assembling a large enough group of Mages to provide all the available energy. This has made
many magic items fairly common. Most
enchanters make their own Staff and/or Powerstones with little or no effort, and
Colleges of Enchantment teach students how to enchant in groups.
Quick and Dirty Enchantment
Much enchantment is done by the �Quick and Dirty� method of enchantment. Since
Magery 2 is a pre-requisite of the Enchant Spell, this means that all enchanters have a
Thresh of at least 35 and RR of at least 2d+1. Assuming that a lead enchanter with skill 20
is available, then a circle of six Mages would be able to provide 210 points of energy
without risking a Calamity Roll! Enchanters with Magery 3 and the maximum level of
Increased Thresh could form a circle with 384 points of energy for a single casting! This
circle could enchant 13 Staff spells or add 19 points to a powerstone in one day! (This
would be a 13-hour or 19-hour work day however, and would definately not be common.)
All normal rules for QnD enchantment apply. Also, if a Mage exceeds his Thresh, he will
suffer a further -1, and -1 per each multiple of his excess (i.e. if a mage has one level of
Safer Excess, he will get be at -2 after 10 pts past his Thresh, -3 after 20 pts, etc.).
Though this makes it easy for a PC Enchanter to replace a lost Staff or work on a
powerstone in his spare time, large enchantments still must be made by the Slow and Sure
method to be safe.
Slow and Sure Enchantment
Slow and Sure enchantment works exactly as described in GURPS Magic. In
general, any magic item with a cost of 400 or more will be made by the Slow and Sure
method, especially when there are not enough Mages around to have a large circle.
Example of Enchantment: The King's Necklace
While high-cost magic items are just as rare as presented in GURPS Magic,
lower-cost items are often available much cheaper. Cost of items below 200 energy can be
produced for only $1-2 per energy point. Items from 200-400 energy cost $3-5 per point.
After this threshold, items follow the progression in GURPS Magic. It may be assumed
that a base rate of $25 per point is standard. Note that this is the minumum cost, and
enchanters quite often charge more than this. Also, if a circle of enchanters specializes in a
certain effect, adding Puissance to swords for example, they may be able to make a killing
in a short time, but in the long run, such inundations will flood the market and drive prices
down sharply.
This means that nearly anyone can get a ring to cast Light (cost $100-200) or a
Waterseeking Wand (cost $40-80), but very few people can afford a Loyal Broadsword
(cost $56,250) or even a Loyal Shortsword (cost $18,750). These costs do not include the
costs of materials. In the above example, the King�s Necklace would cost $400 ($1 per
point for common enchantment) for the powerstone, $2000 ($5 per point as Alock is a
well-known and reputable enchanter) for the Breathe Water enchantment, and the material
cost of the gem and necklace. Of course, not too many people would have a spare twelve
gold laying around to waste.
There are three basic types of magic items. Always-on items work regardless of the
wearer or his knowledge of magic. Always-on items require no expenditure of energy on
the part of the user. This includes most weapon enchantments. Self-Powered items are
those items with the Power enchantment and items with exclusive powerstones. Use of a
Self-Powered item requires a roll on the Item Use Skill (see below). Self-Powered Items
require no expenditure of energy on the part of the user. Unpowered Items are those items
which require the user to make use of energy to power the item. They may be partially
powered or have dedicated powerstones, but they still require the user to channel and
direct the energy necessary to power the item�s effect. Use of an Unpowered Item requires
a roll on the Item Use Skill. Items of all three types may be listed as �Mage Only�. Items
with this addition may only be used by those with the Magical Sensitivity or Magery
advantages.
New Skill Item Use M/H Defaults to Thaumatology-3,
or IQ-6
This is the skill of using Magic Items. A roll is required when attempting to use
Self-Powered and Unpowered magic items. Talents and mundanes suffer an additional -2
penalty to this roll. Wizards suffer no penalty. Mages add their Magery to IQ when
learning this skill. Success provides a single use of the item. Failure means that use of this
item is not possible and the user must wait a number of hours equal to the points by which
he failed before trying again. Critical failure means the item casts the spell on the user,
destroys the item (only on an 18), or causes some equally unpleasant result.
