Math and D&D

[RefinedBean]

No, no arrays or equations here. Well, maybe.

I'm making a character for a new campaign, set in Faerun, who has recently come to a sort of enlightenment regarding fundamental mathematics, and their interactions with divine and arcane powers.

I'm doing the research into the math myself. I've never studied math comprehensively, so it's been fun to read up on some of the more..."out there" stuff.

I was wondering if anyone could help point me to supplements, novels, ANYTHING in D&D, whatever edition, that deals with high philosophy and/or complex mathematics in Faerun or any other setting? I'm trying to make sure I have plenty of stuff to work with, i.e. famous mathematicians, the role of mathematics and other in D&D. If there's interesting stuff in other fantasy games/series, that'd be fine too. I'm painfully ignorant as it stands.

If I end up having to make up an entire history for mathematics for the campaign, so be it. I'm hopin' y'all can help.

 

[ppaladin123]

No, no arrays or equations here. Well, maybe.

I'm making a character for a new campaign, set in Faerun, who has recently come to a sort of enlightenment regarding fundamental mathematics, and their interactions with divine and arcane powers.

I'm doing the research into the math myself. I've never studied math comprehensively, so it's been fun to read up on some of the more..."out there" stuff.

I was wondering if anyone could help point me to supplements, novels, ANYTHING in D&D, whatever edition, that deals with high philosophy and/or complex mathematics in Faerun or any other setting? I'm trying to make sure I have plenty of stuff to work with, i.e. famous mathematicians, the role of mathematics and other in D&D. If there's interesting stuff in other fantasy games/series, that'd be fine too. I'm painfully ignorant as it stands.

If I end up having to make up an entire history for mathematics for the campaign, so be it. I'm hopin' y'all can help.

In Complete Arcane (or maybe Complete Mage) there is a prestige class called the, "geometer." Geometers have learned how to encode magic into graphs and trigonometric patterns/functions. They are the only mathematical wizards I can think of.

 

[Asmor]

A long time ago I made a post on my blog about a numerically-centered religion based very loosely on Pythagoreanism/the Mathematikoi, which would also be a great reference.

How much do you know about math? Have you put much thought into just what sort of fields your character has gotten to know about? Number theory and geometry are a couple of the oldest and, perhaps, most "intuitive" fields. I think set theory, group theory and complex numbers could also be some good places to look at. Calculus doesn't really seem like it would fit that well to me, but it wouldn't be terribly hard to say you've gone and invented that or something close.

Oh, another good place to look for inspiration is sacred geometry. It's full of interesting and beautiful concepts. Kaballah also has some geometric bits to it.

 

[ppaladin123]

Oh, another good place to look for inspiration is sacred geometry. It's full of interesting and beautiful concepts. Kaballah also has some geometric bits to it.

H.P. Lovecraft also has at least one story on the opposite, some sort of profane arcane geometry. The angles in the the room are not right and as a result it acts as a gate for bad things. Can't remember the story's name though.

 

[dbm]

Also, have a read of the original Dying Earth stories. There are references there to a strange magical philosophy called 'Mathematics' which is needed to understand the most powerful magics.

On a lighter note, you could take some inspiration from The Colour of Magic (1st Discworld novel). Two-Flower works on something from the Counter-Weight Continent which roughly translates to 'Sounds of Spirits Reflected over Deep Water' or Echo-Gnomics

Years ago I played an Archmage in RoleMaster (kind of a highly theoretical magic user who doesn't split powers on the Arcane / Divine line) who was based on the chaos mathematician played by Jeff Goldblume in Jurassic Park. He was great fun to play.

Cheers,
Dan

 

[Thanael]

Check out the Math & Mechanus article series by Sciborg2 on planewalker.com

 

[Aberzanzorax]

Modrons sir.


You need to read up on modrons.

 

[jasin]

H.P. Lovecraft also has at least one story on the opposite, some sort of profane arcane geometry. The angles in the the room are not right and as a result it acts as a gate for bad things. Can't remember the story's name though.

The Dreams in the Witch House.

Also, The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long.

 

[RefinedBean]

In Complete Arcane (or maybe Complete Mage) there is a prestige class called the, "geometer." Geometers have learned how to encode magic into graphs and trigonometric patterns/functions. They are the only mathematical wizards I can think of.

That's one of the few things I have read up on. I'm playing a 4E Invoker (he's "collaborating" with a god to put his mathematical theories into practice, as part of a bargain), so I will probably re-fluff a lot of my powers to be along these lines, patterns and functions, as well as logical fallacies.

A long time ago I made a post on my blog about a numerically-centered religion based very loosely on Pythagoreanism/the Mathematikoi, which would also be a great reference.

How much do you know about math? Have you put much thought into just what sort of fields your character has gotten to know about? Number theory and geometry are a couple of the oldest and, perhaps, most "intuitive" fields. I think set theory, group theory and complex numbers could also be some good places to look at. Calculus doesn't really seem like it would fit that well to me, but it wouldn't be terribly hard to say you've gone and invented that or something close.

Oh, another good place to look for inspiration is sacred geometry. It's full of interesting and beautiful concepts. Kaballah also has some geometric bits to it.

Great post, thanks! So far I've stayed away from calculus...bad memories from business school. I've been reading up on systems, as well as number theory. I'm trying to pick a "theme" per tier of play; i.e. I might use Presburger arithmetic for heroic tier, transition into Decision procedure for paragon, and finally end my epic "research" discovering something like Euler's Identity or an equivalent.

Obviously, this is all fairly loose. That sacred geometry is certainly interesting, and the movie Pi has informed that Hebrew can be used as a numbers system as well, which could be easily applicable to an in-game language like Supernal or what-not. And there's always the Golden Ratio!

Also, have a read of the original Dying Earth stories. There are references there to a strange magical philosophy called 'Mathematics' which is needed to understand the most powerful magics.

On a lighter note, you could take some inspiration from The Colour of Magic (1st Discworld novel). Two-Flower works on something from the Counter-Weight Continent which roughly translates to 'Sounds of Spirits Reflected over Deep Water' or Echo-Gnomics

Years ago I played an Archmage in RoleMaster (kind of a highly theoretical magic user who doesn't split powers on the Arcane / Divine line) who was based on the chaos mathematician played by Jeff Goldblume in Jurassic Park. He was great fun to play.

Cheers,
Dan

Had completely forgotten about Two-Flower's more scientific bent! Always good to have an excuse to read Colour of Magic again.

I've never read the Dieing Earth series, I'll look into it.

Thanks for all the help everyone!

 

[Dedekind]

You might want to catch that show Numbers on CBS. Non-technical but fundamentally adventuring with mathematics.

I also would recommend material on Chaos theory--sensitive dependence on initial conditions sounds like something that could drive a character idea.