Tired of "Mana"

[Shieldhaven]

I'd certainly argue that "chi" is just as overused as "mana," just for a different set of character types.

Haven

 

[Mercule]

I hate it when RPG designers needlessly invent new terms for the same ol' stuff.

Go read the game "Aria". Nice ideas, but one of the reasons it's no longer around is because the author insisted on using technically correct, but obscure or "new" words for everything.

 

[Starglim]

If you look up "mana" on dictionary.com the number one definition is:
A supernatural force believed to dwell in a person or sacred object.

Mana sounds like the appropriate term to me.

Dictionary.com is both careful and correct in defining mana as a force - the capacity to cause change. GURPS, and the designers who copy GURPS, misuse the word as an energy, a quantity that is expended by use.

To put it another way: mana is not spell points, it is caster level.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I'd certainly argue that "chi" is just as overused as "mana," just for a different set of character types.

Haven

I'll make sure to call mine "pneuma" then. Same thing, just Greek instead of from the Far East.

Dictionary.com is both careful and correct in defining mana as a force - the capacity to cause change. GURPS, and the designers who copy GURPS, misuse the word as an energy, a quantity that is expended by use.

To put it another way: mana is not spell points, it is caster level.

Good point.

 

[Numion]

Could it be Finnish, instead?

Nah, never heard.

 

[HellHound]

Honestly, I'm not a fan of "mana" either. Too many recollections of Magic the Gathering... and no matter how much i love that game (and I do), it don't feel it needs to be in my Fantasy game.

I agree that a new name is a VERY powerful tool to help make a game feel like it is less derivative, which helps get players into the mind-set of the game, instead of seeing it as a collection of other material.

(rambling...)

 

[Mark Chance]

Do you have any other suggestions for "intangible magical energy which is spent in order to power a spell, and which is (generally) quantifiable"?

How about mojo?

"Quick! Cast bolt of lighting!"

"I can't, baby. I've lost my mojo!"

Or hoodoo?

Says the mighty Kole Porrtyr, "Stand back as a I do that hoodoo that I do so well!"

(Yes, I know "hoodoo" isn't used in the actual song.)

 

[The_Fan]

While it's true that mana comes from Polynesian mythology, it was also present in Norse mythology. Though in Norse myth, it specifically referred to white magic.

There's also:

Sekhem (Egypt)
Prana (India)
Sila (Inuit)
Quintessence (alchemy)
Olodumare (Yoruba)

I'm partial to having it measured in units called "Thaums"

 

[Henrix]

I'm partial to having it measured in units called "Thaums"

Pratcherese is nice

 

[The_Gneech]

Well, "chi" has a highly specific meaning too ... if you're into Chinese martial arts, having "chi" thrown around to represent "magic points" will jar you as much as "mana."

How about just "power?"

Or, in the tradition of naming a unit of measure after somebody, you could call a unit of magical energy a "gandalf." Then you could refer to a thousand of them as a "kilogandalf," or one thousandth of one a "milligandalf"...

-The Gneech