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We just took it easy today. Rachel and I had our 4th Covid booster
yesterday, so that was enough excitement for me for one weekend. Aside
from taking out the garbage & recycling and doing the dishes, I haven't
done anything more strenuous than building a Kit Kat Holiday Cabin kit
with Astrid. She plunked the kit (a Christmas present) in my lap earlier
saying she wanted to build it, so what's a dad to do? I cleaned off the
kitchen table and we got to work.
No sooner was it assembled when it was devoured by its proud nine year-old
owner.
The rest of the afternoon was spent fooling around in GURPS. I dove
further into Ritual Path Magic with the intent of working through the
making of charms. Charms are basically small, fragile items that contain
a single-use spell, which is cast instantaneously by breaking the object.
Working through the charm creation rules shed a bit more light on the
Ritual Path Magic process and I realized that, while I haven't been doing
things *wrong* per se, my non-Ritual Adept NPC character has been very,
VERY lucky in casting spells that should be *just* beyond her skill
level...
I won't get into details as it's a *lot* of math and is frankly a bit
headache inducing for even *this* diehard GURPS fan. The long and short
of it is, by the time I was done, "Witchy Janet" managed to create a charm
that held a "Conjure Credentials" spell, making her roll against the
"Quick and Dirty Rituals and Charms" chart with exactly the number she
needed (once penalties were applied). Thus, the little plastic toy
policeman in her pocket now contains a "Conjure Credentials" spell, cast
by breaking the toy.
I'd largely ignored the idea of charms until now. They'd struck me as a
bit of a gimmick, but now that I've used Ritual Path Magic in a campaign
and dealt with the long, looooooooong casting times for more powerful
rituals, I have really seen their utility.
For example, to use a Lockpick spell under RPM, Janet has to spend five
minutes gathering ambient energy, rolling to see how much energy was
gathered and, if it's not enough to meet the ritual's energy requirement,
has to spend another five minutes gathering more ambient energy, and
again, and again, until she has enough.
The Lockpick spell is an easier ritual requiring five energy. Typically
she can cast it after the first five minute gathering. Sounds great until
you remember that in-game, rounds are measured in seconds. In the middle
of combat, with people shooting at you, are you going to wait five minutes
for some weird ugly nerd to wave their hands around and speak nonsense
just to unlock a door? No! Now, what if instead you wanted her to cast a
fireball spell which requires 18 energy? Depending how the dice treat
you, gathering the required energy could take anywhere from ten minutes to
an hour! Not something you want to wait on.
This is where charms are great - the spell is cast on the charm well in
advance (typically between gaming sessions) and when you need it, it's
ready for use in one round. For example, rather than spend five minutes
or more gesticulating at a locked door, Janet can reach into her pocket,
take one of the plastic keys off the Fisher Price infant toy keyring she's
carrying (each key on which contains a previously-prepared Lockpick
spell), snap the toy in half, and release the spell. Voila! Three rounds
versus five minutes (or more).
I plan to delve deeper into making charms in the near future. It's been a
fascinating experiment so far.