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<blockquote data-quote="DammitVictor" data-source="post: 8303319" data-attributes="member: 6750908"><p>Since we're talking about alternatives to the arcane/divine split... I've got three settings, and I'm doing it different in all three. This is largely because I want all three settings to be distinct, with a very different texture to them, but also because I believe any question like "what are the sources of magical power, and how do they function?" should vary <em>fundamentally </em>on a setting-to-setting basis.</p><p></p><p><strong><em>Shroompunk </em></strong>is my "closest to D&D" setting, having been designed from the beginning as a sort of alternative to the kind of old-school in the OSR movement. The sort of "default" power source is <strong>Martial/Psychic</strong>, which forms the basis of having things like Proficiencies and Hit Dice and every character class has at least <em>some </em>martial/psychic abilities as they level. The other power sources are... kinda priest-like in general D&D terms, but cover multiple class roles: <strong>Draconic</strong> is elemental/primal/life magic based on the 10 True Dragons; <strong>Celestial </strong>is magic of the star spirits, sort of holy/radiant/enchantment; <strong>Abyssal</strong> is the magic of the underworld, shadow/undeath/hellfire; and <strong>Aberrant</strong> is the magic of the Warp Zones, goolock/teleportation/mindbending/fleshwarping.</p><p></p><p><strong><em>Cascade City</em></strong> is my urban fantasy/wuxia/paranormal/planetary romance setting. There's <strong>Martial</strong> power, <strong>Psychic </strong>power, and <strong>Magic</strong> power-- and they're <em>basically</em> separate, but functionally developing any one of them makes developing the other two easier, and reaching the loftiest heights of any one requires developing at least <em>a</em> <em>little </em>in the other two.</p><p></p><p>And my currently untitled space opera project, currently running in <em>Alternity </em>1998, only has <strong>Psionics</strong> and a couple of closely related types of <strong>Magic</strong>; psionics effectively acts as a prerequisite to magic, with psionics being a direct application of psychic power, and magic being the use of psychic power to open a channel to otherworldly beings. There are... a bewildering variety of these kinds of otherworldly beings that humans (and, to be fair, most other mortals) try to categorize, wildly inaccurately, as "angelic" and "demonic" and maybe sometimes "other". They're not <em>exclusive</em>, but it's hard to form an exploitable relationship with more than one of these beings and even harder with different <em>kinds</em> of them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DammitVictor, post: 8303319, member: 6750908"] Since we're talking about alternatives to the arcane/divine split... I've got three settings, and I'm doing it different in all three. This is largely because I want all three settings to be distinct, with a very different texture to them, but also because I believe any question like "what are the sources of magical power, and how do they function?" should vary [I]fundamentally [/I]on a setting-to-setting basis. [B][I]Shroompunk [/I][/B]is my "closest to D&D" setting, having been designed from the beginning as a sort of alternative to the kind of old-school in the OSR movement. The sort of "default" power source is [B]Martial/Psychic[/B], which forms the basis of having things like Proficiencies and Hit Dice and every character class has at least [I]some [/I]martial/psychic abilities as they level. The other power sources are... kinda priest-like in general D&D terms, but cover multiple class roles: [B]Draconic[/B] is elemental/primal/life magic based on the 10 True Dragons; [B]Celestial [/B]is magic of the star spirits, sort of holy/radiant/enchantment; [B]Abyssal[/B] is the magic of the underworld, shadow/undeath/hellfire; and [B]Aberrant[/B] is the magic of the Warp Zones, goolock/teleportation/mindbending/fleshwarping. [B][I]Cascade City[/I][/B] is my urban fantasy/wuxia/paranormal/planetary romance setting. There's [B]Martial[/B] power, [B]Psychic [/B]power, and [B]Magic[/B] power-- and they're [I]basically[/I] separate, but functionally developing any one of them makes developing the other two easier, and reaching the loftiest heights of any one requires developing at least [I]a[/I] [I]little [/I]in the other two. And my currently untitled space opera project, currently running in [I]Alternity [/I]1998, only has [B]Psionics[/B] and a couple of closely related types of [B]Magic[/B]; psionics effectively acts as a prerequisite to magic, with psionics being a direct application of psychic power, and magic being the use of psychic power to open a channel to otherworldly beings. There are... a bewildering variety of these kinds of otherworldly beings that humans (and, to be fair, most other mortals) try to categorize, wildly inaccurately, as "angelic" and "demonic" and maybe sometimes "other". They're not [I]exclusive[/I], but it's hard to form an exploitable relationship with more than one of these beings and even harder with different [I]kinds[/I] of them. [/QUOTE]
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