A New Take on Magic

    I was storming up some ideas today with a player of mine, regarding different ways to make Esoteric Attribute (e.g. like Quintessence) Magic more interesting and scale better with some of my house rules. We came up with two ways to do as so! For this, we will assume that the attribute in play here is called "Magic", representing any sort of magical attribute one would want to use.

    So, first things first, what was the need for this in the first place? Well, my player and I were talking about possible alternate systems to account for Esoteric Attributes doing things other than increasing Skill Level and Energy Reserves, and eventually, I came to the topic of damage for spells.

    My idea was simple, though it needed refining. Make damage for missile spells be based off of the equivalent thrusting damage of that attribute. Keep in mind we are using KYOS, so this scales slightly better. Now, this would leave the average caster at 1d-2 for spells, which is plausible. But this is only the raw idea, and now, I will give you our refined ideas.

    Some notes overall are that for both ideas, check if the original damage is greater or lesser than 1d+0. If so, add that as a modifier to your damage. For example, Stone Missile deals 1d+1/energy normally, meaning that you'd have a +1 damage bonus, but Lightning, which deals 1d-1/energy normally, would have a -1 damage penalty.

    The first, is pretty simple. Use that new damage for the first turn you are charging your spell, and that is it. For example, a character casting Lightning at Magic 15 would get 2d-1 damage their first turn, while every sequential turn they would get 1d-1 additional damage. It is simple and effective; better casters deal more damage to start. But, there are weird gaps. For example, at Magic 10, you are dealing less damage on your first turn.

    The second idea is more complex. You deal the extra damage per point, but for each additional point of energy invested into that casting of the spell, you take a -1 penalty for each point past the first, and must roll against Skill (adding penalties) each turn you invest that extra point into the spell. Failing the roll means that you lose any invested energy that turn, but can continue charging. A CF means you stop concentrating and lose any invested energy.

    An example of the second concept in play would be Little Billy, who has Magic 12, Basic Magic Damage of 1d, and Stone Missile at 14, which has its damage at +1. Little Billy charges his spell for two turns, having a -1 on his second turn. He succeeds both rolls, meaning his damage is 2d+2. Frankie has Magic 10, BMD of 1d-2, and Stone Missile at 14, same as Little Billy. He charges for the same time and succeeds both, meaning his damage is at 2d-2. Finally, Ethan the Elder has Magic 15, meaning he has BMD 2d-1, and Stone Missile at 14, same as his trainees. He charges his spell for two turns, and obtains 4d damage (2d/turn). 

    Now, there are some assumptions here. The first is that you are using KYOS, which, isn't a requirement. Feel free to use Basic's thr progression. The second is that you are using an "Esoteric Attribute". I heavily suggest not using IQ for this, as you will make it even better for Wizards to take. This works best with an "Esoteric Attribute", like Quintessence, Magic, etc. Third, is that you want to have low damage for Wizards. If you prefer more cinematic gameplay (more cinematic than Wizards already are), use the swing progression instead. 

    Personally, I am still testing this and might publish something using both of these potential systems. Do note that this can make for stupidly OP combos. Personally, as a counterbalance to this (which was implemented before this was even in my thoughts) was making spells below SL 15 have double casting time, and beyond SL-15 there are no benefits, period. If you think this is stupid, it can be to some, but I also allow taking a stacking -3/second penalty to speed up casting time. My games are also a hodgepodge of various house rules and Pyramid articles, so, take this all with a grain of salt. 

Edge Protection and the Armor Spell

     This is a short, sweet, and silly one. We had a situation last session where a player asked how the Armor spell (Magic, pg. 167) interacts with T-Bone's Edge Protection system. So, I got to thinking. Initially, I wondered if it would be fair to treat it as Rigid Armor, set DR to 1/5th and EP to 2/3rds, but that seemed like an inelegant solution for it. So, I came up with two solutions.

    The first, is short and simple. Armor grants an equal amount of Edge Protection as Damage Resistance, at no extra cost. The magical force can soften blows past the DR. We also decided that inherent Armor Divisor does not affect magical armor through these means; your sword slash is just as good as a spear point when it comes to penetrating magical armor.

    The second is a new spell, which is a silly one. What it does, is it grants a number of Global EP equal to double the energy cost, up to 10 EP (or 5 energy). Again, it probably won't have a use, but hey, what if you really want to take damage but can't bleed! See below for both the new spell and the change to the old Armor spell.

Soften Blows

Regular 
    Adds a number of Edge Protection globally to a living subject. EP granted like this is treated the same as EP granted from armor and is cumulative with that from actual armor. Magical EP granted this way has no interactions with Armor Divisors.

Cost: Half the ER given to the subject, rounded up, to a maximum EP of 10 (cost 5). Half that to maintain
Time to cast: 1 second
Duration: 1 minute
Prerequisites: Clerics: PI 2, Magic-users: Armor

Armor (Magic, pg. 167)

    Armor now grants EP equal to the DR granted. DR and EP granted this way has no interactions with Armor Divisors.

Conditional Injury, The Last Gasp, and Bleeding

     A few weeks ago, I got to thinking about how The Last Gasp interacts with Conditional Injury when it comes to the pain of wounds in TLG and how that turns into a nightmare with a conditional injury system like CI. That got me to thinking today, when I was brainstorming some Combination options with my players. How does bleeding in CI work? Well, the short answer, is it doesn't; which is fine, Douglas has said it himself! CI is a thought experiment after all. So, I got to thinking: how could you make bleeding work in CI and keep it conditional?

    Well, duh, use the Last Gasp! Joking, but what I do already meshes great with The Last Gasp's long-term fatigue system. Instead of using what CI suggests originally, which is losing maximum Fatigue and treating each location as its own wound with slightly unclear rules, I devised my own rules not long ago, which in my opinion, fixes a lot of the issues with Bleeding in CI. For this, you will need to ignore "Deadly Fatigue", present on Py. #3/120, p. 33.

    So, how does it work? Well, it is simple. When you get hit with a cutting, piercing, or impaling attack, it bleeds. I opt to not roll against HT to see if it bleeds or not as long as it is a wound that would cause significant bleeding, but you are free to. It is easier to assume getting cut or stabbed makes you bleed. When a wound bleeds (in either 60-second, 30-second, or 2-second intervals, depending on location), roll an HT check. On a fail, you lose 1 FP. On a success, nothing happens. You can see where this is going; see B420 for the old system. Replace any mention of HP there with FP, and instead use the penalty for bleeding rolls present on Py. #3/120, p. 33. If you are using my remapped system, the modifier is instead HT + 7 - Severity.

    Once you hit zero FP, the fun begins! Mark down the negative FP for the purpose of recovery later on, and so you can determine the wound for the next step. Once you start taking negative, find the absolute value of the negative FP you have taken as a wound for your entire body. Once you reach a Severity +0 (or Sev. 7 in my remapped scale, if you are playing in my games), you die. Wounds taken like this do not give pain; instead, you just take the FP loss and modify attributes accordingly. It is pretty simple, in my humble opinion, and is significantly less prone to situations where you do tons of record keeping.

    Now, how does this interact with The Last Gasp's long-term fatigue? Well, it does already. It gives you recovery times for your lost blood, attribute modifiers for having lost a lot of blood, and any extra rules. As a note, when recovering the lost FP, also modify the blood loss wound, to show your blood replenishing. I think there is probably an easier fix to this (other than ignoring bleeding) that I might not see, but we will have to wait for Mission X to see what Douglas has cooking on the topic of bleeding and blood loss. 

    As always, questions or comments are always welcome; I am always looking to improve my systems and rules that I am cooking up, as I actually use these every week, so fixing issues is always extremely important to me. I can also clarify why I chose certain thresholds here, if needed. If you have your own fix, let me know! I am interested in seeing other people's takes on this. Now, finally, here are two quick and dirty examples below, using both my remapped scale and the original scale:

    Example A: Darius the Daring just got shot in the neck; oh no! This comes out to a Severity 7 (Sev-0) wound. He makes an HT check for bleeding, adding a -1 penalty for piercing damage. His HT is 10, meaning his target is 9. He rolls an 11, failing. He bleeds. He continues to bleed for three minutes, critically failing two checks and failing one. His critical fail costs him 4 FP. At the end of his bout of bleeding, he takes 6 FP damage, meaning he has a -30%* reduction to his attributes. No wound is obtained here. 
*: Note, I use a percentage reduction to all attributes instead of a flat modifier. If you are using the original article as written, this is instead a -3. Personally, the percentage maps better, but it is your choice, as everything in GURPS is.

    Example B: Benjor is getting attacked by a Draug, and gets a deep slash across his chest. This comes out to a Severity 8 (+1) wound. Benjor has HT 10. He makes an HT check for bleeding, with a -2 for bleeding and a -1 from the wound severity. He fails, meaning he is bleeding. This bleeding is fast as well, with 30-second intervals. When he manages to have it treated, he has bled for four minutes, and made eight checks. One critically failed, one succeeded, and six failed. His critical failure came out to 6 points of FP damage. This means he took 12 points of FP damage. He takes a Severity 2 (-4)** wound from this!
**: Note, it has been a long time since I have used stock Conditional Injury's Robustness Threshold system, so I might have messed something up here, but the general idea still gets across.