Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5945103" data-attributes="member: 42582">Here's a quote from Ron Edwards that I had in mind when I posted:Exploration overall is negotiated in a casual fashion through ongoing dialogue, using system for input (which may be constraining), rather than explicitly delivered by system per seBy "exploration" here is meant "establishing the content of the shared fiction" - in this context, a coherent account of how magic works and its place in the world. In a strongly simulationist system, the fiction can just be read off the fiction - eg in 3E, we can tell that from the spell failure rules that wizardly magic often requires gestures that heavy armour impedes.In 4e, there aren't those sorts of mechanics (as you said in the post I responded to). But the mechanics do establish certain constraints/paremeters/inputs which help tell us about magic: you can learn it from books (wizards); you can get if from making a pact with a devil, a fey lord, a horror from beyond the stars, a lurking power of the underdark, a vestige, etc; you can get it from being imbued with the power of a dragon, or of the cosmos, or chaos; this latter possibility takes us to the "chaos currents" described in accounts of the Elemental Chaos (Plane Below, MotP) and reminds us that there is an inherent magical power of chaos that the Elemental Chaos contains and that the primordials drew on to create the world; etc, etc.On the basis of this stuff that we get from the mechanics, a group can jointly establish a coherent account of how magic works in their gameworld, in the course of play.Here are two self-quotes from other threads illustrating a little of how this has happened in my game:In the end, not only did the PCs defeat the mooncalves, but the drow sorcerer imbued himself with a Gift of Flame, and turned the party's Elven silver horn (60 gp piece of jewelery) in to a Horn of Fire.I hope these quotes give a sense of how magic works in my gameworld - unpredictable, hard to tame, chaotic, energy; but able to be harnessed by those who have the craft and daring to do so. And it works by affinities and opposites, too - Fundamental Ice can be used to relieve burns, and the chaos emanations of a dead fire drake can be used to imbue a person or an object with the Gift of Flame.The 4e mechanics didn't dictate this picture. But they set up inputs and constraints which at least suggested it, and certainly permitted it, and have allowed it to emerge at our table via the course of play.</blockquote>

Verification