Glossary of Terms: Difference between revisions
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<div style="padding-left:1.6em">{{:Implement Bonus}}</div> | <div style="padding-left:1.6em">{{:Implement Bonus}}</div> | ||
==== Magic ==== | |||
:* '''AKA:''' Mana, Dweomer, Arcane, Divine | |||
:In Epic Path, and in most or all fantasy games, 'magic' is the way to explain items, effects, and abilities that are impossible in the 'Real World'. In the real world, people can't recite a chant and suddenly fly away while ignoring the laws of physics. In the REAL world, there are RULES. | |||
:Well, in a fantasy game, those rules are completely ignored, maybe even flaunted, to enable fantastic, exciting, and interesting stories to be told. | |||
:'Magic' covers class abilities such as spells, poultices, and extracts, as well as any character or monster ability which is tagged as being 'Supernatural' (Su) or 'Spell-like' (Sp) in nature. This is a vast amount of strange, exotic, and exciting abilities, to be sure. Magic is also the source of all 'Magic Items', which are better versions of ordinary items. A Bag of Holding breaks so many laws of physics it will hurt your brain if you think about it too hard. | |||
:Now, for the purists out there, ANY exotic effect can be explained by 'MAGIC!'. Weird afflictions, exalted in-born gifts, ascetic skills, terrible curses, even magic wishing fountains, all these and many more can be explained that 'it's magic'. Indeed, the presence of the concept of magic allows the GM to use nearly any storytelling element they want, as long as it fits some version of the genre of their story. | |||
:Now, that said, in a game, even 'magic' has to follow some rules. (Yes, it's a downer, we know.) In a nutshell, anything in the game that has a game effect, that does damage or changes a numerical effect, like adding a Fly speed to a player character, must follow the rules for spells, or for magic items, or for a Supernatural or Spell-like ability. If an effect is presented during play that does NOT obey this rule, then that 'thing' is purely in the provenance of the GM. The GM can introduce any and all crazy, wacky, rules-breaking things they want. After all, it's THEIR story! | |||
:It is strongly advised that all effects introduced as 'storytelling' effects NOT be available to players except as elements to drive a story. A Magical Ur-Metal Egg with an ancient, eldritch horror inside should not be an item on the shelf for players to buy...unless the GM is running a REALLY crazy game. Gold-pieces or Remnants should not be attached to story elements, unless that is important for the GM's story-line. | |||
==== Martial Bonus ==== | ==== Martial Bonus ==== | ||