From: Brant Harvey <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 23:57:04 -0600 (CST)

COLLEGE-BASED MAGIC
for GURPS

GURPS' official magic system is detailed enough for just about any
purpose, but can be burdened by the complexity of the web of
prerequisites.  It gets a bit silly at points, such as in requiring
necromancers to take Decay (a Food spell) before learning Pestilence.  GMs
can get around this either by rewriting a few prerequisites, or by using
one of the many alternative systems, from Rune Magic in GURPS Magic, to
the excellent "realistic" system in GURPS Voodoo.  This is my attempt to
add one more system to the list, one where mages learn Colleges rather
than individual spells, so that a skilled necromancer would be a genuine
expert in Necromancy, rather than simply in possession of a lot of
specific effects. 

There are three "levels" of skills in the College-Based System: mundane 
ritual skills, Colleges, and spells.

Ritual Skills

College-based magicians need a basic working knowledge of magic in
general, in addition to knowledge of specific Colleges and spells.  This
knowledge is a ritual skill, and can actually be learned by anybody.  As
the foundation of the magician's abilities, it serves as a limit -- no
College can be known at a higher level than the ritual skill. 

The specific ritual skill necessary for magic is a campaign decision, and
can be a new skill created for this purpose (see Magical Ritual, below). 
Or, it can be any appropriate skill, such as Occultism, Theology, Singing,
Dancing, Musical Instrument, Gesture, a Language, Poetry, Mathematics,
Astrology, or even Physics or Computer Programming.  The ritual skill 
must at least be available at default for any magic at all to be learned.

There could even be several of these skills in use within a certain world,
representing entirely different styles of magic.  If this is the case,
then magicians need to be using the same skill to be able to cooperate on
a spell.  The effective skill of a College is lowered to that of whatever
ritual skill is being used.  A Rhyme-caster might be of little help to a
group of Spelldancers, and a Bronze Age Theurgist wouldn't have a prayer
of participating in a Reality Hacker group effort. 

Colleges

Magic itself is learned as "Colleges," broad groupings of magical
abilities.  These are Mental/Very Hard skills, and are treated basically
as spells (IQ + Magery, instead of IQ; Eidetic Memory only adds +1 or +2
to skill; minimum of one full character point devoted).  Like ritual
skills, the exact Colleges in existence are campaign decisions.  It's
simplest to use the ones outlined in GURPS Magic: Animal, Body Control,
Communication and Empathy, etc. 

More world-specific magic is easy to design.  Colleges can be merged (for 
instance, putting Food and Making and Breaking together into 
"Craft-Magic"), divided (turning Movement into "Apportation," which 
contains all the telekinetic-type spells, and "Teleportation," which 
would also contain all the Gate Spells), or simply invented ("Warding," 
which contains entirely anti-magical and protective magics, such as 
Pentagram, Banish, and Exorcism).  Even if the College isn't changed at 
all, it can be renamed for greater effect ("Phantasmics," instead of 
Illusion and Creation).

Colleges can also have specific rules attached to them.  GMs may require
that mages have IQ of 15+ before learning Gate-Magic, or that they be
experienced in two other Colleges before becoming Enchanters.  Body
Control mages might be subject to stranger and nastier critical failures
than Illusionists.  Exceptionally powerful fields could be limited by a
flat penalty to the skill, while very weak ones (Food comes immediately to
mind) might receive a bonus.  (Don't put money on the latter.)

Spells

Spells are based on Colleges, at a default of College-3 (college-4 for
Very Hard spells).  Other spells are not prerequisites; it's assumed that
a mage with experience in a College knows all the spells in it to some
degree.  However, spellcasters must still meet Magery and attribute
requirements.  For example, Create Object effectively requires sight
(necessary for all Illusion spells), Magery 2 (needed to progress to the
Creation spells), and IQ 13+ (mandatory for the spell itself).  This may
still be tedious, but can probably be worked out quickly. 

This system has room for all of the spells in GURPS Magic and GURPS
Grimoire (for exceptions and explanations, see Specific Spells and Skills,
below).  Spells can also be invented by players, in which case the GM can
determine the exact cost and casting time.  Extremely powerful spells
should be inconvenient to cast; Liquefy Army might cause the caster to
spontaneously combust... 

Note that certain spells could belong to multiple Colleges (Fog, the
various Vision spells).  In most cases, this is just indicative of overlap
in specialized fields.  Both Air-Mages and Sea-Mages have interest in
weather magic, for example.  Mages with skill in several applicable
Colleges should just pick the one their spell is based on when they first
start using it.  Some very rare spells, such as Resurrection, may require
skill in all applicable schools, in which case the spell is based on the
lowest of them. 

Spells can be cast in three ways: improvised, from a grimoire, or from 
memory.

Improvised Spells

Spells can be improvised directly from a caster's experience in a 
College.  In order to do this, the mage must first imagine the ritual 
necessary to create the effect.  This will require at least one second's 
concentration and an IQ roll.  In the case of obscure or new spells, this 
can be significantly longer, and the IQ roll may occur at a penalty.

Improvised spells are always cast at default.  However, they are always 
treated as if they are being cast at skill 11 or less: casting time is 
doubled, the ritual is always obvious, and Fatigue is never reduced.  
This also means that mages cannot contribute more than three points of 
Fatigue to ritual magic for which they do not know the spell.

Improvised spells are also more likely to fail.  They always fail on a 
16, and are critical failures on 17 or 18.  GMs are encouraged to be 
nasty with botched improvisations.

Casting from a Grimoire

Magicians can cast spells from grimoires, written magical formulae.  The
caster uses the lower of his own skill with the spell, which may be at
default, or the "skill" of the grimoire, which is determined when it is
written.  A magician cannot use a grimoire without normally being able to
improvise the spell! 

Spells cast from grimoires are always treated as ritual magic, and thus 
take ten times as long.  However, this also means that the caster can be 
assisted with Fatigue.

Most Grimoires will be written with a particular method of magic in 
mind.  GMs can rule that spells written for the Arcane Flautists cannot 
be cast without the skill Musical Instrument: Flute.

Memorized Spells

Finally, magicians can also learn specific spells.  This lets them cast 
the spells in the normal amount of time, but requires character points.  
The caster's skill with the spell is determined by the points put in it:

1/2 point                               Default
1 point                                 Default + 1
2 points                                Default + 2
4 points                                Default + 3

No more than 4 points can be devoted to a specific spell.  Memorizing a 
spell is the only way to be able to enchant anything with it.

Specific Skills and Spells

Enchant (see B160 or M38)

Enchantment is conducted as in the default GURPS system, with the skill 
of the enchantment being equal to the lower of the caster's skill in this 
spell and the spell being placed on the item.  Although the spell used 
for the enchantment cannot be improvised, Enchant itself can be.  
However, if it is, the enchantment must be Quick and Dirty.

Grimoire Writing (Mental/Average)       Defaults to IQ-5 or Writing-3

This is the skill of composing instruction texts for magical rituals.  
When a grimoire is created, its effective "skill" is based on the lower 
of the writer's skill in Grimoire Writing and the writer's skill with the 
spell (which must be memorized).  Grimoire Writing receives a bonus for 
extremely specific spells.  This bonus ranges from +1 (for replacing 
Create Plant with Create Grasses) to +3 (replacing Create Plant with 
Create Lantussorian Swampgrass).  This can easily result in a number of 
rather silly grimoires, devoted to dozens of different ways to prepare 
food or mend household items.

For the record, a "grimoire" need not be a book.  This skill can be used
on shards of pottery, murals, tapestries, or any other conceivable method
of conveying written information.  Also note that magicians can name the 
spells they record.  Finally, GURPS can have room for "Fintoozler's 
Splendiferous Thesaurical Cognizance."

Magical Ritual (Mental/Hard)       Defaults to other Magical Ritual-5

This is one of many possible bases for magical knowledge.  Magical Ritual 
requires a specialization, which default to each other at -5.  Thus, 
Druids may have trouble participating in the rituals of Thaumaturges.

Magical Ritual can also be used to identify spells as they are being 
cast, and to determine what an unidentified grimoire spell can do.  And 
IQ rolls to improvise spells can be made on this skill.

Recover Strength (see B162 or M44)

Recover Strength is an independent spell, and does not belong to any of 
the Colleges.  It is bought up like a normal spell in the default GURPS 
system.

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