GURPSnet-Digest Wednesday, January 1 2003 Volume 04 : Number 3759 In this issue: Re: Open Letter from a Necromancer (long) Meta Skills [was: Re: Open Letter from a Necromancer] Re: Meta Skills [was: Re: Open Letter from a Necromancer] Gurps WWII Re: Gurps WWII happy new year RE: Letter from Necromancer Reprise: Forensic Magic (RE: Letter from Necromancer) Re: Meta Skills Re: Meta Skills Appendix to spell limitations post See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the GURPSnet-L or GURPSnet-Digest mailing lists. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 14:20:22 +0100 (MEZ) From: Johannes Trimmel Subject: Re: Open Letter from a Necromancer (long) Somwhere out there on the net is a collage skill + advantages for spells System. A M/VH Collage skill and spells are maneuvers on it. I quite like it but it makes mages quite powerfull. If you are going to make maneuvers on spells you can also put some of the benefits of high skill to maneuvers, like less fatigue, less time to cast, no getures and or words ect. I always disliked it that if you buy a high skill for one of this effects you automatically get all the others as well. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Better a solution that makes the problem worse then no solution at all. Johannes Trimmel ++++++++++++++++ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 14:27:16 +0100 From: Thomas Ackermann Subject: Meta Skills [was: Re: Open Letter from a Necromancer] Hello together! About my idea of College/Meta Skills for Spells and other areas of experience, i noticed, that M/VH still has a too fast progress for what i need. I make some experiments with P/H instead: 8 points in a College or other Meta skill gives: DX+1 16 points in a College or other Meta skill gives: DX+2 24 points in a College or other Meta skill gives: DX+3 32 points in a College or other Meta skill gives: DX+4 I like the progress so far - but i am not so sure about the effect of using DX as base for the Skills ... It would help to reduce general IQ for mages and increase the need for DX for fighters. Maybe i should base such Meta Skill on HT instead??? HT stands for physical condition and such - and could be a good candidate for both magical and physical skills ... Does anyone have an opinion about that? :-) Byebye, - -- Thomas Ackermann | Tel. +49-(0)228/631369 | Mobil: 0178-2016033 Email: ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 15:20:45 +0100 From: Thomas Ackermann Subject: Re: Meta Skills [was: Re: Open Letter from a Necromancer] On Tue, Dec 31, 2002 at 02:20:22PM +0100, Johannes Trimmel wrote: > Somwhere out there on the net is a collage skill + advantages for spells > System. A M/VH Collage skill and spells are maneuvers on it. I quite like > it but it makes mages quite powerfull. Sounds interesting - but how to find it??? Also, i did never intend to make mages more powerfull - just more easy to play and to create! I always feeled that a mage with 40 points in the Healing College should be able to do quite some things outside the strikt Spells he knows ... So far, i try the following: Meta Skills (for Colleges, Ranged, Melee and Barehanded Combat) based on HT with the progress of P/H Skills. For example, 40 points in any such Meta Skill will give a level of 15 for a HT 10 character and a level of 19 for a HT 14 character. All Easy Skills default to this Meta Skill at -4, all average Skills default to this Meta Skill at -5, all hard Skills default to this Meta Skill at -6, as usual for defaulting skills from attributes.. Very hard Skills could default to Meta Skill at -8?!? So, study of Bow (P/H) with 40 points (DX+5), give also a Ranged Attack Skill of HT+5: With DX and HT both at 10, this means level 15 Easy Skills will default to 11, average Skills will default to 10, hard Skills will default to 9, very hard Skills will default to 7. With DX and HT both at 14, this means level 19 Easy Skills will default to 15, average Skills will default to 14, hard Skills will default to 13, very hard Skills will default to 11. (So, a Meta Skill at 20 will give VH skills/spells at level 12!) The same would be true for study of a Spell and the related College Skill: As there are no easy and average Spells, most Spells will default to College Skill-6 and M/VH to College-Skill-8 So far, this feels quite balanced for me! I tested some extreme example (only one easy, hard or V/H skill) and it still looks good ... A problem seem to be quite unusual DX/IQ <-> HT combinations (low DX/IQ and high HT), esp. together with many, many skill/spells with quite few points each. I need to think about that. > If you are going to make maneuvers on spells you can also put some of the > benefits of high skill to maneuvers, like less fatigue, less time to cast, > no getures and or words ect. I always disliked it that if you buy a high > skill for one of this effects you automatically get all the others as > well. Yes, this is quite a good idea! This seem to require Enhancements again, or? How would you do this with Maneuvers? Say, "Healing Bones" as a new Spell, defaults to Major Healing-2 and can be increased like a Maneuvers. How to add "1 turn less to cast" to this? Then, an additional maneuvers to increase range or to use less fatigue? A Maneuver for a Maneuver? Or better an Enhancement-System? Or do you think that the above things should be stripped from the Spells and then be added again with Maneuvers? A bit confused about this new idea ... - -- Thomas Ackermann | Tel. +49-(0)228/631369 | Mobil: 0178-2016033 Email: ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 10:42:55 -0600 From: "Gabe Johanns" Subject: Gurps WWII Hello, I am going to be running a World War 2 campaign soon. I have not seen the WWII core book and I am wondering if it would help me with running my campaign. Are there more or better described equipment rules in the WWII core book if I already have the Basic Book 3rd edition and Compendiums' 1 and 2 along with Vehicles and High-Tech. Does the WWII core book contain extra information about the Military Rank Advantage? How much background information is contained in the core book? Are there dates and places (maps?) for major battles or military bases? I am going to order Iron Cross, Hand of Steel, and Dogfaces. I don't need another core rule book if it is just a copy of the 3rd edition rules with a special version of Gurps: Lite that can also be downloaded for free. Thanks, Gabe Johanns ------------------------------ Date: 31 Dec 2002 23:26:42 -0000 From: "Volker Bach" Subject: Re: Gurps WWII On Tue, 31 Dec 2002 10:42:55 -0600, "Gabe Johanns" wrote : > Hello, > > I am going to be running a World War 2 campaign soon. I have not seen > the WWII core book and I am wondering if it would help me with running > my campaign. > > Are there more or better described equipment rules in the WWII core book > if I already have the Basic Book 3rd edition and Compendiums' 1 and 2 > along with Vehicles and High-Tech. > > Does the WWII core book contain extra information about the Military > Rank Advantage? > > How much background information is contained in the core book? Are > there dates and places (maps?) for major battles or military bases? > > I am going to order Iron Cross, Hand of Steel, and Dogfaces. I don't > need another core rule book if it is just a copy of the 3rd edition > rules with a special version of Gurps: Lite that can also be downloaded > for free. Now I admit I haven't read any of the supplements, but unless you are really well versed in the history of World War II, have a good idea of the gear used, and can just make up vehicle stats as you go along, you will want WWII. Yes, there's a good deal of redundancy, but I personally bought it for the sheer reading pleasure. It does not entirely succeed at rendering World War II comprehensible (then again, neither does any book I've read), but it goes a long way there. Bad on the illustrations, though - too little visual impact of the 'that's what it looks like' kind. Volker ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Jan 2003 00:01:50 +0000 From: beccaelizabeth Subject: happy new year Happy new year all! beccaelizabeth http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/4212 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 19:57:50 -0600 From: "Geoffrey Fagan" Subject: RE: Letter from Necromancer Thanks for the encouragement, folks. Thomas, Yes, you can take the idea of enhancements to spells and treat them as maneuvers instead. It works fine from a game balance standpoint - instead of spending points on successive variations on the same spell, the player just spends 'em on the maneuvers instead. It produces a different feel, though. Limitations are harder. I wasn't impressed with Mr. Ross's article at first, which he presented as a systemized way to create lots more spells - I don't think there's much lack for spells, with about a thousand between Magic and Grimoire. But then I saw the potential of his system to add flavor to a magic system that an old friend described as "functional, but joyless." That's actually part of what I was trying to demonstrate with me letter. Lucien's repertoire is pretty broad for a necromancy-only mage, but it has a definite character. Lucien would not be an especially powerful character in the sense of points, but he is powerful in the sense of drama. For the purpose of flavoring magic, limitations work a lot better than enhancements. If you're going to treat enhancements as maneuvers, I'd recommend establishing a set of limitations as world laws - overcoming those standard limitations could be a maneuver too. Better yet, develop a few sets of limitations with comparable values, to represent different styles or sources of magic. In Lucien's world as I described it, improvised magic couldn't work. Lucien learned a limited version of the Zombie spell for training purposes, but if anyone could overcome the limitations of that spell by taking a penalty to cast it, then the spell would have to be restricted. As I presented his story, Lucien learned the full version of the Zombie spell only after he acquired prestige in service to the state as a forensic wizard, and leveraged that prestige and the wealth that accompanied it to gain access to lore and research opportunities not available to the general magic-using community. My observation of improvised magic systems is that they allow a single mage to stand out in a small group of player characters, but they do not allow any mage or group of mages to stand out against the backdrop of the campaign. They also tend to handicap a game master; he can narrate his NPC wizards on the fly if he wants them overpowering, capable of anything, or he can play by his own rules and neglect opportunities that a trained wizard would take, if it weren't for the fact that the mind controlling him has other things to do. Also, the GM has more difficulty presenting mysteries to the players if he doesn't lock down the capabilities of magic to some degree. Finally, improvised magic tends to require quite a bit of character development if you want to exploit its potential, and that requires cinematic point totals - not necessarily a bad thing, but it locks you into a campaign style. Conversely, if you use limitations to make most spells Mental/Easy, you'll have 50-point characters able to cast some pretty effective magic - under the right conditions. If my spell makes noise and pretty lights, it might impress the yokels but it's no good for stealth. If my spell requires a focus, I'll guard my wand with my life. If my spell takes extra time to cast, it's no good for combat. Most wizards in a peaceful society won't worry much about sneaking, fighting, or having bad guys steal their wands, of course - but all of those things are likely to become issues during Thaumior's Grand Adventure. In my experience, using limitations to make most spells Mental/Easy does not corrupt game balance, for mastering a whole college full of spells still remains more point-intensive than any other field of scholarly pursuit. GEF _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 20:14:56 -0600 From: "Geoffrey Fagan" Subject: Reprise: Forensic Magic (RE: Letter from Necromancer) [The following is a post I made long ago to the Illuminati BBS, necessarily edited since the publication of Grimore. I'm repeating it here because my previous post, Open Letter from a Necromancer, made reference to some of the spells in it. The vignette does not take place in Lucien's world, but on Yrth, in a multi-ethnic kingdom where the state administers law according to the religion of the accused.] MAGIC FOR MICHAELITES: Forensic Spells "Brother Harding, could you please explain to this court why you believe that the defendant, Ahmed Bujali, is guilty of the murder of Isaac Lipchitz?" "Well, yer Lordship, when my patrol arrived on the scene, there was this Lipchitz fellow face down in a big pool o' blood. Brother Asa pulled 'is 'ead back, and there was the feathery end of a quarrel protrudin' from 'is throat. It was 'is blood, all right. The bolt had obviously kilt 'im, but as per usual procedure, I had to ver'fy it. It had still kilt 'im. So next I..." "Brother Harding, what exactly do you mean when you say that you 'had to verify it'?" "Well, yer Lordship, when an assassin takes a contract, 'e don't promise to kill nobody, he just promises that Mr. X will be dead by such an' such a date. The assassin gets paid no matter 'ow it 'appens. So when the bloke turns up dead, the assassin says, 'I ain't the one what done it. It was the hand o' the Lord. Sure'n I shot that arrow, but even as it flew I watched the old man keel over from a 'eart attack. The arrow 'it a corpse, an' that's just a crime against property.' To 'ear 'im tell it, 'e ain't no assassin at all, just some bloody astrologer who knows when folks is gonna die natural." "Ahem. That is very enlightening, I'm sure, Mr. Harding. However, could you please tell the court how you verified that the bolt in the corpse of Mr. Lipchitz had in fact killed him?" "Oh, it was in the aura." "The aura, Brother Harding? Could you please tell the court what the 'aura' is?" "Beggin' yer Lordship's pardon, but didn't I explain that to 'im just last week when we caught the Magic Carpet Killer?" "Yes, Brother Harding, you did indeed, but you did not explain it to this group of fine Muslim citizens who shall decide the fate of Ahmed Bujali according to their law. Please do so." "Oh. Well, all yer Fine Citizenships, it's like this. Wherever a man goes, 'e's thinkin' all the time, and givin' off these brain waves, 'til 'e's dead, that is. Even when 'e's sleepin', 'e's dreamin', an' still givin' off them brain waves. An' all the things around 'im are pickin' the brain waves up, sort o' like a psychic footprint. That bench yer sittin' on is pickin' up yer brain waves right now, 'specially the ones about how glad you are it's 'oldin' up yer fanny. Anyway, most o' what a forensic wizard does is lookin' at these auras with special spells. If'n I was to look at the aura o' that bench, I could tell when you sat on it. If I looked at the aura of yer robes, I could tell even more, 'cuz you wear them robes more'n you sit on that bench. When a chap dies, it's quite an upsettin' experience, let me tell you. The brain waves 'e's givin' out is particular strong, an' all focused at what done 'im in. If 'e 'as a 'eart attack, 'e's all thinkin', 'Oh! My 'eart!' an' if 'e 'as a quarrel stuck in 'is throat, with 'is lifeblood streamin' out all around it, 'e's all busy thinkin' o' that, with all the anguish of 'is sinner's soul behind it. Does that help, yer Lordship?" "It will do. Now please explain what you did next." "Well, it was clear that this Lipchitz chap 'ad stumbled around a bit, clutchin' at 'is throat an' bleedin', before 'e fell down dead. So we couldn't tell, just by lookin', which way the bolt 'ad come from, an' o' course the folks around there all said ever' which way. If you listened to them, there was seven bloody crossbows but only one bolt. So I looked at 'is eyes, which was already open ('e died with 'is eyes open), an' saw what 'e seen, an' it was the warehouse on the west side o' the street...Oh, you want me to explain that part again too, doesn't yer Lordship? Okay, when a chap dies, 'e don't see no more after that, o' course, so the last thing 'e seen is still there, in the back o' 'is eyeball. With the right spell, you can look at that image, an' I did, an' the last thing Mr. Lipchitz was lookin' at was this warehouse, with a fuzzy silhouette on top. So we figure that's where 'e thinks the bolt came from, so we thinks that too, 'cuz 'e ought to know if anyone would." "And what did you find atop the warehouse, Brother Harding?" "Nothin', yer Lordship, 'e was gone when we got there." "Did you not find another aura, Brother Harding?" "Oh, that. Well, yes, when we got up there an' didn't find nothin', I didn't wanna give up so soon, so I set up an illusion to act out whatever was in the aura o' the place. So we watches the illusion, an up climbs Ahmed Bujali, an' waits, an' then shoots a crossbow in the general direction of where Mr. Lipchitz was found dead." "Did you recognize Mr. Bujali?" "Not then, yer Lordship." "Then how can you be sure that the man on the warehouse was he?" "I made a magical likeness o' the illusion of the assassin on a piece of parchment, sort o' like a portrait but better. Yer Lordship 'as it in 'is possession now, doesn't 'e?" "Yes. I see. Brother Harding, you said that the crossbowman on the roof of the warehouse fired 'in the general direction of where Mr. Lipchitz was found dead.' How can you be sure that the bolt he fired was the same bolt that killed Mr. Lipchitz? Did the bolt have Mr. Bujali's 'aura' on it?" "No, yer Lordship, as you can see on that parchment, Mr. Bujali was wearin' gloves. Apparently 'e knows a bit about our investigagitory methods. Maybe 'e was a Fine Citizenship once, too. Becuz o' the gloves, and 'cuz 'e 'eld the bolt such a short time, we only got a faint tracin' o' 'is aura from the bolt, not enough to prove nothin'. So me brothers in the order 'ad to go a-knockin' on doors all through the city, showin' folks that portrait o' Mr. Bujali an' askin' if they knows 'im. When we finally found 'im, that was enough to convince 'is Other Lordship to issue a decree to search the premises of Mr. Bujali's premises, an' that's where we found the gloves." "The gloves, Brother Harding?" "Yeah...yer Lordship. See, once two objects come together, you cain't never really take them apart again. A little itty-bitty part o' one goes with the other, an' like that. An' them gloves was definitely in contact with that crossbow bolt." "I see. Has it occurred to you that the gloves you found might not actually belong to Mr. Bujali?" "O' course, yer Lordship, they all says that. But these gloves was reekin' Bujali's aura, 'cuz they was 'is gloves what 'e always wore. Bujali's aura ain't on the bolt, but it's on the glove what 'eld the bolt, which is just the same." "That is why you believe that Ahmed Bujali murdered Isaac Lipchitz?" "Yes, yer Lordship?" "Thank you, Brother Harding. You may step down. Will Vigilence speak?" "I, as an accredited wizard, do aver on my honor, on the honor of my profession, and on the honor of my church that the witness just questioned spoke only the truth." COMMUNICATION AND EMPATHY Last Image - Information When the forensic wizard casts this spell, he sees whatever the recipient corpse saw at the very instant of death, with the intent of learning the identity of the murderer, or at least the location of death. If the recipient was killed by a gaze attack, the wizard suffers this attack as well, but with a +4 bonus to his resistance check. Apply standard temporal modifiers from GURPS Grimoire, based on time of death. Also a Necromancy spell. Cost: 2. One try. Tech Level: 3. Prerequisite: Time of Death. Last Experience - Information Similar to Last Image, except that the caster actually re-lives the last minute of the recipient's life. If the victim was conscious during this minute, the wizard must make a fright check, at +3 since he knows he will be experiencing death. (If he was unconscious, then this spell is probably pointless.) If the victim was slain by a gaze attack or any mental assault, the wizard sustains it as well, but with a +4 bonus to resist. Apply standard temporal modifiers from GURPS Grimoire, based on time of death. Also a Necromancy spell. Cost: 2. One try. Prerequisites: Last Image. Tech Level: 3. Deadthought (VH) - Regular This spell works just like Mind-Search, except that it must be cast on a corpse. Also, the caster must make a fright check, at +3, each minute, and failure automatically ends the spell, in addition to any other effects. Modifiers: Same as Mind-Search, and the GM may also assess a penalty for poorly preserved bodies. Information basic to the subject, like its name, is less likely to be lost to decay than recently acquired or tenuously understood material. Also apply standard temporal modifiers from GURPS Grimoire, based on time of death. Also a Necromancy spell. Duration: 1 minute. Only one try per question. Cost: 6 to cast; 3 to maintain. Time to Cast: 1 minute. Tech Level: 3. Prerequisites: Last Experience, Mind-Search. Item: A pair of brass helmets connected by a copper cord. Usable only by a mage. Energy cost to create: 1,500. Wipe Mind - Regular, Resists forensic spells This spell erases the mind of a corpse. Subtract the margin of success from later efforts to cast Last Experience and Deadthought on that mind. Multiple castings have a cumulative effect. Combined with Delay, this spell can be cast on a living recipient to scuttle his mind if he is killed, protecting any secrets he may have borne. Also a Necromancy spell. Duration: Permanent. Cost: 3 Time to Cast: 2 minutes. Tech Level: 3. Prerequisites: Deadthought, and either Forgetfulness or Remove Aura (G). Item: Lodestone. Usable only by a mage. Energy cost to create: 1,000. KNOWLEDGE SPELLS Association - Information When casting this spell, the forensic wizard brings two surfaces into contact with one another. Possibilities include the surface of a jewel and that of a safe, or the surface of an arrow and that of a bow. If the two surfaces were ever before adjacent, the spell so indicates, and if they were ever directly connected as a single item, an even stronger reading results. This spell does not affect living things. Apply standard temporal modifiers from GURPS Grimoire, based on the amount of time since the surfaces were in contact. Cost: 2. One try per pair of surfaces. Time to cast: 4 seconds. Tech Level: 2. Prerequisite: Aura. Item: Jewelry. Usable only by a mage. Energy cost to create: 500. Time of Death - Information This spell allows the forensic wizard to estimate the time of death of the recipient corpse to within 5% if the corpse has been dead less than three full days, to within 20% otherwise. Apply standard temporal modifiers from GURPS Grimoire, based on the amount of time since death occured. Also a Necromancy spell. Cost: 1. One try. Tech Level: 3. Prerequisite: Body Reading (G) and Tell Time. Item: Lens. Energy cost to create: 100. Murder Weapon - Information The caster can determine if a specific weapon was used to kill a given corpse. In order to acquire the psychic residue of death, the weapon must have delivered the blow which actually killed the subject; if it was merely one of several weapons used to weaken the character for the killing blow, it will not so register. If it delivered the blow which caused the corpse to eventually bleed to death, it still will not register. If it delivered the poison which killed the character, it will register as a murder weapon only if the poison acted instantaneously. Apply standard temporal modifiers from GURPS Grimoire, based on the amount of time since the murder. Also a Necromancy spell. Cost: 2. One try. Time to cast: 2 seconds. Tech Level: 2. Prerequisite: Association, Time of Death. Item: Jewelry. Usable only by a mage. Energy cost to create: 500. Seek Murder Weapon - Information This spell functions exactly like Seeker, except that it enables the caster to locate the weapon that killed a given corpse without having a clear idea of what he is looking for. Apply standard temporal modifiers from GURPS Grimoire, based on the amount of time since the murder. Also a Necromancy spell. Cost: 5. One try. Tech Level: 2. Prerequisite: Seeker, Murder Weapon. Reveal Owner - Information, Special Resistance The caster of this spell receives a mental impression of the most recent owner or owners of the recipient object. An "owner" is defined as an intelligent entity who was in direct physical contact (i.e., no gloves) with the object one hour, or who had the object upon his person for at least 24 hours. These time requirements are halved if the caster knows this spell at level 21, halved again if he knows it at level 25, etc. Reveal Owner does not require a physical trace of the owner as would fingerprint analysis, for example; this spell looks at psychic "fingerprints." The information gained is sufficient that the wizard will recognize the owner on sight, and he is eligible for the +1 familiarity bonus when using Seeker thereupon. Resistance for this spell is special: Roll against Will, and if you fail, subtract the margin from the caster's skill. Maximum Will for this purpose is 14. Apply standard temporal modifiers from GURPS Grimoire, based on the amount of time since the owner last had the object upon his person. Cost: 3. One try. Time to Cast: 3 seconds. Tech Level: 2. Prerequisite: Association. Item: None, but the mage can cause the image to appear within a Crystal Ball (p. M42), so that other characters may receive the benefit thereof. Bonuses for large crystals apply. Detect Spell - Information, Area This spell identifies the most recent spell cast in, on, or through the subject area. If the subject area was not itself affected by the spell, but was in a direct line between the caster and his target, this spell reveals the vector from the caster to the target. If a mage passed through the subject area while maintaining a spell, Detect Spell will reveal his route. If the mage actually stood within the subject area while casting the spell, Detect Spell reveals his level of magery, his nature (a living being or a meta-spell such as Delay or Link) the time to cast, and the means thereof (ritual, scroll, or some other enchanted item). If the target stood within the subject area, this spell reveals whether or not he was affected. If the target was itself an area, this spell highlights the portion of the target area contained in the subject area, but does not reveal the fates of individuals caught therein. If the caster maintains this spell, he can examine the next most recent spell or spells, one every 10 seconds. As with Identify Spell, the GM may provide only a vague description of a spell the player character has never heard of. Apply standard time modifiers from GURPS Grimoire, based on the amount of time since each spell was cast. Cost: 2 to cast; the same to maintain. One try per spell. Time to Cast: 10 seconds. Tech Level: 3. Prerequisites: Identify Spell, and either History or Ancient History, but Ancient History is necessary to examine spells over a month old. Item: Lens. Usable only by a mage. Energy cost to create: 1,500. Reveal Caster - Auxiliary, Information, Special Resistance Cast as an auxiliary to Identify Spell or Detect Spell, Reveal Caster provides a mental image of the mage who cast of the subject spell, just like that provided by Reveal Owner, above. Resistance is as for Reveal Owner, also. Cost: +2; added to the cost of Identify Spell or Detect Spell. Time to Cast: +0 seconds. Tech Level: 3. Prerequisites: Reveal Owner, plus Identify Spell or Detect Spell. Item: None, but the mage can cause the image to appear within a Crystal Ball (p. M42), so that other characters may receive the benefit thereof. Bonuses for large crystals apply. Cause of Death - Information With this spell the forensic wizard can determine if a corpse has received damage from any of the following causes, and which actually killed him (i.e., reduced his HT to the point where he failed a HT check): CAUSE (Notes and secondary information) Exposure (exposure to cold, fire, heat, or lightning; drowning Falling or hanging (height fallen from) Disease or old age (organs affected, parasites involved) Magic (only if no other categories apply) Poison (type and means of administration) Wound (wound inflicted by crushing, cutting, or impaling) High-tech forensics will usually provide the same information, except that it will never identify magical damage as such. The GM may assess a penalty if the body is greatly decomposed, and he might give false information according to nature of the trauma. A corpse swatted by a dragon's tail, for example, might show the same indications as one which fell from a great height, and magical damage usually duplicates some other form, such as exposure for elemental spells. Apply standard temporal modifiers based on time of death. Also a Necromancy spell. Cost: 3. One try. Time to Cast: 10 minutes. Tech Level: 3. Prerequisites: Detect Poison, Time of Death, Forensics skill 10+. Item: Lens; requires Forensics 10+. Energy cost to create: 900. Replay - Area This spell works like Images of the Past, but over an area, not a reflective surface. The replay will consist of a 3-dimensional, transparent image superimposed over the current reality, its quality consistent with the best Illusion the caster knows: Simple, Complex, or Perfect. The wizard can freeze the action, reverse it, scan rapidly for a desired event, or skip to any time within range of the spell: 1 month if the caster only knows History, or any amount of time if he knows Ancient History. The speed of the search is determined by the GM and limited by the magnitude of the event in question. It would be easy to spot the passage of an army, for example, even if scanning at a month per minute, but spotting a pickpocket would require a real-time search. Also, visions of ancient events in a busy area (such as a city street) will display poor resolution no matter how good the caster's Illusion capability. The psychic residue of recent events overlays that of distant ones. Other knowledge spells such as Aura and See Secrets may enhance the effectiveness of this spell. Since the replayed image is visible to all, an assistant mage may cast them. Duration: 10 minutes. Cost: Base 1/4. Multiply this base by the area's radius and by the magnitude of the Time modifier for the period scanned, with a minimum cost of 2. Time to cast: 2 minutes. Tech Level: 3. Prerequisites: Images of the Past, Simple or better illusion, Independence. (Learned as M/VH, this spell would not require Images of the Past, although it would still require Magery 2 and History or Ancient History.) Item: Hourglass; sand flows at a rate to match replay, and may even flow upwards for a reverse search! Energy cost to create: 1,000 times the base cost for the maximum period the hourglass can be used to replay; i.e., 250 for an item that can only replay the past day. NECROMANCY Aura of Death - Information The caster sees a gray aura around the subject if his fate is upon him, or if he is to be the instrument of another's immanent demise. Cost: 2. Prerequisites: Aura, Death Vision. Item: Jewelry. Useable by mages only. Energy cost to create: 80. Magical Memory - Regular The caster borrows a skill from the collective unconscious, the memory of all spirits which have gone before. If the skill is out of common usage (i.e., of a lower TL), Time Modifiers apply based upon when it was last used. Particularly rare skills will accrue a penalty of -1 to -5 determined by the GM. Duration is one minute; however, if the caster borrows a knowledge skill and uses it to determine a fact, the fact will be remembered indefinitely. Duration: 1 minute. Cost: 10 to cast, 5 to maintain. Skill equals DX or IQ, as appropriate, minimum 12. Extra energy increases skill by +2 per point, maximum 20. Prerequisites: Borrow Skill, Summon Spirit. _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 21:57:03 -0600 From: "Geoffrey Fagan" Subject: Re: Meta Skills I allow combat levels for melee skills to be purchased for 8 points per level (and I also have a house rule that says both physical and mental skills top out at 4 points per level, just like M/VH). In other campaigns, I suppose 16 per level would be analogous. These combat levels apply only to melee skills, and they're available to characters who already have Trained by a Master. My reasoning is that first, it's not entirely cinematic - there's a lot you can do by application of basic principles. Several martial arts teach moves which are effective with an open hand and even more effective with a sharp or hard object held in that hand. Second, if your character is lethal with a broadsword, it doesn't add that much to his overall power level to make him lethal with an axe, too. I even allow limitations to be applied to this advantage, to restrict it to all swords for example, or all unarmed skills. I haven't seen a game balance problem - it's really no different from taking extra levels of DX with an Accessibility limitation For Melee Combat Skills Only. When I have characters with other aprtitudes, I do use the mechanic of an attribute bonus with an Accessibility limitation, typically -30%. GEF _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 22:15:11 -0600 From: "Geoffrey Fagan" Subject: Re: Meta Skills On the subject of college skills being too cheap: I once experimented with an improvised magic system that broke a spell down into its components - gathering the magical energy, shaping the spell, and releasing it into the world. Your college skill would cover the middle step. If a wizard also needs to be good at Channelling (a HT-based skill) and Targeting (a DX-based skill) it would fill out the character development agenda vacated by the absence of individual spells. Channelling would control the amount of energy available for the spell. Too little, and you have to use your own reserves, but on a critical failure, you channel more than you cn control, and bad things happen. If you had a wizard who cast spells without channelling, using only his personal reserves (his chi), you'd have something like a cinematic martial artist. I abandoned the project when the GM abandoned the campaign I was writing it for. Flavor-wise, we had established that wizards could use crystals to assist channelling or store energy in advance, and that they could use wands as targeting aids, and that wizards could channel just a trickle and build up a spell slowly for large effects that are not urgent. We had an order of wizards who purposefully erred on the side of excess when channelling but disposed of the excess as (mostly) harmless pyrotechnics, and a commando order that trained to "ground" excess energies, which also came in handy when resisting spells. I no longer have the details - they were on his computer - but hopefully the overview will help with your own designs. GEF _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM: Try the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Jan 2003 00:00:16 -0600 From: "Geoffrey Fagan" Subject: Appendix to spell limitations post The following advantage is part of the mechanic for the Black Magic limitation: Power Reserve 1 point per 10 levels A power reserve is a supply of spell energy that acts like extra fatigue, except that it does not refresh. When the mage spends it, it's gone, reducing his character point value accordingly. No, it's not as efficient over the long term as normal Extra Fatigue or a powerstone, but it's a cheap way to start with a large supply of energy; a 100-point character could start the game with a 500-point Power Reserve, more than enough for Resurrection. Some mages are born with this ability, but there may be other ways to acquire it, such as a divine blessing, secret alchemical elixir, or ritual that only works during a rare planetary alignment. In any event, acquisition of this advantage after character creation is strictly at the GM's discretion. Every character point buys 10 points of energy, although the GM may assess an Unusual Background charge for high levels of this advantage which would allow a mage, albeit infrequently, to create effects more grand than would otherwise be possible with standard mechanics and point levels. This advantage has been adapted from the first edition of GURPS Old West (p. 30). The following limitations available for the Magery advantage were referenced in my post on spell limitations. Blood Magic -60% With each spell, the caster must draw energy from the fresh blood of a sentient being, a number of hit points' worth equal to the energy cost of the spell. (The fatigue cost must also be paid, of course.) This blood may come either from himself or from an assistant in an adjacent hex, but it must be flowing even as the spell is cast. Even if the spell has no effective energy cost, the caster still requires a negligible, token amount of blood. Therefore, a mage with this limitation cannot reduce the casting time of any spell below one second, for he must always open a wound, at least a pinprick. Alternatively, he or his aide may leave a wound open and flowing, losing 1 HP per minute, or the amount required by magic, whichever is greater. Bloodmages may use toxic mana as if they were psychotic. Blood, in the quantity described here, is a +2 Ingredient limitation. Hemodrone 17 points Hemodrones are a created race, bred by generations of blood mages to provide the ultimate slave race. They are utterly subservient, easy keepers, useful as manual laborers or pack-carriers, hardy, and most importantly are walking blood banks! Hemodrones have ST+2 (10), IQ-1 (-10), HP+5 (5), Cast Iron Stomach (10), Early Maturation ×2 (10), Extra Encumbrance (5), Fast Regeneration (50), Temperature Tolerance 2 (2), Immunity to Disease (10), High Pain Threshold (10), Poverty: Dead Broke (-25), Slave Mentality (-40), Social Stigma: Valuable Property (-10), Uneducated (-5), and a bloated, Unattractive Appearance (-5). Weight is 15# greater than ST would indicate. They are found only in the society of blood mages. [Obviously, the cost for this racial template incorporates my house rules. I got the notion from an electronic pen pal, but alas I no longer remember who.] Exclusive Spell Use -30% A Wizard with this limitation cannot maintain more than one spell at a time. As soon as he begins to cast a new spell, he must cancel any that he already has in effect (for a cost of 1 point of fatigue; p. M9). On an individual spell, this is a +2 Accessibility limitation. Incantation Required -10% All mages must use some ritual in order to cast at a low skill level, but most outgrow this need as they master the spell. For them, the ritual is a focus of concentration, and as they practice, a mere suggestion of the ritual is sufficient for this purpose, a mumbled word or discreet gesture. A mage with this limitation must use a spoken incantation in a loud, clear voice in order to activate his magic. He may never reduce the casting time of any spell at any level, and he may never cast spells inconspicuously. Every mage with this limitation must know an ancient, magical language such as Egyptian, Gaelic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, or certain American Indian tongues. The mage's effective skill is equal to his spell skill or his language skill, whichever is lower. This is a +1 Accessibility limitation for individual spells, for the language requirement, beyond the value of No Ritual Reduction. Ritual Prerequisite -50% for 1 level; -10% per level thereafter The mage evokes magic with a secondary skill, like Meditation or Musical Instrument, the use of which quadruples all casting times, and high spell skill does not reduce casting time unless matched by the secondary skill. Even so, instantaneous spells are impossible. The mage must succeed with a roll against the secondary skill before he makes his spell roll. For each additional -10% value of this limitation, the mage requires another secondary skill. For example, a wiz rocker might need to succeed both against Singing and Musical Instrument (Photonic Guitar). Dance, Music, and Song Magery from GURPS Compendium I follow these rules. On an individual spell, this is a +3 limitation, a combination of Accessibility and Extra Time. Rune Magic -20% A mage of the Nordic tradition needs Runes to cast spells, preferably Runestones. In a pinch, he may cast a spell by tracing runes in the air with his fingertip, leaving a faintly glowing outline until the rune is complete. Casting spells in this manner accrues a -3 penalty and has a minimum casting time of one second. Casting spells by writing the runes on paper accrues a - -2 penalty but takes at least 2 seconds. Engraving is best but takes a dreadfully long time and a successful Woodworking or Stoneworking check, and wood merely reduces the penalty to -1. Only with Runes engraved in stone can the mage cast a spell without penalty. A rune mage must know a runic language in order to use magic, and he uses each spell at his spell skill or language skill level, whichever is lower. Alternatively, the rune mage can scribe or engrave runic formulę in advance, or have someone else do so for about $10 for paper, $50 for wood, or $100 for stone. Then he can cast any spell for which he has a prepared rune formula with no minimum casting time. The penalties for paper and wood still apply, and the caster must be able to see the formula; he can't just leave it in his pocket. Scribing runes for spell purposes, at the time of casting or in advance, requires a roll against Rune Lore skill. With a set of Runestones, the mage can quickly assemble a runic formula and cast a spell at no penalty. In order to cast a spell in one second with Runestones, the caster must make a DX check. If he fails, he takes at least two seconds, and if he fumbles, he scatters expensive Runestones all over the floor. This assumes the character actually has an organized set - color coded, or in a rigid case with a separate slot for each stone. Stones enchanted with Air Golem and Name will assemble themselves on command, with no DX roll required. If the stones are just mixed together in a bag, the mage must make a DX roll and subtract the margin of success from 15 to find the casting time. On a critical success, casting time is two seconds. A nice set of Runestones costs about $1,000. They are just that, stones engraved each with a single rune, not enchanted in any way, except for protective spells or the Air-Golem variant described above (which cost extra). Runestones are often made from gems, which look more professional and are more durable than ordinary rocks. An incomplete set of Runestones is insufficient to cast a given spell on a roll of 14 or less on 3d. For especially depleted sets, the GM should reduce this number accordingly. (Many sets include duplicates of the runes needed to cast Seeker.) Rune Magic is a +2 Accessibility limitation for individual spells. _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ------------------------------ End of GURPSnet-Digest V4 #3759 ******************************* To subscribe to GURPSnet-Digest, send the command: subscribe GURPSnet-Digest in the body of a message to "Majordomo@io.com". If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe "local-testlist": subscribe GURPSnet-Digest local-testlist@your.domain.net A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "GURPSnet-Digest" in the commands above with "GURPSnet-L". --==IFJRGLKFGIR62464UHRUHIHD--