Mana is the "energy" that powers spells and has a divine equivalent called Sanctity. In some settings, such as Roma Arcana, mana actually represents spirits that work on the wizard's behalf.
Mana powered Magic does not work on worlds with no mana but magic powered by other things (Sanctity or Psi) can. Note that Mana Enhancer changes this somewhat.
Mana Levels[]
Very High Mana[]
Anyone who knows spells can cast them. Very high mana worlds make magic common and more potent, affecting some rules. First, a mage who spends FP (Fatigue Points) to cast a spell on his turn gets those FP back at the start of his next turn. Second, all failures are treated as critical failures – and actual critical failures produce spectacular disasters! In settings with Continuous Mana, High Mana cover the +8 to +10 to skill range. It should be mentioned that originally Very High Mana was "Anyone can cast spell, if he knows them. Mages can do so at no energy cost!"[1] but was changed in Classic: Magic and errataed out in later printings of the Basic Set 3rd ed. The closest variant in 4e is Wild Mana.
- P178 reiterates "FP spent on magic spells recharge in one second in areas with very high mana"
- Magic: The Least of Spells states that IQ/A spells "are so weak that failures and critical failures are no worse than usual."
High Mana[]
Anyone who knows spells can cast them. Someone with Magery gets the FP spent on IQ/A spells back at the start of their next turn just as if they were in very high mana. In settings with Continuous Mana, High Mana covers the +3 to +7 to skill range.
Normal Mana[]
With the exception of IQ/A spells only mages can cast spells. This is the default mana level in most fantasy settings: mages use powerful magic, others are limited to the substantially weaker IQ/A spells. In settings with Continuous Mana, Normal Mana covers the -2 to +2 to skill range.
Low Mana[]
- see Non-Mages Casting in Lower-Mana Areas for exceptions
Only mages can cast spells above IQ/A. Low mana worlds make magic rare and less potent, affecting some rules. First, with the exception of IQ/A spells, all spells perform at -5 to skill, for all purposes. Magic items are similarly affected; see Power of a Magic Item [2] Second, critical failures have mild effects or no effect at all. In settings with Continuous Mana, Low Mana covers the -7 to -3 to skill range.
Very Low Mana[]
Only mages can cast spells. All spells harder then IQ/A perform at -10 to skill, for all purposes and magic items require a power of at least 25 to function. Costs an extra FP which must come from normal reserve, not energy reserve.[3] In settings with Continuous Mana, Very Low Mana covers the -8 to -10 to skill range.
No Mana[]
No one can use magic at all. Magic items do not function (but regain their powers when taken to an area with mana). This mana level occurs in isolated spots in magical worlds, but entire worlds can lack mana, making mana based magic use impossible. Such worlds have Category:No Mana as part of their category listings.
Special Forms of Mana[]
Pure Mana[]
Pure Mana (also known as Raw Magic, vril, vis, or quintessence) is more akin to “raw material of reality” than mana in the normal sense. As such in its most basic form it is five times more effective than other mana types so 1 point of Pure Mana is akin to 5 energy
Continuous Mana[]
Continuous Mana is where the gradation from very low mana to very high mana is more gradual going from -10 to +10 to skill.
Variable Mana[]
Variable Mana is where the mana level of an area fluctuates such as in regards to the time of day, the season, or weather.
Aspected Mana[]
Aspected Mana is mana that provides a bonus to “aspected to” spells but penalty to spells it is “aspected against”.[4][5][6] In many respects Sanctity can be viewed as a form of extreme aspected mana.
Wild Mana[]
In an area of Wild Mana "any success on a spellcasting roll counts as a critical success, and costs 0 FP, while any failure is treated as a critical failure, with the spell’s full normal energy cost."[7] In some settings Wild Mana is a form of Aspected Mana while in others it is a level above Very High Mana.
Classic Wild Mana[]
In an area of Classic Wild Mana allowed one to cast any spell in 1 second using only 1 energy. "All spell successes are critical successes, and all failures are critical failures."[8]
Twisted Mana[]
Twisted mana is so weird that it causes magic to behave in an unpredictable, even perverse way. Spells are cast at -2 in addition to any other penalties.
Unlimited Mana[]
Spells cast in Mana of this type do not cause fatigue but instead are counted against a threshold total (default is 30). The spell that first brings the mage's tally over Threshold triggers a Calamity Check with a +1 on the 3d for every full five points by which Threshold has been exceeded. All spells cast once Threshold is reached trigger a Calamity Check.[9] "Once per day, the mage's Tally is healed by an amount equal to his Recovery Rate (RR). The "default" RR score is 8, with recovery occurring at sunrise."
Limited Mana[]
Limited Mana is the idea that Mana is a finite resource [10]
Necromana[]
Living beings are the source of mana[10]
Energy Conversion[]
Mana doesn't exist but must be created by mages from other forms of energy like electromagnetic and kinetic energy using the Draw Power spell.[10]
Planar and Deity Connection[]
This is how D&D magic works. The energy to cast spells comes from other planes of existence or deities effectively working like Energy Accumulating Magic. If the connections to these planes or belief in the deities are weak then some spells will work poorly or not at all as in the case of City Beyond the Gate.
When Mana isn't really Mana[]
In some settings mana is used as a short hand for something else rather then an actual energy that blankets an area. Roma Arcana is an example of this as in that mana actually represents the availability of spirits to perform spells for the mage. Since in this setting the deities assign duties to the spirits where belief in them is strong Sanctity increases at the cost of mana.[11]
Roleplayer[]
How mana influences spells crossing multiple zones is addressed in two areas...
- (2) What happens if a missile spell is sent from an area of regular mana into an area of low mana?
- (2) Interesting question – may or may not be worth mentioning in the revised Fantasy Book. I rule that a missile spell cannot enter a NO MANA area, but is otherwise unaffected by crossing mana boundaries.
- What happens to spells that cross the boundaries of mana areas? For instance, what happens to an Explosive Fireball entering a no-mana area? Can a person using the Great Voice spell be heard 200 yards away by a person in a no-mana zone? What is the effective skill of a mage in a normal-mana zone casting a Lend Language spell on someone in a no-mana zone? – Rick Malavasic
- A missile spell would continue across the boundary into a no-mana zone. No other spell or spell effect would cross into a no-mana zone.
- When a spell is cast between different zones, both of which contain mana, calculate penalties as for the lower of the two zones. Thus, if either the caster or the subject is in a low-mana zone, the roll will be at -5. In the case of a spell like Great Voice, in which the "target" of the spell is the speaker, the location of the listener(s) doesn't affect the spell, as long as they are not in a no-mana zone.
- A caster in a zone of very high mana has the benefit of fatigue-free casting (if he's a mage) and the problem that any failure will be very dangerous, regardless of where his subject is standing. – Steve Jackson
quotes[]
Kromm[]
some spells can curve, missiles can't http://web.archive.org/web/20061014014359/www.krommnotes.org/krommmag.html
2006 archive referenced by Anthony in 2018
- Q If a mage casts a spell and spends a point of fatigue to end it prematurely, is this fatigue from spell casting? Is that renewed immediately in a Very High Mana zone?
- A No. That's physical fatigue. It's not reduced for high skill, so it's not really a "mana" cost at all.
See also[]
- No Mana Zone / NMZ equivalents (internet archive of SJGames forum thread)
References[]
- ↑ GURPS Fantasy (1st edition); GURPS Basic Set 3rd ed 1st printing, pg 147 sidebar
- ↑ Basic Set, p. 481.
- ↑ GURPS Thaumatology 58
- ↑ GURPS Classic Magic pg 94
- ↑ GURPS Fantasy pg 43-45
- ↑ GURPS Thaumatology pg 59
- ↑ GURPS Thaumatology pg 59
- ↑ Classic: Celtic Myth pg 80, 93
- ↑ GURPS Thaumatology 76-80
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Limited Mana" by Steve Kenson (Pyramid 2 sample article 10/22/1999)
- ↑ GURPS Fantasy p 201
- Basic Set 235, GURPS Magic 6.