Do you design worlds according to fantastical physics?

VelvetViolet · Mar 15, 2019

Skirmisher recently released a supplement on spontaneous generation. I recommend it to anyone who wants a brief introduction to magical world building... or simply wants to indulge their inner child.

I admit, I like magical physics because it delights my inner child. Who didn’t want to hatch their own basilisk after reading about how all you needed was a cock’s egg and a toad?

WolfhillRPG · Mar 16, 2019

I grew up playing in an era when nerds ruled the RPG landscape, and as such, craved physics. Magic, as a previous poster said was just "Energy" changing states. Ghosts were just peoples energy trapped on the material plane.

Arthur C. Clarke — 'Magic's just science that we don't understand yet.'

But do what you like. That's the best thing about RPG's

gepetto · Mar 17, 2019

I have used fantasy physics. One of my favorite campaigns was inside of a dyson sphere.

But I generally just stick with real world physics. Its simpler.

dragoner · Mar 20, 2019

I read a blog where a GM was complaining about the players beating some trap in a sci-fi world using gravity, and thus sci-fi was bad, for it's real physics. I thought, huh? The fantasy world doesn't have gravity? I think a lot of times it's just poorly thought out things, and that the players think around, is the main factor, and that GM's sometimes grip too tightly to outcomes.

About how things were in the past, knowledge wasn't organized, there wasn't a body of knowledge for science or physics. So while there was magical thinking, it existed side by side with multiple explanations as well as just being unknown. Many times the reasoning is fanciful, and the writer knows it, and is just filling in the gaps with something creative, such as "Here there be Dragons" on the blank spaces of maps.

TarionzCousin · Mar 23, 2019

dragoner said:
I thought, huh? The fantasy world doesn't have gravity?

No. Everything simply remains where it is (or moves) because that is its "natural place/natural tendency" in the universe. B-)

Immortal Sun · Mar 23, 2019

Maybe it's just me, but this thread still gives me vibes that folks who want to design "fantastical physics"-based worlds still want to have mundane PCs.

While people in the IRL past may have lacked scientific explanations for things, that doesn't mean they didn't think they knew how things worked, and in many of their myths, the people were just as much a part of the "fantastical reality" as everything else. You could gain the powers of animals by behaving like them. You could fly because you tricked the air spirits. Humans could accomplish any number of impossible tasks simply because they set their minds to it.

Sword of Spirit · Mar 23, 2019

I'm no expert, but it seems to me that the sort of non-mundane person stuff was mostly relegated to demigods or powered by outside influences. I mean, if Farmer Farmsome turns into a fox, it's probably because he has a magic fox pelt, not because he did something anyone could try.

Plus, I think there is also a question of story genre and how the original audience can better discern that than later readers. Even within the magical worldview, the concept of tall tales that weren't supposed to be literally believed (except maybe by children) existed. Paul Bunyon and Davie Crockett come to mind.

Samloyal23 · Apr 1, 2019

So what do you develop a new, magical set of physical laws for and what do you just assume is the same as the real world? How do prioritize?

gepetto · Apr 3, 2019

Samloyal23 said:
So what do you develop a new, magical set of physical laws for and what do you just assume is the same as the real world? How do prioritize?

Magic and the spirit world, the afterlife. Pretty much everything that touches on those. I also like the idea of ley lines. So I include those in most of my worlds.