Are you also a "supernatural-energy-core" GM?Over the past few weeks, some of the games I have GMed have been D&D 4e, 13th Age 2e, Daggerheart, Legends of the Wulin, Mage: The Awakening 2e, and Sentinel Comics. All of these take place in entirely different settings. I almost always run high-powered, heroic campaigns, and I do not skimp on the fantastical details.It occurs to me that the one concept I have wound up most frequently narrating is supernatural energy, whether it is a flashy projectile, an AoE blast, an aura, a solid barrier, a less tangible ward, an enchantment upon a place, personal reserves (e.g. Mana in Mage: The Awakening, Chi in Legends of the Wulin), a MacGuffin's power source or energy emissions, and the like.Sometimes, the energy is blatantly visible, such as when using Heaven's Lightning or Ice Sutra in Legends of the Wulin; at other times, it is more subtle, like psychic energy. I try to mix up my terminology, such as by saying "power," "essence," or even "quiddity" or "numinosity" for something particularly esoteric or divine.The two players I run 13th Age 2e for play a cleric and a sorcerer. Both of these classes project brilliant magical energy on a regular basis.The Daggerheart campaign I have been running involves plenty of direct interactions with the New Gods, the Forgotten Gods, and the Fallen Gods: and their divine energy, of course.In the case of Mage: The Awakening 2e and Sentinel Comics, I was running published adventures. In the latter, the premade scenario just so happened to involve energy barriers and a MacGuffin sucking up and catalyzing psychic energy.As it turns out, whether playing as high fantasy spellcasters, as modern-day wizards, or as supernatural martial artists in a mythical China, supernatural energy will frequently get flung around.I imagine that this happens much less often in more grounded settings.What about you? Have you also wound up having to talk about energy often?
Shut the fuck up edna
I run games without all that bullshit. Solve problems with your wits and a blade.
>>98219318You also run games with everyone being a loli, ya pedo
>>98219318>Are you also a "supernatural-energy-core" GM?No.
>>98219318>Are you also a "supernatural-energy-core" GM?No, and I didn't read the read of your post because this sounds like some kind of horoscope-type shit I would read on a game aggregate website for 6-year-old girls.In that vein I spent 100s of hours in MS Paint to make this chart you can use to determine what type of GM you are. Enjoy! I think this will be more useful than the rest of whatever shit you wrote!
Rolled 2, 6, 10 = 18 (3d10)>>98222068You can also just roll 3d10 I guess
>>98219318Not really. I tend to be very dry when I GM stuff. "Goblin hits you with a knife for 4 points of damage" or "The mage casts Stone at you and you get hit in the head with a rock for 4 points of damage". I feel like I bore my players if I take too much time trying to describe stuff and so I just give them the basics and let them fill it in.
>>98219503kek soiboi redditor faggot
>>98222583You seem to be confused
>>98222068>complains about horoscopes >posts a horoscope
>>98219318I have my own autism on this subject. I never discuss supernatural energy, or indeed anything using the word "supernatural", when running fantasy games. Even in the most ridiculously overblown cases of characters effectively firing laser beams from their hands, I would refuse the term. In fantasy settings, such things are not above nature, they part of and subject to natural laws. I suppose something like Mage might be an exception, since my understanding is that magic in that game is explicitly a violation of the laws of nature that reality itself attempts to correct, but it's not a game that my group has ever been particularly interested in.The idea of the "supernatural" comes from Christian theology, a separation between the world observed by men and the world of divine miracles. But such a concept didn't really exist outside of that Abrahamic perspective--the gods and spirits of the world were of nature, serving as its stewards and its embodiments, with rituals that invoked their power being a celebration of and joining with the natural world--not a separation from it.Instead, I'll describe what it is that a character is actually drawing on. If they're pulling from powers of elemental earth, I might describe them as gathering the weight of mountains in their hands. Or they might align their heart's beating to the frenzied staccato of a prey animal in its final flight. If they arrive at their power through a more academic approach, I'll describe them tracing the formulas and structures they have memorized, feeling them coming to life with the forces being manipulated in accordance with well-established theory. Perhaps they clear their mind and move through a series of physical forms, each one channeling their own vitality towards the next step in the process. But it's always about interaction with the world and its natural laws, never a repudiation of them.
>>98224371I think that this approach works in certain systems.I think it fails in systems that, through one mechanical contrivance or another, make a distinction between the magical and the non-magical.When I am running 13th Age 2e, for example, magical vs. non-magical matters when PC wizards can potentially use Counter-Magic, blue dragons have their own Counter-Spell, and medusa nobles have Serpent Wardings that work specifically against spell attacks.In my Daggerheart game, one PC has the Book of Exota, and can thus Repudiate magical effects.In Legends of the Wulin, there is a distinction between the relatively mundane external styles (mostly passive, no Chi costs) and the distinctly more mystical internal styles (always active, always cost Chi, can thus be denied by denying Chi).In these cases, it feels a little disingenuous to pretend that magical and mystical energies are not discrete from more mundane sources.
>>98219503Same shit different coat of paint. Your wits and your blade shouldn't allow you to stand against species that can see in total darkness, survive deadly blows, or beings that can make the air explode but you do because of your "Wits" aka your made up bullshit.
>>98224216Yeah, like you are about your gender you tranny
>>98219318My approach to my own system was to have Mana be universal in all living creatures, part of the planet the game system is set on itself.Magic Casters almost exclusively project their Mana outward to influence the world around them, be it through bolstering and healing allies, hindering foes, or causing destruction. In old times, this was your typical weird dnd shit. In modern times, there is a formulaic system of circles, with more powerful spell abilities having more complex, concentric circles up to 10th Circle Spells. Unlike D&Dfinder, you build spells on the fly from components you have access to based on class and level, with each having a compounding mana cost limiting how many spells you can cast by that cost and your Mana Points.Non-Casters almost exclusively use their Mana to augment themselves and their weapons and equipment, turning it inward. This is usually through minor temporary boosts to speed, power, or durability in the form of Enhancement Arts, which are exclusive to martial classes.There are exceptions to these of course; for example, some Cantrips, which are all utility, don't use Mana because they operate on the same principles as Martial Arts so it's like pouring water into a tube that leads back into the water source it came out of. Some Martial abilities allow for influence of others, such as Strikes which are martial AoEs some of the martials get.There is also the general use of enhancing one's own durability on a basic level, usually by channeling your mana through circuits built into armor of all types but generally speaking if you're an Adventurer or other form of combatant, you'll have trained your body to the point your Mana will passively protect you from harm, turning all but the most fatal wounds into something survivable. It also provides minor physical benefits if you couple it with physical training, which is why martials can swing around buster swords or heft LMGs without much effort.
>>98224371>The idea of the "supernatural" comes from Christian theology, a separation between the world observed by men and the world of divine miracles.True but as you noted that is the distinction between what we find in creation and what God can do. So demons, spirits and the lot and are within creation and thus not supernatural. The distinction between "mundane" reality and superpowers came much later and is a modernistic concept rather than a christian one.
>>98225097>So demons, spirits and the lot and are within creation and thus not supernatural. Take it up with Aquinas.
>>98225139>Take it up with Aquinas.I will. Seems like a fascinating topic. As I understand it a human calling upon a demon to perform a task falls in the realm of nature but the demons act on its own is considered preternatural.
>>98225228Either one seems to fall into “beyond nature” or “against nature”, depending.
>>98225371If it exists, it's natural.
>>98222068Fuck it>Syllogistic>CrystalBrb, googling syllogistic
>>98226575Also googling Locus.
