STEVE JACKSON GAMES ® Stock #37-0130 Version 1.0 – November 2009 CONTENTS
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Urban MagicsTM Written by WILLIAM H. STODDARD Edited by JASON “PK” LEVINE and NIKOLA VRTIS Illustrated by LARRY MCDOUGALL, SHEA RYAN, and DAN SMITH An e23 Sourcebook for GURPS® STEVE JACKSON GAMES ® Stock #37-0130 Version 1.0 – November 2009 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . .3 SACRED 5. THE ENCHANTED MAGICALLY CREATED Publication History . .3 ARCHITECTURE . .21 CITY . .32 BEINGS . .42 About the Author . .3 The Language ENCHANTED Phantasms . .43 About GURPS . .3 of Stone . .21 HOUSEKEEPING . .32 HAUNTED STREETS . .43 Placing Buildings . .22 Alienation . .43 1. ONTHESTREET ENCHANTED Drawing Plans . .22 Criminal Spirits . .44 OF THE Construction . .22 BUILDINGS . .32 Disease Spirits . .44 WIZARDS . .4 Conflicting Aspects . .22 PUBLIC WORKS . .34 Gargoyles . .44 Effects . .23 Water . .34 ORGANIZING MAGIC . .4 Haunted Houses . .44 Ornamentation . .23 Rank in Local Guilds . .4 Sewers and Dumps . .35 Lost Souls . .45 Mages’ Guilds . .4 URBAN DIVINATION . .23 Light . .35 Necropolises . .45 Specialists . .5 Agoramancy . .23 Cities of Darkness . .35 The Spirit Schools for Sorcery . .5 Demomancy . .24 Weather and of the Mob . .45 Magical Factories . .5 Geomancy . .24 Climate . .36 Urban Vampires . .46 Magical Texts . .6 Mediospicy . .24 Power . .36 Vermin Spirits . .46 Magical Research Numerology . .24 TRAVEL AND Rat Kings . .46 Institutes . .6 Electronic Voice TRANSPORTATION . .36 Mafias . .6 Phenomena . .24 Personal Travel . .36 7. URBAN Street Gangs . .6 Vehicular Travel . .36 SETTINGS AND 4. MAGIC IN URBAN SPIRIT TRANSACTIONS . .7 Transportation CAMPAIGNS . .47 ENVIRONMENTS Infrastructure . .37 Death Will Not SCALE . .47 Release You . .7 . .25 Flight . .37 Isolate . .47 Sacrificial ENERGY SOURCES . .25 Ley Lines and Travel . .37 Village . .47 Brokerages . .8 Mass Magic . .25 Teleportation . .37 Town . .47 Hell Money . .8 Demurgy . .26 Maps and City . .47 The Mechanical Magical Travel . .37 Metropolis . .48 2. MAGICAL Equivalent Enchanted Streets . .38 World-City . .48 Interdimensional PRACTITIONERS of Magic . .26 LOCATION . .48 Mana Transmission . .27 Portals . .38 . .9 Ley Lines and Basic Necessities . .48 CITIES AND MANA TEMPLATES . .9 Interdimensional Specialized Resources . .49 Allied Tradesman . .9 LEVELS . .27 Travel . .38 Transportation Consulting Mage . .10 Ex Machina . .27 Cities on the Move . .39 Criminal Mage . .10 Mana Depletion . .28 and Trade . .49 WONDERS AND Enchanted Item Religion . .28 Defensibility . .49 Dealer . .11 Religious Spillover . .28 MARVELS . .39 Mana Level . .49 The Bronze Giant . .39 Exorcist . .12 Agriculture . .28 Built by Command . .50 The Elevator . .39 Forensic Sorcerer . .12 Technology . .28 Ruins . .50 The Key to the City . .40 Glamour Girl . .13 Magical Defenses . .29 HOW MUCH MAGIC? . .50 The Memory House . .40 Potion Seller . .14 The Urban PLANNING THE Landscape . .29 The Spring of Street Wizard . .14 CAMPAIGN . .51 Precious Metals . .29 Healing . .40 Thaumatological Civic Champions . .51 Scholar . .15 Aspected Mana . .29 6. SUPERNATURAL The Firm . .51 Urban Shaman . .16 MAGICAL INHABITANTS . .41 Great House . .51 ADVANTAGES . .16 RELIABILITY . .30 Mean Streets . .51 Sacred Balance . .17 Enchantment and GODS AND Police Procedural . .51 SKILLS . .17 Reliability . .30 SPIRIT ALLIES . .41 Right-Hand Men . .52 ESSENTIAL MATTERS . .31 Familiars . .41 School Days . .52 3. NEW MAGICAL Building Materials . .31 Immigrant Gods . .41 Sophisticates . .52 Minor Gods . .41 ARTS . .18 Essential Additional GURPS Servitors of Gods . .42 Resources . .52 LAPIDISM . .18 Economies . .31 New Spirit Roads . .42 LEY LINE SPELLS . .19 Transformations . .31 Spirits of Buildings . .42 INDEX . .53 RATPIPING . .21 Urban Faeries . .42 GURPS, Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Thaumatology, Urban Magics, Pyramid, e23, and the names of all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license. GURPS Thaumatology: Urban Magics is copyright © 2009 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Some art © 2009 JupiterImages Corporation. All rights reserved. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this material via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. CONTENTS 2 NTRODUCTION I Fantasy is about worlds in which magic is real. Many populations and wealthier economies, they can support more accounts of those worlds depict them as rural places. The com- mages and more magical objects. Special magical arts and dis- mon people live in villages, the nobles in castles, and when tinctive supernatural creatures may be found only in cities. either of them go on quests, they travel through wildernesses. The practice of mystical arts may make the cities themselves Any cities they encounter are likely to be in ruins, inhabited magical. Cities in the real world have urban legends; in fantasy only by ferocious beasts or angry ghosts. worlds, such legends may be true. Despite a seeming dearth of urban settings, numerous liv- If you want to include cities in your fantasy campaign – ing cities exist: L. Frank Baum’s Emerald City, J. R. R. Tolkien’s whether as starting points, places to visit, or the setting of the Minas Tirith, Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar, Terry Pratchett’s Ankh- entire campaign – GURPS Thaumatology: Urban Magics will Morpork, China Miéville’s New Crobuzon, and many others. help you. This supplement is a collection of ideas for you to use. These places can be just as magical as any other location in Most of them include new (optional) rules. GMs can rely on their worlds. In some instances, they’re more so: With larger these if they’ll help the campaign, and ignore them if they don’t. Most of this material focuses on the cities of traditional, low-tech fantasy worlds. However, many ideas here can work in a modern-fantasy About GURPS setting. In fact, some are specifically designed for Steve Jackson Games is committed to full support of GURPS play- such a campaign or based on modern supernat- ers. Our address is SJ Games, P.O. Box 18957, Austin, TX 78760. ural beliefs, such as electronic voice phenomena Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) any time and hell money. you write us! We can also be reached by e-mail: [email protected]. Resources include: PUBLICATION HISTORY New supplements and adventures. GURPS continues to grow – see GURPS Thaumatology: Urban Magics is a what’s new at www.sjgames.com/gurps. set of footnotes to GURPS Fantasy, particularly e23. Our e-publishing division offers GURPS adventures, play aids, to its discussions of local settings in fantasy and support in PDF form . digital copies of our books, plus exclu- worlds. Nearly all of the content of Urban sive material available only on e23! Just head over to Magics is new. The treatment of ley lines is partly e23.sjgames.com. borrowed from, and partly inspired by, the mate- Pyramid (www.sjgames.com/pyramid). Our monthly PDF maga- rial in GURPS Places of Mystery. The zine includes new rules and articles for GURPS, systemless locations, Mechanical Equivalent of Magic is inspired by adventures, and much more. Look for each themed issue from e23! GURPS Technomancer. Internet. Visit us on the World Wide Web at www.sjgames.com This book also relies on options from GURPS for errata, updates, Q&A, and much more. To discuss GURPS with Magic, GURPS Thaumatology, and GURPS our staff and your fellow gamers, visit our forums at Thaumatology: Magical Styles. forums.sjgames.com. The GURPS Thaumatology: Urban Magics web page is www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/urbanmagics. Bibliographies. Many of our books have extensive bibliographies, ABOUT THE AUTHOR and we’re putting them online – with links to let you buy the William H. Stoddard is a professional copy resources that interest you! Go to each book’s web page and look for editor, specializing in scientific and scholarly the “Bibliography” link. books. He lives in San Diego with his cohabitant Errata. Everyone makes mistakes, including us – but we do our best Carol, two cats, two computers, and far too many to fix our errors. Up-to-date errata pages for all GURPS releases, books. His hobbies include cooking, reading sci- including this book, are available on our website – see above. ence fiction and alternate history, running and Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for the GURPS playing in roleplaying games, doing library Basic Set, Fourth Edition. Page references that begin with B refer to research, and discussing philosophy and politics that book, not this one. online. His previous work for Steve Jackson Games includes the latest edition of GURPS Fantasy. GURPS System Design ❚ STEVE JACKSON Page Design ❚ PHIL REED and Marketing Director ❚ PAUL CHAPMAN GURPS Line Editor ❚ SEAN PUNCH JUSTIN DE WITT Director of Sales ❚ ROSS JEPSON Managing Editor ❚ PHILIP REED Art Director ❚ WILL SCHOONOVER GURPS FAQ Maintainer ❚ ––––––– e23 Manager ❚ STEVEN MARSH Production Artist & Indexer ❚ NIKOLA VRTIS VICKY “MOLOKH” KOLENKO Prepress Checker ❚ WILL SCHOONOVER Lead Playtester: Jeff Wilson Playtesters: Fred Brackin, Brett Evill, Mark Gellis, Martin Heidemann, William Keith, Paraj Mandrekar, Matt Riggsby, Michael Roy, Hans-Peter Schöni, Kevin Smith, and Ben Zittere INTRODUCTION 3 CHAPTER ONE ON THE STREET OF THE WIZARDS By living in a city, people who have chosen the mystical may be legally regulated or self-regulated. If mages are arts as their profession potentially have more people in need known to live in cities, then magically talented people may of their services. Mages may be able to work as wizards full come there looking for knowledge and training – and the time, even specializing in a particular kind of magic. If there cities will have even more mages. are enough mages, they may be organized or they may com- This chapter examines how the daily life of cities affects the pete for business – sometimes both.