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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Boil and Bubble: I Put a Spell on You
Note: I commented on a forum thread about the Cursed disadvantage a while back and though I’m loathe to do a lot of cross-posting, I think this is one of the times I just swallow that bitter pill and do it. I’ve added a bit to my thoughts from there. “Soooo… you’re that brave bastard […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Magical Styles – Demonology
My last installment of magical styles was almost a year ago. The post did prove popular, but I didn’t get back to this until now. Mostly because I’ve been really busy and this sort of intense article requires a lot of research and precise planning – styles take time to make the right way and […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Spell Kits For Casters – Jack-of-All-Mages
Ritual Path magic is already pretty flexible. You can do just about any sort of spell you can visualize and it really doesn’t take that long to perform the spell itself. So what is a “jack-of-all-mages” in such a system? First, the Jack is less about being able to cast a specific group of spells […]
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Boil and Bubble: Diablorising Sorcery – The Witch Doctor – Part II
Damn it, man! *itches skin* I need a hit, okay? So…uhh.. hey, I got this necromancy spells, right? I can quit when I want…I just need one more hit. One more hit ought to do it, right? Yeah. That’s it. For old times sake. Like the previous installment, this one is all about Diablo III […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Sorcerous Hexes
Behind Ritual Path magic, Sorcery (from Pyramid #3/63: Infinite Worlds II) is probably my second favorite magical system out there. It seamlessly blends two things that I like about GURPS: flexibility and power builds. There have been many powers-based approaches to magic using modular abilities before – but I think PK nailed it perfectly with his […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Spell Kits for Casters – the Defender
In a previous post, I talked about various “wizardly” archetypes and how you might create them using RPM. I’ve already done this for the Gatemaker and the Necromancer, but what’s next? Well, I’ve been watching a lot of Agents of S.H.E.L.D. and shields defend…so hey! Defender. That’s the ticket. I described the Defender archetype as… “The […]
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Boil and Bubble: Ritual Path Magic Skill Levels
Anders sent me a PM the other day and asked a pretty simple question: What do skill levels mean for Ritual Path magic casters? You’ve got your shiny copy of GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic and you’ve just bought GURPS Template Toolkit 1: Characters…but now what? You’ve got your skill level description from p. 12 […]
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Boil and Bubble: Diablorising Sorcery – The Witch Doctor – Part I
Look…I like necromancy magic, okay? It’s not a addiction or anything, I can quit whenever I want. I recently got to play Diablo III and after my typical Barbarian run-through I fired up a Witch Doctor…man that was fun. Now, I’ve already created some Ritual Path magic spells for the Necromancer from Diablo II…why not […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Mage-Blade Duelling
Inspired by +Peter V. Dell’Orto and +Douglas Cole posts (here, here, and here) on “Longsword Sport” I wonder if the style is portable to less modern settings…and what’s more, what if it were more than just a sport? But a way of two mages to settle a point of contention without spells? The Style I’m totally riffing off of […]
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