Converting Mistborn Magic into GURPS

 Awhile back on the forums someone asked about converting the magic systems in the Mistborn series into GURPS. I just read the first book and have a better feel for it.

I see two fairly obvious ways to do this. Powers and Ritual Path Magic. Powers is probably the more obvious and easiest but RPM appears pretty straightforward to me as well.

Alumnancy

There are 11 metals or alloys discussed in the first book. Most people can only control one metal, though mistborn can control all of them. Each metal is a different power or path.

Some of the powers would have very few abilities or if using RPM a very narrowly focused path.

Powers would be built using a Power Modifier (PM) that includes having to imbibe a metal to use it and that it is burned up during use. Also a minor nuisance effect  for most metals, such as sense sensitivity for Tin or the mass restriction for attracting or repelling metals using Iron or Steel.

RPM would require Ritual Adept for the speed of casting and most effects could be cast as Blocking - especially Iron and Steel. I would change the path skills from M/VH to M/A, reflecting how easy they seem to be to learn and the very narrow scope.

Dueling with Iron and Steel I would handle as a Martial Style.

Required Skills: Acrobatics, Body Sense, Throwing

Feuromanchy

This might be a bit more complicated but again can be done using either RPM or Powers.

The magician takes a temporary disadvantage and then stores the advantage for the duration. So you could take a penalty to Vision for an hour so that later on you could use that stored hour as a bonus to vision.

Using RPM we just cap the duration of any effects to the time the caster did without to save them up. Most things should be a Lesser Effect, a trade off for having to do without in advance.

Powers would be purchased with Limited Use and a Nusiance effect representing the time without the advantage being stored up.

the only complication is the sheer volume of possibilities, so alternative abilities or Modular abilities is a must.

I would probably go with Modular Abilities and a UB as these guys are rare in the setting.

 

Spirit Contracts and Magic

On the Steve Jackson Games Discord server, a question came up. A poster wanted a magic system that represented negating with spirits for various effects. GURPS has Spirit Assisted Magery and other options, mostly in GURPS Thaumatology but these did not quite meet his expressed need.

So here is an initial run at addressing that. Note that there are many ways to handle things in GURPS and it gives GMs a good foundation to work out options and come up with specific things to address their needs for their campaigns. So this is just one way to do it and by no means the only way and has not been play tested by me. But it’s a fun exercise and interesting idea, so here goes.

 

What System?

Book/Path Magic, Divine Favor, GURPS Magic, Realm Magic, Ritual Path Magic, Sorcery, Syntactic Magic and more exist. I think Book/Path is the best fit here. Default spells take longer to cast which can represent negotiating time. Divine Favor would be good if each spirit was a Patron or if they were taken collectively as a single Patron but this implies an existing good relationship.

 

Book/Path as Spirit Bargains

I think the Effect Shaping variation is best here, though Energy Accumulation could work too.

Effect Shaping means the result of the negotiation is from a single die roll. Energy Accumulation provides “energy” over a period of time and repeated rolls so could be more of a :slowly winning the spirit over” approach. I just recommend Effect Shaping as a cleaner and less convoluted method.

Ritual Magic represents a knowledge of spirits and rituals for entreating them for power. So we keep the core skill, perhaps elaborating on it for the setting and different cultures may have different specialties representing the difference between kinds of spirits.

 

What I would change though is the Paths or Books. Each Book/Path should represent either a specific powerful spirit (say a book for a named demon outlining common deals it is known to make) or a Path for a collection of related spirits (Fire spirits, ghosts, Djinn, Nature spirits, Fairie, etc.).

Assign and create new rituals to appropriate Book/Paths, many rituals will be in multiple paths as is the current case. In this case each ritual is pretty much a boilerplate contract for specific services rendered. The ritual may be all that is required of one or both parties or it may involve something more from one, especially the magician. Perhaps a sacrifice or promise to do something in exchange for the service provided by the spirit. This could lead to some interesting spells, though each spell would need some work by the GM to come u0p with just what the magician has to do to honor their side of the deal.

I would put the Fetish ritual into every Path and many Books though. Or rather a variation on it that only applies to the appropriate spirit. This represents a prearranged deal and allows casters to have some effects be very quick because the deal was already made.

Alternatively create a new ritual for this and charms are effectively tokens that trigger the already bargained for effects.

 

Using this in a Setting

I could see using this in a setting, though I would want to make up new rituals and outline spirits to help me formulate the Paths. My upcoming supplement GURPS Template Toolkit: Spirits as lenses for various types of spirits with a vey brief description of personality and other traits so that would help a GM using this system but ideally that GM would come up with more detail.

GURPS Magic

 GURPS Magic has its own book, is core to the Dungeon Fantasy line and is supported with numerous Pyramid articles and individual supplements including GURPS  Magic Death Spells and GURPS Magic Plant Spells that expand on the colleges and GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles that gives example magical styles to help wizards be more unique. A magic as  skills system that is the original GURPS magic system.  It is strong at low to medium levels, though scales poorly at very high point levels as it becomes overwhelming in power.

This forum post lists various sources of many GURPS Magic spells and my more detailed review and analysis is here
Generic Universal Eggplant's Magic Index (New spells authored by him)

YouTube Tutorial

Another YouTube review by EasyGURPS

Ritual Path Magic

GURPS Thaumatology Ritual Path Magic

A powerful and flexible system that can do almost anything given enough time and ability. It is built from a mix of Path and Book Magic and Realm magic with a few other things blended in. It requires a pretty steep buy in but scales dramatically.  At low level supers it becomes epic in power and scope so should be limited or banned for those settings. However it is very effective at Action, Dungeon Fantasy or Monster Hunter levels so is a great mid level system. Dungeon Fantasy 19: Incantation Magic converts it to Effect Shaping and has worked examples suitable for the DF genre.

Magic as Powers

Powers Based Magic

These systems are well balanced and creating new spells is pretty easy as you take an existing advantage and apply modifiers.  It can be math heavy but its simple multiplication and division. Different books approach the idea from different angles, often relying on a core power that gets tweaked for various effects. There are a lot of worked examples in each sub line and everything in this section provides numerous prebuilt powers.

• GURPS Powers: Divine Favor is a powers based approach for clerics and priests, where your god is an actual Patron!
• GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits shows a way to channel a spirit to gain some of its power and characteristics. The concept was introduced in GURPS Voodoo and appeared in several other places as well.
• GURPS Powers Ups 1: Imbuements shows a way to use powers to enhance weapons or other more mundane gear and abilities. These are expanded in several issues of Pyramid.
• GURPS Power Ups 5: Impulse Buys supports  more negativist or story based system of magic.
• GURPS Thaumatology: Chinese Elemental Powers showcases the five elements of Taoism in a Powers format.  Especially good for martial artists it works as a standalone system as well.
• GURPS Psionic Powers (not magic but a good worked example that is easily used).
• GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery Based on Modular abilities this is a versatile system that supports fireball slinging wizards and scales well at any level. Eggplant has written up a lot of Sorcery spells on his blog. MiIchael Thayne started a forum thread with his own contributions.

Book/Path Magic

Book/Path Magic is a system that first appeared in GURPS Third Edition. It appeared in GURPS Spirits, GURPS Voodoo, GURPS Castle Falkinstein, and possibly others. In Fourth Edition it was updated and published in GURPS Thaumatology.

It forms the basis of the GURPS Settings: GURPS Thaumatology: Alchemical Baroque and GURPS Thaumatology Age of Gold

The system has two major methods of working, Effect Shaping and Energy Accumulation and variations have been posted in some Pyramid articles as well as fan blogs.

As described it is based on spirit magic but it can be used in other ways.

Naruto is an anime that has shinobi who use various forms of "Ninjitsu" that can be replicated using Book/Path magic.

The Valdemar setting by Mercedes Lackey uses ley lines and is probably best modeled in GURPS using Book/Path Magic with the Energy Accumulation method.

Imperial Magic from Steve Brusts Vlad Taltos series could be modeled using Book/Path with the Effect Shaping version, its Witchcraft would likely use the Energy Accumulation model.

GURPS Madwand

 I have a friend trying to convert Earth Dawn and Shadow Run to GURPS, one thing hes trying to get is pattern items and thread magic. Trouble is the description I am given is not helpful towards building a system.  So I asked him if he ever read Madwand by Roger Zelazny as that might be where they got the idea. I read this book as a teenager so hopefully remember it well enough.  Here is my attempt to describe that system.

Magic is both a force and a material. Magicians can see it as threads floating in the air and will it to move. Sophisticated mages can even learn to tie it in knots and anchor these threads to objects so they can carry the threads with them and not be so dependent on what happens to be nearby.  Later on in the book the protagonist learns to perceive and shape the threads as clouds and possibly other shapes, granting new ways to use them. Some of my inspiration for converting this system is The Stuff of Raw Magic (GURPS Thaumatology, p. 277-229)

Magery (Thread)

Magery allows mages to see these threads and manipulate them.  Roll Per + Magery to see threads and Will + Magery to move them.  Threads come in different colors, essentially aspected mana with different colors having different capabilities.

The problem is the threads are common but not ever present and they need to be in contact with something to achieve an effect. Threads can be moved at Magery/yards per turn.

If other magic systems are in the setting this can be purchased as an alternative ability to other forms of Magery.

Thaumatology

Thaumatology allows a mage to skillfully manipulate threads to achieve various effects. Anyone with Magery (Thread) can see and move threads around, even activating them. But that is child's play.  Real magicians learn how to tap the energy in a thread to actually cast spells or move them around.

Bind Thread (Raw Mana)

This advantage allows the mage to bind and store 1 point of raw mana or a thread per level. It costs 5 points per level and a mage is limited to Thaumatology/2+Magery in levels. See Raw Magic Store, GURPS Thaumatology, p. 228.

Using a Thread

A thread is essentially stored energy and can be tapped for many effects. Each thread is aspected and works best for similar effects.

A single thread can do one of the following things...

• Provide 5 energy to power a spell or magic working.
• Fixate or stabilize and enchantment by providing 100 energy to an appropriate enchantment or the duration of an appropriate spell.
• Grant a +3 skill bonus to casting an appropriate spell.
• Directly affect a subject it is in contact with. Each thread counts as a Thrust attack (ST5 +Magery) or effect effect for the purpose of manipulating something or doing damage to it. The exact effect varies by aspect.

Threads of Many Colors

Every thread has its own color, which tells the mage what aspect it has.

• Black is water aspected and can extinguish fire, cool, or even freeze things.
• Blue is air aspected and manipulates the air, it does damage as a gust of wind and can clear things, its especially suitable for area and cone attacks.
• Brown is earth aspected and can physically crush or move objects without harming them.
• Green is life aspected and especially suited to healing. Treat damage as healing.
• Red is aspected towards fire and can do burning damage
• Yellow is spirit aspected and can manipulate emotions. Treat as a QC between its effective ST and the Will of the subject to incite or inspire a given emotion.

These are obviously just a small list of examples and what aspects are available in a setting is up to the GM. The frequency of appearance of threads is also an important choice. In some settings they may be everywhere, in others they may only appear in certain areas or distilled from magical beings or items and need to be carried around for use. As a rule of thumb each thread should be worth about 5 character points in effect and cost a FP to activate for a single turn. This is envisioned by mages as causing the thread to pulsate. Multiple threads can be bound together to create more powerful effects, but cost 1 FP per level used.

Dueling With Thread

Mages can move threads they see towards someone and once the thread touches them activate it by spending 1 FP.  Since non mages cant see them until they pulse this can be a nasty surprise! However once a thread is pulsed or energized it beeomes clearly visible and can be dodged, blocked, or even parried. The threads have a physical form and will not pass through things, though they appear weightless.

Mages can fight each other over a thread, this is a Quick Contest of Will + Magery (Thread) with the winner moving the thread as they desire up to the lower of margin of success or Magery.

Experienced mages have learned that slowly moving threads around the battlefield, while subtle and hard to defend against is rather slow and awkward. Mages can thus learn to bind threads and swing them as weapons, typically using Whip, Lasso, or Net  to hit. They can also be bound into an object such as a sword or staff and pulsed for extra effect when they strike a target.

Summary

This is obviously a bare bones magic system but it does have an interesting flavor and can be used with other magic systems for more variety.  The Raw magic Store advantage allowing threads to be used as temporary attacks (or relying on one just happening to be where you need it) is a nice perk but probably not over powered.  Essentially your using them as limited attacks of about the same point value at the cost of 1 FP/use and have to spend points on other abilities such as Thaumatology and a specific variant of Magery.  Pretty equivalent to a use of alternative abilities and Abilities at Default from GURPS Powers. This also factors in the the cost in time and effort in find and capturing the threads in the first place.

In Madwand threads were the initial use, but later he could see and manipulate them as clouds and perhaps other shapes.  This can be represented by adding Area Effect or treating threads as nets.

 Skills as Powers

So I have been pondering this idea off and on for awhile now and two recent interactions over the past few months have brought some of this to the fore and coalesced a few things.

I like GURPS Powers and a powers based magic system is intriguing.  It has the benefit of being inherently balanced when compared with other powers based character types. It does have disadvantages compared to tech based types though, especially as tech level increases.

GURPS Supers was probably the first book to attempt top deal with the disparity between buying stuff off the shelf and building it with powers. Basically you paid for the difference between the starting equipment and what it could do better.

I later suggested and others have debated the value of a cost reduction for powers that duplicate gear such as dividing the cost by 5 (based on the internal payload only, alternative ability pricing, or costs character points modifiers). We also have the Accessory perk.

GURPS Power-Ups 1: Imbuements by Sean Punch aka Kromm also approaches this in a way with using powers to modify weapons. Later expanded on in Pyramid articles to include armor and other gear.

Christopher Rice also created Metatronic Generators, first introduced in Pyramid #3/46 Weird Science. Its seen a few additional articles and more in his campaigns and hopefully will someday see a full treatment as a standalone supplement.

Recently someone asked for help in converting Shadow Run and Earth Dawn to GURPS and he wants to use Sorcery as the core spell system but a skills based magic system for additional subsystems.

Also I have started playing a non cinematic gadgeteer in our "one shot" campaign while one of our regular players has been working extra hours during the holiday season. This is a horror campaign where we started off as 75 point everymen and progressed very rapidly to 150 point characters and have only just started to slow down in growth.

Combining both these things for inspiration and looking over old material I thought I would post this as yet another example of how GURPS can do something in many different ways, depending on what the group wants.

Basic Premise

Take a power and create it on the fly as a penalty to a skill roll. We have seen a couple of examples and different ways to do this, go read Boil and Bubble: Magical Ability Defaults from Skill by Christopher Rice for instance.

You back? Good, here are some related ideas....

• Its Pure Chemistry, Pyramid #3/28 Thaumatology II by Christopher Rice allows Temporary Enhancements for potions and such.
• The Magic of Stories, Pyramid #3/13 Thaumatology by Kelly Pedersen is built around Book/Path magic but could be inspirational here.
• The Daughter of Necessity, Pyramid #3/46 Weird Science by Roger Burton West is a powers based approach to invention and Gadgeteer that is also inspirational. Specifically it has a way to determine Complexity (used for invention) based on the trait costs and then applies that to skill rolls.
• Sufficiently Deranged, Pyramid #3/122 All Good Things by Phil Masters. The first half of the article works well with devotional magic and time spent and could be a useful part of the converted magic system for my friend. The second part is based on Syntactic Realm Magic (GURPS Thaumatology, same author).

These ideas can be merged into a skills as powers system, including magic, weird science, alchemy, story telling, etc.

The Story Teller

This individual can tell a story, sing a song, recite a poem, or even give an impressive speech that can shape reality! Take an appropriate skill such as Enthrallment or Musical Influence, add in supporting skills such as specific story specialties (The Magic of Stories), music, poet, or writing specialties (perhaps even Artist) taking the role of weird sciences (Sufficiently Deranged) and determine effects and skill penalties using Boil and Bubble: Magical Ability Defaults from Skill, Daughters of Necessity, or one of the other systems above.

This lets a character achieve effects based on the story told, mood generated by music or art, etc.

 

The Spirit Worker

This individual works by gathering spirits of various types and persuading them to do specific things. Take an appropriate skill such as Ritual Magic (Spirit Worker) and add specialized skills based on types of spirits, Otherwise, see Story Teller above.

The Ritualist

As above but start with Thaumatology and add different magical specialties. The colleges in GURPS Magic are a perfect example and already suggested as Hard skills using the Ritual Magic option (p. B242).

The Chi Specialist

Why not something similar for martial artists? Go with Esoteric Medicine (manipulating your Chi) or perhaps Body Sense and various Chi skills, perhaps treating the five Taoist elements as separate sciences with optional specialties.

The possibilities are endless, but this is a blog post not a GURPS article or supplement. Besides most of the mechanics are already described in the referenced material!

Affinity (Cybertronics)

A friend asked me to create spells for hacking, I think it was a joke since hes trying to convert Shadowrun, but what the heck - Challenge accepted! 

He is going to have to read his players copy of the rules to see the details (such as FP cost) and a few of those would require a bit of fiddilng since I hadn't thought of this application for my homebrew magic system. For most readers this is not useful info, but consider it a teaser for a possible upcoming project.

Affinity (Cybertronics)

This affinity includes all electronics and computer technology, including software.

Flash Sale!

Mandala (Allure) Affinity-5

Creates a flashy banner or ad that lures those nearby into the data node.  Handy for getting visitors to your website.

Awaken A.I.!

Mandala (Awaken Spirit)

Cyber Trap

Mandala (Binding) Affinity-5

Traps an A.I. or hacker for the duration.

Hackers Helper

Mandala (Bonus) Affinity-4

Grants a bonus to Computer Hacking for the duration.

Cyberlink

Mandala (Communication) Affinity-4

Allows the subject to communicate via network interface with another user or system.

Covered Tracks

Mandala (Concealment) Affinity-4

Hides the subjects electronic signature, making them harder to spot.

Control Computer

Mandala (Control Machine) Affinity-4

Hadnt gotten around to writing this one up yet, but M2 sounds right.

This would be pretty much the bulk of what a hacker would use and is basically M9ind Control for machines. Handy if I wanted magical hacking to be as simple as casting a couple of spells but if I wanted hacking to be a minigame I would need to do more with this technique.

Counter Hack!

Mandala (Counter Magic) Affinity-4

A blocking spell to counter a hackers spells, such as Control Computer.

Create Program

Mandala (Create) Affinity-5

Commonly learned for a few specific programs, though it can create any program the caster can fully visualize and code.

Create Daemon

Mandala (Creation) Affinity-6

Creates a simple specific volitional program that can act on its own. Examples include spiders that search a database, collate the desired info, and then go copy it somewhere for later review.

Heal Data

Mandala (Healling) Affinity-5

Heals a program or database from damage and degradation, though it wont repair a destroyed program or recover lost data.

Excellent Search

Mandala (Information) Affinity-3

Preforms a quick but widespread search for information.

Afterwards

Ok, that took about 30 minutes and admittedly not all of those techniques are written up enough or in a manner that would clearly apply to this application but not too bad for an improvisational system.

RPM would have taken me longer for similar results.