View Single Post
Old 02-27-2021, 08:25 AM   #4
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Making science magic feel like science, not magic

Take a look at what Thaumatology calls "Effect Shaping" Path/Book magic rather than "Energy Accumulating".

Effect Shaping is about achieving the effect over the duration of a (relatively) long process (ritual), rather than (in fluff) grabbing throwing energy at something and shaping it with your mind. Rituals are fixed in form, and learned, either as "Paths" (magic with a related theme/specialty) or "Books" (collections of rituals found in, of course, books, which may or may not be related depending on the whim of the author. In this case, think of that either as the favored research directions of the natural philosopher, or the books from the old masters like Aristotle or Paracelsus that he studies.

That gets you in the neighborhood, game mechanics-wise. After that, it's just descriptive details and color. Don't call it "a magic ritual", call it a "philosophical investigation" or "scientific experiment" or "crafting project". Don't say "mana", say "vital, elastic and igneous fluids" or "aether" or other alchemical or archaic scientific terminology.

Last edited by Anaraxes; 02-27-2021 at 09:02 AM.
Anaraxes is offline   Reply With Quote