Game Mechanics (Magic Vegas)

v60e continued
== Chapter 2. Game Mechanics ==
Player characters in Magic Vegas are magicians. To do magic, they need Magery, a learnable advantage that represents a strong belief. Belief of moderate intensity is a Quirk (sufficient to serve as the prerequisite for Exorcism skill) if specialized by tradition, and Belief in all magic is a -5pt “Delusion” that happens to be true. All traditions require a specialized version of Ritual Magic skill, which acts as a cap for their Path skills using the effect-shaping path/book system, and which they can further specialize by Path, helping to differentiate full-service magicians within the same tradition. These skills are based on the lower of IQ+Magery or Will, for Will is the currency of magic. Fluency in a language of the tradition is also necessary (mere Accented proficiency imposes -1 to Ritual Magic), and several other skills are beneficial. Literacy isn’t required, but some form of symbolic representation (like a Buddhist mandala) is necessary for instruction, so a would-be magician can’t be Non-Iconographic. As a rule of thumb, Classical or older languages of magic default at Broken from their modern descendants. 
To expand the repertoire from GURPS Thaumatology, some new rituals are based on spells from GURPS Magic. These take at least 10 minutes with base penalty equal to prerequisite count or a minimum -1 per 5 energy cost (relevant to Create Gate and the Horror ritual Lesser Wish). Even though based on spells, these rituals follow the usual rules for effect shaping, for instance Sunbolt takes the Damage parameter but requires no Innate Attack skill. Effect levels require margin of success in multiples of the base energy cost of the corresponding spell. 
To summarize path magic for those who haven’t read it recently, every magical effect is part of a Path, and to know a Path skill, you need the corresponding specialty of Ritual Magic. Top magicians will have Path skills in the range of 15 to 20, beyond which each ritual has a base difficulty (penalty), averaging about -5 though some are severe. A magician can buy off the penalty for his favorite ritual as a Technique. Parameters like area and intensity impose additional penalties, but range imposes none, and a certain tool, a Fetish, can remove any penalty for duration. Ritual elements yield a bonus up to +15 to counter these, and a professional magician with streamlined logistics can reliably obtain the maximum bonus if he’s willing to spend some cash. If that’s not enough, he’ll need help from fellow magicians, professionals (skill 12) in the same path (not necessarily the same tradition). The magicians don’t confer a bonus per se, but each mitigates a level of penalty from any parameters. Rituals take time, some as short as 10min and some as long as an hour, but taking extra time is one source of a bonus, and the time to prepare a ritual by shopping for ingredients and researching the target will take a lot more time than performing it!
In the Magic Vegas setting, levels of Magery above zero can have limitations One Ritual Only (-80%), One Path Only (-40%), One Tradition Only (-10%), Alchemy and Esoteric Medicine Only (-20%), Drunk Only (-80%), Emergencies Only (-30%), Granted by Familiar (-40%), or Gadget like a wand or holy symbol (a psychological crutch typically worth -40% for DR 5 at Size -6, or slightly smaller/fragile, and Can Be Stolen with ST/DX but won’t work for thieves). Magery maximum is 10 levels, but Ritual Magic and Path skills are based on the lower of Will or IQ+Magery; in other words, each level of Magery must be accompanied by a level of extra Will. Human Will cannot exceed 20, plus conditional bonuses from Autohypnosis and Mystic’s Stupor, beyond which additional Magery is wasted. With limitations, levels of Magery can be quite cheap, but the accompanying level of Will isn’t eligible for the same discount. Magery confers an ability to sense spirits; that’s why it can sense magic items, Fetishes (because they have spirits in them). 
Magery is the only innate supernatural advantage that humans ever have, though they may have social traits representing relationships with spirits who have or even confer supernatural and exotic advantages. Magic can confer amazing abilities, but those abilities can’t improve magic in turn, at least not directly. This means that Gift of Tongues doesn’t count as knowing a tradition’s language, and that if the DX bonus from a Grace ritual raises Acrobatics and Stealth to 14, it still doesn’t enable the use of Lizard Climb from the Path of Heroes, and that no bonus to Path skills is possible. However, mundane skills used to prepare for magic, like Gardening to grow ingredients for use with Alchemy, or Photography to forge a sympathetic link to the subject of a ritual, can benefit from magical augmentation. If multiple rituals confer bonuses to the same trait, they don’t stack; just use the best. The exceptions are “natural magic” abilities from the Path of Heroes, which can be used in any combination, and multiple gifts from the same Totem, such as Enhanced Move with a movement ability or Acute Sense with a sensory ability. 
=== The Marks of Power ===
Corruption is a state of mind. Each specialty of Ritual Magic carries a Mark, a characteristic mental disadvantage, Quirk at minimum though it may well be more severe (and the 5-Quirk limit applies: Additional Marks will be worse). For instance, magicians of the Babylonian tradition, discussed below in detail, are all obsessed with immortality in some way. One might strive to leave his footnote in the history books while another affects the styles of speech and dress popular among people half his age. Furthermore, each Channeling path imposes a similar Mark, so a full-service magician of a single tradition has a total of 8 potentially-conflicting disadvantages not of his choosing. Fortunately, there’s some flexibility in the manner and circumsyances under which a Mark manifests. Carrying on with the Babylonian example, the Mark of Ninmah is nurturing, while the Mark of Nergal is ruthlessness, but if a magician is nurturing to children and ruthless in business, there’s no conflict. Or he could be kindly in general but show his mean streak when drunk. Either way, someone who observes his behavior with the benefit of both Psychology and Thaumatology skills could accurately assess his magical repertoire! 
The basic mechanic for Marks of Power is that of Corruption. Any day when a magician performs a ritual other than Countermagic, he must make a Will check. Magicians have high Will, but Luck cannot affect this roll, so failures are inevitable over time. Each failure accumulates a mark point for (one of) the path(s) used, and these convert to negative character points in relevant disadvantages at a 5:1 ratio. Here’s a slight change from GURPS Horror to simplify bookkeeping: A magician can’t have more than 25 mark points from all paths; when he hits that limit, he must convert some of them to an appropriate disadvantage (or increase the severity of an existing disadvantage). If he doesn’t have enough mark points from any single Channeling path, that’s okay; he can convert any group of them into a disadvantage consistent with the Mark of Power for his Ritual Magic specialization. In addition, whenever a magician character gains his first point in a Channeling path or Ritual Magic specialization, he must take some new disadvantage, at least a Quirk, consistent with its Mark of Power. (Yes, this means that a magician who uses a path at default may never manifest its Mark.) 
If a magician indulges his craft daily, even with high Will he can expect to accumulate 7 mark points per year, manifesting as a whopping 70 points of disadvantages over a career spanning half a century, but there are ways to minimize the impact. First, concentrate magic use into a single day whenever possible; instead of one ritual today and another tomorrow, prepare both today (research and Symbol-Drawing) and perform them both tomorrow. Second, instead of performing the same ritual repeatedly, sustain it with a Fetish or at least prepare multiple doses at a time with Alchemy. Finally, when it comes to curses, establish a reputation for what you can do so that you won’t actually have to do it very often. All this goes double for Horrors, for those who choose to channel them, because of the risk of impairing other paths and exacerbating other disadvantages. 
Morals imply the choice to reject temptation. Marks of Power may be virtues but never morals, for they are not a matter of choice; if they are behaviors, they are compulsive behaviors rather than standards of behavior. Magic traditions often exist within the context of religions which teach morals, rules to live by, but these are better represented as Disciplines of Faith than as Marks of Power. 
=== Universal Paths ===
All traditions, which is to say all Ritual Magic specialties, have a trio of special paths in common, in addition to their Channeling paths, and these universal paths each have special mechanics. 
==== Path of Allies ====
Inspired Creation (M115) to generate craft spirits, Astral Projection (T159), ind (T160), Channeling (as the advantage), Chaperon (T152), Embody (T160), Empower (T160), Exorcise (T161), Fetish (T161), Ghost Sword (T160), Lay to Rest (T162), Mystic Mark (M119), See Invisible – includes spirits and Obscurity ritual (M113), Spirit Slave (T162), Spirit Trap (T162), Summon (T162), and a couple forms of Divination: Astrology, Cartomancy, Dactylomancy, Gastromancy, Numerology, Sortilege, or Symbol-Casting (M108-9). 
This path mainly deals with those spirits less powerful than Path Gods. Every tradition has its favorably disposed Allied Spirits (also known as angels), safe to Summon and eligible for significant bonuses with Bind and Fetish, although it can work with non-allied spirits too (demons). See the section on Spirits for details. While the Path of Allies is common to all traditions, the Ritual Magic specialty with which it is used determines its Allied Spirits and Divination forms; a ditraditional magician might have access to more of each. Also, this path is subject to a Mark of Power just like Channeling, which is why some Monotheists eschew it, but the Mark is also determined by Ritual Magic specialty. There is no specific symbol for this path but rather separate symbols for each type or potent individual, all of which can be found in a full ritual kit; to get the bonuses with Allied Spirits, the kit too must match that Ritual Magic specialty. 
Spirit Slave warrants a bit of clarification: Its protection against certain magic should be understood to encompass mental affects such as Suggestion but not physical effects such as Malaise. This path can be used as Channeling per the advantage of that name, and while it can’t be used as Medium, a spirit Familiar can serve the same function. Even without See Invisible, any magician can vaguely sense nearby spirits (Per+Magery), and anyone at all can address them; Channeling offers the spirit a means to respond. A magician can even channel his own spirit to access past lives, if any (zero-point feature under GM control, mostly beasts, likely confused). 
==== Path of Countermagic (Midgard) ====
Aura Reading (T151), Banish (T160), Charm Against Dark Beasts – works on manifest Monster/Horror or shifted/possessed animal (T157), Cleansing (T157), Curse Mirror (T157), Curse Sanctum (T157), Dispel Ritual (T157), Dream Sanctum (T142), Reversion of Form (T144), See the True Face (T145), Thicken the Walls of the World (T165), Veil (T152), Ward (T158). 
Three special rules apply to this path. First, Skepticism and lack of consecration never impair Countermagic. Second, and this is the complicated one, every Channeling path has a Countermagic application on its sourceworld. Consider the Druidic Path of Cernunnos, for example; Cold is one of its rituals, making it worldlaw for the Winter Court. While there, no magician would ever have cause to use the ritual of Cold, but the Path of Cernunnos could be used to Banish spirits from the Winter Court. Yes, this means that the “Path of Countermagic” is really just the Path of Midgard, and yes, this means that the Path of Midgard is a Channeling path when used on Otherworlds like Winter Court. Third, the Path of Midgard isn’t corrupting: It has no Mark of Power. 
Here’s how it works: Dispel Ritual is the one ritual that has both a Countermagic and a Channeling application. On an Otherworld, the “ritual” it dispels (or rather suppresses) is a local worldlaw! Consider the Babylonian Path of Ninmah, which includes the ritual Walk Through Plants, making that worldlaw on its sourceworld Hursag. Using Dispel Ritual from any other path, such as the Path of Midgard, could suppress that worldlaw, turning thick vegetation into a barrier, what residents of Hursag might regard as a “Wall of Plants” spell. 
Countermagic applications of any path can’t interfere with its other effects, so returning to the Path of Cernunnos, its Curse Sanctum won’t protect against Cold, and on some equally frigid Otherworld like Seiđr’s Niflheim, it can’t Dispel Ritual against Cold, either. If you count every accessible variant of Dispel Ritual, all Channeling paths have the same number of rituals, even the Path of Midgard, which with no other Channeling rituals has every version of Dispel Ritual. 
If a magician has Countermagic such as a Curse Sanctum while on Midgard but travels to an Otherworld, he loses its benefit unless he gets a local version. However, he’s not as vulnerable as he may seem to curses thrown by enemies back home. Channeling magic can cross the boundaries between worlds, and if the subject of a ritual passes between worlds, that ritual will remain in effect, but the challenge for a new ritual is targeting. To perform magic on world A that affects a target on world B, the magic must be activated on world B. The usual way to accomplish this is to specify a condition (-1 Complexity parameter) to activate when a charm or agent comes into contact with the target. The charm could be delivered (a clever use of Loyal Item), and the agent could be a spirit, perhaps the spirit of the magician himself using Planar Visit. If a magician seeks refuge from a tradition other than that of his enemy, Planar Visit will be hard to arrange. 
A couple of Countermagic rituals require clarification. A character can benefit from only one Curse Sanctum (or Mirror) at a time unless they have conditions that restrict their activation to non-overlapping groups of curses, so staggered chains of Curse Sanctums don’t work. The curse that breaks a Curse Sanctum is delayed, but subsequent curses are not. Ward blocks supernatural beings, but not a vessel, meaning a possessed host or a Fetish or Spirit Trap born by a natural being, but it will briefly delay a manifest spirit, animated corpse, or a spirit subject to the ritual Embody moving under its own power. If the subject of a ritual sustained by a Fetish enters a Ward while the Fetish remains outside (or vice versa), he loses the benefit until he exits. 
===== Path of Heroes =====
	Called the Path of Chi in Asian traditions, this requires (and benefits from) no path symbol, and technically it doesn’t require Ritual Magic either, for a suitable Philosophy or Theology specialization can serve as its cap skill. It does require (and benefit from) Magery, even if limited to a single tradition, and it enables the magician to perform legendary feats (“cinematic” in game terms), specifically these: 
Duplicate the effect of the advantage Rapier Wit. In this case, he rolls against Public Speaking or Path of Heroes, whichever is lower. 
Use Enthrallment skills, if he has the advantage Charisma. Again, he rolls against Public Speaking or Path of Heroes, whichever is lower. Performance replaces Public Speaking in the context of reenactment. 
Use Musical Influence skill, rolling against the lower of Path of Heroes or the skill used to make the music (Singing or Musical Instrument). 
Use Computer Hacking skill, if he knows the skill Computer Programming, and rolling against Computer Operation or Path of Heroes, whichever is lower. 
Use Esoteric Medicine to duplicate the effects of conventional medical care at tech level equal to half Path of Heroes skill. 
Like a Weapon Master, gain a damage bonus of +2 per die with any muscle-powered weapon of his tradition if he knows the skill required to use it at DX+2 and also knows the Path of Heroes at 14 or higher. 
Like a Heroic Archer or Gunslinger, benefit from the Acc bonus of his weapon for unaimed fire (or reduced Bulk), if he knows the Path of Heroes at 14 or higher, but this bonus doesn’t stack with Grace or Weapon Blessing. 
Benefit from multiple retreats and Acrobatic defenses, Extra Steps in lieu of Extra Attacks, double control points with technical grappling rules, full-length leaps in combat (with Acrobatics and Jumping at DX), and halved penalties for rapid strikes and parries if he has at least 1pt in the Path of Heroes. 
Benefit from any cinematic Perk if he can make a roll against Path of Heroes, waived for skill 14. This includes the cinematic version of Weapon Adaptation, which enables the hero to use any weapon with any weapon skill, though this benefit extends only to a tradition’s iconic weapons (those that serve as symbols). Yes, that means a genius magician can use a knife with IQ-based Artillery skill, but he still has to make a DX-based roll for the blade. 
Use any skill that lists Trained by a Master as a prerequisite, with a roll against Path of Heroes, so long as he meets its non-cinematic prerequisites, even Mental Strength if Path of Heroes be higher than Will. Dancing 14 serves for Hypnotic Hands to hold an audience member spellbound (stunned), analogous to the cinematic benefits of other performing arts (Enthrallment and Musical Influence), but Hypnotism at some level is still required to plant suggestions. Throwing Art can’t exceed Throwing. Clearly superhuman feats like Flying Leap, Light Walk, and Lizard Climb provoke Skepticism. 
=== Channeling Paths ===
Each Ritual Magic specialization has (up to) 7 paths which channel the natural law of other worlds, typically defined or represented by major gods of its pantheon. Each channeling path requires a deep and complex body of knowledge, and a tradition with more paths would require a course of study so broad as to be represented game-mechanically with multiple Ritual Magic skills, but few would pursue more than one, with social schism likely to result. For each path, choose 3 partial paths below (or themed repertoire of 20 rituals chosen á la carte), then add the following animal and gate rituals so that a typical path has more than a couple dozen effects in total:
--Versions of Create Gate (M85) and Planar Visit (M82) limited or specialized to the Otherworld from which the path channels its magic, in other words, the world whose bizarre laws of physics produce “magic” in the “real” world. Any channeling path can act as the Channeling advantage just as the Path of Allies can, but the ritual takes an hour, and the spirit that takes over the magician is the consciousness of a world, but only a sliver of its attention. To such a spirit, men are tiny, ephemeral, and unimportant as individuals; its natural focus is the sweep of history and other things like the interaction of parallel worlds beyond the scale of human consciousness to grasp, but in theory it could deny its power to any supplicant who bothers it, so most magicians regard hosting one as a bad idea, at the very least liable to leave a psychic scar (Fright Check at -10, or -20 for a Horror, overriding Perfection of the Soul). 
--Versions of Command Beast (T155), Gentle Beast (T156), Seek Beast (T156), Speak with Beast (T156), Summon Beast (T156), and/or Skinchange (T145) limited to the types of beast associated with the god channeled by the path: Typically Seek for animals hunted by the culture of origin (fish and game), Gentle for those not hunted who are either fearsome or fearful (songbirds or assorted predators), Command for those typically trained (hawks, horses, hounds) or depicted analogously in a culture’s myths (like the lions who pull Ishtar’s chariot), Summon to call birds or recall domestic herds (or to gather pests for extermination), and Speak for those with the mobility or stealth to serve as spies and the intelligence to provide useful information (ravens, cats, and wolves). Lore of a tradition will determine when Skinchange is appropriate, and it takes a -10 penalty when performed on others. If Skinchange doesn’t require a pelt, then it applies at all times in the associated Otherworld. Some traditions have lots of shapeshifting, others none. 
Certain portfolios are extremely broad, like fertility; depending on context, it could indicate the partial path Agriculture, Mother, or Prosperity. War could indicate Battle, Excellence, or Strategy but also Death, Fire, or Plague. Magic is extremely broad but good candidates include Creation and Tricks, unless “god of magic” amounts to an assertion of primacy. Either Fire or Light can serve for the sun, and elemental partial paths have phenomenological alternatives, Air/Sky, Earth/Land, Fire/Volcano, and Water/River (or Sea). The partial paths are a tool to save time; the point is not to imply that every path with a certain ritual X, say Dream Visitor, necessarily has another ritual Y, say Dream Shackles; any path can omit some element of its partial path building blocks. For instance, Smoke may not fit Fire when used to model a solar portfolio. 
Limitations: A magical effect can have limitations as a consequence of how the effect manifests in its sourceworld. For instance, if loud high pitches induce route, then screaming becomes a required ritual element to channel Panic (in addition to the usual path symbol). This may be indicated by lore of a tradition, in this example by tales of the god Pan, or a fudge factor to make the sourceworld habitable. A specific locale could have unique properties accessible from the analogous geographic point of other worlds; while technically this is a case of Channeling, it’s more easily modeled as a Dryad (spirit with flexible powers and territorial constraints). 
	List of partial paths: Aging, Agriculture, Air, Battle, Commerce, Craft, Creation, Death, Dream, Earth, Excellence, Fate, Fire, Healing, Inspiration, Justice, Land, Light, Mother, Night, Plague, Prosperity, River, Rule, Sea, Sex, Sky, Strategy, Time, Tricks, Visions, Volcano, Water, Winter, Wisdom. 
==== Partial Paths ====
Aging⁹: Age (M153), Cloud Memory (T140), Decay (M77), Impotence (T164), Obscurity (T141), Rotting Death (M154), Ruin (M118), Spasm (M35), Stop Healing (M153).
Agriculture⁶: Fertility (T149), Heal Plant (M161), Journeyman's Blessing – Agriculture (T153), Plant Growth (M162), Preserve Food (M79), Rejuvenate Plant (M163); animal rituals always include Summon Domestic and Pests.
Air⁶: Air Vision (M24), Apportation (M144), Calm the Winds (T143), Inexorable Breeze (T143), Purify Air (M23), Walk on Air (M25).
	Battle⁹: Armor (M167), Ghost Shirt (T158), Grace (M37), Great Haste (M146), Hasten Mount (T149), Panic (M134), Perfect Control (T147), Warrior's Blessing (T150), Weapon Blessing (T155); animal rituals always include Command Beast of War (such as horses, elephants, and camels).
Commerce⁹: Clean (M116), Fix Glitch (T145), Fuel (T145), Journeyman’s Blessing – Transport (T141), Magelock (M166), Preserve Food (M79), Repair (T148), Smooth Ride (T148), Vision of Luck (T152); animal rituals always include Command Beast of Burden (such as mules, llamas, and oxen).
	Craft⁹: Cadence (M39), Heat (M74), Journeyman's Blessing – Craft (T153), Know Fault (T146), Loyal Item (T154), Measurement (T164), Reshape (M117), Transmutation of Metals (T165), Weapon Blessing (T155).
Creation⁹: Continual Light (M110), Create Animal (M98), Create Earth (M51), Create Object (M98), Create Plant (M163), Create Spring (M190), Create Warrior (M98), Earth to Stone (M51), Fuel (T145).
Death⁸: Blight (M162), Command the Bodies of the Dead (T163), Death Vision (M149), Evil Eye (T149), Evisceration (M154), Journeyman's Blessing – Mortician (T153), Spasm (M35), Steal Energy (M150).
Dream⁷: Divination – Oneiromancy (M109), Dream Shackles (T142), Dream Visitor (T142), Dreamwalk (T142), Hallucination (T140), Night Terrors (T142), Slumber (T143).
Earth⁶: Earth Vision (M51), Hold Breath (M39), Journeyman's Blessing – Extraction (T153), Seek Earth (M50), Shape Earth (M50), Walk Through Earth (M52).
Excellence⁹: Grace (M37), Hasten Mount (T149), Hunter's Blessing (T156), Perfect Appearance (T164), Perfect Control (T147), Tirelessness (T150), Vigor (M37), Virility (T164), Warrior's Blessing (T150).
Fate⁸: Death Vision (M149), Doom (T152), Ghost Shirt (T158), Journeyman's Curse (T153), Love Charm (T154), Loyal Item (T154), Machines Hate You (T147), Vision of Luck (T152).
Fire⁸: Conjure Flame (T143), Continual Light (M110), Divination – Pyromancy (M109), Endure Elements – also DR1 vs. Heat/Cold per level (T143), Heat (M74), Infravision (M111), Journeyman’s Blessing – Clergy if sacrifices or the dead are immolated (T153), Smoke – unless derived from solar portfolio (M73).
Healing⁷: Dose (T148), Journeyman's Blessing – Healthcare (T153), Regeneration (M93), Remove Contagion (M90), Soothe (T150), Succor (T150, partially duplicated by Esoteric Medicine), Wisdom – doesn’t raise base IQ but mitigates penalty of Afflictions (M135). 
Inspiration⁷: Borrow Skill from path-god (M47), Dreamwalk (T142), Journeyman's Blessing – Artist (T153), Lure (M137), Lust (T141), Madness (M136), Water to Wine (M79).
Justice⁸: Entombment (M53), Gift of Tongues (M46), History (T151), Journeyman's Blessing – Law (T153), Oath (M138), Perfection of the Soul – no effect on Marks of Power (T165), Read Thoughts (T152), Vigil (M138).
Land⁸: Hide Path (M163), Hunter's Blessing (T156), Predict Earth Movement (M151), Purify Earth – without which blessing crops leads to ecological disaster (M54), Purify Water (M184), Seek Pass (M51), Seek Plant (M161), Walk Through Plants (M163); animal rituals always include Seek Game.
Light⁷: Bright Vision (M111), Continual Light (M110), Flash (M112), Hawk Vision (M111), Mirror (M112), Sunbolt (M114), Weatherworking – Fair (T156).
Mother⁹: Calm the Winds (T143), Clean (M116), Fertility (T149), Firecalm (T143), Journeyman's Blessing – Childcare (T153), Purify Air (M23), Smooth Ride (T148), Soothe (T150), Weatherworking – Fair (T156); ; animal rituals always include Gentle Beast for pests and potential man-eaters.
	Night⁸: Body of Shadow (M114), Gloom (M112), Hand of Glory (T141), Journeyman's Blessing – Clandestine (T153), Night Vision (M111), See Secrets (M107), Silence (M171), Will Lock (M138).
Plague⁹: Blight (M162), Death Vision (M149), Malaise (T149), Night Terrors (T142), Retch (M38), Rotting Death (M154), Sterility (T150), Stop Healing (M153), Weaken Blood (M40). 
	Prosperity⁷: Fertility (T149), Gambler's Token (T153), Love Charm (T154), Stroke of Luck (T154), Vision of Luck (T152), Vitality (T150), Windfall (T155).
	River⁶: Alter Terrain – only to change a river’s course or cause flood (M55), Create Spring (M190), Current (M194), Divination – Geomancy (M109), Mist (T144), Seek Water (M184); animal rituals always include Gentle Beast for riverine man-killers like crocs, hippos, and piranha.
Rule⁶: Gift of Tongues (M46), Journeyman's Blessing – Governance (T153), Suggestion (T141), Vigil (M138), Virility (T164), Vision of Luck (T152).
	Sea⁹: Command the Waves (T143), Endure Elements – also DR1 vs. Heat/Cold per level (T143), Inexorable Breeze (T143), Journeyman's Blessing – Maritime (T153), Mist (T144), Predict Weather (T156), Seek Coastline (M184), Walk on Water (M186), Water Vision (M187); animal rituals always include Seek Fish.
	Sex⁸: Halt Aging – adds no years but reduces the ravages (M94), Journeyman’s Blessing – Sex Work including actress/dancer/prostitute (T151), Liar's Charm (T141), Lust (T141), Perfect Appearance (T164), Unbearable Pleasure (T164), Virility (T164), Vitality (T150).
Sky⁷: Air Vision (M24), Inexorable Breeze (T143), Lightning (M196), Mist (T144), Predict Weather (T156), Thunderbolt (T144), Weatherworking – Rain/Storm (T156). 
Strategy⁹: Great Gas Mileage (T146), Journeyman’s Blessing – Military (T151), Locate (T153), Telepathy (M47), Tirelessness (T150), Unlimited Ammo (T148), Vigil (M138), Vision of Luck (T152), Vitality (T150).
	Time⁹: Cadence (M39), Decay (M77), Great Haste (M146), Hasten Mount (T149), History (T151), Ruin (M118), Stone to Earth (M51), Succor (T150, partially duplicated by Esoteric Medicine), Supercharge (T148).
Tricks⁹: Apportation (M144), Cloud Memory (T140), Garble (M172), Gremlins (T146), Guise (T140), Liar's Charm (T141), Hallucination (T140), Mage-Stealth (M172), Phantom (M97); animal rituals always include Skinchange for a variety of forms (Totems of the same tradition). 
Visions⁸: Death Vision (M149), History (T151), Journeyman's Blessing – Prophecy (T153), Read Memories (T152), Scry (T152), Vision of Luck (T152), Divination – Crystal-Gazing and one of Augury, Extispicy, or Physiognomy (M108-9). 
Volcano⁶: Entombment (M53), Predict Earth Movement (M151), Rockfall (T144), Shake the Earth (T144), Stench (M24), Weatherworking – Geyser/Volcano (T156).
	Water⁹: Current (M194), Divination – Lycanomancy (M109), Hold Breath (M39), Purify Water (M184), Resist Pressure – Pressure Support 2 (M169), Seek Water (M184), Swim (M147), Water Vision (M187), Weatherworking – Rain/Storm (T156). 
Winter⁷: Cold (M74), Endure Elements – also DR1 vs. Heat/Cold per level (T143), Frostbite (M189), Hail (M145), Ice slick (M186), Snow Shoes (M186), Weatherworking – Snow/Blizzard (T156).
Wisdom⁹: Gift of Letters (M46), History (T151), Journeyman's Blessing – Education (T153), Locate (T151), Locate Spares (T146), Perfection of the Soul – no effect on Marks of Power (T165), Read the Manual (T147), See Secrets (M107), Wisdom – doesn’t raise base IQ but mitigates penalty of Afflictions (M135).
==== Horrors ====
Some worlds are incomprehensibly different from any home of man; call them Horrors. Each defines a stand-alone path of magic whose abilities exceed those of conventional paths, but at a price: The Mark of Power for any Horror is Spiritual Distortion, as described in GURPS Thaumatology, and if a magician uses both a conventional path and a Horror path on the same day and then takes a mark point, it automatically applies to Spiritual Distortion. Level zero is a Quirk, detected with the Aura ritual though it imposes no other penalty. Above level zero, it takes the place of Magery for any Horror path, but because Horrors are so alien, alignment with them makes any “normal” magic more difficult, penalizing rituals the disciple performs. It also penalizes Mind Block (to hide this taint from Aura) as well as control rolls for any disadvantage that has one (except a Mark of Power), so even a Horror specialist who eschews other Channeling will become ever more erratic, and any disadvantage exacerbated by Spiritual Distortion cannot be suppressed with Perfection of the Soul. If a magician ever has a control roll reduced below 3 in this way, he becomes an NPC bent on bringing Horrors to Midgard just as if he had 10 levels of Spiritual Distortion. 
Instead of a Ritual Magic specialty, the magician requires only a Perk (Spirit Compact) and of course the language. The Horror path can’t possibly fit into the same theoretical framework of Ritual Magic that encompasses other Channeling paths, but the common language associates it with a conventional tradition. A Horror can include normal partial paths with at least one and at most two of those below in addition to the usual gate and animal effects, which are linked, for the path of a Horror affects only the foul beasts which come from its domain. (Durable gates may be difficult, but inadvertent passage is a likely disaster, especially because Horror magic uses the “black” table for critical failures.) Transform replaces Skinchange, demonic forms adapted to hazards of bizarre Otherworlds. A complete grimoire for a Horror is very hard to come by. 
Corruption: Blackout, Dark Vision, Essential Acid, Exchange Bodies, Irradiate, Madness, Stench. 
Discontinuity: Hand of Glory, Invisibility, Lesser Wish, Summon Shade, Time Out, Timeslip. 
Distortion: Contract Object, Distant Blow, Enlarge, Hallucination, Teleport (not in Midgard), Wizard Mouth. 
Behind the Curtain: The Potential of Enlarge
Some Horror paths include the ritual Enlarge. Per page B58, under Growth, maximum height is ST/5 yards. This limits the number of size increments from Enlarge, for a given combination of initial Size and Strength, favoring the highest ratios for most growth. Of course, humans over 10’ tall – let alone 35’ – will provoke Skepticism! 
Starting	Starting	Maximum	Maximum	Maximum	Starting	Starting	Maximum	Maximum	Maximum	Starting	Starting	Maximum	Maximum	Maximum
SM 	ST 	SM 	ST 	Ht. 	SM 	ST 	SM 	ST 	Ht. 	SM 	ST 	SM 	ST 	Ht.
7 	1 	14 	8’ 	0 	9 	2 	18 	10’ 	 	 	 	 	 	
8 	2 	20 	12’ 	0 	10 	2 	20 	12’ 	 	 	 	 	 	
9 	3 	27 	16’ 	0 	11 	3 	27 	16’ 	1 	14 	3 	28 	16’ 	
10 	3 	30 	18’ 	0 	12 	3 	30 	18’ 	1 	15 	4 	37 	22’ 	
11 	4 	38 	22’ 	0 	13 	4 	39 	23’ 	1 	16 	4 	40 	24’ 	
12 	4 	42 	25’ 	0 	14 	4 	42 	25’ 	1 	17 	4 	42 	25’ 	
 	 	 	 	 	0 	15 	5 	52 	31’ 	1 	18 	5 	54 	32’
==References==