04-02-2014, 12:46 PM | #21 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: [RPM] "Path of Energy ends where others begin". Huh?
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04-02-2014, 01:00 PM | #22 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: [RPM] "Path of Energy ends where others begin". Huh?
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For that matter, how come I can put out a fire by squirting some halon into it but can't kill anything alive the same way? At some point you are going to need to decide that differences *matter*. Barring constructing an entirely new version of physics, such that it will take years of study for gamers to even understand your magic system, even if you are enough of a genius to create one, those differences are going to look arbitrary. They can look pretty darn arbitrary even in physical law (why is silver a good conductor and lead a lousy one, even though most of their easily observable properties are pretty similar?).
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04-02-2014, 01:07 PM | #23 | ||
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: [RPM] "Path of Energy ends where others begin". Huh?
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04-02-2014, 01:45 PM | #24 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [RPM] "Path of Energy ends where others begin". Huh?
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I have no idea why Create Energy would be allowed to do that, though. That looks like a perfect example of a Destroy Body (or Destroy Matter) effect that Energy is intruding on in just the way it's not supposed to.
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04-02-2014, 02:17 PM | #25 |
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Fayetteville, Arkansas
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Re: [RPM] "Path of Energy ends where others begin". Huh?
I just realized that I confused your misdirection of my statement. You attribute the change to Path of Matter that involves energy affecting matter, but why do you not attribute the same change to Path of Body for energy that is required for the body to operate?
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04-02-2014, 02:28 PM | #26 |
Join Date: Nov 2004
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Re: [RPM] "Path of Energy ends where others begin". Huh?
The thing is that the Paths owe as much to a kind of averaged metaphysics as they do to actual modern physics, and the merging can produce some funny results. Path of Energy is used for fire because you're basically putting heat in directly, or removing it as the case may be, so you'd use Path of Energy to light wood on fire or make someone spontaneously combust. If you wanted to give someone a fatal fever, though, that would be a Path of Body effect. To create a block of ice around someone, use Path of Matter; to freeze flesh, use Path of Energy; to cause hypothermia or frostbite, you could probably use Body or Energy; Energy would cause the air around the target to get bitterly cold, and thus cause effects of said cold in the usual way, while Body could cause the effects of hypothermia or frostbite by acting directly on the body.
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04-02-2014, 02:54 PM | #27 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: [RPM] "Path of Energy ends where others begin". Huh?
Vaguely renaissance physics, not modern, is how I keep it straight.
Or magico-babble, not technobabble.
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04-02-2014, 03:04 PM | #28 |
Join Date: Nov 2004
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Re: [RPM] "Path of Energy ends where others begin". Huh?
That too; there's a lot of semi-Aristotelian physics built into a lot of flavors of metaphysics, so RPM has a weird hybrid of the two not dissimilar to that era.
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04-02-2014, 03:23 PM | #29 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dobbstown Sane Asylum
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Re: [RPM] "Path of Energy ends where others begin". Huh?
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"Energy" is such a broad term that this needed to be addressed explicitly. Otherwise, you'd get people casting mind control spells with Control Energy ("I'm controlling the neurons in his brain!"), gate spells with Transform Energy ("I'm altering tachyons so we can travel through time!"), speed-buffing spells with Strengthen Energy ("I'm enhancing how quickly his motor impulses travel!"), and so on. Where exactly is that line drawn? That's up to the GM. But this warning/limit gives him ammunition to shut down rules lawyers who complain if he says spells like those above won't work.
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path of energy, ritual path magic, rpm |
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