(OT) Request for an answer to a difficult mathematical question

[The Forsaken One]

If magic converts mass into energy, chances are the universe is living on borrowed time. Eventually with all the wizards noodling around, a chain reaction will happen, and when it does, it just isn't going to stop. Allowing the extraction of the rest mass of matter as free energy is a recipe for a catastrophically unstable universe.

Delete that message so that Melkor can never ever lay his hands on that information


btw Edena I'm taking you're talking about Athas before "I happend"

(Boys with their toys huh? Or Formians in that matter -.-)

 

[William Ronald]

I second your motion, Forsaken One.

Seriously, I think there are any number of approaches that a DM can take to try to explain magic -- whether it is drawing on one's own internal energy, or energy from another source.

Edena, good to see you on the boards again.

As for the defilers on Athas, if they are having an impact on their sun, it does trivialize anything involving Athas.
(Indeed, the amount of power that it would take to prematurely age a star is frightening to consider. To say that it makes the U.S. nuclear arsenal look like a firecracker is an understatement.)

I tend to see psionics as a possible system of magic where the internal energy explanation would apply. However, psionics could be explained by drawing on external sources of power.

The key question, as always, are: Does it make your game more enjoyable and does it work in your world?


Of course, trying to find "scientific" explanations for magic can seem a little strange.

I seem to recall in a Blake's 7 episode that some characters with psychic abilities were drawing power from their own bodies.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Hey there, Forsaken One, William Ronald! Nice to see you guys.

Yeah, it took place before the Formian Hive took over Athianspace (and Athas herself.)
As I said, I ain't starting no more IRs, not with the secret out, as it were, to the gnomes involving antimatter/matter/magical reactions.

I couldn't bear to watch the consequences!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Your wizard "only" needs a pocket anti-matter generator, and he for sure deserves a Nobel for it's designing, and a sort of device for converting that energy into something usable, but I don't know any material capable of resisting the energy release of 100 Kgs of matter.

For sure, someone that could cast spells in our world might deserve a Nobel, or some other kind of reward, since until now, nobody was able to officially prove his ability to cast spells.

To take another quote:

Dude, it's magic.

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[The Forsaken One]

It's easy start a new revolution in some setting not connected just like the first 2 and don't let it explode that bad like it just did in the 3rd.

Or else just create your own world orrrrrrrr just do it all over again on toril or in greyhawk =]

The possibilities are endless and I'd be dying for a share in it