Appendix Z
The College of Microorganisms
for GURPSby William H. Stoddard
With the growth of technology, mages acquire new things to cast spells on, whether discovered by scientific researchers or invented by engineers. GMs interested in a technomagic campaign may want to add new colleges to the GURPS Magic system. The existing rules provide several options within the College of Technology: Metal spells (TL1), Machine spells (TL4), Energy and Fuel spells (TL5), Radiation spells (TL6), and Plastic spells (TL6). But there are other options.
The invention of the microscope in 1673 revealed a realm of previously undiscovered microscopic life. In the 19th century, Louis Pasteur and other researchers demonstrated the connection between microorganisms and disease and developed new approaches to medicine based on it. Botanists classified many microorganisms as primitive plants; zoologists classifed others as primitive animals -- and some microorganisms were claimed by both and given two incompatible biological classifications! But in the later 19th century, biologists began to work out the idea that these microscopic organisms should be given their own separate category, distinct from both plants and animals. This idea is now standard in biological science.
The College of Microorganisms comes into being at TL6. Some of its spells come from existing colleges, including Animals, Food, Healing, and Plants. Others are newly created by scientifically inclined mages. The success of their spells helps sell some biologists on the idea that microorganisms are a separate kingdom, and the study of microbial evolution advances a little faster than in real history.
The following spells are available, starting at TL6 unless noted otherwise. At higher TLs, a wider range of microorganisms may become accessible; for example, viruses are included starting at TL7.
Test Food
Information
As listed under Food Spells in GURPS Magic.
Identify Microorganisms
Information
Determines the type and species of any single-celled organism and gives basic information about it (for example, whether it causes disease). A successful casting of this spell gives +3 to Biology or Diagnosis skill.
Cost: 2.
Decay
Regular
As listed under Food Spells.
Prerequisite: Test Food or Identify Microorganisms.
Mature
Regular
As listed under Food Spells.
Prerequisite: Decay.
Ferment
Regular
Introduces microorganisms such as yeast or lactobacilli into a food substance, causing bread to rise, or turning milk into yogurt, barley into beer, grapes into wine, etc. The microorganisms are automatically the right ones for the starting material. The maturation is no faster than normal, but a single casting provides a starter culture for any size of batch -- it just takes longer for larger batches.
Duration: Instant.
Cost: 2.
Time to cast: 10 seconds.
Prerequisite: Mature.Item: Staff or wand. The item must touch the substance to be fermented.
High Proof
Regular
Protects microorganisms that produce alcohol from being poisoned by the alcohol they excrete. As a result, all the sugars and starches in the raw material turn into alcohol. The resulting substance ends up at about the proof of fortified wine, and has an extremely dry taste. Typically this takes about twice as long as normal fermentation.
Duration: The process lasts until the sugars and starches are used up; the alcohol produced is permanently present.
Cost: 1 per pint of liquid.
Time to cast: 10 seconds.
Prerequisite: Ferment.Item: A vessel that works at no energy cost to the user. Energy cost to create: 50 per pint of size.
Purify Food
Regular
As listed under Food Spells.
Prerequisite: Decay.
Remove Contagion
Area
As listed under Healing Spells.
Prerequisite: Decay.
Resist Disease
Regular
As listed under Healing Spells.
Prerequisite: Remove Contagion.
Cure Disease
Regular
As listed under Healing Spells.
Prerequisites: Relieve Sickness and Major Healing.
Heal Plant
Area
As listed under Plant Spells.
Prerequisite: Identify Plant.
Know Vector
Information
Cast on a person suffering from a contagious disease, grants the caster a clear vision of both the source of the contagion and the route of transmission: "You were bitten by a mosquito of a certain species" or "When Freddie was at kindergarten, Monica sneezed on him."
Cost: 1.
Time to cast: 10 seconds.
Prerequisite: Identify Microorganisms and Trace.Item: Staff, wand, or jewelry. Must touch the sufferer. Energy cost to create: 750.
Infect
Regular
Exposes one person or other multicellular organism to the organisms that create a contagious disease. The properties of the disease must be known to the caster; treat each disease as a familiarity. The subject makes a HT roll to resist the disease. The GM may rule on which diseases have been linked to specific organisms and what their properties are.
Duration: One second, but if contagion occurs, the disease remains present until the sufferer recovers or dies.
Cost: 2 for a disease with an unmodified HT roll to resist; an additional 2 per -1 to the HT roll.
Time to cast: 1 second, plus an additional 1 second per -1 to the HT roll. Prerequisites: Decay and Know Vector.Item: (a) Staff or wand. Must touch the subject. Energy cost to create: 1,000. (b) Clothing, bedding, or vessel. Subjects anyone who wears or uses it to contagion. Energy cost to create: 500 for a vessel (contagion via ingestion) or 1,500 for clothing or bedding (contagion via contact) for a disease with an unmodified HT roll to resist (roll once daily while contact lasts); an equal additional cost per -1 to the HT roll.
Carrier
Regular
Cast on a living multicellular organism, makes the subject a symptom-free carrier for a contagious disease -- a "Typhoid Mary." Each disease is a separate familiarity. This spell by itself does not actually infect the subject with the disease; that must be done separately, by a spell or by conventional technological methods. The spell may be renewed; if it is not, and if the disease has not run its course, the subject must make a HT roll to resist the disease, at -3.
Duration: 24 hours.
Cost: 4 to cast; 2 to maintain.
Time to cast: 10 seconds. Prerequisites: Infect and Remove Contagion.Item: Jewelry. As long as it is worn, it protects the wearer from a specified disease and makes him a carrier for that disease, at no energy cost. Energy cost to create: 1,200.
Culture
Regular
Cast on a 0.1-pint vessel filled with water, causes it to act as a culture medium for one type of microorganism. The spell automatically creates whatever material substance is needed for the organism to thrive, from simple sugars to living human cells. For single-celled algae or photosynthetic bacteria, it provides necessary minerals and dissolved carbon dioxide, but a separate light source is needed.
Duration: 1 day.
Cost: 2 to cast; 1 to maintain.
Time to cast: 10 seconds. Prerequisites: Identify Microorganisms and Create Food.Item: A glass, plastic, or ceramic vessel of capacity 0.1 pint. Works at no energy cost to the user; each time it is emptied and refilled, it becomes able to support a new strain, but can only maintain one strain at a time. Energy cost to create: 250 points.
Tailored Microorganisms
Regular
Cast on a culture (conventional or magical) of microorganisms, selects for those that have a specific desired trait, such as consuming a specific nutrient or secreting a specific substance. If it is used on a disease organism, each casting can increase or decrease the HT roll for contagion by 1. Penalties to the HT roll can produce plague organisms; bonuses can produce vaccines that activate the immune system without actually causing the illness. The GM may rule that a desired effect is not available, either because it\u2019s not realistically possible to microorganisms, or because it\u2019s too deadly.
Duration: 24 hours. After the full 24 hours have past, the desired organism is available.
Cost: 10.
Time to cast: 10 seconds.
Prerequisite: Culture and Magery 2. This is a TL7 spell.Item: A glass, plastic, or ceramic vessel. Works at no energy cost to the user. Must be dedicated to a specific tailoring process when created; for example, a germ warfare laboratory might have one vessel for changing the contagion roll from HT to HT-1, and another for changing it from HT-1 to HT-2 for a specific disease. Usable only by a mage. Energy cost to create: 100 per 0.1 pints of capacity.
Pestilence
Area
Fills the area where it is cast with disease-causing microorganisms. Each living organism of the susceptible species must roll vs. HT to resist the disease. Each kind of disease is a different familiarity.
Duration: One minute, but if contagion occurs, the disease remains present until the sufferer recovers or dies.
Cost: 5, plus 2 additional energy for each -1 to the HT roll to resist contagion.
Time to cast: One minute. Prerequisites: Infect and Magery 2.Item: Staff or wand. Usable only by mages. Energy cost to create: 1,250, plus 500 for each -1 to the HT roll.
Article publication date: October 13, 2006
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