Sorcery: Fuel Spells

Sorcery: Fuel Spells

Fuel spells, in my opinion, are ones of the most overlooked ones in GURPS Magic. There aren't many of them, but they can prove to be useful, especially in a high TL setting. Create Fuel lets the caster to turn anything into fuel appropriate for his TL. Essential Fuel can improve the qualities of fuel drastically. Seek Fuel is useful in postapocalyptic games, as are Test Fuel and Purify Fuel.

Create Fuel

Keywords: None.

Full Cost: 32 points/level.

Casting Roll: IQ.

Range: Touch.

Duration: 10 seconds or permanent; see text.

This spell allows you to turn any natural solid or liquid substance into the primary solid or liquid fuel for the spell’s TL. To do so, touch the matter you wish to transform, take a Concentrate maneuver and roll vs. IQ. Success means you transform the matter successfully. Failure means nothing happens. Critical failure means the transformation happens, but in a way that’s inconvenient or dangerous – the GM should be creative!

Transmutation costs 1 FP per use.

The final product can weigh up to 10 x (level squared) lbs. – 10 lbs. at level 1, 40 lbs. at level 2, 90 lbs. at level 3, and so on. This limits the weight of the matter being transformed.

If the product is worth more than what you started with, it’s unstable and will revert to its original form after 10 seconds unless you stabilize it with your character points – in which case point cost depends on the difference in value. Each point spent stabilizes a quantity worth 10% of the campaign’s average starting wealth. (This is just the tradeoff used for Trading Points for Money, p. B26.) The GM determines the cash value per pound of matter – a ton of iron costs more to stabilize than a ton of stone.

Points spent to stabilize matter come from your “Creation Pool,” a number of points set aside for the purpose. You can’t apply any modifiers to these points. Points used to stabilize matter are unavailable until reclaimed – which causes the matter to vanish. If the matter is crafted into an object, the item is unmade when the matter vanishes. If the matter is mixed with other materials (e.g., alloyed), you must separate it to reclaim your points; this can be a tedious process. If it’s destroyed or transformed (e.g., eaten), you can’t reclaim your points – they’re gone. You can increase your Creation Pool with unspent points at any time.

Statistics: Create (Transmute Liquid to Fuel, +45%; Transmute Solid to Fuel, +45%; Transmutation Only, -100%; Magical, -10%) [32/level].

Essential Fuel

Keywords: None.

Full Cost: 18 points/level.

Casting Roll: IQ.

Range: Touch.

Duration: 10 seconds or permanent; see text.

This spell allows you to turn any fuel into the magical essence of fuel. To do so, touch the matter you wish to transform, take a Concentrate maneuver and roll vs. IQ. Success means you transform the matter successfully. Failure means nothing happens. Critical failure means the transformation happens, but in a way that’s inconvenient or dangerous – the GM should be creative!

Transmutation costs 1 FP per use.

The final product can weigh up to 10 x (level squared) lbs. – 10 lbs. at level 1, 40 lbs. at level 2, 90 lbs. at level 3, and so on. This limits the weight of the matter being transformed.

Essential Fuel burns 10 times as long as regular fuel, with one-third the usual pollution (smoke, radiation, etc.). Vehicles running on Essential Fuel have 10 times the Range.

If the product is worth more than what you started with, it’s unstable and will revert to its original form after 10 seconds unless you stabilize it with your character points – in which case point cost depends on the difference in value. Each point spent stabilizes a quantity worth 10% of the campaign’s average starting wealth. (This is just the tradeoff used for Trading Points for Money, p. B26.) The GM determines the cash value per pound of matter – a ton of iron costs more to stabilize than a ton of stone.

Points spent to stabilize matter come from your “Creation Pool,” a number of points set aside for the purpose. You can’t apply any modifiers to these points. Points used to stabilize matter are unavailable until reclaimed – which causes the matter to vanish. If the matter is crafted into an object, the item is unmade when the matter vanishes. If the matter is mixed with other materials (e.g., alloyed), you must separate it to reclaim your points; this can be a tedious process. If it’s destroyed or transformed (e.g., eaten), you can’t reclaim your points – they’re gone. You can increase your Creation Pool with unspent points at any time.

Statistics: Create (Cosmic, Essential, +50%; Transmute Fuel to Essential Fuel, +50%; Transmutation Only, -100%; Magical, -10%) [18/level].

Purify Fuel

Keywords: None.

Full Cost: 4 points/level.

Casting Roll: IQ.

Range: Touch.

Duration: Permanent.

This spell removes all impurities from fuel, rendering it fit to use. To cast the spell, the caster touches the fuel he wishes to purify, takes a Concentrate maneuver and rolls vs. IQ. Success means he purifies it successfully. Failure means nothing happens. Critical failure means the transformation happens, but in a way that’s inconvenient or dangerous – the GM should be creative!

Purification costs 1 FP per use.

The caster can purify an amount of fuel weighing up to 10 x (level squared) lbs. – 10 lbs. at level 1, 40 lbs. at level 2, 90 lbs. at level 3, and so on.

Statistics: Create (Accessibility, Only to transform into usable fuel, -20%; Transmute Fuel to Fuel, +50%; Transmutation Only, -100%; Magical, -10%) [4/level].

Seek Fuel

Keywords: Information.

Full Cost: 41 points or 51 points.

Casting Roll: Per. Use IQ for analysis.

Range: Unlimited.

Duration: Instantaneous.

After casting, the GM rolls against the sorcerer’s Per, with a penalty based on the distance to the nearest source of fuel. The basic (41-point) version of this spell takes standard range penalties. The improved (51-point) one uses long-distance modifiers. If successful, the caster knows the exact distance and direction to the source of fuel, and may make a follow-up IQ roll (at no penalty) to learn basic details about it (e.g., “it’s a pile of coal” or “it’s an antimatter trap”).

Any known sources of fuel may be excluded if the caster mentions them before casting.

Statistics: Detect Fuel (Precise, +100%; Selective Effect, +20%; Sorcery, -15%) [41]. The improved version adds Long-Range 1 (+50%) [+10].

Test Fuel

Keywords: Information.

Full Cost: 24 points.

Casting Roll: IQ.

Range: Unlimited.

Duration: Instantaneous.

Determines whether the subject substance can be used normally as fuel. The GM will secretly roll against the caster’s IQ to the subject, which the caster must be able to see or touch. The caster will know automatically if the substance can be used as fuel, but a successful casting roll will let him know if there are any impurities in the fuel.

Statistics: Detect (Fuel; Analysis Only, -50%; Analyzing, +100%; Sorcery, -15%; Touch- or Vision-Based, -15%) [24].