Magic Systems I use in My Gurps Games

I've mainly used three systems of magic in my Gurps games: Magic as Powers, Ritual Path Magic, and magic as technology. This is quite a bit less less than I thought I've used, and I'm actually somewhat surprised by it. I've tinkered with several of the systems, but the main ones I've run for players are Magic as Powers, Ritual path magic, and magic as technology.

Realm Powders

Realm Powders are mystic substances that grants simple and concrete powers to those who consistently use a specific powder. Over time, these substances infuse the partaker with the ability to see and interact with the "Realm", a version of the world defined by energy rather than by matter. Each substance has a unique and localized organic source, as well as a very specific combination of powers it grants.

Realm Powders are from my game "Murder in the Court", an aborted campaign about a murder in a fantasy version of the imperial Chinese court. While that game had issues that led it to end early, realm powders were not one of them. They served as our mystical element, and a lot of successful game-play was driven by what individual powders could or couldn't do, both in PC and NPC hands. I share it with you now, as an example of a "Powers System I've Used"

Overgrown Secrets: Magic

I've mentioned the magic system from Overgrown Secrets before. This is what I gave my players:

Everyday practical magic is tied to magical artifacts made of precious metals and inscribed with the inscrutable designs of the ancients. The artifact usually takes the form of a ring, bracelet, necklace, or other piece of jewelry fitting around the body. Only one item can be used at a time.

Effects consist of motion, light, body, or mind. Each item produces an effect worth from [1] to [10] points. It is not known how to reproduce many effects, but a few, such as the soul protection circuit and the simple light ring, can be produced by modern smiths. Those that aren’t must be bought as signature gear. The cost of the item is $100 per point. Some complex effects require a magic operation skill to use.

Here are some examples of magic items:

• Soul Protection Circuit: $350, Worn around the neck: gives +3 to will saves against mental attacks and attempts to consume one’s soul. Can be manufactured. 
• Candle Ring: $60, provides the light of a single candle. Can be manufactured
• Motion Bracers: $1000, provide [10] points of Telekinesis. Requires Magical Operation (Telekinesis)
• Running Ring: $500, provides +1 move
• Weapons Circuit: $500, provides +1 striking ST.
• Necklace of Disguise: $1000, allows changing how you look. Changing is only a few seconds, but matching a look requires at least a minute to get right. Requires Magical Operation (Illusion) and Disguise.

Skills for Magic: 

The ability to work with the metals is the jeweler skill. 

Knowing how to construct or analyze the constructions is Hidden Lore (Metalcraft)

Individual items may require the Magical Operation Skill. Generally this is only needed to perform complex tasks.

Fine Workings of Magic:

The Magic items are made out of 10 strands of bronze, sliver, or gold, connected in a complex pattern. They must be looped around the user's body. Bronze is connected to mind effects, silver to motion and light effects, and gold to body effects.  

Effects that can be reproduced by local smiths are 30% to 40% cheaper than the expected price of $100 per character point.

The non-reproducible magic the crypt spirits and pyramid provosts have access to is essentially a tool to observe the flows of the effect. At the GM's option, they might also have powers worth more than 10 points, but that feed off of the soul of the user, which will effect the user's mind. I didn't have to work that out in the campaign.

Magic in the Campaign:

My players almost universally chose to wear the soul protection circuits and to forgo other magic items. This is because it served as armor against both the default foe of shapeshifters and was even more effective against the crypt spirits. 

The Crypt spirits had access to the ability to make some of the currently non-reproduceable magic items, though they didn't have access to any at first. This could have been an incentive to the Players, and some of their NPC allies were anxious to get it, but the players weren't that tempted by the secrets, finding that as they needed their amulets, the rest of the magic was less interesting. 

The magic system was created as an afterthought to the campaign: I wanted magical monsters but heroes with limited access to magic. I think it filled its role very well. The players with Lore (metalcraft) were constantly rolling against it analyzing what their enemies were doing, but they mostly just used the amulets to prevent the monsters from killing them with a single will roll. 

The cost of the items is quite cheap. I have a few more thoughts about that here.

I liked this magic system, and I may use it again. I hope you find it useful!

Metatronic Generators In Low Tech Settings

Historically, I've always looked at Metatronic generators funny. They provide a direct translation from points to cash, and that often gives funny numbers. The base version also has this weird assumption that you will be using electricity baked into it, and they're generally based off of Psychotronics, which are intentionally an area of weirdness. 

 I just realized that I'm using them for a TL1 fantasy game.

Not intentionally, but the more I look at the "Magic System" the players have access to, the more I'm convinced that it can be usefully expressed in terms of Metatronic generators. So what's the system, and what settings do I use to make Metatronic generators useful at TL1?

What is my TL anyways?

What's the TL on a full-auto crossbow?

First of all, ask yourself why you need to know the tech level. Tech level has a few pretty different purposes: setting starting wealth, letting players know what kind of tech to expect, and pricing people with a different tech level. If you don't need any of those, or can settle them without using the number, you don't need to figure out what the actual Tech Level is. Of course, you frequently need to do all three of those, and in that case Tech Levels provide a framework for you to work with.

Tech levels are a tool, not a limitation. If you find them getting in the way of what you want to do, you should either throw them completely out, or you should figure out why they aren't letting you do what you want to -- and that can help you to better understand your setting. I hope that this article can help you view and use Tech Levels as a tool and not a troublesome number you have to set.

What Tech is Important?

When looking at technology, there are lots of things that are good to look at, but it can be worrisome to wonder if you're looking at enough technology and if you've looked at too much. I use the following list when I'm comparing technology: you should probably know how each of these work.

• Weapons and Armor
• Transportation and Communication
• Medicine
• Survival Gear
• Spy Gear
• Economic Robustness

Each category represents something that adventurers use. There are certainly other categories of Technology, but they aren't as important to adventurers! If you're spending an extra amount of time on a category, be sure its interesting to the players.

Weapons and Armor: The ability to kill and stop killing. This is very important to most adventurers, and includes not only automatics and armor, but tanks and tactics. Consider law enforcement situations, military situations, and fights in the wilderness.
Transportation and Communication: This includes getting silk from china, sending messages from London to Baghdad, and the written word. Some adventurers spend an awful lot of time delivering messages, exploring far off places, and trying to read ancient tomes. Transportation and communication also go a long ways to setting a feel for a setting. Consider not only how the rich and powerful communicate, but also how the common man communicates, and both how grain gets to town and how silk crosses the world.
Medicine: Medicine isn't just about undoing weapons and armor, but also about combating plagues -- a necessary part of exploring foreign lands. A smaller category than most, its also the most likely to be more advanced than reality. Be sure to remember both injuries and illness.
Survival Gear: Artificial lights. Tents. Water skins. Scuba Gear. Winter Clothing. Food preservation. Adventurers are constantly going inconvenient places, and this gear keeps them alive. This type of gear is easy to forget, so be sure that you include it! Consider typical camping gear, winter gear, cave exploration, swimming in water, climbing cliffs, and other tasks that may come up while adventuring.
Spy Gear: Finding out things people don't want you to, and ways to stop that. Most of the obvious cases are high tech gear: hidden microphones, cryptography, and alarm system count. but don't forget locks, primitive ciphers, and signet rings. Telescopes and radar also count. This tech can be very important for adventurers!
Economic Robustness: This is about how rich a society is, and its certainly part of the tech level. Its about how hard it is to make something, and how rich the average man (and more importantly soldier) is. The things to watch are food, shelter, clothing, pottery, and tools. How long does it take to make one of them. It is very possible to spend too much time here, but its worth at least stopping in to check.

What Tech to Expect

The most important part of a tech level is setting player expectations. It can be frustrating for a player to think that something is available, only to have them realize it isn't. Even moreso when it happens again and again. The converse is no better: the NPC's constantly one-uping the heroes through superior understanding of their technology.

So for scifi, are we using this....

Most GM's have better things to do with their time than make lists of every single item of gear in a campaign. This is one of the places where the TL number becomes a tool: you can give the number and a set of expectations are made. Its a fantastic starting point, and for a lot of games, its sufficient.

But you probably didn't come here looking for advice on a run of the mill game. The TL number can still help. You give the TL number and then you modify it. In historical games this isn't too hard. You can also say things like "TL 4 without gunpowder". This is particuarly true for Ultra-tech games.

....or this?

And then you have crazy settings with a large amount of tech described in no other book. This includes settings like star wars (which doesn't seem to have all the tech we do), Magitech, and glowing Atlantean crystals. So what do we do here? Sit down with the list of categories and specify what's available and what's not. If you struggle with one, think about it for just a moment and then come up with something or be sure it won't come up. Economic Robustness... lines up pretty well with starting wealth. And we'll cover that in a lower section.

Pricing Primitives

This is at once the hardest and easiest part to do: +/-[5] points per tech level different from the campaign standard.  If the campaign standard is TL 8 and you are TL 7+1 -- don't pay anything, it all adds up to eight. Of course, this requires a number for you to compare to... kind of.

In some campaigns its possible to just wing a TL difference based on 'better tech'. This is particuarly applicable in space opera where a more advanced race is better only in terms of smaller gear that does more damage with better armor on faster ships, but is otherwise pretty much the same. This is almost never more than two TL's worth of advancements.  A tool, not a limitation.

Starting Wealth

Starting Wealth is an interesting concept. It controls how much gear a character has access to. Which is a big deal. Part of what makes DF use a 'fantasy TL' is the cost assumptions in the genre. Starting wealth is normally not a big deal: most of the time you know about what TL you are at and you can just use that number -- or tweak it to your taste. TL is a tool, and this is never truer than with starting wealth. Occasionally though, you need to know what the proper starting wealth for a character in a totally alien technology paradigm is. For that-- figure out the number, and then use the normal tools.

Coming Up With a Number for Magic Carpets and Zombie Farmers

Ok, now we need to come up with our number. This can feel nervewracking, but is actually not that hard to get right. The most important thing before you start is to know what the tech level you are trying to set is capable of. If you don't know that, you can't figure out the TL.

The trickiest part in all of this is often taking magic into account. When I say magic in this context, I don't mean 'anything that breaks the laws of physics'. I mean 'abilities restricted to a small portion of the population'. When working out what technology requiring specialized mages is like, ask yourself: "how does a middling merchant do it?" In the end, it all comes down to access: if merlin and al'Hazin use crystal balls to talk in london and baghdad, but everyone else uses couriers with a long a dangerous journey, you don't have instant communication. On the other hand, if a middling merchant can find a local witch to bridge the distance with her own crystal ball, you should count the technology.

Pick a TL you think your own compares to (I suspect 6 or 7 is best for you), and compare each of the technological categories of the historical TL to the TL you choose. If one aspect is lots better in one setting (often communication or medicine) that's fine, but if one setting routinely outclasses the other, move the 'equivalent TL guess' up or down and compare again. Don't worry about this being exact. If you can't decide if a setting is better or worse than another in a given aspect, just declare them equal and move on.

You can certainly compare the TL's yourself and by ear, but I have a list. Its nothing new, but it puts the technologies into categories so that its  easy to compare and so all the information is in one place. Once you have the list and know what the TL can do, matching them up is fairly simple.

when the balances are even, you have your TL equivalent! This doesn't mean you have that TL, only that your TL is 'about as good' as that TL. If it seems like a lot of stuff seems to fall between TL 5 and TL 6 --- that's not a coincidence. The industrial revolution saw huge changes in what mankind could do. In some cases one technological area will be more advanced. While this doesn't matter on the small scale, it can be worth it to say that a setting is TL6, but TL7 in weapons technology. Use this sparingly though -- once you have a split tech, everything is fairly fuzzy. Slight advances (or primitive fields) work best when fairly close to a core TL -- or if they are close to a TL that exists elsewhere in the setting.

Making the Number Look Fancy

 The numeric equivalent is good for most purposes, but a lot of people will want to go even further and come up with one of those fancy TL3+2^ names for their TL. We can do that too.

Once you have your TL equivalent, figure out the last standard TL where most of the technologies exist. For example, If you don't have coal power you probably don't have TL 5, but you might have TL 4 -- particularly if you do have gun powder and clockwork. This tends to be easier than the first comparison, but once again, don't get stuck over thinking it.

Now take the two numbers and build the TL X+Y. So if the first number was 7 and the second number was 4, you have TL 4 +3 (=7). And if you have supernatural aspects add a ^ to the end of the whole thing.

The ^ is kind of a funny thing. It represents breaks from the laws of reality as we know them. If it is put on a TL without a '+', as in TL7^, it means that you have TL 7 plus some extra things, be that broadcast power or   psionic mind reading tech. The ^ will always indicate raised technology. But if you've got a TL X+Y^, the ^ doesn't indicate addition, just that the alternate tech isn't of the normal variety. In some ways its redundant, but its always good to have, because it tells the players to beware of tech.

Don't be Discouraged

Remember, this is a game. Its supposed to be fun! If you don't think figuring out your TL is fun, or doable, just use TL 5. Actually, use the alternative number than popped into your head when I suggested using what's obviously the wrong TL. But if you really like this sort of stuff (like I do), then read over the article and start thinking beyond flintstones level technology. Think up alternate ways of running a civilization, and set your players loose in the results -- assured that you can give this place a number.

Mystral Blooded

At long last we get human interaction without all of this glass in the way. Mystral blooded generate, store, and use mystral energy without any of the technology.

I'm not going to cover how to price these folks outside of a mystrally capable society: their abilities are very much tied to the prevalent technology, and priced as such.

The old mages of mystral realm had their innate talents mastered, cast in glass, and distributed to whoever could pay. Their feats and talents are no longer in high demand, and they have fallen from the power they once wielded. Of course, that doesn't make them useless. The Mystrally blooded can still interact with the technology, and can use it in ways others cannot. They carry around extra energy with them, and can circumvent technological barriers. The Mystral blooded excel most in the shadows -- a large proportion of them use their abilities in fields that that adventurers frequent.

Core Traits

Mystral Blood [5] You can produce, store, and use Mystral energy without the aid of technology. You produce 200 gems a day, and can store 5,000 gems of energy in your body.  You also have access to a number of perks and skills that allow you to replicate mystral technology. If you wish to sell the energy, you can generate an extra $120 a month.
Extra Generation [+20%/level] You produce more gems per day than normal. each point grants 200 more gems/day. This is limited to 9 levels.
Extra Capacity [+20%/level] You can store more energy than other mystral blooded. Each level raises the maximum storage by 5,000 gems. Limited to 9 levels
Replicated Devices Perk: For the cost of a perk, a mystral blooded may imitate the effects of a single mystral device. They must pay the full energy cost, and succeed at a Ritual Magic (Mystral) roll. failure results in the energy being spent as a great deal of light and noise. Valid Devices include: standard and dark specus**, any Comnus, Standard Thalmus* (at -2 to all rolls), Small and Standard Forge, hover ships up to 5 tons (must be on board), image disk+ Basic Amplus or Hologram Maker, Basic and Large Amplus, Menmus (-2 to all rolls)**, Automonton Menmus (-2 to all rolls)**, any hand held mystral weapon (one point per weapon, cannot quick fire, max acc 2)**, or a DR 20 mystral sink (doesn't stack)**.
** Requires a license perk, legal enforcement powers or high status
Ritual Magic (Mystral) IQ/VH: The skill of manipulating Mystral energy, a roll is required every time a replicated device perk is used.

Registered Weapons

The mystral blooded are walking tools, and in many cases walking weapons. The ability to walk around with their abilities is a legal boon. Whether or not their status is formalized depends on the exact setting, but they are considered to have the appropriate legal enforcement powers for what they can do, and should pay accordingly. If the powers are not formal and occasionally cause legal issues, add limitation: 'de facto' -40% to legal enforcement powers, or take secret if using them will bring down the law hard on you. In some cases, high enough status or rank can waive this requirement. Other times, a simple license perk will suffice.

If you are a well known Mystral blooded without a good deal of government trust, you will be watched, as you are a known risk. You will not be harassed, but  guards tend to be on alert around you, extra precations are taken, and so forth. This is the equivalent of a -20 enemy who is just a watcher, for a base of [-5]. The frequency of appearance is based on how often precautions are taken against you.

Social Standing

The mystral blooded are generally highly regarded by the societies they live in. In many settings, they form the core of the nobility, or at least having noble blood and mystral blood are correlated. The mystral blooded should purchase social regard in many settings. Whether they are feared, respected, or venerated is fairly setting dependent. If the mystral blooded have social regard in a setting, it must be purchased along with the core advantage. This may be sufficient to satisfy the registered weapons clause.

Sample Mystral Blooded

Marcus Axrell [100]
attributes [60]
ST 10 DX 11 [20] IQ 11 [20] HT 11 [10]
HP 10 Will 11 Per 11 FP 10
Speed 6 [10] Move 6
Advantages: [15]
Mystral Blooded (Extra capacity 3,200/day, 20,000 max) [8]
Replicated Devices ( Heavy Scorpus Arcus, Spectus) [2]
Social Regard (Feared) [5]
Disadvantages [-5]
Enemy (Guards, Watcher, 9 or more) [-5]
Skills [30]
Saviore- Fairre  -12 [2]
Ritual Magic (Mystral) -11 [8]
Beam Weapons (Arcus) - 13 [4]
Mystral Operation (Medical) -12 [4]
Mystral Operation (Surveillance) - 12 [4]
Fast Talk -11 [2]
Acting - 11 [2]
Climbing - 11 [2]
Running - 11 [2]

Marcus is an agent for hire. Born to a noble line that's run out of money, he's learned how to manipulate the energy that flows through him to see through to places he shouldn't, and to kill even after being disarmed.

Mystral Blood in Times of Crisis

Those with mystral blood technically can't do anything unique. Of course, others have to carry around expensive, heavy, and fragile equipment in order to replicate those feats, and are obvious when they do so. The Mystral Blood advantage could alternatively be bought as 10 levels of payload (gem block only) plus a point of signature gear and of independent income.

Mystral blood works best in times when stealth is key: they can walk through security check points with flying colors, then start blasting away or even messing with people's minds. They're also very useful to have when you don't want to carry a 200 lb thalmus around with you. And its really useful to not have to reload until you've expended 20 times the shots as everyone else.

The key to countering a mystral blooded is knowing that they are there. Societies that routinely deal with them usually don't bother to disarm people, and like to know the backgrounds of the people they invite over for dinner.

Its entirely possible to build a setting where mystral blood is quite common but still the only way to use mystral technology. In such cases, only those with the blood should have to pay for the ability to use it!

Its worth pointing out imitating a forge allows one to have TK over objects after focusing energy into them for a while. 

I hope you've enjoyed this treatment of how to work inherent magery into a magic as technology system. Have fun blasting away!

Mystral Automotons

One of the core technologies of Mystral Energy is the automatons: mechanical semblances of animal life that perform manual labor. This is a runaway technology that builds upon itself, and one of the core reasons that Mystral Energy is considered TL4+2^. Automatons can be found throughout Mystral societies, laboring away at their tasks.

Automatons use mystral energy very efficiently: something about the animal form cuts down on the energy used. Automatons come in all shapes and sizes, from lumbering hulks with eight legs and beetle-like 'mandibles' to three foot imitation people. The constant is limbs: the heart of Automaton movement is its legs and arms.

Appearance and Function

Automatons are largely made out of wood: glass is too fragile and metal too expensive for the purpose. Of course, the wood is often reinforced with metal, and the joints must be made of wood and metal. The Mystrium that powers them is worked into their frame, and shows as lines of inlaid metal in the wood.

The mind of an Automaton is stored in a complex glass ball. There is both a hardware and a software component, and both are difficult problems. While up to IQ 8 can be achieved, doing so is expensive, and when possible, Automatons are left essentially as dumb creatures. The 'eyes' of the Automaton (which also function as ears) must be patches of the glass brain left open to the world, which has lead many to conclude its best to just go ahead and give the things proper heads. In addition to eyes, Many Automatons, especially the less complex ones, have control patch on the brain.

Creating the mind of an Automaton is done with a machine similar to the Menmus, but that only works on automaton minds. The mind of an automaton is much better understood than a human mind, and its mostly programmable. And the actions should be treated as just that: programs. An ordinary operator is limited to copying programs painstakingly designed by an engineer, though turning off any given program isn't too hard, as is changing the 'ownership' of the automaton.

Automatons have the automaton and machine metatraits, Maintenance (monthly, 1 person) [-2], reprogramable, cannot speak, and are mystral-null. They can only learn mostly physical tasks.  They have been set to work farming, working textiles, and other repetitive tasks.

Minds

While the mind of an automaton can be changed after it is built, the hardware of the mind determines its general capabilites: you need much more complex brains to run the complex minds of a dexterous Automoton.

Mindless : The automaton does not respond to outside stimuli at all, but simply performs a pre-defined task. They can be manipulated via placing a hand on the control patch (a part of the brain) and giving commands like 'stop', 'start', and 'turn left'. IQ is 0, as are will and perception. They also have indominable -- they respond only to commands on the control patch. What a mindless automaton does can hardly be called a skill, but roll vs 8  if there is a chance it will fail at something related to coordination. $100, LC 4

Bestial: The automaton can see, hear, and respond to commands. They can move intelligently, search for things, pick up objects, and protect themselves from danger by moving away. They generally require supervision when doing something like plowing a field. IQ is 5, will is 10, and perception is 8. They have DX 8, and  Ham Fisted 2 if they have manipulators at all. They lack indomitable and are programed to obey certain commands (and sometimes certain people), but many of them still have control patches. Bestial automatons can be programmed with 4 skill points. $250, LC 4

Dexterous: Something of a misnomer as the greatest difference is that of intelligence, Dexterous automatons can perform complex tasks like sewing clothes, harvesting crops, building houses, cleaning floors and making sure soup doesn't burn. Dexterous automatons can have DX 9, IQ 8, will 10, perception 9 and and 12 skill points. They are limited to skills that don't require complex decision making. While its traditional to build dexterous automatons in a human shape, its not necessary. They are the least likely to have their control patch exposed to the world. $3000, LC 3

Bodies

There are many types of automaton bodies -- far more than there are minds, and its simpler to design new ones. Virtually every shape found in nature and few others are represented. Despite this, some shapes dominate. The primary determiner of cost is size:

ST 5	SM -3	$500
ST 7	SM -2	$500
ST 10	SM -1	$600
ST 15	SM 0	$1000
ST 20	SM 1	$1600
ST 30	SM 2	$3600
ST 50	SM 3	$11,000
ST 70	SM 4	$28,000
ST 100	SM 5	$100,000
ST 150	SM 6	$460,000

Automatons smaller than SM -3 are possible but still cost $500. SM 5+ automatons are limited to the water or air, as they are unable to support their bulk on land. The most efficient results (in terms of cost per pound of lift) come from machines in the ST 20-30 range, though 15 and 50 are within 10% of that.

Beast of Burden: A slow plodding automaton with  no limbs other than legs. +20% ST, Move 4
Mount: A faster automaton made for carrying around people. They tend to be stylized to look elegant, and  Move 6, Enhanced move 1
Beetle:Slow and plodding, but with a limb or two on the front. This may look like a beetle, but this design includes things similar to an elephant, centaur, crab or bear Move 4, enhanced move .5.
Quick Beetle:As the beetle, but faster: Move 6, enhanced move .5, + 20% cost
Scurrier: A lighter design meant for climbing, rough terrain, and moving sideways. Classic designs look like spiders or dogs.  +1 SM, Move 6 and terrain adaptation
Manual Scurrier: a scurrier design with hands that can perform useful tasks. +1 SM, Move 6, terrain adaptation, +20% cost.
Sessile: A legless device consisting only of manipulating arms. This includes crane-like structures, factory workers consisting only of the upper body, and other stationary automatons. -20% cost.
Humanoid: Built in a roughly human shape. Move 5
Slender Humanoid: A humanoid shape built for reach rather than strength. usually built in ST 10 size. +1 SM, Move 5
Ichthyoid: Built to operate in the water, via means of flippers or a fish tail. Move 4, +20% ST
Fast Ichthyoid: As Ichthyoid. Move 6, enhanced move 1 (water)

Other forms are possible, but less likely. Wheeled forms are particularly inappropriate. Most new automaton forms have a slight form change or improvement: a cutting edge model may have high manual dexterity 1 and cost 50% more, or be designed with an unusually smooth gait and cost 20% more.

Common Combinations

Servant: ST 10 Dexterous Slender Humanoid, $3600. Used to fill the roles of servants, mopping floors, doing laundry, and pouring drinks. An additional $100-$300 is often spent to have them made look stylish, with elegant guiding or an imitation of a human face. Skills include savoire faire (servant) and housekeeping.
Laborer: ST 15 Dexterous Humanoid $4000. Used in construction, farm work, pottery, freight loaders, and possibly as soldiers, Laborers are among the most common Automatons available. They have a variety of skills.
Big Beetle: ST 50 Bestial Beetle $11,250. These massive machines are the equivalent of forklifts, back hoes, and other heavy machinery. The two massive mandibles are incredibly strong, and the design is meant for moving lots of heavy objects quickly.
Mystral Horse: ST 30 Bestial Mount $3850. Sized like a biological horse but stronger, the Mystral horses can be ridden, but is more often used to pull carriages.
Builder: ST 30 Dexterous Beetle. $6,600. With six legs and the ability to walk on the back four, builders are usually used in construction tasks where delicate manipulation of large bulk is needed.

Using Automatons in the Campaign

Automatons are mostly meant to be used as a background element for a campaign, a technological nicety to allow drudgery to get done. They have their greatest impact on the setting in industry, transportation, and flavor.

Automatons could conceivably be used as soldiers, but they have a few major drawbacks. First off, they are mystral nulls, which means they cannot use mystral energy weapons or even mystral blades. Secondly, their skill with a melee weapon is generally limited to 11. You spend 8 points to raise it from DX 9, and the other four are generally required for other skills (like soldier). Lastly, Automatons are reprogramable. They do have major advantages though. They are manufactured, not born, and are when compared to a human soldier, pretty cheap. They can be built stronger than humans, are more durable, more obedient (unless your foe has gotten to them), and don't require food. Whether or not to use automaton's as soldiers is an important game decision, and can be justified in either case. Of note are wars against non-mystral foes, where automatons tend to be a lot more powerful. Regardless of whether or not they replace grunt soldiers, automatons will be used in war to carry things around, build fortifications and in other supplementary uses. And even if they replace the grunts, humans will need to be around to direct the troops, provide mystral support, and so forth.

Automatons are not meant to be purchased as allies or played as characters, but a group wishing to do so is advised to add another mind type with a higher price tag. This will turn the game into a full-on robot setting, with all of the implications involved.

Automatons are intentionally cheap: The laborer can be purchased for 10 months pay of the struggling TL 4 worker he replaces (automatons are mystral null and thus can't use most of mystral tech). If a setting where Automatons do not completely dominate lower-class industry is desired, Prices should be substantially raised.

I hope you find these low tech robots fun to play with and intriguing. If nothing else, this can serve as a base for you to start your own changes. Have fun playing!

Mystral Weapons

This focuses in on Mystral energy, a system that pushes the line between magic and technology. This article focuses on the weapons technology of the system.

Mystral Weapons are bulky but powerful, with large lenses projecting the mystic energies into their targets. Mystral weapons act much like modern guns in their operation and general feel, but have a variety of effects at their disposal.

Skills

Actually using the weapons use the expected skills: beam weapons with the appropriate specialty for the hand held energy weapons, Gunner and Artillery for the cannon, and melee weapons for those of that type (which all still weigh the same amount).

Energy Weapons

Energy weapons powered by Mystral technology take three basic shapes: the Gauntlet, the Arcus, and the Cannon. Gauntlets are worn on the hand as a sort of glove: the lens sits on top of the hand, with the glass rods and gems lying against the user's skin. When a fist is formed, the lens slides into place perpendicular to the rods. Guantlets can be picked up and immediately aimed or fired, but should properly be strapped onto the hand first -- the suffer -1 to all rolls until strapped on (5 seconds). The hand a gauntlet is on is only somewhat free, and gives -2 to delicate work with the hand. Reloading a gauntlet is about removing the spent gems and adding new ones.

Arcus look a good deal like fat, stubby guns with bell mouths (or crossbows without the bow replaced by a large lens). The rod is controlled via contact on the bottom, near where a trigger would be on a gun. Arcus have a good deal more range than gauntlets, and are considered personal weapons.

Cannon should need little explanation. Its worth pointing out they still require the contact patch  of the gunner, and that their ammunition is glass blocks, not gems.

Limitations

Like all mystral devices, mystral weapons rely on physical contact between the user and the glass -- and for best results, hand contact. This means mystral weapons either have exposed and delicate glass, or that they are firmly strapped on to the user. Mystral weapons have two stages: in the first, the energy is moved from gems to the energy rods. In the second, it is released from the rods. This normally takes two actions. Some people try to fast load and fire. This is done with a fast draw (mystral energy roll). On a failure, the energy is lost. On a failure by 5 or more, the weapon overloads cracks and is useful until the relevant parts are replaced or melted down and reformed.

It should be noted that a large and additional cost of these weapons is ammunition. While the ammo is reusable, it has to be charged, and is fairly expensive. Multiply the weight of the ammo by 100 to get the number of gems for a load. Gems must be stored somewhere (taking extra time) or abandoned. They're round and made of glass-- not ideal for scattering on the ground and coming back to. And its not unusual for a single load to be 50% of the cost of the weapon or more.

Weapon Name	Damage	Acc	Range	Weight	Shots	ST	Cost
Gauntlet	3d	2	5/15	2.2/.5	35(7)	5	$40
Heavy Gauntlet	6d	1	7/21	9/2	19(7)	10	$170
Long Gauntlet	4d	2	30/90	9/1	31(7)	10	$200
Soldier's Gauntlet	5d	2	15/45	9/1	16(7)	10	$200
Arcus	5d	4	50/150	9/1	22(5)	9	$390
Heavy Arcus	6d+2	4	28/75	20/3	22(5)	10	$430
Long Arcus	4d+1	5	300/900	20/1	26(5)	10	$480
Cannon	5dx3	5	900/2700	550/20	30(5)	50	$13,000
Portable Cannon	5dx2	5	800/2400	220/20	10(5)	32	$5,000
Heavy Cannon	5dx4	5	3200/9600	1600/40	25(5*)	90	$50,000

*two glass blocks must be loaded, each taking 5, but each operation can be done at the same time.

Types

The numbers given in the table are the basic form of a number of related weapons, each using a different kind of energy. Each kind of energy has its own properties and uses a completely different weapon: a Mortifier Gauntlet will never fire Blasting energy.

Forcas: half damage, explosive burning damage
Mortifer:  ignores objects not living or mystrally enhanced, toxic damage
Scorpus: half damage, armor divisor (3) ignores mystral sinks, corrosive damage
Blasting: x4 damage, no damage to living or mystrally enhanced things, crushing damage
Kinetus: half damage, x4 knockback, crushing

Mystral Blades:

A sword made out of glass and empowered by mystral energy. When active, mystral blades  have a damage divisor (5),  DR 20 , +2 HT, and do +2 or +1/die of damage. When not active, they are mere glass swords, extremely fragile and unsuited for all but the most gentle of cutting (as with a scalpel). Most Mystral Blades are either knives shaped for use as a tool or long slender blades (edged rapiers) taking advantage of the weapon's unusual resilience. most of these weapons only store enough gems for a few minutes of use at a time.
Mystral Longsword (edged rapier): $2000, 3 lbs, 300 gems/hour
Mystral Smallsword (edged rapier): $1000, 1.5 lbs, 240 gems/hour
Mystral knife (various kinds, including spear heads):  $300, .5-1.5 lbs, 120 gems/hour
Mystral arrow: $10, normal weight, gem included in cost, must be activated before shooting

These weapons are in their own ways as powerful as the  energy weapons. Warriors often wear a gauntlet on their hand even as they swing their mystral blades -- the combination of near and far range weapons is potent.

Mystral Armor

With all this death raging around the battlefield, some sort of protection is preferable.  This comes  in two forms: Mystral sinks and reinforced materials.
Mystral sinks are pieces of glass worn to reduce the effect of an energetic blast. Sinks are worn on the chest, and absorb large amounts of the energy. Each sink blocks its DR in energy and then halves that amount again (so 16 damage against a DR 10 sink does 3 damage). If more than twice the rated energy is received, the sink shatters. The part of the body where the sink is worn is irrelevant -- the sink protects the person. The sink itself is quite fragile, and with DR 4 and 2 hp.

DR	Cost	Weight
5	$40	.5
7	$115	1.5
10	$350	4
15	$1250	15
20	$3000	35

Its also possible to reinforce armor with the energy. Only metal or glass can be reinforced. Passive reinforcement gives +1 DR (or +1 per 5 DR, which ever is greater) and allows the armor to work at half strength vs mortifiers and ignore blasting attacks. It adds +1 cost factor. Active reinforcement  (only available for plate armors) Doubles DR, adds +4 CF, reduces DR when not active by -1 (or -1 per 5 DR) and requires DR * 600 gems/ hour. It uses full DR against mortifiers, and ignores blasting attacks. 

Building your own:

The stats for the energy weapons were created using the Blaster and Laser Design article from Pyramid 37. The in the empty weight formula, use an E of 2. The Bc in the cost formula is $25. You can only ever use single shot generators for mystral weapons. When figuring out the number of shots, the base number is 1000 times the lbs of ammunition. In the range equation, use a Rb of 2.

These numbers are calculated to be valid weapons at TL 6 (actually TL 4+2^), and as such are notably cheaper, heavier, shorter range, and less powerful than Ultra tech weapons.

 Using Mystral Weapons

Mystral weapons are actually fairly short range weapons: most of the one man weapons operate at under 100 yards, and a gauntlet functions with full force at 5 yards or less. Of course, how far can you really aim? Mystral weapons are also significant for the amount of damage that they do and for the special damage types. 

When selecting mystral weapons, keep context in mind. Yes, an ordinary gauntlet is simple to block with a sink, but who will be carrying around a mystral sink in public? what's polite? what's appropriate? A blaster can be appropriate when a mortifier is not.

Soldiers generally train for close combat or for ranged combat. Close combat sees lots of gauntlets (especially scorpus) and mystral spears (and swords). Armor is usually passively reinforced and a small sink.  Ranged troops train with the arcus (all sorts, but scorpus and mortifiers dominate), and wear big heavy sinks. In Civilian settings, the mortifier dominates, as it keeps down collateral damage, and small sinks are used as a form of power display. Mystral smallswords are quite common among nobility trying to display wealth (long-swords are enormous!).

This being gurps, these weapons may be found facing down traditional weapons off world. In fact, its expected. The weapons were intended to be on the low end of TL 6 in terms of power. The tech mismatch will cause some odd behavior though: a soldier with an blaster arcus will find dealing with a tank a mere matter of getting in range, while the sink around his neck won't do a thing to protect him from bullets!

Mystral weapons are intended to be used as in a setting with the rest of mystral technology, but they will function as generic weapons for alternate technology in a pulp setting or fast-forwarded fantasy. I hope you find places to use this, and find yourself inspired by it. 

Mystral Energy

I present another magic as technology system: Mystral Energy! Mystral energy is inspired by 'glowing energy technology'. Simple devices that you put your hands on and they start glowing are all over fiction, and this 'magic' is inspired by it.

As I've built the system, I've been torn about whether this is magic or super-science. In some ways, it doesn't matter. I'm very fond of blurring the line. But here I've come up with a system that doesn't just work along the lines of technology, but feels as technological as it does magical. Additionally, the mages of this system will have to wait for another article. I'm quite pleased with the result though -- a worked TL 4+2^ technology system.  This is not to say that it can do everything that TL 6 can do, nor that TL6 can do everything it does: it means the two technology levels are of comparable ability.

The Devices in General

Mystral technology is made out of gently tinted glass and glows with visible energy -- green is the most common color, but complicated devices often have blue, or purple shades in places. The devices never have square corners, but often have edges similar to lenses or have clearly defined edges between two round portions. The essential metals that power the technology are inlaid as stripes running through the glass or coating surfaces of it.

Manipulating Mystral technology is operated by touch: some of the control is just mental interaction once you touch the glass, and some of it requires physical movement. There are occasionally moving parts or straps required, but most of the time, its just resting your hand on smooth glass.

Characters

Mystral energy was designed to be used against a TL 4 background, and its arguably powerful enough to raise the Tech level to 4 by simply using the mystral forge. Characters with access to Mystral energy pay the appropriate cost of High tech levels. Occasionally you'll get a character with access to both sides of a tech split. He should only ever pay 5 points past the highest tech level. For example, an intrepid explorer from 1910 who learns to use Mystral energy would pay an additional five points.

Its possible for a character to be unable to interact with mystral technology, whether because he's not truly alive, because of other functioning magic, or for other reasons. This is a 10 point disadvantage: Mystral Null [-10]

A variety of technical skills are required: most of the devices listed have their own special skill, and many specialties of skills apply only to mystral technology
Armory: Several specialties are relevant, including small arms, body armor, melee weapons, and heavy weapons.
Engineer: Mystral is a valid specialization. Note that it will not allow the design of weapons, among other things. GMs that anticipate engineering heavy campaigns may wish to break up engineering further, but for most cases, this is no more broad that "Electronics" and a single skill is appropriate.
Mystral Operation: A renamed version of electronics operation. Mystral Operation has the following specialties: Communications, Sensors, Medical, Media, and Melnus. Please note that the TL difference includes the split tech progression
Mystral Repair: A renamed version of electronics repair. In addition to the specialties given by operation, Mystral Forges are also repaired with this skill.
Machinist: Machinist has always been very tech level reliant. To a machinist with access to the right energies, Machinist is about using the mythral forge, which is flexible enough to handle 95% of his work.
Mechanic: Contragrav and Atomoton are relevant specialties.
Piloting: Hover Ships have their own specialty

The Gems and the Mystrium

The energy that drives Mystral devices is produced by a metal known as Mystrium. Mystrium looks a great deal like a bright blue copper. As the power source of the magic system, its extremely valuable. It constantly generates energy, so only the most intensive devices incorporate it. The others use it to charge small glass balls known as 'gems' with Mystral energy. These gems are perfectly transparent, slightly smaller than marbles, and gently glow when they are filled, but don't light up the area around them much (perhaps -8 for the yard around a gem). Gems are inserted into the slots of the devices they power. They only need to be in contact with Mystrium to charge. Mystrium is often shaped into a bowl or plated on something in order to be able to contact lots of gems at once.

Mystrium costs $5000 per 1/10th of a pound. That same amount  of Mystrium will charge 100 gems in an hour. 100 gems cost $100 and weigh 1 pound. Energy can also be stored in large glass blocks (20 lbs, 5,000 gems, $5000 -- saving is in weight, not cost). Filling up 100 gems costs $2 at normal market prices. Its also possible to replace the gem component with Mystrium, but this is expensive and inefficient unless you intend to run the device continuously. To get a cost, multiply the number of gems used in an hour by $1,250. Some devices accept "Mystrium gems" ($1,250 each). These can be moved from device to device as needed, but are never sufficient for weapons or  other devices that use a lot of energy at once.

Energy is always listed in energy/hour, but using these devices on a per minute basis is fine, and devices such as the specus are rarely if ever used for an hour -- in fact, most of the costs translate easily into minutes.

There are more special materials beyond just Mysterium and the glass surrounding it. Amitess is essential for creating motion with the energy, and Psyllium allows interaction with the mind. Urglass is mixed in glass to tint it and achieve a variety of effects (its role is particularly noted in weapons). These materials are rare, but part of the Mystral economy.

 All This Glass

Mystral Technology is made largely of glass, with all the fragility that implies. Of course, glass has been highly developed here, and has mystic energy coursing through it. Most of the objects should be treated as though they have DR 4. Some of the more solid pieces (like the blocks used to store large amounts of energy) should be treated as though they have DR 6. Any damage can destroy the device -- roll vs HT even if a single point point of damage is dealt. Great care should be taken in transporting the devices.

The Gear

Specus (Viewer):
Specus are shaped much like a crystal ball with glass dials and knobs. They allow the user to view things that are far away from himself, without regard to the intervening distance or objects. It takes 10 seconds to power up the device. If it has not been moved it starts out focused at its last point. If not it takes 30 seconds to focus on the current location. Moving the Specus's focus takes 10 seconds to move within 10 yards of the current spot, or 20 x (number of digits from distance in yards) seconds if the Specus is focuses in and then out. If a Specus is bumped while being used, it takes 10 seconds to refocus. If moved farther it looses all focus.
Standard Specus: Can view any object at its currently lighting if there are two clear feet of space in front of it. $5000, LC2, 30 gem/hour, 5lbs, 10 mile range
Dark Specus: As standard specus, but cancels -6 in darkness penalties: +5 lbs, +$5000, double power consumption
Large Specus: As standard specus, but with increased range. $30,000, 50 lbs, 600 gems/ hour, 25 mile range

Comnus (Communicator):
Comnus are shaped much like Specus: crystal balls with glass dials and knobs. A comnus can only focus in on another comnus, and both users have to be set to focus in on each other. Knowing the location of the other comnus is part of the trick, but not all of it. Connecting two the other comnus requires a roll with two range penalties: one for how far away the target is and one for how far away they are from where you think they are. Both range penalties use long distance modifiers. the standard attempt takes 30 seconds to establish contact.
Like the Specus, any movement ruins the focus of the device: a bump allows a roll with no range penalties, more substantial movement requires establishing the connection again.
Standard Comnus: gives +4 to communication rolls. $2000, 5 lbs, 6 gems/hour, LC 4
Light Comnus: +2 to communication rolls. $1000, 2 lbs, 3 gems/ hour, LC 4
Heavy Comnus: +6 to communication rolls. $10,000, 50 lbs, 60 gems/hour, LC 3

Thalmus:
A glass box in which can manipulate the body and life force of a person or creature placed inside of it. The thalmus is most frequently used as a healing device. 1 hour of operation by a trained user and a successful surgery roll heals 1d6+1, or allows a new roll to throw off a disease. This is of course, not the only use of the device -- its been adapted for torture by the ruthless and for pleasure by the decadently rich.
Standard Thalmus: $20,000, 200 lbs, 500 gems/hour, LC 3
Grand Thalmus: +1 to rolls, $75,000, 400 lbs, 1000 gems/ hour, LC 2

Mystral Forge:
A glass box in which materials can be heated and manipulated. These forges allow incredible things to be done with glass and metal, and serves as the 'tool that makes the tools' for Mystral technology. Mystral Forges must heat up the substance they are manipulating -- if you put a stick in it, it will turn to charcoal long before you can do any fine work on it. The heating up process takes a minute for even the smallest of items, and much longer for others. Interestingly, it will not heat up live matter at all.
Small Forge: the chamber is a hemisphere about two feet across.  $1000, 15 lbs, 6 gems / hour, LC 3
Standard Forge: A chamber five feet across. $5000, 80 lbs, 30 gems/ hour, LC 3
Grand Forge: A chamber 20 feet across $250,000, 400 lbs, 1200 gems/hour, LC 3

Hover Ships:
Only the engine of a Mystral Hovership has to be formed of the glass that defines the technology. Different materials have been experimented with, from wood to mystrally strengthened glass to metal hulls. Modern designs favor metal hulls, but exceptions are common. A hover ship usually weighs a fifth of what it can carry: half of this is structure, half of it is the great glass engine. Hover ships have a speed of .5/10,  a handling of -2, and a stability of 5 -- they are very ponderous indeed, regardless of their size. Some people can get better performance out of their ships by using flaps of cloth to maneuver in the air, but that generally only helps with stopping and turning.  The technology doesn't work at quantities less than a ton.
For each ton of capacity: $1000 of engine, $500 of structure, 200 lbs of each, 10 gems/hour or $12500 in Mystral to keep permanently up. LC 3

Holograms:
Using Mystral Energy, images can be stored in thick, heavy glass disks. These disks store a single static three dimensional image, projected above them. A user can turn them around, minorly change the side, or turn it off or on, but most other changes are not possible. The devices used to create the images have extensive lenses and other glass work. These devices can not only record holograms, but also edit and display them. A single image disk can be overwritten many times. See ampulus for other things that can be done with images. Recording an image takes only a second, but afterwards the disk must be changed or it will be over written
Image Disk: $10, 1 lb, 1 gem/ hour, LC 4
Hologram Maker: $250, 20 lbs, 1 gem/hour + 10 gems/changed disk, LC 4

Ampulus:
These devices applify light and sound, whether from an image disk as it happens. They look much like a hologram maker.
Basic Ampulus: Can fill a 20 foot cube with light, accompanied by sound $1000, 20lbs, 60 gem/ hour, LC 3
Large Amplus: Can fill a 60 foot cube with light and sound. $20,000, 400 lbs, 1200 gems/hour, LC 3

Menmus:
Smaller and lighter than the traditional thalmus, the menmus most readily works with emotions rather than proper thoughts. The device can be made as small as a helmet, but as it requires the operator  to touch it directly and as the subject is frequently not willing, its just as often incorporated into a table a victim can be strapped to. Of course, not all of its uses require physical restraint: its gained credence as a lie detector, and the truly decadent have used it as a pleasure device.
Detecting emotions is simple, as is causing them. A subject may attempt to ignore caused emotions or hide their real emotions with the mind block skill. In addition to emotions, the menmus can read strong simple thoughts of the user -- this quick contest is at +5 for the subject, equivalent to the will score of someone who is untrained. Besides emotions, the menmus can be used to reproduce any number of physical sensations, from pain to nausea to ecstasy.
The menmus can be used for mental surgery. Its abilities are rather crude: it can be used to remove loyalty to someone, but at the expense of removing all loyalty. Likewise, it can increase loyalty at the expense of making the person overall more trusting. Memory can be effected, but only by damaging all of memory. Similar effects can be achieved. The surgery is quite dangerous: a success by less than 5 has a 50% chance of causing permanent and unintended damage. The most common results include Low Empathy, Oblivious, Hidebound, Nightmares, Lowered Will,  Lowered Perception, Indecisive, Impulsive, Stuttering,  and Non-Iconographic. Mental Surgery has a base time of 2 hours.
Standard Menmus: $20,000, 10 lbs, 600 gems/ hour, LC 1

Weapons, Armor, Atomatons, and the Blooded:

These are vital parts of the Mystral energy system -- some of the most interesting parts. And as such, they will appear as their own articles
Weapons and Armor focuses mainly on several flavors of energy weapon, suited for low TL 6 power. It also includes powerful blades and armor to protect against these attacks.
Automotons are machines shaped like people or animals, used to save labour. They are both clumsy and have simplistic minds, but that leaves lots and lots of jobs they can perform
Mystral Blood describes those people who can innately generate, store, and use mystral energy. In many ways, they are the equivalent of mages -- they they can't really do anything technology can't.

I hope you enjoy this system. I sure enjoyed creating it!

Vasic Stones: Combative Transportation

Vasic Stones can do a lot. They can bring stuff to you, change the nature of the universe around you, and even transport you anywhere you need to go. Larry Niven once said that if you have receiverless teleportation (which vasic stones has) you will have a short war.

This article is about how Vasic Transport Stones can effect others in the void, and how to fight back against that. This article should be considered an extension of Vasic Stones: Transportion, and builds upon the rules given there.

Vasic Stones: Teleporation

Vasic Stones are all about moving things from place to place, be it energy, matter, or properties of the universe. But the pinnacle of  their use is teleportation. This uses the largest stones and skilled navigators.

Simple Alchemy

This is a system of alchemy made for low to limited magic systems. It intentionally doesn't have the breadth of ability that you fill find in something like the alchemy section of GURPS: Magic. Instead, it focuses on poisons and other simple body-oriented changes.

These items may appear to be quite cheap. Its worth noting that most of them require an alchemist on the site to use for best effect, and that all of them are consumable: they are used once and then they are gone.

More emphasis is placed in this system on how alchemists interact with each other than on the effects an alchemist can make. It's about preparing antidotes, masking attacks, and interacting with the alchemy of your foes in ways other than simply countering the effects

Wember

Wember Magic is a slow but powerful magic strongly associated with cloth. The magic originates in the hands of the weavers (who are minor mages), but the true benefactors are those who can afford their prices. Most wember items are clothing, and the effects apply to the one who wears it -- or the thing wrapped in it, as some effects are useful for objects or creatures.

Soul Gem Magic

Amber Soul magic is a divisive form of magic. Capable of capturing an imprint of a person, those exposed to it disagree on the morality of doing so. Some maintain that capturing a soul upon death preserves the soul forever, granting the subject an afterlife and saving them from oblivion. Others claim that manipulating the souls damages the most eternal part of a person, and view taking the imprints as slavery, grave desecration, and black magic. And then there are those who don't care who right or wrong the power is, but only how useful.

Vasic Stones: Magic as Technology

Vasic Stones are made from the foundation of the universe, and represent a unique connection between the worlds that exist. With an ordinary piece of chalk, an informed user can change the very nature of the piece of the universe they are in, drawing energy, materials, and even laws of nature from other universes. All that is required is the chalk to inform the stone correctly.