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Post by OmniWyvernil on Jun 9, 2004 2:18:32 GMT -5
This question might be true of a medieval, low-magic world. However, it might prove interesting as to what would happen if they landed on a high-magic world where everyone knew at least a few spells. If the technological army hadn't encountered magic before, it might be hard for them to counteract it.
This is considering what forms of magic are available. If we want to keep this system flexible (allowing any form of RP to be played on it), several forms of magic should be viable. For instance, if the godlings were present, would they be the only characters with access to magic? On the same vein, if true gods no longer exist in this world, would divine magic (DnD style) be absent, or would the godlings be able to grant spells to worshippers in lieu of the actual gods? The actual form of magic might differ from world to world, however.
As for ideas, maybe there's some sort of magicial source which covers the entire universe. The apocaylpse may have damaged parts of this source, dividing the worlds into low-magic and high-magic areas. Alternatively, there might be some central magicial source where magic is stronger the closer you get to it.
With this, there can be worlds with magic, technology, or both in place. People from high-magic worlds might be able to travel to different worlds as well (either through some sort of incredibly difficult teleportation spell or a magic-powered ship of some sort that can traverse wormholes).
Just adding my ideas here. These really depend on how common magic is in this world (commonplace to those with the knowledge, restricted to certain beings such as godlings, or differing from planet to planet).
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Post by Merkuri on Jun 10, 2004 8:29:31 GMT -5
Those all sound like excelent ideas, OW. Perhaps we could say that there's a "fabric" of magic spread out "behind" or "under" the fabric of the universe (and maybe this magic layer is where wormholes pass through, though nobody realizes it?), and the fabric was torn during the apocalypse, resulting in those high- and low-magic areas. Magic users tap into this fabric of magic and warp it to their will. But this is only the "basic" form of magic. There are others, but unless specified this is how a mage casts spells. The idea that the presence of Godlings prevents other characters from accessing magic is very interesting. I like it. This may not be what you meant, but we could rule that Godlings sort of suck up the fabric of magic where they are, causing it to bunch around them and leaving the areas around them magic-free. This would only happen for mages who use the basic form of magic, though. Mages who get their power from other sources would be exempt from this (so GMs who want to use both Godlings and other casters in their campaigns can do so). About godless worlds and divine magic, I suggest that we try to stay away from preconcieved notions of magic, like D&D's "divine" and "arcane" divisions. We don't have to have gods that grant powers to "divine casters," though we should leave ways for GMs to do it. I suppose we could say that very powerful Godlings or other powerful beings could be "false gods" on some worlds. Mechanics-wise they'd be the only gods, and on worlds where the GM wants it to be very focused around the gods and a mythology he could create a pantheon of false gods and simply treat them like real gods. As long as he doesn't allow contact with other worlds with different pantheons there's no reason to fret about "oh, they aren't real gods". And if a GM really really wants true gods in his campaign then he could simply tweak the universe to include truely omnipotent, divine beings, he just couldn't have any Godlings (unless he made up some othe reason to explain them). Always leave room for customizing.  |
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Post by EK - Shadow of Death on Jun 10, 2004 9:42:38 GMT -5
Sounds good. So, here's our consensus so far, as I understand it. - Various sectors in the same galaxy
- Each sector is theme-based (sci-fi, medieval, wild west, etc) and can be as large or as small as the setting requires (a medieval sector might be one planet, while a sci-fi one might be several solar systems)
- Traveling between and within sectors is mainly accomplished via wormholes.
- A pure magical force permeates the universe, from which sorcerors draw their spells. This force has been damaged and warped in some places due to an apocalypse that led to the destruction of the overseers of that force (the gods).
- The remnants of these overseers are called Godlings, and are usually outcast from their societies due to their unnatural aura (magic-free zone) and powerful abilities.
- As a course of normal evolution, many humans have also emerged with supernatural qualities, making them More Than Human (working name). These people generally blend well into normal society and many times emerge as leaders and aristocrats.
Did I miss anything? |
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Post by Merkuri on Jun 10, 2004 10:01:27 GMT -5
Sounds like you have everything to me. I think we have our main setting/theme, unless somebody wants to discuss this more. I don't want to move on unless everybody's all set. Remember, nothing's set in stone, however it'll be easier to change the big details now than when we already have half of our universe planned out.
As I see it, there's three more things to do: create the system, work on the details of the universe as a whole, and work on the details of the individual worlds. We can start a new thread for each of these (perhaps more than one as we get more detailed, and at least one thread for each world). Do you want to do any of these things first, or do them all at once? Personally, I think we should leave the system until last. We can keep it in mind, but IMO, it's easier to create mechanics around RP details than to create RP details around mechanics. And if we want to start talking about the individual worlds we should decide which worlds we want to do. Let's decide what step(s) we want to take next and what worlds we want to create, then I'll close this thread and we'll move on.
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Post by EK - Shadow of Death on Jun 10, 2004 22:44:25 GMT -5
How about we take the ideas we have, split them up amongst ourselves , work on it alone, and them brush them up together? This way each idea can be well-detailed and given a distinct personality, and can run smoothly after we integrate them as a group. It seems that there are few enough people here for us to make this a viable option.
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Post by Merkuri on Jun 12, 2004 14:50:01 GMT -5
Splitting up the worlds to make is a good idea, but I think they should still be posted here when they're in-work, just so you can get feedback and so folks see what you're working on. If you want you can take your ideas and only post it when you're done, but I feel like that sorta defeats the purpose of this board. Each person can be "in charge" of a world and can choose which feedback they want to listen to and which they want to ignore, but I think everyone should be willing to get feedback while they're working on an idea, too.
Each person who wants to make up a world (and by "world" I mean one or more planets, systems, or galaxies that have a similar theme) should come up with a working title and should post there ideas in threads with that title in them. You can have as many threads as you like, as long as they're labeled with your title, like so: "Godlings: Magic" would be a thread about how magic works in a Godlings campaign.
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Post by EK - Shadow of Death on Jun 12, 2004 23:42:55 GMT -5
Each person can be "in charge" of a world and can choose which feedback they want to listen to and which they want to ignore, but I think everyone should be willing to get feedback while they're working on an idea, too. That's essentially what I was thinking. Shall we get divvy up the ideas then? |
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Post by Merkuri on Jun 14, 2004 15:59:12 GMT -5
Let's just each claim one for now. If you're done with your first one (or if you just really wanna start another one), then go ahead and work on a second world. I'll take Godlings, since it was my idea in the first place. I'll write up some official rules and post them in the rules thread.
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Post by EK - Shadow of Death on Jun 14, 2004 23:35:07 GMT -5
I've got More Than Human.
Note:
Remember to make the rules non-dice-based and completely modular. We'll write up the system of stats, combat rules, etc. later, so just worry about the things that set your idea apart from the rest and from normal humans.
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Post by Merkuri on Jun 15, 2004 16:07:09 GMT -5
Exactly. I already noted that in the updated Rules thread. |
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