[01-0107] Thaumatology.pdf

Written by PHIL MASTERS

Additional Material by C. J. CARELLA, KENNETH HITE,

STEVE KENSON, ROBIN D. LAWS, SEAN PUNCH, S. JOHN ROSS,

WILLIAM H. STODDARD, MICHAEL SUILEABHAIN-WILSON, JO WALTON,

KEN WALTON, and JONATHAN WOODWARD

Edited by SEAN PUNCH

Illustrated by IGOR KIERYLUK, AARON PANAGOS, BOB STEVLIC and CHRIS WOOD

ISBN 978-1-55634-758-0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

STEVE JACKSON GAMES

C ONTENTS

Ceremonial Castings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Known and Unknown Techniques . . . . . . . . . 74

Alternative Core Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Divine Ritual Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Wildcard Colleges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Combining Ritual and Spell Magic . . . . . . . . 76

T HRESHOLD -L IMITED M AGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

The Power Tally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Thresholds and Calamities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Adjusting the Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

New Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

New Magery Limitations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Magic Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Thresholds and “Energy Spells” . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Options and Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Use With Standard Spellcasting . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Clerics and Threshold-Based Magic. . . . . . . . 81

Use With Ritual Magic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

M ANDATORY AND

S IGNIFICANT M ODIFIERS . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Using the Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Ceremonial-Only Casting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Astrological Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Example: The Cabal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Chinese Symbolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Magical Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Casting Interdimensionally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Universes Where “Distance” Is Meaningless . . . 86

Other Potential Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Modifiers and Magic Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

The Voodoo Doll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Example: A Modified Casting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

A SSISTING S PIRITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

The Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

The Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

The Casting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

The Price of Power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Starting With Spirit-Assisted Magic . . . . . . . . . 94

4. M ATERIAL M AGIC . . . . . . . . . 95

I NHERENT M AGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Materials for Wizards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Celtic Tree Talismans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Natural Medicines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Magic-Rich Minerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Mana Organs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Gemstones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

A LCHEMY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Concepts of Alchemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Alchemy and Special Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Schools of Alchemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Laboratory Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Alchemical Inventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Alchemical Gadgeteering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Herb Lore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Herb Uses and Rarities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Consuming Multiple Elixirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Alchemy and Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

E NCHANTING I TEMS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

The Standard System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Elixir Delivery Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Lend Skill in Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

I NTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

About This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Publication History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

About GURPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1. W HAT IS M AGIC ? . . . . . . . . . . 6

T HE I DEA OF M AGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Magic Seen as Real . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Magic in Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Words for Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

C ONCEPTIONS OF M AGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Magic as a Cookbook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Academic Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Magic as Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Magic as Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Magic as Negotiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Magical Invention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Magic as Divine Favor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Magic as Reality-Shaping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

S OURCES OF M AGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

The Laws of Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Places of Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Gods and Spirits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Ethical Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Colors of Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Subjective Reality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

L AWS OF M AGIC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

M AGIC -W ORKERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Natural Ability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Dumb Luck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Secret Supernatural Favor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Supernatural Inspiration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Physical Initiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

2. M INOR S PELL V ARIANTS . . . . 19

L IMITED AND M ODIFIED M AGERY . . . . . . . . 20

Wizardly Weaknesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Special Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Visible Magical Gifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Spell Signatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Other Appropriate Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Unusable Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Buying Off Limitations on Magery . . . . . . . . 27

Magery With Enhancements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

The Unarmored Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

M AGIC B ASED ON O THER A TTRIBUTES . . . 29

Problems and Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Critical Successes With Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Critical Magical Failures and Luck . . . . . . . . . 30

C HANGING THE S PELLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Banning Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Secret and Lost Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Changing Specific Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Fearsome Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Shapeshifters’ Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Minor System Tweaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Conditional Negation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Minor System Additions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Trading Energy for Speed and Skill . . . . . . . . . 39

C APPING S PELL S KILL L EVELS . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Skill-Based Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Skills to Salvage Critical Failures . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Magery-Based Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

C HANGING THE C OLLEGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Example: Tree Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

The Ogham Alphabet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Alternative Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Elements and Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

E THICS AND S PELLS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Suggested Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

E NERGY S OURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Extra Fatigue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Familiars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Energy Other Than Fatigue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Powerstones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Mass Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Alternative Power Stores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Static Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Meditation, Holiness, or Study . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Ley Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Sacrifices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Sacrifice Values and Character Points . . . . . . . 55

Spell Slots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

M ANA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Mana Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Non-Mages Casting in Lower-Mana Areas . . . 58

Mana-Related Traits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Technology Disrupts Magic? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Eliminating Mana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

M AGIC R ESISTANCE AND THE M AGE . . . . . . 62

Magic Addiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

3. M AJOR V ARIATIONS . . . . . . . . 64

Clerics and Magery 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Varieties of Magery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

C LERICAL S PELL -M AGIC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Clerical Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Power Investiture (Shamanic) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Ceremonial Castings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Sanctity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Priestly Spell Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Critical Failures on Clerical Magic . . . . . . . . . . 69

Example: The Temple of Hephaestus . . . . . . 70

Priest-Wizards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

R ITUAL M AGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

The Prerequisite Count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Strange Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Extending the Rule of 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

No Defaults to Core Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

GURPS System Design

❚

STEVE JACKSON

Managing Editor ❚ PHIL REED

Art Director ❚ WILL SCHOONOVER

Production Artist ❚ ALEX FERNANDEZ

Print Buyers ❚ PHIL REED and WILL SCHOONOVER

Marketing Director ❚ PAUL CHAPMAN

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and WILL SCHOONOVER

Director of Sales ❚ ROSS JEPSON

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GURPS FAQ Maintainer ❚ VICKY ‘MOLOKH’ KOLENKO

GURPS Line Editor

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SEAN PUNCH

NIKOLA VRTIS

Page Design

❚

PHIL REED

and JUSTIN DE WITT

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C ONTENTS

Indexer

Enchantment Through Age. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Activating Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Enchantment Through Deeds. . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Devotional Enchantment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

M AGIC I TEMS AS A DVANTAGES. . . . . . . . . . . 113

Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Power Talents and Gadget Items . . . . . . . . . . 115

I TEM D RAWBACKS

AND P ERSONALITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Restricted Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Willful and Sapient Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

New Disadvantages for Items . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Weapon-Form Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Example: The Silver Harp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

5. P ATHS AND B OOKS . . . . . . . 121

E SSENTIAL P RINCIPLES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Effect Shaping Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Paths vs. Books. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Books, Hidden in Plain Sight . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Path/Book Ritual Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

P ATH /B OOK A DVANTAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Other Appropriate Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

“Mystic Symbol” Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

P ATH /B OOK M AGIC IN O PERATION . . . . . . . 125

Learning Path/Book Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Magical Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Extended Rule of 20 – Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Ritual Space and Sanctity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Ritual Space and Mana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Aspected Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Ritual Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Decanic Modifiers and Rituals . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Combined Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Multiple Simultaneous Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Effect Shaping in Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Path/Book Ritual Magic as Religious Ritual . . 133

E NERGY A CCUMULATING

M AGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Energy Accumulating in Operation . . . . . . . 136

Learning Outside Your Tradition . . . . . . . . . . 136

O PTIONS AND V ARIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Conditional Rituals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Combined Ceremonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Sensing Ritual Attacks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Path/Book-Related Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Canceling and Dispelling Effects . . . . . . . . . 140

Backlash: Instant Karma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Alternatives to Ritual Magic Skill. . . . . . . . . 140

P ATHS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

The Path of Cunning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

The Path of Dreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

The Path of the Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

The Path of Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

The Path of Gadgets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

The Path of Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

The Path of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

The Path of Luck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

“Routine Magic” Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

The Path of Nature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

The Path of Protection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Path/Book Ritual Magic and Spirits . . . . . . . 159

The Path of Spirit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Fetishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

E XAMPLE B OOKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

The Book of the Names of the Dead . . . . . . 163

Book Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Gentle Arts of the Floating World . . . . . . . . 164

The Deeper Principia, Annotated . . . . . . . . . 165

Writing New Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

6. F LEXIBLE M AGIC . . . . . . . . 166

Simple Flexible Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Effect Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

S YMBOL M AGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Selecting a Symbolic Lexicon . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Symbol Magery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Example Lexicons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

The Futhark Runes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Working the Magic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

How Symbol Drawing Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Recognizing Intent and Capability . . . . . . . . . 174

Energy Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Symbol-Based Enchantment . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Example: Improvisational

Symbol-Castings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

S YMBOL M AGIC : V ARIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Ideogram Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Whole-Language Symbol Magic. . . . . . . . . . 177

Knot-Symbol Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Words of Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

S YNTACTIC M AGIC : O VERVIEW. . . . . . . . . . . 179

Dividing Up the Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Syntactic Workings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Casting Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Distraction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

S YNTACTIC M AGIC :

V ERBS AND N OUNS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Capping Syntactic Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Suggested Verbs and Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Shamanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Chi Control Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Soothsaying. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Freeform Folkloric Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

M ORTALS W ITH

S UPERNATURAL S ERVANTS . . . . . . . . . 209

Summoning and Binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Supernatural Allies and Patrons. . . . . . . . . . 210

“The Lord Gave, and the Lord

Hath Taken Away” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

S PIRIT V ESSELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Template Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Templates and Personal Abilities . . . . . . . . . 212

Limiting the Advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Sample Spirit Vessel Packages . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Becoming the God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

8. G AMES OF H IGH

E NCHANTMENT . . . . . . . . . 215

M AGICAL C AMPAIGNS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Magical Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Research Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Magic in Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Magic of Mass Destruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Magical Imagery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

“S UBTLE , AND Q UICK TO A NGER ” . . . . . . . 219

Identification and

Recruitment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Study vs. Field Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Magical Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

I NTERACTIONS B ETWEEN

M AGIC S YSTEMS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

The Lab-Rat Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Game Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

T HEMES AND V ARIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Announcing Curses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Otherworldly Entanglements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Asking for Higher Favors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

The Stuff of Raw Magic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Insubstantial Beings Affecting

the Material World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Magic Is Psi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Four-Color Wizards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Power Tends to Corrupt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

W ORKED E XAMPLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

The People of the Ocean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Recreating Magic from Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

The Wisdom of the Ancient Seers . . . . . . . . 235

Mystic Chinoiserie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

The Gem Injection Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Changing Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

A PPENDIX A:

M AGICAL M ODIFIERS . . . . 242

Magical Scope Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Variant Durations:

Conditional Termination . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Sympathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Traditional Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Contagion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Sacrifice Bonuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Significant Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Hermetic Astrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

The Sephiroth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

The Hebrew Alphabet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Chinese Mystical Modifiers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

A PPENDIX B: A LTERNATIVE

C RITICAL F AILURE

T ABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

A PPENDIX C: S PELL

P REREQUISITE C OUNTS . . . 261

B IBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

I NDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Defining Castings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Ogham Verbs and Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Working the Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Example: Verb-Noun Working . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Verb-Noun Enchantment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

S YNTACTIC M AGIC :

R EALMS AND P OWER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Defining the Realms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Defining Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Realms as Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Performing the Working . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Example: Realm-Based Working . . . . . . . . . 191

Realm-Based Enchantment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

S YNTACTIC M AGIC : S PECIAL

C ASES AND O PTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Errors and Side Effects:

Reality Bites Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Countermagic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Disregarding Energy Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Linked Workings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

GMing Syntactic Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

7. M AGIC IS P OWER . . . . . . . . 196

Unusual Background

(Supernatural Ancestry) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

M AGICAL A DVANTAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Talents as Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Magic and Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

New Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

New Limitations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Affliction: The Evil Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

P OWERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Supernatural Powers in Play . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Supernatural Creature Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Gods and Arch-Devils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

S AMPLE P OWERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Bardic Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Elemental Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Personal Holiness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

High Craft Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Plane-Walking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Reincarnation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

C ONTENTS

I NTRODUCTION

Magic . . . Intuitive art or numerical science? Insanity or

perfect control? Quest for divinity or demonic blasphemy?

Take your pick. Maybe it’s everything at once.

Every myth, fantasy story, and anthropological study

has its own ideas on the subject, which makes life compli-

cated for anyone who wants to incorporate evocative ideas

about magic into RPGs. The problem is how to handle such

visions in game terms – how to make them work as imag-

ined but also in a consistent and playable way. The purpose

of GURPS Thaumatology is to offer solutions.

Often, RPGs are accused of tying up magic in strict

rules, losing its truly fantastical, magical essence.

Thaumatology certainly presents rules – but by offering a

wide range of options, it aims to restore a sense of freedom

to game magic and to enable the GM to make it an integral

part of a setting, not just a handy box of tricks. Still, the

specifics are there for those who value them.

bear in mind that such tinkering will have consequences in

the game.

This doesn’t mean that Thaumatology is only for GMs.

On the contrary, any player whose character uses a magic

system or mechanism from this book will need access to it

to see how things work and what’s possible. But if the GM

decides that a section or even a chapter doesn’t apply, then

that’s final.

Player or GM, you should consider reading the entire

book before making any decisions. A given magic system

might draw most heavily on one chapter, but many ideas

transfer easily between chapters. You’ll also want to com-

pare several possible mechanisms before settling on those

that best represent your game’s (or character’s) version of

magic. Finally, the appendices (pp. 242-267) apply to many

options.

A BOUT T HIS B OOK

All GURPS books are tool kits – you use the parts you

like and change or ignore the rest. This is especially true of

Thaumatology. Its many rules and systems are designed

to enable the GM to set up games where magic works

exactly as envisioned, providing the perfect atmosphere

and balance of probabilities. It also includes worked

examples and ready-to-use implementations, but even

these can be modified.

As with any toolbox, you shouldn’t try to use everything

simultaneously – and by “you,” we mean whoever is

responsible for designing and maintaining the campaign,

usually the GM. Pick and choose only what suits your pur-

poses. Not every concept belongs in every game; if you try

to use it all, you’ll probably go crazy and, worse, your cam-

paign will collapse! All of Thaumatology is one big sugges-

tion. For example, the point costs for abilities reflect the

author’s views of effectiveness and balance – but as the GM,

you’re free to disagree and change the numbers, perhaps to

encourage or discourage particular player choices. Just

P UBLICATION H ISTORY

Thaumatology features something old, something new,

and quite a lot borrowed. One of the design goals was to

integrate the many magic rules published over the course

of two decades of GURPS and bring them into line with

GURPS Fourth Edition, polishing and enhancing them in

the process. This means the book owes debts to more

people than we can list here – but a few names and titles

really must be mentioned.

The spell-based system described in the current GURPS

Basic Set dates to the earliest days of GURPS. It has been

adapted for specific purposes many times over the years.

Treatments of fictional and mythical sources added and

removed spells, reorganized the college structure, and

imposed special requirements on spellcasters. For example,

Ken and Jo Walton’s GURPS Celtic Myth added powerful

“High Celtic” imagery, while GURPS Religion, by Janet

Naylor and Caroline Julian, refitted the system for clerics

and adopted rules for shamanic spells from Kirk Wilson

Tate’s GURPS Ice Age.

I NTRODUCTION

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