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GURPS Thaumatology.qxp
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
❚
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Print Buyers
❚
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Marketing Director
❚
PAUL CHAPMAN
Prepress Checkers
❚
MONICA STEPHENS
and WILL SCHOONOVER
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❚
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Errata Coordinator
❚
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❚
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GURPS
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❚
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Page Design
❚
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and JUSTIN DE WITT
❚
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GURPS
, Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated.
Thaumatlolgy
,
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and the names
of all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated,
or used under license.
GURPS Thaumatlolgy
is copyright © 2008 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in Thailand.
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2
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
3
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.
4
I
NTRODUCTION
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