Started posting the Chalice World.  This is a High Fantasy setting I made and have been tweeking for about 20 years now.  The original concept was kind of a ghost ring world orbiting an almost dead sun.
Now its much more lively and is a Chalice resting on a turtle.

Syria Attack

This airstrike was probably the hardest thing President Trump has done so far.
Mostly he seems to have support, though some of his supporters have objected and withdrawing thier support.
I feel what he did violated American Law but the Republican Congress seems to mostly ok with letting that go but asking him to consult next time.
The trouble is of course waiting too long weakens such an action.  Punishment must be swift or it loses much of its impact.
This was a very moderated response, a specific attack on one base with a warning to Russia and hence Syria to clear out troops.
Some on the Right object as they are nationalists and want to ignore the rest of the world.  Some also say it was not Syria but Russia that was behind the chemical attack that prompted this.
Some on the Left object because they think its probably part of a conspiracy with Russia.
It is possible that Russia set this up to distract from the investigation and provide leverage with the Sanction talks.  Personally I doubt this however, though I acknowledge it is weird Al Assad did this now.  Also a bit odd no crater charges were used so the runway damage seems pretty minimal.
However the timing with regards to North Korea is probably a positive.
Though I have called my Senator to remind him again to please watch for President trump starting a war to change the narrative.

Overall I think it was a good thing, we will have to see.

Updates To Lantern Guild (Chalice World setting)

Updates made to Lantern Guild and added Black Lantern (water) page

• Lantern Guild Added description and details of the magic systems used.  See the bottom of the page.  Also linked to the Black Lantern Guild page
• Black Lanterns Added a page describing these water mages which includes several Path rituals.

Uploaded each of the following pages.

• Black Lanterns; Affinities: Fishing, Ice, Magic, Sailors, Ships, Water
• Blue Lanterns AKA The Communications Guild; Affinities: Communication, Dream, Empathy, Magic, Mind, Sound.
• Brass Lanterns; Affinities: Fire, Hearth, Magic, Smithing
• Brown Lanterns; Affinities: Animal, Hunting, Magic
• Green Lanterns; Affinities: Agriculture, Magic, Plant, Wood
• Gold Lanterns AKA The Society of Enchanters; Affinities: Enchantment, Luck, Magic
• Grey Lanterns; Affinities: Air, Magic, Weather
• Iron Lanterns; Affinities: Luck, Magic, Protection, Warning
• Orange Lanterns; Affinities: Crafts, Magic
• Red Lanterns; Affinities: Body, Deception, Entertainment, Illusion, Magic, Sound
• Shadow Lanterns; Affinities: Magic, Necromancy, Spirit
• Silver Lanterns; Affinities: Divination, Knowledge, Magic, Observation
• Violet Lanterns; Affinities: Body, Healing, Magic
• Yellow Lanterns; Affinities: Earth, Food, Magic
• White Lanterns; Affinities: Darkness, Light, Magic
• Winged Lanterns; Affinities: Gate, Magic, Movement, Travel

Nuclear option invoked

The Senate decided to become the House of Representatives today.

Sad.

Now we will no longer have moderate SCOTUS, it will shift from right to left staying on the extremes with each new nominee.

The Lantern Guild

The oldest and largest guild of casters in the human lands is the Lantern Guild.

The Lantern is the iconic symbol as it represents the light in the darkness and leading people down the paths of civilization. It relies on Affinity and Book/Path magic, though a few members also practice other systems.

It is composed of several sub guilds organized along certain professional lines and each is represented with its own lantern symbol.

• Black Lanterns; Affinities: Fishing, Ice, Magic, Sailors, Ships, Water
• Blue Lanterns AKA The Communications Guild; Affinities: Communication, Empathy, Magic, Mind Control, Sound
• Brass Lanterns; Affinities: Fire, Hearth, Magic, Smithing
• Brown Lanterns; Affinities: Animal, Hunting, Magic
• Green Lanterns; Affinities: Agriculture, Magic, Plant, Wood
• Gold Lanterns AKA The Society of Enchanters; Affinities: Enchantment, Magic
• Grey Lanterns; Affinities: Air, Magic, Weather
• Iron Lanterns; Affinities: Magic, Protection, Warning
• Orange Lanterns; Affinities: Crafts, Magic
• Red Lanterns; Affinities: Body, Deception, Entertainment, Illusion, Magic, Sound
• Shadow Lanterns; Affinities: Magic, Necromancy, Spirit
• Silver Lanterns; Affinities: Knowledge, Magic
• Violet Lanterns; Affinities: Body, Healing, Magic
• Yellow Lanterns; Affinities: Earth, Food, Magic
• White Lanterns; Affinities: Darkness, Light, Magic
• Winged Lanterns; Affinities: Gate, Magic, Movement, Travel

Lantern Guild Political Information

Each Lantern Guild is run under it’s own guidelines and rules but all work with a common charter. They meet once every ten years for a High Council meeting where the highest representatives discuss the interests of the Guild and how to further them. This is a big event and many come from all over the world to participate and learn what the other chapters are doing. The Guild is the most widely recognized human and dwarven secular magic organization and has great influence. Technically it has no authority over anyone but it’s members. It is still consulted in many magical matters and is considered the legal default Guild in most provinces and kingdoms. The politically most powerful Lantern Guilds are the Blue, Green, Red, and White Lanterns but this may vary in some locations where a specific Guild helps the areas major needs.

  

General Charter

1. The purpose of the Lantern Guild and its chapters is to promote the economic potential and advancement of its members.

2. Members are listed on the rolls by rank and circle and senior members are responsible for junior members and have increasing responsibility to the Guild. Dues are based on rank.

3. Each chapter house will be registered with the Guild headquarters and all chapter houses are expected to keep current on other houses and current events as affects the Guild.

4. Hospitality. All chapters will make basic services available to members in good standing with the Lanterns Guild no matter what chapter or member guild they belong to. Basic Services include but are not limited to basic sleeping and personal gear storage, local information, study room and employment notices.

Lanterns Guild Rank general guidelines and information

Rank –1 (-5 points) Duty *All the time (-10) [-15]

The lowest of the low. This rank is reserved for applicants who cannot afford formal apprenticeships. They are assigned many of the lowest tasks in the guild in order to build up enough guild credit to pay for their training. They are expected to live in the guild halls and be on call day and night to meet the demands of the guild.

Rank 0 (0) Claim to Hospitality (5) [5]

The standard apprenticeship rank. At this level you are undergoing training, typically in a formal situation under a specific teacher. Some, undergo this training on the road traveling from town to town but they are not allowed to sell their skills in magic. At this level the variation in training is quite large and you have some who have yet to learn their first ritual and others who have mastered many but are reluctant to apply for more senior rank. This is the first level at which your Aura is marked by the guild to show your membership and rank. Note that above this rank the character must be a member in good standing for at least as many years as the rank to which they hold. So rank 1 requires at least a year membership while rank 4 requires at least 4 years membership.

Rank 1 (5) Duty Occasional <9 (0) [5] Dues $25/month plus commission fees

At this rank the guild member has passed tests ensuring competency with at least 5 different spells in the College belonging to the Guild (10 spells for Gold Lanterns). Members may sell their services through the guild with the guild getting 10% of the pay for brokering and administrative related fees. Members who are on the road are encouraged to pay in advance but are typically placed in good standing when they come back to Civilization and pay their back dues. If they are caught practicing thier magic for pay while not in good standing or on a waiver they are penalized heavily with fines, duties or even forfeiture of guild membership.

Rank 2 (10) Duty <12 (-5) [5] Dues $50/month plus commission fees and 10 hours a week unpaid service.

Members at this are the meat and bread of a guild and spend their time assigning tasks to apprentices, gathering and posting guild related news on the boards, brokering and interacting with the other organizations in the area. They must pass a test demonstrating competency at administration and at least 10 spells in the College belonging to the guild with share strength among them.

Rank 3 (15) Duty <9 (0) [15] Dues $75/month plus commission fees and at least 10 hours a month paid service.

Members at this rank may be teachers and must pass proficiency tests demonstrating the abilities of Rank 2 plus mastery of at least two spells (Skill 15+).

Rank 4 (20) Duties as required, Status 1+ (5), Rep+2 local guild members (3+) [28]+ Dues $100/month, plus

This is the rank of the typical chapter guild master. Often this rank comes with a salaried position that more then covers the dues. The Single College Enchantment spell is required at mastery level (15+) to achieve this rank as well as mastery of administrative skills.

Rank 5 (25) Status 2+ (10) Rep+1 all Lanterns (5) [40] Dues $200/month plus commissions

The most senior rank all but the rarest members achieve. At this point the member is pretty independent and either in charge of a large guild chapter or reports to one. Besides the skills and spells required by the lower ranks mastery of economics and merchant skills are required as well as some competency with diplomacy.

Rank 6 (30) Status 3+ (15) Rep+1 any mage or magical scholar(5). [50] Dues $250/month

To achieve this rank the member must have researched a new college spell as determined by the guild leaders or led the enchantment of a particularly famous and noteworthy magic item or permanent spell that reflects the guild directly. This rank is awarded in a special ceremony by the High Council at the High Councils festival of Lanterns held once every ten years. It is a great honor rarely achieved. Note that at this level and above commission fees are not paid unless guild resources are used in the spell casting or its preparation.

Rank 7 (35) Status 4+ (20) Rep +2 any mage of Civilization (10) [65] Dues $500/month

This is the senior ranking of a guild and only one exists for each lantern guild.

Member benefits and local organizations

1. Chapter houses maintain a library for self study, act as brokerage houses for their members and even provide emergency shelter.

2. Chapter houses come in many varieties but a rating system has been devised and is reasonably adhered to enough to give the traveler a pretty good idea of what to expect.

I.  One Star House

II. Two Star House

III.        Three Star House

IV.        Four Star House

V. Five Star House

3. The learning fees for members in good standing of a house are halved for in house spells. No special fees are charged for in house use and access to the standard library. Members in Good standing of another house are charged $5 a day for use of the library.

GURPS Magic Systems

A brief high level overview of some GURPS Magic Systems

Magic your thing?
GURPS Basic Set introduces a Spells as skills system that is further fleshed out in GURPS Magic and its supplements. That system dates back to the beginning of GURPS with various updates since.
However magic is something that almost everyone sees differently and no single system can support all the works of fiction and history. So GURPS has several systems to choose from.
Note: When checking out the links below  they lead to a description page, with purchase links on the upper left and related books and Pyramid articles at the bottom.

GURPS Thaumatology

 Expands on the basic GURPS Magic system and adds other systems and many options.
However becasue it covers so  much ground it isleft to expansions to delve deeper.  Luckily some ahve  already come out, both as supplements and as Pyrmiad articles as well as numerous House Rules, many of which are discussed on the forums.
Some of the systems it includes...

• A discussion on the background and  setting implications of magic and various choices.
• At least two chapters devoted to GURPS Magic and ways minor and major to tweak it to suit various campaigns.
• Material magic, including raw materials, Alchemy, and enchanting items.
• Path and Book Magic which were introduced in GURPS Voodoo the Shadow War and GURPS Castle Falkensten (Both Third Edition) which is a slower but fairly flexible and low to medium powered system.
• Flexible Magic, including Symbols, Syntactic and Realm magic (The latter introduced in GURPS Mage The Ascension for Third Edition)
• Magic as Powers

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.  Also see GURPS Magical Styles: Dungeon Magic

GURPS Thaumatology Ritual Path Magic

A powerful and flexible system that can do almost anything given enough time and ability. It isbuilt 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.

Powers based Magic

• GURPS Powers: Divine Favor is a powers based approach for clerics and priests.
• 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 narativist 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. Additional: Protection and Warning Spells
• GURPS Powers: The Weird is more targets at Weird Science but can easily be used for Magic as Powers. Some examples are Demiurgy (Illusions become reality)

Pyramid Magic Index

Two Wrongs do not make a Right

Democrats need to start picking their battles more carefully.
Yes it was wrong and a gross dereliction of duty for Republicans to not vote on SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland..  In doing so republicans betrayed the public trust and that they feel their party is more important than America.
However now the Democrats are doing almost as bad, by at least letting the Gorsuch nomination get to a vote they are ahead in the ethics on this but they should go ahead and vote, not filibuster or try to block with tricks.

With the lowest approval rating of any President ever in the United States within the first hundred days and approval on Congress also slipping every day America has shown it is tired and getting more and more enraged at Partisan politics.
Democrats lost the last election and have been steadily losing state and congressional/senate elections for more than a decade due to anti-establishment anger.  Republicans did not win the last election, Democrats gave it away.
Wake up DNC!
Stop playing corporate and partisan politics and start working for your constituents and you may actually reverse that trend.  While big donor money gets you better advertising people are showing they are paying more attention and a catchy ad wont win over integrity and doing what the voters want.