To: gurps-ext@Think.COM Subject: Gurps spell lists 1.1 is available by anonymous ftp on think.com. Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1993 12:23:45 -0700 From: Stephan Zielinski Gurps spell lists 1.1 is available by anonymous ftp on think.com. *** WHY SHOULD YOU CARE? *** Because GSL 1.1 is a rules variant for GURPS Magic. It rationalizes the prerequisite system and simplifies creating idiosyncratic spellcasters, both religious and secular. More detail below. *** WHAT FORMAT IS IT IN? *** At the moment, the rules themselves are in Frame. There is also a PostScript version. The spell lists are in straight ASCII. *** SO LETS SAY YOU WANT IT. *** To fetch it, do this: 1) ftp to think.com, like this: ftp think.com 2) You will be prompted for a user name. Type "anonymous" and hit return. (Don't type the double quotations marks, just the word "anonymous".) 3) You will be prompted for your email address. Type it in and hit return. Your email address will not be echoed back at you. 4) Change directories to pub/gurps/playtest/varient-rules, like this: cd pub/gurps/playtest/varient-rules 5) Change file transfer mode to binary, like this: bin 6a) If you have access to a functioning uncompress and a functioning tar (that can create subdirectories,) you should download GurpsSL-1.1.tar.Z, which is the full distribution. Do it like this: get GurpsSL-1.1.tar.Z 6b) Otherwise, you'll have to grab the PostScript / flat ASCII version. Do it like this: get GurpsSL-1.1.rules.Frame3.0.ps get GurpsSL-1.1.lists.txt *** BUT MAYBE YOU'RE NERVOUS AND YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT IS IN THE *** *** FILES BEFORE YOU TRY TO FTP THEM. *** GurpsSL-1.1.tar.Z is a compressed tar file containing the full distribution. It includes a Frame version of the rules (Maker Interchange Format 3.0) and a few mildly useful perl scripts. (It also has each individual spell list split out, for ease of modification.) GurpsSL-1.1.rules.Frame3.0.ps is a PostScript file generated from a Frame 3.0 document. You will need to send it to a PostScript printer. It contains the text of the rules. GurpsSL-1.1.lists.txt is a flat ASCII file containing the spell lists themselves. You can send it to a printer directly. Alternately, save it in a file and pick it to pieces with your favorite editor. *** ARE YOU LACKING BOTH FRAME AND A POSTSCRIPT PRINTER? *** Then I'm afraid you won't be able to read the rules. Sorry. Heck, I just got done convering them from $#&?!ing troff. :-) *** AND HERE IS A MORE COMPLETE DESCRIPTION *** *** OF WHAT GSL 1.1 IS FOR: *** A: In brief: each sort of spellcaster (fire mage, gnat totemist, whatever) has a list of spells. The list is divided into five ranks, corresponding to spells learnable by a novice, apprentice, Journeyman, Master, and Wizard. To become an apprentice, you have to "master" a certain number of novice rank spells. To become a Journeyman, you have to master a certain number of apprentice rank spells. If a spell is particularly appropriate to a spellcaster, the spell will show up low on the list. If the spell is possible but difficult, it will be high on the list. The text also proposes ways to trade casting time for energy. Some of the numbers are quite extreme: for instance, it takes five and a half hours to cast a no-fatigue-to-maintain Flight spell. This is intentional. The text also proposes a different ritual system, one that forces mages to use magic wands or staves to cast efficiently- this is A) chrome, and B) to help balance the flexibility mages gain by being allowed to save energy by increasing casting time. The text also proposes various ways in which a mage may learn new spells and increase his skill with old spells. I felt that the spell-learning guidelines as presented were vague and ill defined, so I set forth to disambiguate the ways that literate and illiterate mages learn. The text tries to force secular and clerical spellcasters into the same mold. This may or may not be appropriate for your world, but I profoundly disliked the section entitled "Clerical Magic" in GURPS Magic, particularly the propagation of the all-religious-figures-are-healers equivalence the RPG community inherited from Dungeons and Dragons. Priests of Kali don't heal people, dang it! You will also note that the Healer spell list does NOT incorporate certain powerful healing spells from GURPS Magic. Regeneration: phooey. For $500 retail you get a lopped-off limb back? Preposterous. I happen to be fond of people missing body parts... but you can always rewrite the list to taste. -- Stephan Zielinski szielins%dvlpyr@us.oracle.com Pure Dignified Monarch, Oriental Order of Sons of the West.