Building a Nasuverse-like magic system

daniel_gudman

KING (In Land of Blind)
Staff member
#1
So awhile back I was reading through the GURPS rules, and I was disappointed by the rules for magic. It felt too much like "pick from a list" and not enough "build from modular kits", which was frustrating for me.

But then I got thinking... well, in the Nasuverse, Thaumatology or magecraft is "the ability to reproduce what can be scientifically realized regardless of time and funds".

Let's think about how you'd implement something of that nature in a game...

A "spell" would be built by describing a stack of skill checks, converting it to a single "spell check", and implementing that.

Let's say you want to shoot lighting out of your hands. One way would be to make like a "craft: electrical engineering" check to build a big-ass stack of capacitors, and then another one to put them all in an electrical circuit, and then like some kind of weapons check to hit the target with two wires from the circuit. Thusly, virtual taser.

So. The idea boilied down to one sentence. Magic spells are a spell check representing a stack of virtual skill checks.

How would you implement that? Assess cost of spells in terms of character points or whatever? What about some kind of "mana?" How would you encourage clever, elegantly designed spells without allowing total minmaxing?

What are your thoughts?
 

Prince Charon

Well-Known Member
#2
You might like GURPS Thaumatology, which addresses that problem.
 
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