This is probably a poor choice in title, but I'm not sure how else to say it... About 12 years ago, I ran a GURPS game set in a low-tech, medium magic, and high-fantasy world of my own creation. From custom races to custom maps made from Campaign Cartographer, I pretty much went all out on it. We ended the game years ago and now my players want to restart it, role-playing in a world shaped by their previous characters.
It's 25 years later... In the past game magic was illegal and the exclusive domain of the church. Now, in part because of the actions of our heroes, the magical colleges of the old empire have been restored. I should mention that the setting of this game is a city-state that used to be the capitol of a huge empire; think Rome with less of a fall.
Magic is where I'm getting hung up a little. Let me explain...
The religious legends say that Earthly (human) magic spawned from a tryst between one of the gods and a human woman. Thus, I've already established that magic is a genetic thing - though I'm not completely opposed to deviating from that. Their stories also tell of an ancient race (players have already discovered that this was elves) who were given immortality but became corrupt so the gods destroyed them and started over with man. Man was mortal and could appreciate life better. (If you have seen the Babylon 5 series, this should sound familiar to you.) Some Elves survived and they practiced a more true form of magic that humans don't have access to (or haven't discovered) - either syntactic or psionic. Today the humans use a bastardized version of magic in the form of spells and rituals.
Ok, where am I going with this? Well, in the past game, I've already sort of established that all human magic is the same (based on the stock rules of GURPS). In the next generation game, I want to build some magical styles for the traditional mages and even create a clerical magic that feels different from "normal" magic. (I have a player that really wants to be a cleric.) In doing so, I also don't want to break too much from the past. I.e. In this game the gods are not active (per se) in the world. Thus, threshold magic or power investiture doesn't really make complete sense in my mind. Anyone have ideas on this? I have a couple ideas based on Thaumatology. I want to go further than just a unique magical style for clerics.
Re-inventing an old game world
It's 25 years later... In the past game magic was illegal and the exclusive domain of the church. Now, in part because of the actions of our heroes, the magical colleges of the old empire have been restored. I should mention that the setting of this game is a city-state that used to be the capitol of a huge empire; think Rome with less of a fall.
Magic is where I'm getting hung up a little. Let me explain...
The religious legends say that Earthly (human) magic spawned from a tryst between one of the gods and a human woman. Thus, I've already established that magic is a genetic thing - though I'm not completely opposed to deviating from that. Their stories also tell of an ancient race (players have already discovered that this was elves) who were given immortality but became corrupt so the gods destroyed them and started over with man. Man was mortal and could appreciate life better. (If you have seen the Babylon 5 series, this should sound familiar to you.) Some Elves survived and they practiced a more true form of magic that humans don't have access to (or haven't discovered) - either syntactic or psionic. Today the humans use a bastardized version of magic in the form of spells and rituals.
Ok, where am I going with this? Well, in the past game, I've already sort of established that all human magic is the same (based on the stock rules of GURPS). In the next generation game, I want to build some magical styles for the traditional mages and even create a clerical magic that feels different from "normal" magic. (I have a player that really wants to be a cleric.) In doing so, I also don't want to break too much from the past. I.e. In this game the gods are not active (per se) in the world. Thus, threshold magic or power investiture doesn't really make complete sense in my mind. Anyone have ideas on this? I have a couple ideas based on Thaumatology. I want to go further than just a unique magical style for clerics.
- Clerical magic is based on something other than IQ... Perhaps Will or Perception to add some flavor. It's the same magic, just a different application of it.
- The gods have reemerged/awakened and now participate in the world... Not sure if I want to go this far, but it would allow me to use threshold magic in a way that makes sense and depart in a substantive way from "normal" magic.
- Clerics are a modified Magery 0 and have attuned themselves to magic and the use of magical items. All of their magic comes from religious ritual and ceremonies which imbue religious items and symbols with spells.
- Build a magical style that relies on special skills (theology, ritual skills, etc) as prerequisites than on base spells. I.e. The cleric is building the spell in a different way to achieve the same effect. This can get a little tedious though.
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