Control (Shaping)

In the powers book is the Control Advantage. And I'm glad we have the control advantage, but I have a few complaints with it:

• quantity and finesse of control scale together
• It gives massive arbitrary bonuses
• Its priced fairly for someone who uses those massive bonuses for every single thing they do

I was building a powers based magic system and had the thought that I didn't want the ability to move a cubic yard of dirt to also include the ability to give anyone in that hex -5 to basically everything. I wanted something that acted like the shape spells from magic. And so I decided to wing the advantage:

Control (Shaping): Rather than using the standard rules for control, base the rules off of the shape spells, like shape earth or shape water. You can control level x level /2 cubic yards. Notably, this cannot be used to give arbitrary combat bonuses. The cost is the same as any other level of control, and can only be taken for solids and liquids.

Is it any good? Well, I haven't tested it yet. But my Tuesday night game is going to be playing in a game with it for the next few months, so in a while I'll be able to tweak costs and tell you how well it did or didn't work. I do know that shape earth is one of the most widely used and best liked spells in Gurps Magic. We'll see if this is overpowered, or if its just fun.  Hopefully it will play out like having a mage with shape earth, which I've played before and seems to constantly be useful but never quite be broken.

I look forward to reporting on this tweak!

 

Magical Talent and Magical Power

Recently I've been getting into Gurps's "Standard" Magic system, for a couple of different reasons. As part of this, I've been looking hard at Magery prerequisites for spells. They're surprisingly good! The idea that some wizards can cast more powerful spells than others is just sort of natural.

But that's not how things usually end up playing: There is a strong incentive in Gurps for every Player Character wizard to have magery 3, which is the maximum. Why? because in the standard magic system skill 15 is everything, and magery is the cheapest way to boost skill. There is no choice between the ability to cast spells more reliably, cast spells more efficiently, or cast more impressive spells: the most effective way to do all three is to buy magery as high as the campaign allows, and then any specialization comes after that. 

But what if we associate magical power with the amount of energy available to a mage, rather than with magical talent?

Energy-Based Magery

When using this rule, skill-boosting Magery is renamed "Magical Talent", and doesn't get used for prerequisites. "Magery" refers to a composite advantage consisting of 3 levels of Energy reserve and a perk letting you cast spells with a prerequisite of that level of  magery (kind of like in RPM). Level 0 Magery doesn't change.

Analysis

This rule has some pretty big effects:

• Mages have permission to buy more Energy Reserve, as well as an increased incentive
• Bigger Spells are going to be cast more often
  
• Reaching Skill 15 will happen less often
• Mages will have to choose between reliability and efficiency vs. access to the best spells
• Mages will be just a little weaker
  

I think this is a good change in most cases, but it won't be in all cases. Ask yourself if the change fits your campaign. I'll probably be pairing this with my recovery energy tweak, to allow mages who go for power rather than skill to not miss out on that critical ability. I hope this makes your games more interesting!

Standard Magic: Recover Energy as an Advantage

I've recently been looking at the standard magic system for Gurps, for a number of different projects. One thing that sticks out to me is that the Recover Energy Spell is weird. And the more I look at it, the more I'm convinced that it should be a [5] point advantage. Here's why:

Its not a Spell

Recover energy is written as a spell, but it doesn't work like a spell. Its never cast, and in fact never rolled against at all. It just alters FP and ER recovery, unless it hasn't been bought high enough, in which case it doesn't do anything at all. That doesn't sound like a spell, or even a skill: that sounds like an advantage.

Skill-15 is Overused

Recover energy exacerbates the skill-15 break point in magic. The magic system already strongly encourages characters to be able to buy every spell at skill-15, because that's where all the energy cost breakpoints are. This results in wizards who differ only by their spell lists. Recover Energy taking its effect at -15 reinforces this paradigm, where IQ 14 + Magery 3 wizards rule over their lessers. Changing recovery energy to an Advantage won't completely break this, but it will weaken the incentives.

It Doesn't Have a Good Home in a College

Recover energy is placed in the healing college... which is an awkward place for it. I suppose meta-magic might be a better choice, or possibly body control, but sticking it in a college at all creates issues, because it means that one-college magery now hurts your ability to recover energy. It also necessitates statements like the Dungeon Fantasy rule that wizards don't get spells in the healing college, except for Recover Energy and its prerequisite. It'd be nice if the spell didn't care about colleges.

Every Wizard Wants It

Recover Energy's quirks are both tolerated and exacerbated because its one of the most important "spells" in the system. Having it roughly doubles the amount of energy you can use for spells. This means everyone wants it, everyone learns it, and the need to get it is a significant character-building concern. Making it an advantage actually simplifies this a little. The added complexity of a rule change is compensated by removing a bunch of thorny subtleties. 

It Reinforces the Supremacy of Skill

Recover Energy is very expensive for very skilled mage, and very cheap for a talented one. This makes sense in some paradigms, but less so in others, and helps make all Gurps Mages in the same direction.  A mage who often fails to cast their spells but has much more plentiful energy sounds like an interesting trade-off. Making Recover Energy an advantage increases the diversity of mages that can be built, and it increases the power of a low-end mage, while slightly decreasing the power of a high-end mage. In this particular system, that's a good thing.

A Flat Cost Is Fairer

The advantage should cost [5] points, because Fit costs [5], and because having advantages divisible by 5 is nice. Having it cost [3] or less feels very cheap, and is about what the skill-maximizing wizards are effectively paying for it right now, while paying [10] points for it feels a little steep... though I suspect some wizards would still find it effective.

This all applies to the effects gained at skill-15, of course. I'm not sure what a fair cost for regaining Energy every 2 minutes. Regeneration (FP) is probably a bad comparison, especially given that the numbers were scaled for HP, not FP. When using the spell, [20] points is enough to go from 5 energy a minute to 2 energy a minute, if a mage just put those points directly into skill. I suspect that's not how mages with Recover Energy -20 are built. Maybe an additional [10] points, for [15] total, kind of like very fit? I kind of like that symmetry. 

In Summary

I hope I've made my case. The proposed change is really simple, and should improve the variety of mages that get built using the standard magic system. I hope you find this useful, and I hope you enjoy it!