Inobvious Magic

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The examples given for 'inobvious magic' amount to probability tweaks. If it actually works, there would be statistically significant effects that a proper testing environment would reveal, but that doesn't mean they're particularly visible to the casual observer.

Also it's not obvious the forces providing the tweaks would wish to participate in a trial of statistically significant size, which might be hard to make double blind as well.

But I'm thinking the effect could count for enough that people get the feeling someone is useful to have around, even if they can't be sure.

[JLV]

Which is actually a very cool approach to this whole concept.

In fact, if you think about it, it's kind of like those characters that get designed with unusual character flaws (in GURPS terms, advantages/disadvantages) -- you may not know anything about them until something weird happens in the game, and even then, you may be left asking; "What was THAT all about?"

[zot]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

Also it's not obvious the forces providing the tweaks would wish to participate in a trial of statistically significant size, which might be hard to make double blind as well.

But I'm thinking the effect could count for enough that people get the feeling someone is useful to have around, even if they can't be sure.

David, your idea reminds me of The Subtle Art from the Fate System Toolkit. Maybe there are some nuggets in there you can mine...

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by zot

David, your idea reminds me of The Subtle Art from the Fate System Toolkit. Maybe there are some nuggets in there you can mine...

It reminds me of the magical historians of Norrel and Strange, or the decayed form of the society in Anubis Gates. Only in those cases magic was something that turned up occasionally and in between people forgot about it. I was talking about a world where magic was real, but didn't leave an unambiguous signature.

I'll look through it for ideas but I think FATE and TFT are pretty different.

[zot]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

It reminds me of the magical historians of Norrel and Strange, or the decayed form of the society in Anubis Gates. Only in those cases magic was something that turned up occasionally and in between people forgot about it. I was talking about a world where magic was real, but didn't leave an unambiguous signature.

I'll look through it for ideas but I think FATE and TFT are pretty different.

True but if someone wanted TFT to be closer to Fate, they could just add aspects. I've grafted them into several different systems, including Tri-Stat (I remember seeing David Pulver listed as a Tri-Stat designer).