intentional, because I've found that the bonuses from Symbol Drawing can be overly powerful, particularly in RPM, where a key part of the system is trying to scrounge and scrape together every bonus possible.

For RPM, if you really want Symbol Drawing to factor into spellcasting rolls as a potential bonus, I'd recommend turning it into a complementary skill roll. Off the top of my head, I'd start with the following, see how it worked (playtest it!), then adjust as needed:

Before a ritual is invoked, the caster may choose to draw powerful magical symbols, unique to the spell. (The symbols change to reflect new subjects and situations, and thus cannot be prepared in advance.) The symbols may be written on paper (no penalty) or traced in the air (-2 to skill); either way, it takes a minute, modified by the normal Time Spent rules. Roll against Symbol Drawing; on a critical success, the caster's rolls to cast the spell are at +2; on a success, +1; on a failure, -1; or on a critical failure, -2.

It would be particularly cool to have ideas for RPM magic both the form in Champions, and the form in Quick and Dirty Charm Creation in Sidekicks

The upcoming GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic book goes into a bit more detail on the latter. For example, it makes it clear that you can use it for more than just charms -- it works for any ritual, as long as you're casting it during downtime when casting time isn't a factor. But that's just the stuff you've already seen -- I promise you that the coolest parts are mainly stuff you haven't even thought of. :)

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by PK

For anyone reading this without GURPS Locations: Worminghall, it's worth noting that the Symbol Drawing rules in that book are the standard ones from p. B224, along with the assumption that only the learned scholars of Worminghall have access to that skill.

There is one small extra tweak: the extra time rules can be used with Symbol Drawing. This is not explicitly stated in the Basic Set.

Bill Stoddard

[Bruno]

I might be inclined to include Symbol Drawing in RPM almost as-is... but using one half or even one third the bonus (round up) instead of the straight bonus. The smaller the fraction, the closer this gets to Rev's alternate suggestion, of course.