Anon's "Quick Rundown" of GURPS magic systems

Basic -- Every spell is its own separate and self-contained skill. They take FP and normally a couple of seconds to cast, and the casting ritual requires free motion and the ability to speak. All three of these things can be reduced or even eliminated with high skill as the mage learns shortcuts or more efficient forms of spellweavery. The casting costs and times are very balanced for combat, meaning they're expensive enough to not be the action of first resort, fast enough to be used in combat, and slow enough that the rest of the party will need to defend the mage (or strike out before he casts, if a mage is the enemy or the party wants to contribute to combat). Though each spell is learned separately, all but the most basic cantrips require the mage to know other spells; this keeps mages from having overly eclectic knowledge (e.g. they can make an explosive fireball but can't call upon fire in any other way) and in theory gives bigger spells a higher entry cost (e.g. you can't get the fire college's capstone spell Meteor without investing 20+ points at minimum into all the prerequisites). The pros of this approach is that it's great for beginners, both GMs and players. The spell list and division hearkens back to D&D, which makes the system more comfortable to recent switchers, and every effect being standalone with well-defined abilities means GMs don't have to make many on-the-fly calls (if you want to have Ability X, cast Spell X). The cons is that the system is mostly carried over from 3e 1:1, so there's some issues where it clashes with 4e in terms of both changed mechanics (3e's exact wattage vs. 4e's more abstract 'power cell' size) and pure wonkiness because the spells are 20 years old. The system also shares some of the faults of D&D spells, in that there are a bunch of self-containted abilities and god help you if you want anything outside the defined list of spells, and the huge pre-made list makes magic not feel as magical


Symbol -- Spells are worked by combining at least two Symbols, each of which is its own skill. The symbols are best thought of as falling into two groups, Nouns or Verbs. Along with the variety of symbol combinations, there are also other modifiers; both creating a campfire and a magical nuke would be Create+Fire, but the second one would pump as much energy (or take as big a penalty; either is used and it's up to the GM) as they could into Damage and Area. Symbol magic takes FP and is very slow to cast, I'm talking *hours* to scribe a spell. However, the costs tend to be fairly low, and once a symbol spell is made it can be carried around for a while; the greatest symbol mages are not necessarily the most powerful, but the ones that know what to expect and prepare accordingly. Symbol magic is also great for magic-knights; the smaller number of skills frees up more points to be invested in martial abilities, and one of the ways you cast symbol magic is to write a one-off enchantment on their weapon.

As a non-mechanical aspect, symbol magic is ripe for cool fluff details. What you use for symbols, either the actual images or as inspiration for the Nouns/Verbs, can color your setting a LOT.


Syntactic -- Sister-system to Symbol magic. Both use Verb/Noun and modifiers, but while Sym	bol magic is very slow, big on preparation, and leans toward long-term if not permanent effects, Syntactic is speedy, spontaneous, and short-term effects. In D&D terms, symbol mages are wizards with their book of spells and Batman-like preparation and syntactic mages are sorcerers that can sling spells haphazardly and can adapt to many situations.

For both Symbol and Syntactic, the pro is their flexibility. Anything you can think up in GURPS terms can be made as a spell, and the rules for making these spells if very robust and solid with not a lot of room for broken spells. The best part is that the system goes most of the work in terms of oversight; if the players follow the rules, there's little need for the GM to bother checking the spells. If I had to pick a con, it's the amount of work the GM has to do to set up the system. GMs have to select a lexicon, set time and FP costs, determine what modifier uses what (extra FP/skill penalty/margin of success), stuff like that. For the players, both systems have the con that effects can be underwhelming for your investment. The big point of the Verbs and Nouns is the flexibility, you're paying for options, not for sheer strength. While this works in the favor of clever players that like to find unique solutions and favor utility, support, or trickery over direct combat, it's really hard to do an iconic blaster mage with Symbol or Syntactic magic.


Realm -- Despite being paired with Syntactic magic, this system has very little to do with the other (Syntactic shares a lot more with Symbol than it does with Realm). Instead of Verbs and Nouns, the GM will need to divide the universe up into Realms (still basically Nouns, but they tend to be much more broad and vague like Life or Time). The big change is that each Realm also has a leveled advantage. It's sort of a tiered approach to Verbs, with lower levels equating to Verbs like Sense or Analyze, middling levels granting various degrees of Control, and higher levels allowing for Creation, Transformation, etc. The big issue I have with Realm magic is that it's a 50-page idea presented in less than 10 pages. There's very little in terms of guidelines for GMs, and Realm is VERY GM intensive, especially when you increase the amount of levels allowed. See, the GM also has to set the number of levels allowed, with more levels making each individual level cheaper and making the rise in power much more gradual and not "well shit yesterday I could only detect life, now I control it at the cellular level." However, more levels also increases the gray area in terms of where a spell's effects fall. It's very nice to SAY that level 4 allows for minor control, level 5 for major control and minor creation, and level 6 for total control, major creation, and minor transformation, but once the dice start falling it can be all but impossible to actually determine what level a Control Matter spell would fall into. Also, high levels tend to be fucking JoJo-and-Touhou-had-a-baby insane; the example of 8th level control when the system has 8 levels of mastery is transforming the concept of electricity into a purple liquid that flows uphill, and that's stated to be a tame use of that level.

If you keep the number of levels low and are willing to do a LOT of on-the-fly calls as the GM, this system is usable. Otherwise I recommend avoiding it until it gets a proper splat.


Powers -- Fairly straightforward. Every "spell" is an advantage. The GM will need to establish any common spell traits (e.g. "every spell-power needs Costs 1 FP, Takes Extra Time 1, and Magical") and look over the advantages for shenanigans, but other than that it's a simple system that's good for games where mages are basically fantasy superheroes.

Sorcery -- Introduced in one of the Pyramid issues, it's a specialization of Powers as Spells, and it's distinct and cool enough that I feel it deserves its own mention. Sorcerers have Learned Spells, powerful magical abilities that they have mastered, and they can improvise weaker spells on the spot. In game terms, sorcerers have a limited form of Modular Abilities, and they can either use that advantage to write up new "spells" on the spot (improvised spells) or they can buy advantages as Alternate Abilities to Modular Abilities, paying only 1/5 the cost. The pros of Sorcery is that it allows for improvisation while still setting up sorcerers to have favored or "signature" spells. This can really add a lot of flavor to the setting. Your not!Bigby sorcerer will have the ability to cast any spell, but the signature ones he becomes famous for are his Learned Spells that are all TK-based. The con is that a lot of players tend to be overwhelmed when your spell-creation rules are the same as your character-creation rules. Additionally, just like you should read over your players' sheets like a fucking hawk, you'll need to do the same for any Learned Spell (improvised spells tend to be weak enough that any game-breaking ones should be obvious without your vigilant hunt, like ones with +4000% in enhancements). Lastly, some people don't like using char-gen rules for spells.


Path/Book -- Basic Magic: Slow and Steady Edition. Spells are once again pre-defined with nice well-established borders, but now the casting time is a lot slower. The ritual for casting is a lot more important with this system, with rules for consecrated spaces, target links and contagion, time, etc. Each Path or Book is learned as a skill, with Paths being linked thematically (Path of Dreams, Path of Weather, etc.) and Books being more use-oriented (a Book for magical spies would have some intrusion rituals, some mind-reading rituals, some knowledge/language rituals, etc.). There are two ways to cast the spell, with the GM deciding at the campaign's start. One way is that each spell has an established time to cast and penalty to the Path/Book roll, and the other is to roll periodically to gather properly aspected mana/energy based on your margin of success. The big pro this system brings to the table is flavor. Mages are like fairytale wizards or shamans, casting subtle spells that take a lot of effort and time while hiding in their tower or yurt, not blasting combat wizards. If your players dislike that, though, that's actually a con. The bigger con in my opinion is the lack of flexibility and the tiny spell list.


Ritual Path Magic -- The lovechild of Realm and Path/Book Magic that somehow manages to avoid the issues I have with either. Mages learn Paths, essentially broad Noun groups. The spell's base cost is based on the Verb used (all start out "unlocked"). Like Path/Book, you gather energy for spells via regular skill rolls. Magery caps your skill, so non-mages can learn magic but should rely on as many external bonuses as they can get to make up for their mediocre skill (this means actual mages can get by with focusing their mind, but beginner mages will have to go full cultist with aspected incense, planetary metals, magically-attuned chants, stuff like that. Gathering energy also take the same time, space, and links that Path/Book takes, but can be ignored with an advantage most serious mages take. The energy a spell takes is based off of three things: any verbs used, the modifiers, and the number of Greater Effects. The first two should be familiar, but Greater Effects are new to RPM. Remember how WoD Mages had difficulty casting spells when Sleepers (or whatever they were called) were around to see it? Similar concept here, except that instead of Sleepers, you get fucked if the universe catches onto your magical bullshit; any blatant, obviously magical effect that could not be explained away by a desperate mundane TRIPLES the spell's energy costs at the very least. This simultaneously pushes mages towards subtle spells while letting master archmages go wild with fireballs and shit. Even with the advantage, most casters will struggle to cast battle-spells on the spot, but mages can also prepare spells ahead of time and leave them hanging until they need them.

Pros: Very flexible, supports almost all kinds of mage characters, thematic
Cons: GM's call on what a Greater Effect is, though the PDF for the system helps. Even without that it's mostly a common sense call as opposed to a "is this a minor control spell or a moderate one."


Divine Favor -- The short and dirty on Divine Favor is that it's the Patron advantage that's expanded on and applied to a YHWH-type God. You roll twice, once to get God's attention, the other to get His reaction, and certain things can modify either roll. You can also learn specific miracles the same way Sorcerers do Learned Spells. It's a light system that's 90% GM, but for some reason I still like it. Possibly because unlike other GM-based systems, DF is SUPPOSED to be the character asking a higher power for help while others like Realm magic paint the caster as a manipulator of the universe but almost every spell requires heavy GM input. Since the system is so bare bones, it's easy enough to modify to any style of magic where 'casters' actually just have the ear of a powerful (or at least supernatural) being or force.



Muh opinion ranking: RPM > Sorcery > Divine Favor > Symbol >= Syntactic > Basic >= Path/Book >>> Realm.