One of the more interesting mechanics of Ritual Path Magic is the “Lesser vs. Greater” effect. Basically, if it’s a “realistic” magical effect then it’s probably a Lesser effect – otherwise it’s a Greater effect. Now, what is and isn’t a Greater effect depends on the campaign…but what if it were dependent on the caster, […]
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Boil and Bubble: My Thoughts on the Social Implications on Ritual Path Magic
Ritual Path Magic is the new kid on the block as far as popular magic systems go. It’s got a lot going for it: flexibility, self-consistency, ease of use, well you get the idea – I’m a fan. But I’m also a advocate. For every person who says “No, this doesn’t work because I can […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Ritual Path Magic Material Enchanting
Sean Punch’s The Material Difference from Pyramid #3/66: The Laws of Magic is an exciting new system looking at a common videogame trope: “Resource Farming.” Though the article is geared toward the basic magic system it could be easily adapted to Ritual Path Magic. The Basics First, a few assumptions. Let’s assume that enchanter’s work […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Ritual Mass Combat
Today is Patreon Day and the topic selected by my patrons was “Ritual Path Magic and Mass Combat.” So…what do I have to say about that. A lot it turns out – I playtested both books rather extensively and got a writing credit for GURPS Thaumatoloyg: Ritual Path Magic. I’m going to make a few […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes – Alternative Ritual Path Magic
Writing Alternative Ritual Path MagicIf you’re not a writer or game designer, you might not understand the following sentence (or at least not all of it): That article nearly ate my soul and stole my sanity. It started small, honest, four thousand words, but it started to grow. It was like a thing alive. I […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Magical Styles – Spellslinger
Whoa, Black Betty, bam-ba-lam Black Betty had a child, bam-ba-lam The damn thing gone wild, bam-ba-lam Said it weren’t none of mine, bam-ba-lam – Black Betty, Ram Jam It’s a pretty established fact that I produce more GURPS material than I can possibly get published – there is only so much space in Pyramid and […]
Continue readingDesigner’s Notes: The Old Ways
Writing The Old WaysThe Old Ways was perhaps one of my favorite articles to date. I’d been writing pretty steadily at that point, but I previously had a gap where I didn’t submit anything or had written anything noteworthy. The last issue I appeared in had been Pyramid #3/49: World Hopping and I’d gotten my […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Using Magic to Target Hit Locations
Targeting hit locations with magic is fairly straightforward in most cases: If the damage type of the spell can’t target the location – then the spell can too. But what if you want to target a hit location with a spell that doesn’t allow it or specify a damage type (like many spells in GURPS […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Spell Kits For Casters – The Necromancer
“In glamoury that necromancer held his hosts of phantoms and of wandering ghosts…” – The Lay of Leithian, J. R. R. Tolkien In a previous post, I talked about various “wizardly” archetypes and how you might create them using RPM. In this post (and successive ones if it continues to prove popular), I’m going to […]
Continue readingBoil and Bubble: Beginner’s Ritual Path Magic
I’ve done a ton of blog posts on Ritual Path magic…because, well, I like it and there is a demand for it right now. So hey, give the readers what they want. Monster Hunters covers what fairly large spells and competent casters might look like, but what about less-competent characters? Everyone has to start somewhere […]
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