SpheresoftheAether

Spheres of the Aether is a universe in which the player(s) have been, by whatever means, granted a power of the Aether. The powers take many shapes, from sharp and jagged crystals to perfectly rounded spheres, each unique and independent of the others. It Originally started as a CYOA image on /v/ and has moved to /tg/. 8chan has evolved the concept into a full set of rules.

There's a game currently running, check out the details here:

Below is copy pasted from the google doc

HOW TO MAGIC:

Determine what you want to do Decide what Effects cover this, and whether they're Greater or Lesser Consult the tables for the Modifiers of Range, Duration, Damage (if any), and Weight affected (if any) Add up the "Added Energy" from each of these Modifiers Consult the Greater effects multiplier table and increase the spell cost appropriately Make sure that Energy Cost = (spell effects + modifiers) x Greater effects multiplier Gather energy, this requires a concentrate maneuver for each different energy source, and a skill roll in the case of ambient energy. Once the energy is gathered, Roll vs the applicable Domain skill. If success, then magic happens.

General Rules

Duration

All rituals with lasting effects eventually expire unless more energy is added. don't forget that. Now, of course, healing someone is an instantaneous effect, healing spells don't need a duration. Optional Advantages and Alternatives Dexterity based Magic Still not totally sure this is a good idea Not all magic is the realm of the mind, there are examples of magic dances, or rituals that are based in movement rather than in myth and fiction If someone opts to take a dexterity based magic, they must choose another DX/A or harder skill. Their Sphere skill can not be higher than this skill +2 Additionally, they cannot be bound (though they could be gagged!) when performing magic, their magic is cast via bodily motion, such as dance, rather than words. However, skill penalties that would normally affect the base skill now affect the casting. So for example; if the DX base skill was Dance, then shaky or slippery ground would give penalties to casting rolls.

Greater Transform Body Perk

This perk grants access to the Greater Transform body effect, for Water, Fire, and Lightning. The perk costs 2 points. It ONLY grants access to the Greater Transform body effect when used with a Greater Transform Fire, Lightning, or Water. An example effect of this is to allow the caster to cast a spell to transform their body into an "elemental" type body.

Universal skills

These skills are common to ALL Spheres. Everyone starts with 1 point in them. Symbol Drawing (IQ/H) Used for Ritual Preparation, Symbol Drawing is a useful spell for providing easier spell casting. It can also be used to analyze someone else's magic circles. On a success, the user gains some insight into the nature of the spell the circle was used to cast. It can also be used when making charms; use rules for Ritual Preparations. However the symbols are drawn ON the charm and will be quite obvious.

Symbol drawing is extremely useful early on, for low skill mages, as the extra +2 or more can be the difference between success and failure.

Material Magic (IQ/VH)

Defaults: Alchemy-1

Material Magic is the skill of bringing out the magic in physical materials, and imbuing items with magic. It is the study of magical transformations and transmutations. A successful roll can identify the function of a potion, or the type of enchantment on an item. (Damage, healing, etc). Exact details should be left vague, unless the item is of the same Sphere. A critical success gives detailed infomation. This is used whenever a Lesser Magic effect would be called for when making a charm, or anything like that. Essentially it is the skill for all enchantments. It also includes all of Alchemy, for the purpose of making Elixirs. (TH:RPM p.28) Note that Arcane does not need this skill; they use Alchemy and Path of Magic instead.

Terminology & Download

GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic A GURPS sourcebook that Spheres heavily references for rules. A copy can be found here. The abbreviation "TH:RPM" refers to this book.

Sphere

The sphere is the core skill of magic. Each Sphere is an IQ/VH or DX/VH Skill. This represents knowledge of the Sphere and the workings of its magic. A Domain's skill can not be higher than the Sphere skill. Additionally, a character's skill level in their Sphere, plus their level of magery is the number of charms and conditional spells they can have. Domain The Domain skills are the skills that are used for actually casting magic. Each Domain skill is an IQ H or VH skill. They do not have defaults. A Domain skill's level cannot exceed the lower of Sphere skill level, or Magery + 12. This of course, doesn't apply to modified skills from items, such as the physical Sphere itself. Spell Mages may opt to focus on specific spells to improve their skill with them. These are taken as Average difficulty techniques based on the relevant Domain skill.

For the purpose of these rules, a ritual is defined by the following things:

The specific spell effect(s) (TH:RPM pp.15-16); e.g., “Lesser Strengthen Body and Lesser Destroy Chance.” What those spell effects do. This is somewhat subjective, but there’s a clear difference between (e.g.) “Lesser Sense Mind to send my thoughts” and “Lesser Sense Mind to locate the nearest sapient being with IQ 5 or less.” Which of the following modifiers (TH:RPM pp. 16-18) are used, though you don’t have to list the specific value – it can be changed “on the fly” without issue: Area of Effect, Healing, Meta-Magic, or Speed. Which of the following modifiers are used and their specific effect – this cannot be changed without being considered a new ritual: Afflictions, Altered Traits (you must list the traits, but if they’re leveled, you can vary how many levels you add), Bestows a Bonus (you must list the rolls affected, but can vary the strength of the modifier), Bestows a Penalty (as for Bestows a Bonus), or Damage (you must list what type of damage and any enhancements, but can vary the amount). Don’t bother listing Duration, Extra Energy, Range, or Subject Weight – as these can be varied freely with any spell.

IQ/H, what does that mean? Every Skill and technique in GURPS has a difficulty. This ranges from Easy to Very Hard If you see IQ/H or DX/A or something like that, it tells you the attribute the skill is based on, and the difficulty. See Basic Set: Characters page 171 for more details, or GURPS Lite page 13

Magery

As TH:RPM Magery, including the skill cap. TH:RPM p 5

Important: Non-mages can learn Sphere skills and domains, but no higher than SL 12. However, Each level of Magery improves this cap by 1; e.g., with Magery 4, you can learn Path skills up to 16. This limit does apply to Mages too;

Spheres Adept Just as important as magery, this advantage is really what separates PC mages from non-PCs.