What strength and damage rules should you use for your game? Normally this isn't much of a question but it can really matter in some campaigns, for groups trying to increase build diversity. If a campaign features characters significantly outside of the human norm, you may want to seriously review how strength works in your game too. So let's get down to it.
Basic Strength is the Strength rules from the basic set. You can familiarise yourself with them by reading the Basic Set or GURPS lite. These basic rules don't really have any particular advantages other than that they're straightforwardly laid out in the book. However the disadvantages are as follows.
Swing Damage drastically outpaces thrust damage even at lower levels. At strength 14 a character has a swing damage of 2 dice and a thrust damage of one die, that's potentially double damage. This isn't consistent either. At strength 16, characters deal 2d thrust and 2d plus two swing, a far lesser discrepancy.
The results of this is that characters that wish to use thrusting weapons will find themselves at a severe disadvantage, especially at lower or grittier levels of GURPS gameplay. There are some other fixes to this, such as using Blunt Trauma and Edged Weapons from Low Tech, but that's outside scope of this episode.
The other downside with Basic strength is that large characters need to sink hundreds of points into Strength to meet their Strength for Size requirements. This is only a niche problem as not every campaign features giants, but it's a large problem nonetheless. Even though there's a Size discount it only partially mitigates this. Strength and HP scores are hugely inflated.
But what of the Alternatives? Each has its place.
The three I'll be looking at are first, Adjusting Swing Damage in Dungeon Fantasy from the No School Grognard Blog, Second Knowing your Own Strength from Pyramid Eighty Three: Alternate GURPS Four, and Third, GURPS Better Cost for Strength from Gamesdiner.
So, Knowing Your Own Strength by Sean Punch. This makes basic lift Logarithmic and rescales damage. This purports to solve two problems. One that strength based damage gets too large, the other is the problem I mentioned earlier, that Swing damage outstrips thrust damage inordinately. This is a problem indeed, when you consider that thrust damage is what large animals rely on, yet a grizzly bear's swipe can't compete with a sword swing from a weaker human.
I've used Knowing Your Own Strength in a number of campaigns. It has its merits and demerits. First, the fact it is logarithmic makes human strength scores fall in line with other attributes. Strength is now capped at 16 without an unusual background. This puts a base cap on damage at two d for thrust and two d plus two for swing. This is fairly neat. While thrust damage now measures up with swing, characters that focus on swing damage attacks can get away with lower strength. Players might want more damage overall, but as a GM you can just tell them to invest in fine quality weapons, or different types of weapons such as maces for extra raw damage.
The greatest boon of these strength rules in my opinion is how much easier it becomes to play a campaign with different size characters. As of this recording I'm running a campaign that features a mixed size party; both giants and regular sized characters. If I used basic set strength, then the thirteen metre tall, that is size Modifier Plus Five character in my campaign would need to spend Seven Hundred and Forty Five points on strength alone, giving them a strength score of one hundred and fifty nine. While this would indeed give them a thrust of seventeen dice and swing of nineteen, it's debatable whether as a giant their size truly justified that damage. The real reason they needed that much strength is that they needed lifting strength to support their own weight, and equipment.
Knowing Your Own strength makes this part easy. With the KYOS rules they have spent merely two hundred and forty points, for a strength of thirty four. This provides them with the basic lift they need, without inflating their points cost or strength based damage. There's also no messing about with different strength costs for different sizes.
However, Knowing Your Own Strength can create some discrepancies, especially in Low Tech level games. If your players are after damage, they can get it almost too easily, the compressed strength and thus damage scaling means that fights can become even shorter and deadlier, over in a few strikes because hitpoints aren't scaled up any faster. This is far less of an issue in higher tech games, where guns already make fights far more deadly.
No School Grognard's adjusted swing and damage for Dungeon Fantasy rules are the other side. They don't touch lifting strength, instead they change swing damage. Mark Langsdorf, the Author of said rules talked about the reasons for this, and they're all good. Essentially, thrusting impaling damage really loses out in a way that doesn't make sense. Not only are you already using less raw damage dice in basic when using thrust, but stabbing anything but a human's torso or head means you do even less. Skeletons, golems, anything like that will be resistant to your thrusting weapon too by virtue of their injury tolerance. There's a good argument the reasons, you can read it on his blog. Some people don't like these rules, but they will appeal to some groups and GMs. I'm currently trying them out in my medieval fantasy game. I recommend this if you're playing a fantasy or low tech game and want to increase diversity.
Better cost for strength gamesdiner
These rules are somewhat of an alternative way KYOS. Dogulas Cole, the Author of Knowing your own strength said that it's one of the best strength cost rules he's seen. It has the advantage of not inflating lower to mid strength scores like Knowing your own strength. The logic is that strength has diminishing returns. So rather than giving exponentially increasing results as Knowing your own strength does, The Better Cost for Strength rules just reduce the cost of strength and hit points. If looking solely at basic lift, then these rules produce similar points for value results to Knowing Your Own strength. However the actual strength score will be the same as found in Basic Strength, so will damage and hitpoints. I haven't used these, but they seem to have their place, possibly in a supers game or one that features giants.
Summary:
Knowing your Own Strength for higher Tech level campaigns, or some low TL games that feature different size characters.
Basic if you prefer a different solution to thrust vs swing or you don't mind the problem of swing vs thrust
No school grognard's rules if you want increased build diversity in a game featuring characters that don't stray too far in size from the human baseline
Gamesdiner rules if you want Giant characters
Enraged Eggplant: Magic Systems Comparison
Outline
- Introduction
- Magic as Skills
- Magic as Powers
- Flexible Magic Systems
- Ritual Path Magic and its derivatives
- Sections 2-5 should have:
- Basic mechanics overview
- Mention their variants (to be expanded in other episodes)?
- Point investment
- Build diversity
- In-game and out-of-game complexity
- Existing materials and new spell creation
- Advantages and Disadvantages
- Final thoughts?
1. Introduction
GURPS is known as a modular system. While many other systems usually provide just one way of doing magic, GURPS has several magic systems, all with their upsides and downsides. Choosing a proper magic system for your fantasy game can improve your gaming experience. This is especially important if you are a new GM. There is no one true system, and each system can work differently in different settings and games. When making the choice keep in mind what degree of mechanical complexity and what flavor you are aiming for. I have not used all the systems I am going to talk about, but I still hope that this video will be helpful.
For the purpose of this comparison, I have split the magic systems into four categories: magic as skills, path/book magic, flexible magic, and magic as powers.
2. Magic as Skills
“Magic as Skills” is the default magic system introduced in the GURPS Basic Set and expanded in GURPS Magic.
2.1 Mechanics
Mages typically have the leveled Magery advantage (p. B66) that not only allows casting spells in normal and low mana levels, but also acts as a Talent, granting a bonus to casting rolls and spell learning time. Additionally, some spells have a certain level of Magery as a prerequisite for learning and some effects depend on the caster’s Magery level.
Each spell is a Hard or Very Hard skill based on IQ. Spells have different casting times, casting costs, and prerequisites that form a quite interesting prerequisite tree, giving the system something of a “scientific” feel. Some of the prerequisites not only require the caster to know other, more simple spells, but also require the caster to have particular traits.
To cast a spell, the caster must perform a ritual - gestures and magic words, make a roll against his spell skill, and pay the FP cost. This FP cost can be taken from his FP pool, HP pool, Energy Reserve, or an external source, such as a Powerstone. If the caster’s skill level is high enough, he receives an FP discount and can omit a part of a ritual (or the whole ritual, if he is very skilled). After the casting, the caster might want to maintain the spell beyond its normal duration by paying its maintenance cost and receiving a penalty on other spell skill rolls.
2.3-2.4 Investment and diversity
In terms of character point investment, this system is probably the cheapest. Build diversity is however hampered in my experience due to Magery acting as a Talent, casting cost discounts for high skill, and Magery-dependant spell effects. Everyone seems to strive for the optimal “effective IQ 17” by taking IQ 14 [80] and Magery 3 [35]. It’s a big frontloaded investment, but after that putting just one character point in a Hard spell gives you an effective skill level of 15, practically eliminating the need for spending any more points on it. Some powerful, but easily accessible spells (such as Great Haste) also make mages more uniform.
2.5 Complexity
Spells are not very complex in play, but since most of them have different casting parameters, such as cost, casting time, resistance type, energy- and Magery-dependant effects, skill-based discounts and rituals, they have a potential to slow down the game until the player is familiar enough with his character to know all these parameters without looking them up and/or calculating them. This is mostly an issue with inexperienced players. Using extra options, such as spell enhancements from GURPS Thaumatology or magical styles can increase complexity, but such options are outside the scope of this episode.
As a GM, you will have to think of challenges that will not be trivialized by spellcasters. Some spells deal in absolutes, which is rare for GURPS. For example, Resist Fire can make you completely immune to fire damage, even allowing you to survive a nuclear explosion (of course, if you find a way to survive radiation, shockwave, and all other nuclear hazards). Even more worrying are such spells as Missile Shield and Reverse Missiles that make the subject completely immune to ranged attacks. A GM should think about enemies having countermeasures for such cases, as many people should be aware of these effects from the in-universe standpoint, but should not go overboard and make the mage powerless in all encounters.
2.7 Existing materials, creating new spells
GURPS Basic Set provides only a limited list of spells, but GURPS Magic turns it into a huge list, containing spells from the previous iteration of GURPS Magic and GURPS Grimoire 3e. While this list might be enough for most games, some players and GMs will inevitably want to create new spells. However, this is where this system shows its major downside - the guidelines for spell creation and invention are very basic and vague. The best option is comparing the new spell with existing ones and trying to eyeball its parameters.
GURPS Thaumatology is the go-to book for those who want to modify the magic-as-skills system, providing a vast array of interesting options, such as Threshold-Limited Magic and Ritual Magic that are outside the scope of this episode. For those who want more premade spells, here’s the list of supplements that contain them (just put a list on the screen):
GURPS Alphabet Arcane
GURPS Banestorm
GURPS Banestorm - Abydos
GURPS Bio-Tech
GURPS Dragons
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 3 - The Next Level
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9 - Summoners
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 3 - Born of Myth & Magic
GURPS Magical Styles - Dungeon Magic
GURPS Magic - Artillery Spells
GURPS Magic - Death Spells
GURPS Magic - Plant Spells
GURPS Spaceships 7 - Divergent and Paranormal Tech
GURPS Thaumatology
GURPS Thaumatology - Magical Styles
GURPS Thaumatology - Urban Magics
GURPS Underground Adventures
Pyramid #3-4 Magic On the Battlefield
Pyramid #3-25 Epic Magic
Pyramid #3-28 Thaumatology II
Pyramid #3-48 Secret Magic
Pyramid #3-64 Pirates and Swashbucklers
Pyramid #3-68 Natural Magic
Pyramid #3-76 Dungeon Fantasy IV
Pyramid #3-91 Thaumatology IV
Pyramid #3-92 Zombies
Pyramid #3-105 Cinematic Magic
Pyramid #3-109 Thaumatology V
Pyramid #3-111 Combat II
Pyramid #3-113 Dungeon Fantasies
Pyramid #3-114 Mind over Magic
Pyramid #3-115 Technomancer
Additional non-spell options can also be found in:
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1 - Adventurers
GURPS Fantasy
Pyramid #3-7 Urban Fantasy
Pyramid #3-43 Thaumatology III
Pyramid #3-60 Dungeon Fantasy III
Pyramid #3-75 Hero's Jackpot
Pyramid #3-76 Dungeon Fantasy IV
2.8 Advantages/Disadvantages/Conclusions
Considering all said before, we can conclude the following:
+:
It’s likely to be known by players, as it is the default system from the GURPS Basic Set.
A lot of support in published supplements.
It’s likely to be simple to grasp for new players coming from other fantasy RPG systems.
A lot of options and tweaks in GURPS Thaumatology to enhance the flavor.
Is a ready-to-play system with everything worked out. The GM can just say “we’re using the default magic system” and the players will know what he is talking about.
Great for settings where magic either has a scientific flavor or is a science, for example, GURPS Technomancer.
Relatively low character point investment.
-:
Players can be daunted by the huge spell list.
Might be too fixed for the players’ or GM’s taste, even with the options from GURPS Thaumatology.
Quite a lot of bookkeeping.
Guidelines for new spell creation feel lacking.
Experienced players tend to stick to the “cookie-cutter” builds.
Has absolute effects that are likely to be holdovers from the previous edition. (This and many other issues are tackled in the Unofficial GURPS Magic Errata [link in the description]).
Character point investment might be too low. Spell costs are in no way consistent with the advantages and disadvantages as they use different frameworks.
Does not scale well with TL; the system seems to work better for low-TL games. Despite that, it still works fine with some considerations in TL7-8 games, and I have even played with it in TL10 games.
In conclusion I will say that it is still a good system, I have used and enjoyed it, but it is very setting-dependant. The biggest turn-off for me is its inconsistency with the advantage/disadvantage framework that GURPS is based on.
3. Ritual Path Magic, Path/Book Magic, Incantation Magic
Ritual Path Magic (often referred to as RPM) is a very flexible and flavourful magic system first introduced in GURPS Monster Hunters 1 - Champions and then expanded and polished in GURPS Thaumatology - Ritual Path Magic.
3.1 Mechanics
RPM is mechanically complex, possible the most complex magic system of them all.
First, RPM-specific Magery does not work as a Talent, but is still required to cast spell unpenalized. Magery improves the cap for Path skills that will be discussed later and grants Mana Reserve that also will be discussed later.
RPM is skill-based. It has a core skill that acts as an additional cap on Path skills. By default the core skill is Thaumatology, but it can be replaced with Alchemy, Herb Lore, Physics, or something else to change the flavour.
The main feature is the Path skills, each of which has sevel spell effects, each of which in turn can be broken into Lesser and Greater effects. GURPS Ritual Path Magic provides a list of ten nine “default” Paths: Path of Body, Path of Chance, Path of Crossroads, Path of Energy, Path of Magic, Path of Matter, Path of Mind, Path of Spirit, Path of Undead, and Path of Nonexistence. Each path also has a lesser-used, sephirotic name for extra flavour.
There are seven spell effects for each Path: Sense, Strengthen, Restore, Control, Destroy, Create, and Transform. Spell effects are not learned separately; anyone who knows a Path knows how to work all of its associated effects. Each spell effect can be broken into Lesser and Greater effects. The difference between Lesser and Greater varies by Path, but it often depends on how believable, natural, simple, or subtle the effect is; in all cases, the GM makes this decision. It’s important to note that Lesser and Greater effects also depend on TL - a spell that sends a message across the whole world might be a Lesser effect in a TL8 world, because a simple cell phone can accomplish the same thing, but a Greater effect in a TL2 world.
As with alternative core skills, the book also has suggestions for alternative paths and the reversal of Greater and Lesser effects. To me, the default Paths feel appropriate for a modern-time world where magic, either open or secret, was refined to these broad concepts. If I were to use the system in a lower TL game, I would increase the number of paths, making them less broad and refined. Perhaps, a Path for each classical element, and some extras. When creating your own Path scheme, consult the guidelines under Dividing Up the Universe in GURPS Thaumatology, pp. 179-180 and then write up a list of examples of Lesser and Greater effects for each combination of Path and effect to avoid questions such as “What can I do with Lesser Strengthen Shadow or Greater Destroy Emotion?” I believe that it’s very important.
Now we get to the meaty part - spell definition, creation, and casting. The most important part is spelled out right in the introduction: “In Ritual Path magic, every spell is an agreement between the spellcaster and the GM.”
Spellcasting goes as follows:
The caster described what he wants the spell to accomplish and assign Paths and effects. There will be multiple ways to accomplish the same thing with different Path/Effect combinations, and that’s intended. Note that if the caster assigns wrong effects or forgets aa crucial modifier, he will not know it until after he casts the spell. The book provides an extensive list of modifiers that should cover pretty much any effect (except for summoning, but it was covered by Christopher R. Rice on his blog).
The GM decides whether the spell requires a Greater or a Lesser effect and multiplies the energy cost accordingly.
The GM may then change the cost arbitrarily.
The GM may then apply a discount based on the coolness of description and the trappings used by the caster. It should not be higher than 25%.
Once the energy requirement is known, the caster begins the actual casting, using the lower skill level of the required Path skills. Four casting aspects apply penalties to the rolls:
Connection: The caster is penalized if he does not know where exactly his subject is, or if he does not possess something intimately tied to the subject. This can be mitigated by taking the Ritual Adept (Connection) advantage.
Consecrated Space: The caster is penalized if he does not cast the spell in a properly prepared area, such as a place of magical potency or a prepared magical circle.This can be mitigated by taking the Ritual Adept (Space) advantage.
Magical Aptitude: The caster is penalized is he has no Magery.
Time: The caster is penalized if he decides to accelerate the ambient energy accumulation. This can be mitigated by taking the Ritual Adept (Time) advantage.
6. Energy Accumulation begins. The caster has six options here:
Gathering ambient energy. It takes 5 Concentrate maneuvers per gathering and a skill roll. This can be sped up by taking penalties to the roll. Every third attempt for a given ritual applies a cumulative -1 penalty. A failure adds a quirk - a minor unintended effect. Critical failure doubles the energy collected to create a harmful “botch” ritual that harms the caster or helps his enemies.
Mana reserve. A character with Magery has a mana reserve that can be easily tapped for energy and replenished with Path of Magic.
Voluntary Sacrifice. The caster can use his own FP or HP or that of a willing character who understands the true intention of the spell for energy.
Involuntary Sacrifice. The caster can sacrifice a creature to gain energy.
Natural Energy. The caster can drain the life energy out of the land around them, blighting it for a long time in exchange for energy.
Powerful Artifacts. The caster can use various items of power introduced by the GM for energy.
7. The caster makes his casting roll.
The book also describes additional details, such as blocking spells, meta spells, divinations, wards, cooperative casting, alchemy, enchanting, and grimoires. A special mention goes to conditional rituals and charms. By adding a Lesser Control Magic effect, the caster can turn any ritual into a conditional ritual that triggers or expires only when a certain condition is met. A given caster can have only a limited number of conditional rituals “hanging” at once and is still limited by the stacking rules. A charm more-or-less is a conditional ritual that triggers when the charm is broken. The book provides neat rules for Quick-and-Dirty Rituals and Charms that help speed up casting in downtime. In my experience, this is the primary method of casting for RPM users - they prepare as many charms and conditional rituals as they can during downtime and then trigger them when needed.
2.3 Point investment
Characters need to invest a lot to be effective casters - they have to buy Magery, Thaumatology, Paths, and, possibly, Ritual Adept. While this might be one of the most expensive magic systems points-wise, it has a very steep power curve. It starts out quite weak a low point values, but one you enter the 180-250 points territory, you leave non-casters and casters that invested the same number of points in other systems far behind. If you go into 300+ points territory, there is nothing an RPM caster cannot do. This might be a big concern for both players and the GM.
2.4 Variants
RPM as a system was created using the Path/Book Magic chapter of GURPS Thaumatology. You can create your own variant using options from that chapter. But in general, almost everything said before applies to other variants of the system - RPM is the most fleshed out and “complete” of them.
A special mention goes to the Effect Shaping variant. When using Effect Shaping, instead of accumulating energy for a ritual, you simply take a penalty to your casting roll. The severity of this penalty depends on the ritual’s energy cost. This speeds up casting and eliminates a lot of complexity and bookkeeping, which I consider to be a plus. A worked example of Effect Shaping is described in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 19 - Incantation Magic.
2.8 Advantages/Disadvantages/Conclusions
Considering all said before, we can conclude the following:
+:
Very flavourful, and the flavour can be changed to accommodate your requirements.
Very flexible, can accomplish almost anything.
Seems great for urban fantasy settings with secret magic.
Has support outside of its book (Pyramid #3-66 is the best example).
Scales well with TL.
-:
High character point investment.
Very steep power curve, casters might easily overshadow other party members.
Requires strictly enforced Lesser & Greater Effects.
Mechanical complexity.
The list of premade rituals is quite short.
Requires a lot of GM prepwork for the world to fit this magic system without breaking.
Requires a group of players that are okay with the GM vetoing their rituals, with working together with the GM. In general, there must be a great degree of trust between the players and the GM.
In conclusion I will say that I am biased here, but I was trying to be objective. At first I almost fell in love with RPM, but the more I played the more I felt that this system is just not for me, both as a player and as a GM. Some other GMs I know also dropped the system after trying it once or twice. But that does not mean that RPM will not work for you, you just need a proper setting, GM oversight, and, most importantly, a proper group of players that are fine with the system in use.
4. Flexible Magic (Symbol/Syntactic/Realm)
GURPS Thaumatology has a whole chapter dedicated to flexible magic. Some of them bear similarities to Path/Book Magic, but some of them have significant differences. I’ve read the chapter several times, made some notes, but never actually used any of the systems described, so take my short analysis with a grain of salt.
4.1 Symbol Magic
Symbol magic is a system where the caster uses a set of verb and noun symbols to describe and cast a spell, not unlike RPM. Each symbol of a lexicon is a skill with its base energy cost and difficulty that depends on the symbol’s nature and scope. For example, Food or Sound are quite limited, so they are described as Easy skills with a low base energy cost; while Magic is a Hard skill with a high base energy cost. The book provides four ready to use lexicons based on real-world traditions.
The caster can either draw symbols beforehand on a parchment, draw random symbol tokens from a pocket to improvise spells on the fly from what he drew, or trace symbols in the air with his fingers. This usually takes a while, but can still be used in combat, albeit not very effectively.
4.2 Verb/Noun Magic
Verb/Noun Syntactic magic yet again describes each spell with a set of nouns and verbs. Each verb and noun have their own casting times and costs, and their effects depend either on the margin of success or energy cost. This is a very complex system with lots of edge cases, but it seems cool.
4.3 Realm Magic
In Realm Magic, the casters take Realm advantages and associated Realm skills. The level of the Realm advantage defines what you can do with the Realm, and the skill level defines how well you can do that. I feel like this would be a good system for a Supers game.
4.4 Advantages/Disadvantages/Conclusions
Considering all said before, we can conclude the following:
+:
Very flexible. Would be strange if they wouldn’t be flexible.
Can be made very flavourful.
Customizable by the GM to accommodate his needs.
-:
Quite complex in-play.
No support outside GURPS Thaumatology.
Could have better spell creation guidelines.
Requires a lot of GM prepwork and oversight.
In conclusion I will say that these systems feel like they could use expansion in a dedicated supplement. I believe that they have a potential.
5. Magic as Powers
GURPS Powers is an excellent supplement that expands the basic advantage framework of GURPS. It describes in great detail how to create supernatural powers and abilities, how they work with each other, how to evaluate power modifier, and adds extra rules related to supernatural advantages. Magical abilities can be created just by taking an advantage and slapping the Magical limitation on them. It’s simple and consistent with the existent framework, creating something relatively balanced.
If this is not enough for you, you can delve deeper into powerbuilding by creating your own power-based system or tweaking an existing one.
There are multiple worked examples in the published books:
5.1 GURPS Psionic Powers. Yes, I know that psionics is not magic, but the point here is showing the system as an example of power creation. Each ability of a power is assigned a skill that defines how well you can use that ability.
5.2 GURPS Thaumatology - Chinese Elemental Powers. Yes, I know that chi is not magic, but the point here is showing the system as yet another example of power creation. And it even has a sidebar about replacing chi with magic. The book describes five elemental powers and how they interact with each other.
5.3 GURPS Powers - Divine Favor. Again, divine powers technically are not magical, but this is yet another framework that can be used. You take a specialized Patron advantage that you can invoke by praying and making and a Reaction roll. Depending on the result, a miracle can happen. Also, you can take learned prayers that you can invoke easily as alternative abilities to the Patron advantage. Simple, but can require some creativity from the GM to come up with the miracles. As written, seems more appropriate for monotheistic worlds, but can easily be adapted to polytheistic worlds.
5.4 GURPS Thaumatology - Sorcery. This system’s foundation is a special form of Modular Ability that allows improvising low-point-cost spells. Known spells are taken as alternative abilities to Sorcerous Empowerment. The improvisational aspect is spiced up with an application of extra effort described in GURPS Powers, allowing the caster to cast high-point-cost unknown spells by spending extra FP and making a highly penalized Thaumatology or Will roll. By default, each spell takes 1 second to cast, and costs 1 FP, but this can easily be changed. This improvisation does have a degree of abuse potential, but the GM is encouraged to enforce the improvisational limits to only allow improvised spells that make sense as general spells for the setting.
5.5 Advantages/Disadvantages/Conclusions
Considering all said before, we can conclude the following:
+:
Can be quite flexible, depending on the system used (Sorcery, Divine Favor).
Has support in many supplements, even though not immediately obvious. Any advantage or premade ability can be adapted as a miracle/spell using appropriate modifiers.
Uses the existing advantage framework, preserving the internal balance.
Highly customizable by the GM.
-:
Requires the GM to create and write up a power framework for his setting, which can be a daunting task.
Quite point-intensive, even when taking advantage of alternative abilities.
Can be not flexible enough (Powers, Chinese Elemental Powers).
Sorcerous improvisation might require GM oversight and some calculations.
Requires system mastery, unless the GM only allows premade abilities.
In conclusion I will say that this is my preferred way of doing magic in my games. Sorcery is my favorite system that, I believe, is underused. I could talk for ages about way to customize Sorcery to accomplish different goals and obtain different flavors, but this is outside the scope of this episode.
Thanks for watching or something like an outro.
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