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How do YOU define magic in your campaign?
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<blockquote data-quote="paradox42" data-source="post: 3152162" data-attributes="member: 29746"><p>Since my game features both magic and high technology (which does, indeed, work like magic <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />), I long ago came up with a pseudoscientific definition of what magic and psionics are. Essentially, they're a fifth fundamental force of the universe, and specifically a force that is in some sense alive and capable of recognizing its own existence.</p><p></p><p>Fragments of this force embed themselves in objects and that's how life comes into being. Accumulation of "life energy" grants a being more of this fifth force to work with, which is why high-level people can do such absurdly powerful things; likewise those who can learn to manipulate the various "spectra" of the fifth force can cause events which would be impossible to create by any other means (thus explaining spells and psionic powers).</p><p></p><p>In this scheme, psionics is basically thought of as a different "frequency" (if you will) of this fifth force. It's the same basic energy as "magic" proper, but those who can use psionics can't necessarily use magic and vice versa, because of the difference. Likewise, psionic energy can affect things differently than magical energy can- obviously I use the "Psionics are Different" rule in my campaign.</p><p></p><p>One convenient side effect of this schema, I've found, is that it allows for the existence of clearly supernatural powers that are neither magical nor psionic, like the core rules Monk has, without needing them to be tied to either sort of "flavor" (unless I really want to).</p><p></p><p>Players and PCs in my game don't really have any knowledge of this schema; I drop hints in game now and then about what's going on (from the mouths of gods and other such beings, for example), but nobody's been interested enough to follow up on it and get the real low-down. Oh well. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Internal consistency is what's important for the game anyway; let the players pursue what's important to them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="paradox42, post: 3152162, member: 29746"] Since my game features both magic and high technology (which does, indeed, work like magic ;)), I long ago came up with a pseudoscientific definition of what magic and psionics are. Essentially, they're a fifth fundamental force of the universe, and specifically a force that is in some sense alive and capable of recognizing its own existence. Fragments of this force embed themselves in objects and that's how life comes into being. Accumulation of "life energy" grants a being more of this fifth force to work with, which is why high-level people can do such absurdly powerful things; likewise those who can learn to manipulate the various "spectra" of the fifth force can cause events which would be impossible to create by any other means (thus explaining spells and psionic powers). In this scheme, psionics is basically thought of as a different "frequency" (if you will) of this fifth force. It's the same basic energy as "magic" proper, but those who can use psionics can't necessarily use magic and vice versa, because of the difference. Likewise, psionic energy can affect things differently than magical energy can- obviously I use the "Psionics are Different" rule in my campaign. One convenient side effect of this schema, I've found, is that it allows for the existence of clearly supernatural powers that are neither magical nor psionic, like the core rules Monk has, without needing them to be tied to either sort of "flavor" (unless I really want to). Players and PCs in my game don't really have any knowledge of this schema; I drop hints in game now and then about what's going on (from the mouths of gods and other such beings, for example), but nobody's been interested enough to follow up on it and get the real low-down. Oh well. :) Internal consistency is what's important for the game anyway; let the players pursue what's important to them. [/QUOTE]
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