The Five Movements of Magic
for GURPS Magic/GURPS Grimoire
by David Moore
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
- Sir Isaac Newton, in a letter to Robert Hooke, 5th February 1676The GURPS technology books use a detailed system of "Tech Levels" to track scientific and technological progress from the rudest improvised tools of early Man to the miraculous powers of our star-faring descendants. With fine-tuning and creativity, the system adapts to any setting, giving general background -- to determine the tools and weapons available to characters -- or being central to a plot in which the players are inventors, industrial spies or saboteurs intent on steering or riding the tide of progress.
By contrast, magic is presented in GURPS Magic and GURPS Grimoire as an integral whole: in any world where magic exists and is practiced (and where associated technology, for the Radiation and Tech Colleges, is known), all or most spells can be learned and cast by any mage with the suitable prerequisites. The Grimoire, presuming that the GM's campaign has been using only GURPS Magic thus far, suggests ways for the new spells to be incorporated through invention or discovery; GURPS Technomancer presents an alternative Earth in which magic has recently arisen, where spells are still being researched and are the subject of an alternative arms race. In both cases, the spells and magical techniques not yet known are arbitrarily . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: March 4, 2005
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