Gurps Magic

GURPS Magic is a must have for any fantasy campaign which includes any sort of spell casting or magical items. The system is divided into several spell categories, including fire, air, earth, water, food, knowledge, enchant, necromancy, etc. Like the other aspects of the character development system, a spell caster must invest several points to be able to cast spells. They then must build a "tree" of spells, starting with the most basic (such as produce fire, create water, etc) and building up to the more powerful ones, such as force field, fireball, body of lightning, etc. Playing a spell caster in GURPS is vastly different from other systems, such as Dungeons and Dragons. I had been accustomed to blasting huge groups of monsters with fireballs and cones of cold in the DnD system. As a GURPS wizard, I found that a single fireball would drain my fatigue to the point that I had to wait a few minutes (which means until the next combat in GURPS) before casting another one. Spellcasters have to be much more clever in GURPS, casting spells which do little damage here and there where they can help the party. While they can become quite powerful, their power has been greatly reduced in comparrison to other systems. Your players who are used to the DnD system might not like it. Several spells enable casters to summon elementals or animate dead bodies. A few monster stats are listed for these sample creatures, but it would have been a lot more useful if these had been listed in greater detail, or perhaps with a bit more variety. The book also explains the rules for creating magic items. These are a must for any fantasy campaign, and can be quite interresting.

I've raved about the 4th edition basic books in prior reviews now it's time to look at the 4th edition Magic book. The authors have tackled a very large subject here. They are attempting to replace the old GURPS Magic, Grimoire, and Magic Items 1 in one book. But the biggest challenge they are facing in writing this book is that the old 3e GURPS magic books were boring. The problem wasn't so much the writing (which could have been better) but the spells themselves. GURPS has long been known for having a... well, generic universal spell system (GUSS?) that really didn't appeal to a lot of players. Now to this book proper: The editing is as good as ever, the artwork might be even better than other 4e books, and the authors have added flavor by highlighting spells in fun 2-3 paragraph stories at the beginning of each college of magic. There is a lot of interesting material about black magic, alternate magic systems, etc. The alchemy section was just plain good clean fun with lots of potential mayhem. The index is much better than in previous books of this edition. So why the four star instead of another five star rating? Simple, the book strives mightily but can't overcome its generic beginnings. The authors were obviously aware of this problem and offer quite several ways to get around it (rename the spells, use an alternate magic system) but don't quite do a good enough job to warrant the five star rating so I'm giving it a 4.5 star rating. Like GURPS Fantasy, this book is literally stuffed with ideas, it provides SO many ideas and possible spin-offs that the GM will need to give extra thought before starting a campaign to exactly what they want the players to experience. Otherwise some wiseguy player is going to say, "Can I use this neat little idea on page 93 that will wreck the whole concept of your campaign? Can I? Please, please?"

This book contains a large number of the spells in the GURPS gaming system, and plenty of rules and ideas for creative magic use. The sheer number and variety of spells explained in this book is mind-boggling. As some others have said, the GURPS magic system is not as overwhelmingly powerful as the magic of some other gaming lines, but it is well thought out. The spells are quite versitile, and almost every spell can be cast at varying levels of power, for varying cost. This enables you some control the range of damage/effects produced, and enables the tailoring of spells to certain situations. Some of the more powerful spells are tools of amazing power, if you can cast them. Don't ignore the "lesser" spells either. Just keep in mind that with enough creativity any spell can be magnificently effective, especially if your campaign involves a high level of realism. This book is a must for anybody who wants to use GURPS magic.

GURPS Magic is a RPG magic system designed to fit seamlessly into the Generic Universal Role Playing System, and as such it is extremely successful. Magic allows you to add magic using characters to any GURPS campaign easily. The system emphasizes a skill-based approach where more difficult spells can be learned only after basic spells have been learned. A character's skill with a spell determines his ability to successfully use that spell, and he can always improve his skill through study and practice. A character can cast any spell he knows, providing that he has the strength to cast that spell (the effect is tied into a "realistic" measure of fatigue), so even a beginning magician can be flexible, if not powerful. Yet also built into this system are some useful game restraints that prevent a magician from becoming overwhelmingly powerful. A useful comparison is AD & D, where a beginning magic user is absurdly weak and can cast one weak spell a day, yet at the high levels can control spells that rival a modern armored division in effect. Magic allows beginning characters to be more playable and fun to play, while prevents experienced characters from taking over the show. As in real life, this skill based approach tends to channel a character into specializing in a particular "field" of magic without the use of artificial restrictions such as "class" found in other games.If the system has any problems, it is that it literally is to generic. While it can be used "as is", it requires a lot of work on the part of the players and game master if they want a system that closely models "historical" or fictional magic systems. If you want a game that portrays the setting of the Arabian Knights, for instance, it is not simply a matter of deleting those spells that don't fit the genre since more advanced spells that do fit might require those spells as learning prerequisites.

This magic system seems, at first, to be extremely weak and limiting. If you are used to AD & D (as is likely the case) it IS; however, upon closer examination you discover that it ISN'T. Sure, for a 100-point campaign a mage is very costly and, unless specialized, will be limited. That's how it would be in real life, if there were magic. Keep at it, though, and soon a mage will be the most powerful member of your party. Apply GURPS Magic to a 250 or (wow) 500 point campaign and your power will surpass even that of your meta-human cohorts. As with all GURPS products, the "real-world" rules make Magic truly enjoyable and playable. If *you* are creative then nothing is impossible (just save up the character points). GURPS is a system where you have to *think*--that's what sets it apart from all the rest. In summary, an extremeley useful sourcebook!