I can see the United States going crazy about this legally. I would imagine it would be something akin to the way weapon control laws are handled here. Since magic can be acquired/learned where super powers tend to be (mostly) the result of genetics. Ugh.
How accessible is magic to the common man anyway? Is magic the result of Magical Aptitude or can anyone pick up a spellbook and through practice learn to break reality?
The take I use in my campaign was of the two-tiered variety; tier one was the magic that anyone with a little talent could pick up on from reading a spellbook. Kind of like really hard maths that require a certain mental state to produce effects from. Then there was tier two, where Alice falls through the mirror and into not-quite-your-daddy's Wonderland. The spots marked "here be monsters" where the real wizards and spooks play and who greatly resent having to clean up the messes made by the amateurs.
I like your solution to the Whole Earth Grimoire being the "whatever works for your campaign" I was going to go through and try to find the most useful and least upsetting spells to use for it, adapted to 20th and 21st century world views. Leaning towards the sort of spellbooks you can find in bookstores with all the baggage clipped loose and actual scientific rigor applied. I was also going to have lots of imitators and at least one version being the Anarchist's Cookbook of the modern age. If I can find the time I might write up some of its for my site.
M
Michael R. Smith (lastfreehuman@gmail.com)
GURPS IST Aleph Wordpress (http://istaleph.wordpress.com/)
GURPS IST Aleph Twitter (http://twitter.com/IstAleph/)
Trek This! Wordpress (http://dthiller.wordpress.com/)
My Blog (http://lastfreehuman.wordpress.com/)
How accessible is magic to the common man anyway? Is magic the result of Magical Aptitude or can anyone pick up a spellbook and through practice learn to break reality?
The take I use in my campaign was of the two-tiered variety; tier one was the magic that anyone with a little talent could pick up on from reading a spellbook. Kind of like really hard maths that require a certain mental state to produce effects from. Then there was tier two, where Alice falls through the mirror and into not-quite-your-daddy's Wonderland. The spots marked "here be monsters" where the real wizards and spooks play and who greatly resent having to clean up the messes made by the amateurs.
I like your solution to the Whole Earth Grimoire being the "whatever works for your campaign" I was going to go through and try to find the most useful and least upsetting spells to use for it, adapted to 20th and 21st century world views. Leaning towards the sort of spellbooks you can find in bookstores with all the baggage clipped loose and actual scientific rigor applied. I was also going to have lots of imitators and at least one version being the Anarchist's Cookbook of the modern age. If I can find the time I might write up some of its for my site.
M
Michael R. Smith (lastfreehuman@gmail.com)
GURPS IST Aleph Wordpress (http://istaleph.wordpress.com/)
GURPS IST Aleph Twitter (http://twitter.com/IstAleph/)
Trek This! Wordpress (http://dthiller.wordpress.com/)
My Blog (http://lastfreehuman.wordpress.com/)