So Matt Riggsby’s “GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Treasures: Glittering Prizes” came out recently (I was one of the playtesters) and it’s useful for worldbuilders in general, not just those who play Dungeon Fantasy. (See here for Matt’s Designer’s Notes.) One of the things he included there was a cool little throwaway line: “For example, if mystical techniques […]
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Boil and Bubble: Inaugural Post
Since I talk about magic a lot on my blog, I figured that it might deserve its own post.header, so today I’m launching “Boil and Bubble.” So what will this series cover? Just about everything to do with magic (except actual magic gear or enchanted items – the Hurt Locker covers that!), alchemy, magical systems, […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Magical Styles – Luna di Fiamma
GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles is probably one of the most groundbreaking books on standard magic that has yet to come out for GURPS 4th edition. It describes various ways to tweak standard magic into a more flavorful – yet formulaic – way. The following magical style works best for a contemporary campaign, but can fit […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Ritual Path Magic Sacrifices
There were a couple of interesting topics recently on the forums about Ritual Path magic and sacrifices for energy. Some were about how much energy you could give or how much you could gather from a stadium of people or my personal favorite: summoning a demon and then forcing it to give you energy or be […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Words of Creation
Logos (sometimes referred to as “power words” or “prime words”) are the literal words of Creation itself. Logos are the selfsame words that were spoke in the making of the universe. Despite having such a divine provenance they can be learned by mortal men and women who have sufficient strength of will…. …if you’d like to read more, […]
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Boil and Bubble: Ritual Path Magic Mana Batteries
Ritual Path Magic is one of the more flexible magical systems GURPS 4th edition has yet to produce. It’s got its share of perceived woes (lack of “power stones” or an enchantment system that conforms to how the system itself functions), but it also can shine brilliantly in just about any genre with the right […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Air Spells for Sorcery
Jason “PK” Levine came up with this clever magic system in Pyramid #3/63: Infinite Worlds II. It garnered some attention when it came out, but hasn’t really seen much then. I think it comes as close as you possibly can to a working powers-based magic system that doesn’t feel like comic-book supers magic. It’s ranked […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: How to Build a Spell Thief
Recently, Shieldbunny from the Steve Jackson Games forums asked: I’ve been kicking around the idea of building a character based off of the spellthief class in That Other Game. For those of you that don’t know, the idea is a stealthy character that steals the spells from her enemies minds to cast herself. After some […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Latin Isn’t the Only Magical Language
During a recent character creation session, two of the three players choose a name based on a Latin word or phrase. One ended up discarding his choice later and the other mixed his up so it was a bit more different. But this made me think, “Why is Latin the first thing that pops up […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Spell Kits for Casters – Cryomancer
Fire tends to be the “go-to” element for spellwork that damages the target. But what of ice? Cold can kill just as easily as heat can. It’s the extremes of temperature that kills…so why don’t we see more “cryomancers” in fiction or RPGs? They can make the ground slippery, preserve a corpse, silence an alarm […]
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