Tired of "Mana"

[The Sigil]

All of these terms imply different theories of magic than mana does. Quintessence implies and Aristotelian theory of magic; gnosis implies a Platonic theory of magic; etc. Gnosis, for instance, means that your magical power is contingent knowing more than ordinary people and this knowledge functioning, in and of itself, as a force.

Furthermore, in D&D many of the synonyms have been co-opted to have definitions in and of themselves specific to the game. Let's look at the list of synonyms provided for "Magic"

abracadabra
alchemy - Coopted by the skill "Alchemy" and later renamed Craft (alchemy) - Used as a skill specific to the art of creating quasi-magical substances
allurement, astrology,
augury - Coopted by the spell "Augury" since first edition
bewitchment, black art,
conjuring, conjury - Coopted by the magical school of "Conjuration" which relates to physically calling matter (a) into existence or (b) onto this plane of existence from another
devilry, diabolism - Coopted to some extent by the Devil and Demon entries in the Monster Manual, and usually used to refer to conjuration spells dealing with the summoning of those creaters
divination, enchantment - Coopted by the magical schools bearing their names. See also Sean K. Reynolds' rant against calling magical weapons "enchanted" weapons since "enchanted" has a game-specific meaning (not that I agree with this rant; I think because there are a finite number of synonyms to magic, it is not a good idea to limit each synonym to a particular application; I think there are more applications than synonyms, but that's another rant).
exorcism - Coopted by the spell bearing the same name since 1e, usually used to reference "dispossessing" someone.
fascination - Coopted by the spell "fascinate"
foreboding, fortune-telling, hocus-pocus, horoscopy,
illusion - Coopted by the school bearing that name.
incantation - Coopted and largely understood to be a synonym for "spell" as per the "spell list" in 3e
legerdemain
magnetism - Pseudoscience throws this out
necromancy - Again, coopted by a school of magic.
occultism - Because of real-life occult religions like wicca, use of this word tends to be "Politically Incorrect"
power - Too vague
prediction, presage
prestidigitation - Coopted by a spell of the same name
prophecy, rune, soothsaying,
sorcery - Coopted by the sorcerer class
sortilege,
spell, - Coopted by the discrete descriptions of magical effects, as in "spell list"
superstition, taboo, thaumaturgy, trickery,
voodoo, voodooism, witchcraft - See "occult" above
wizardry - Coopted by wizard class, see "sorcery" above.

This narrows the list of options to just a few, which can also be further discredited for use by association:

abracadabra, hocus-pocus, legerdemain, trickery - Generally refer to "sleight of hand" as in modern "magicians" that operate based on fooling the target and not supernatural powers.

astrology, foreboding, fortune-telling, horoscopy, prediction, presage, prophecy, soothsaying, sortilege - All are somewhat restricted in meaning as "divination" type stuff and not suitable for "magic" as a whole thanks to the co-opting of effects of this type as "divination effects."

Allurement, bewitchment - Both suggest charm effects covered under the "Enchantment" school and as such are not broad enough to substitute for "magic" as a whole thanks to the co-opting of mind-affecting spells as "enchantment"

black art - Somewhat Politically incorrect, as it casts magic as "evil." Not entirely unsuable, but tread carefully.

rune - Acceptable, but limited to actual written stuff, which makes it unsuitable for "magic" as a whole. Has already been coopted in several places, the earliest of which for 3e that I can think of are HoHF: Dwarves (Badaxe Games) and Spells & Magic (Bastion Press).

superstition, taboo - Implies cultural beliefs, rather than what is commonly accepted as "magic" - and usually "ineffective/false" ones at that! Not a good substitute.

thaumaturgy - One - count 'em - one - suitable substitute. Has already been coopted by Green Ronin in their Armies of the Abyss, however, as a "diabolist"-type spellcaster.

Now, I'm with you in that I wish so many synonyms hadn't been coopted and re-defined by the core rules, but when you go with that redefinition, it makes the list of acceptably broad substitutes for "magic" VERY short.

--The Sigil

 

[helium3]

I'm sort of with the original poster on this. My reason for disliking the use of the term "mana", and I've always disliked it since the first time I saw it used, is that it conjures in my mind and image of power-gamers and munchkins. I'm not sure why that is. It's a useful term for describing units of magical potential when dealing with a point based magic system, but I just don't like seeing it used to describe magical energy as a whole. It's kind of silly, but then, role playing in general is a silly hobby.

 

[Staffan]

Dispel - allay, banish, beat off, break up, bust up, cancel, chase away, crumble, deploy, disband, disintegrate, dismiss, disperse, dissipate, distribute, eject, eliminate, expel, oust, repel, resolve, rout, scatter, scramble, split up

I'm dispelling right now, IYKWIMAITYD.
--Staffan Ooi

 

[Levi Kornelsen]

Personally, I'm a fan of "Essence" - also used in Exalted, and the new Werewolf, but has been used many other times before in fiction. Exalted measures Essence in "Motes".

Vis, in Ars Magica, which has been mentioned, has several systems of measurement - the most common being "A Pawn of Vis" - this climbs the chess system up to "A Queen of Vis" and the like.

For myself, I use Essence, but measure it in "Drams". A Dram is about the amount of liquid one can easily swallow in a mouthful - an extraordinarily rough measure, which I like, since it lends a nice tone to references in play based on liquids: "Cast the spell! Never mind the Dram, give it a barrel-full!".

 

[Thotas]

I dislike the term "mana" just because I don't like the sound of it. Not euphoneous to me.

Naming points after a person ... well, then, shouldn't the person be from the history of the campaign world? "Merlins" make no sense in The Forgotten Realms, nor do "Ningaubles" in Greyhawk ... wait, yes, they do; the cave has outlets in all worlds. My bad.

Best use of the eponymous idea, though, was a fellow I used to know who rejected the rating women as 1 through 10 in favor of a system of "milliheles". As in, "If she were mine, and someone took her away, and I had a navy of a thousand ships, how many would I send after her?"