Oh, hey, a GURP! This time, it’s GURPS Magic (1990), which builds on the small magic system from the GURPS core rules and provides a road map for considerable player-driven expansion. This was part of a significant reorganization — magic was originally part of GURPS Fantasy, along with setting info for Yrth, but players were keen for both magic and Yrth to get their own books. Which makes sense — that way you can insert magic into any setting with greater ease.
As you might imagine, there’s a lot going on this book. There is, of course, a beefy spell list, magic-related monsters, character builds (including for shape-shifters!), rules for making and using magic items and some notes on the various ways magic can fit into a society. Alchemy gets a treatment, too. Those sections are all, give or take, what a player should probably expect from RPG magic systems. Interesting, usable, but no surprises. And maybe even less surprises than you’d expect, given the precision in which Jackson writes his effect descriptions: not a lot of room for lawyerly interpretation here!
Now let’s look at some of the unusual stuff. First, a system for improvisational magic using verb/noun combinations. Not unlike Ars Magica? But, like, GURPSy, so you need to roll skills connected to both the verb and the noun, pay manna and then hope the GM accepts your proposed effect. It’s interesting and perhaps clearer than Ars, but also a bit crunchier? It’s hard to say, really. I probably would opt out of them. I think the brief discussion of magical aspects (basically, giving magic a variety of thematic polarities) and magical knacks (inherent, rather than learned magic) have broader application and are easier to swallow.
The most interesting part, though, is the first 15 or so pages, in which Jackson lays out the GURPS theory of magic and demonstrates the many ways its principals can be applied in play. It’s just so varied and flexible; what it doesn’t account for, you can easily see how you might make it work, and that’s neat.
Rad cover art Kirk Reinert, who liked it so much he signed it twice. A ton of interior artists with no clear credits, but this is a good-looking though consciously generic, book.
