[gurps] Entombment spell question

[Hal]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gurpsnet-l-bounces at sjgames.com 
> [mailto:gurpsnet-l-bounces at sjgames.com] On Behalf Of All Hail 
> Discordia
> Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 2:16 PM
> To: The GURPSnet mailing list
> Subject: Re: [gurps] Entombment spell question
> 
> Hal wrote:
> [snip]
> > As for myself?  Prolonged use of the Bless Plant spell 
> results in soil 
> > depletion in rapid order.  Doubling the yield of a crop 
> results in the 
> > soil depleting twice as fast.  Using the Earth to Stone 
> spell results 
> > in the creation of a stone that is effectly sandstone and pretty 
> > useless as a building material unless the spell caster uses 
> the spell 
> > "Destroy Air" on the section of earth to be transformed.
> 
> Earth "dirt" is actually closer to shale than sand stone, 
> unless you are casting your spell at the beach or in a desert.
> 
>  > This way, the newly transformed
> > earth approximates more closely, the actual structure of granite or 
> > other such stone types.  Also, Create Stone is not capable 
> of creating 
> > Marble in my game worlds ;)
> 
> Marble is metamorphosed Limestone so I can agree with you. 
> However casting your spell on one of those, white "sand" 
> beaches in the tropics would more accurately create limestone 
> than sand stone. Calcium dissolved in cold water precipitates 
> in warm water and makes those beaches nice and white.
> 
> Oxygen, carbon and nitrogen do get fixed into various 
> minerals deposits anyway, so Destroy Air should be 
> unnecessary except as a prerequisite.

I use Destroy air to actively remove the pockets of air (and thus the space
between particles) so that the earth becomes more compact overall.  Later
on, I realized that what I should have done was make it so that 6 tons of
soil when converted into Rock, would equal 6 tons of rock.  As best as I can
figure it, Granite's density of about 160+ lbs per cubic foot is about twice
that of loose soil at 80 lbs per cubic foot.  What I probably should have
done was, as suggested, make the spell EARTH TO STONE require the Destroy
Air spell as a component, and then make it so that the spell worked in terms
of cubic feet instead of cubic yards.  In this case, every cubic foot of
soil will convert to 1/2 cubic foot of good granite stone.  And yes, I am
only too aware that the density of soils can vary greatly.  In some
instances, the amount of water between soil particulates can be
significantly different depending on the soil itself...

Ultimately, there is nothing to keep any GURPS GM from digging into spell
systems from other games and adapting them for use with GURPS.  The more I
see GURPS GRIMOIRE material and the newer spells from GURPS MAGIC for 4e,
the more I'm inclined towards just dumping the entire product line and using
my own home brew system from game systems such as Chivalry & Sorcery, or Ars
Magica, or ARCANUM by Bard Games, or what have you.  PDF's these days permit
me to cut and paste entire spell descriptions onto a word processor and
create my own variants if I so desire.  Heck, I could rewrite GURPS MAGIC
for my own group and use simply by use of Microsoft Word and Adobe Reader
with cut and paste operations - leaving out the objectionable spells, and
rewriting spells to meet my own criteria of what is or is not acceptable.  I
guess in a way, that is one reason why I don't bother to worry about the
direction GURPS MAGIC for 4e has gone.  I know deep down, that if I lose
enough interest in it, it won't matter.

I guess in a way, that is why the last of the Alaconius lectures mark the
end of an era for me.  Once Grimoire came out, I found myself rebelling
against using it in my campaigns without being selective about what spells
are or are not permissible.  Once GURPS 4e came into being, I saw no further
need to discuss the spells as if they were "real" being used in a "real
environment".  They clearly are not real, and if they were real, the
transformations of the society they'd function within are nothing near what
most GM's portray for their game worlds.  Iron Towers because it is cool
means no more metal based coinage.  Easily dispelled counterfeit metal coins
means easily dispelled Iron Towers, etc.  Ah well, I digress and meander...
;)