A Mystical Review
Mystical powers fall into one of seven categories:
Body Mastery. Mystics
are capable of exerting extreme amounts of control over their own bodies’
functions. They are often supernaturally fast, strong, and fit, and capable of
actively altering involuntary bodily functions. By meditating on their physical
form, mystics develop the skills required to open their senses to the unseen
world. This is usually the first step in becoming a mystic.
Projection. As mystics
delve into what exactly comprises a person, they learn that the body and soul
are not rigidly attached. In fact, one’s soul can be ejected from one’s body,
changing the person’s sensory perspective and leaving the body a mindless
shell. This is usually the mystic’s first step into the greater world. Those
with highly developed projection powers can even project their souls into the
Veil, or even the astral plane.
Perception. By
projecting his soul, a mystic learns to control his soul and discovers the
first shadows of an enormously powerful soul deep within himself – although
“within” is not quite the correct word. As he concentrates on his soul, he
first experiences Ananta, the world spirit and the true interconnected nature
of all spirits and souls. By developing this connection, a mystic learns to
perceive the world not only from his own perspective, but from that of anything
within the world – including Ananta herself.
Dream Mastery. Often
developed in tandem with powers of perception, a mystic’s ability to project
into the Dream Plane is common, as well. The mystic may enter the Dreamlands
through his own dreams or by projecting, but once there, he acts not as a
dreamer, but as an observer and shaper of dreams. Some mystics learn to enter
other people’s minds in this manner.
Fate Mastery. A common
latent talent, the ability to bend the world to one’s will in minor ways –
e.g., ensuring a coin always comes up heads, regularly rolling seven on a pair
of dice, etc. – is a relatively trivial after once one is open to Ananta. If
developed, this power can become a powerful tool in the hands of the mystic. He
learns to manipulate the fate of himself and others, blessing and cursing those
around him as he sees fit. Moreover, where some may hope for a lucky
coincidence, such serendipity seeks out the mystic.
Telepathy. Once a
mystic realizes the true interconnected nature of all life in the world and
develops sufficient control over his own connection to Ananta, he can begin
learning to enter the minds of other entities, creatures, and even people
through that connection. He can see through the eyes of others, manipulate
their thoughts – even possess them as a spirit might. This is among the most
powerful powers available to a mystic, as he can attempt to bend anything to
his will. As such, masters are often reticent to even teach it to pupils before
they first prove their intentions.
Soul Mastery. Both a
dark and light power, this is the most advanced set of abilities a mystic might
learn. The closely guarded secret of manipulating a person’s soul is held by
few masters and rarely taught to pupils. With such power, a mystic can mend
spiritual wounds, cleanse a person’s soul of corruption, siphon away a person’s
life force, or even steal his soul outright.
With that review out of the way, I will begin working through Powers
from the beginning to see what sort of things I need to consider when creating
these.
Source & Focus
Powers, p. 7
All of our powers stem from the same source – the
interconnections of souls through Ananta. This is innate to the user meaning it
will be difficult, if even possible, for other people to neutralize. Even denying
this innate quality based on location a la low mana or low sanctity zones feels
wrong.
But establishing and maintaining the level of connection
necessary to access this source is arduous. It should require a significant
amount of time meditating. I suppose Ananta could sever a person’s connection,
but that would be like you cutting off your own finger. So that’s not really a good option unless a mystic is just that vile.
Each power already has a focus described above, so this doesn’t
need to be addressed further.
Power Modifiers
Powers, p. 8, 20-29
This makes for a nice segue into power modifiers. Yes, we are
skipping the initial look at abilities (p. 7-8 and 9-19) partly because source
leads nicely into power modifiers, but more because we are building seven
different powers, but only one power modifier. So let’s construct the Mystical
modifier!
I’m going to go heading by heading to see which ones look
appropriate, how they might work, and make a final decision on whether or not
to include them. When all is done, I’ll put it all together to produce a fully
worked power modifier.
Countermeasures
We said previously that there are no active ways to cut a mystic
off from his source, but there is a large class of foes who are immune to such
powers by virtue of their nature. This suggests we should examine
countermeasures closely.
Mundane Countermeasures.
There are no common or ordinary items, materials, or places that can inhibit
mystical powers, so this does not apply. This gives +0%.
Anti-Powers. There is
no specialized technology that can disrupt mystical powers, but all demons are completely
unaffected by mystical powers and some can even nullify them. The latter counts
for -5%.
No Countermeasures.
Mystical powers have a countermeasure, but in its absence, do they
automatically win when opposed by magic or other powers? I’m going to say no.
That would unbalance things a bit in favor of mysticism. This gives +0%.
Required Disadvantages
“Some powers stem from dedicated exercise, meditation,
prayer, etc.” – Powers, p. 21
That says it all right there. We definitely have something from this
section, since we already said that our source requires extensive meditation to
access.
Suggested Disadvantages.
This section lists a lot of possibilities, but I’ll only pick out the ones that
I think are the best candidates and discuss each. Disciplines of Faith has a
few specializations, but immediately, we can rule out Monasticism, Mysticism,
and Asceticism because they all involve spending most of your time not
adventuring. And this is a game about sending paper men running down holes to
kill monsters and take their stuff. Ritualism, while not quite the flavor I’m looking for, does have some
promise. Further expanding my reading on what is offered in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1 – Adventurers and GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 12 – Ninja for other ideas, Disciplines of Faith (Chi Rituals) comes very close to what I
need – a way to sink free time into meditation. I’m not a huge fan of paying
more for supplies, however. So I’ll create my own Disciplines of Faith called
Meditative Reflection. This requires you spend 1d hours per day doing nothing
but meditating quietly. It is worth [-5] as a disadvantage, which translates to
-5% toward power modifier.
Required Behavior and
Power Modifier. Failing to meditate should have consequences. If a mystic
fails to meditate adequately for a day, he can take an entire day to do nothing but meditate and mend his connections. If
he tries to use his powers before then, they crap out without warning. This is
worth +0%.
In Dungeon Fantasy, delving time is generally divided into week
increments for the sake of upkeep and such. This suggests that a delve rarely
takes longer than a week, and indeed, unless a group is hex-crawling or in a
super dungeon (Super Dungeons, GURPS Pyramid #3/50 – Dungeon Fantasy II,
p. 20-26), they probably won’t spend an entire week of game time in a
dungeon. So I’m comfortable suggesting that 1d days of meditation is enough to
put a mystic out of commission for a week as penance. This is worth +0%.
Energies Channeled
Mystics do not channel energies, ambient or otherwise. None of
the potential limitations mentioned here are applicable to Mysticism. These
give +0%.
Other Factors
A few other factors should be considered before we write this up
as a single power modifier.
Accessibility. Not all
mystical abilities affect others. This precludes the use of such a limitation
to represent the prohibition against affecting demons. Even if it could, this
would be an “in place of” rather than an “in addition to” sort of limitation.
So which one is applied is really just a technicality. This gives +0%.
Costs Fatigue. While
I’m not 100% certain if mystics will have to spend FP on every power, I’m
certain they don’t have to spend an
additional FP on every power. This precludes including fatigue costs in the
power modifier and gives +0%.
Nuisance Effect. These
can be absolutely wonderful to work with, but since mysticism is intentionally
a subtle power, nuisance effects really aren’t appropriate in this instance.
This gives +0%.
Finalizing the Modifier
Totaling what we have above, we find our power modifier to be
worth -10%. Demons can nullify a mystic’s powers and mystics must take
Disciplines of Faith (Meditative Reflection) [-5], which requires 1d hours per
day spent doing nothing but meditating. Failure to do so means the power will
burn out without warning the next time it is used if a full day is not first
taken to meditate. If the power burns out, it won’t work again without 1d days
of meditation.
Power Talents
Powers, p. 8, 29
Next, we need to make some decisions about the power talent. For
one, will one talent govern all of the powers or should we break this up by
power. The former approach will result in something more akin to Chi Talent and
produce generalists. The latter will promote specializing in specific powers.
Another option is to wrap some additional benefits into the talents, such as
skill bonuses, Power Defenses (Powers,
p. 167-168), Talent as Resistance (Powers,
p. 1668), etc. The lattermost option requires us to consider what sort of rules
apply to mystical powers, but it is also potentially the more flavorful option.
We will tentatively go with that!
So now we know we will have seven power talents – one for each
power. These should be held down to a cost of 5 points per level to permit PCs
to be good at more than just one power. I may also consider adding in bonuses
to a skill or two for flavor and balance based on the number of abilities that
require rolls. This cannot be determined until abilities are chosen, so
tentatively, each talent will be given five possible skills it can benefit.
- Body Awareness. Autohypnosis, Body Control, Body Sense, Breath Control, Esoteric Healing (Mystical).
- Projection Talent. Body Sense, Exorcism, Kiai, Mental Strength, Push.
- Mystic Perception. Blind Fighting, Body Language, Observation, Search, Sensitivity.
- Dream Walking. Body Sense, Dreaming, Fortune-Telling (Dreams), Mind Block, Mental Strength.
- Telepathic Talent. Detect Lies, Interrogation, Hypnotism, Mind Block, Psychology.
- Oddsmaker. Finance, Gambling, Games, Sports, Zen Archer.
- Soul Manipulation. Esoteric Healing (Mystical), Hidden Lore (Spirits & Undead), Pressure Points, Pressure Secrets, Theology.
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