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    1. JohnSolaris 10 yrs ago

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Just making suggestions is all. I am more than willing to help alter the more egregious parts of the system (which I mentioned previously).

<Snipped quote by JohnSolaris>

This alarms me a bit, though. You're saying that there is no electromagnetism (which governs nearly all of macrochemistry as we know it), no gravitation (which should speak for itself), no strong force (which allows atoms to exist) and no weak force (which allows chemical interaction)?


By "no quantum effects", I mean matter is not subject to the uncertainty principle, and does not exhibit the kind of wave-particle duality we have in real life. There is no quantum wavefunction, no superposition, no collapse, no being at multiple locations at the same time.

You also still seem to be treating this universe as though it's made of the same "stuff" as real life. It isn't. Matter is made of completely different fundamental particles, governed by completely different forces. Said fundamental particles are held together by magic, not by the thing we call the strong nuclear force in real life. Something superficially similar to electromagnetism exists, but isn't the same as real life, isn't limited to the speed of light, and isn't responsible for most of chemistry. The weak force as we know it doesn't exist either, and its effects on chemical interactions are replaced by forces we ostensibly call "magic". Gravity is still the curvature of spacetime caused by mass, but no event horizons, because no relativistic effects, because no limitation of speed of light, because electromagnetism is different, etc.

Bottom line is, don't treat this like real life physics. It's something completely different. It's probably best to just throw up your hands and say "it's magic"; you're not the one who has to worry about how it all works.

Anyway, ignoring that, I've actually spent a good hour and a half looking over the chart, trying to see how it can be refined without taking it apart. Taking sources mostly from classical alchemy, much of the system falls apart due to it resting on an axis of three elements rather than four. "Life" is also a major wrench in the works, as it is not matter, energy or an interaction. But, regardless, I do have some suggestions.


Uh... I'm sorry that you spent over an hour on this, but... I can't accept these suggestions. As I said above, you're still treating this like real life physics and chemistry, which just doesn't fit. Please just take the current system or leave it. I really don't think I can tweak it any more than I already have, especially at this stage of the game.

Though... I'm going to change the name of the Chemical element to "Acid", so that it doesn't sound like it comprises all of what we see as chemistry in real life. Do remember that the names of the elements are just words, and words don't usually describe things with perfect accuracy.

EDIT: To clarify, the Life element represents a specific type of magical energy that is found in the bodies of organic lifeforms, which is usually called "life energy". It is related to electrical energy, which is why Life combines with Air to make Electric. It isn't an abstract concept; none of the elements are.
...continuing our discussion from the previous thread.

I would be willing to participate in designing a system that takes after actual chemistry, since you wish for your magic system to function similarly to science. Perhaps with some classical alchemy mixed in for flavor. Perhaps the various "elements" of the proposed system could be modeled after elementary particles and forces.

Elements could include Quarks, Leptons, Bosons and Photons as the "matter elements," and Electromagnetism, Gravity, Weak Force and Strong Force as "interaction elements." Naturally most would be renamed to be easier to understand, but hopefully not in such a way that all of chemistry (which, ostensibly, should comprise the entirety of the "elemental" wheel) is considered to be equally diverse to "slime."


Sorry, but no.

First of all, I can't completely overhaul the elements system at this stage; it's just not realistic.

Secondly, this universe explicitly does not have the same laws of physics as real life. That means the subatomic particles aren't the same. I do actually have a system of subatomic particles for my setting, but I don't really want to mention it here, since it's unnecessary and will make things even more complicated than they already are. The subatomic particles of this setting is nothing like the ones in real life, and there are no quantum effects here, so it's impossible to use real life particle physics to model the elements in this game. I can say that the current system of elements does in fact closely follow how the subatomic particles in my fictional universe are set up.

I don't want to sound rude here, but I can't completely change the elements system just for the sake of one person. If you don't like some parts of the system, I'm afraid you'll have to take it or leave it.
@Magnato: Please be more specific with your character's biography. What bog did she live in? How did she fare in terms of education?

As for the abilities...

Pestilence probably won't work like how you want it to. Most beings don't contain enough harmful bacteria for this ability to make a difference, especially for stronger creatures, and the life-granting effect is more likely to heal the target. I suggest that you either change this to an outright healing ability, or change this to a toxic energy that interferes with biological tissue and mana vessels.

Water Adaptation is a bit underpowered. I suggest you change it so that it allows your character to move easily in water and most other liquids, including viscous liquids. It would also make glues less effective against her.

Everything else looks fine.


FYI, @BCTheEntity's "GMPC" is going to be an antagonist, in case the character sheet doesn't make it look obvious. He's not going to be a true player character like everyone else, nor is he even going to stay with the party. I meant it when I said BC and I won't have standard player characters.
I made the game thread. A link can be found in the first post of this thread.


(In case you're interested, the font used in the logo above is Endor.)


Introduction





Game Overview





Rules





Signup Sheets


In this game, each player is limited to one character, and up to six familiars. The character and familiar signup sheets will be included below.

Please post your character and familiar sheets in the OOC tab first, then move them to the Characters tab after they've been accepted.

Also, please update your character and familiar sheets as you progress through the game, e.g. when you gain new abilities.


How many players are you looking for?


Roughly speaking, 6-8 players. But I'll always allow new players to join, in case some of the old players need to leave for whatever reason.

Since we already have about enough people, I'll make the signup thread tonight.
That said, I do find some of the elements to be somewhat, shall we say, dubious? For instance, the difference between "ice" and "frost" is really minimal, and elements such as "slime" and "chemical" kind of have me scratching my head. Not to say I don't like the system, but I feel like it could be more refined; it kind of feels like it's in a few different places to me right now.


Sorry, those were the best I could come up with. The composite elements aren't really elements in their own right, but just combinations of various basic elements. The difference between ice and "frost" is, well, the difference between solid ice and cold air. The two would have quite different combat styles, e.g. Ice more defensive and Frost faster-paced but more fragile. Maybe "frost" isn't the best name for the latter, but words are words, and I could hardly think of anything better. Similarly, maybe "slime" isn't the best word to describe the combination of Life and Water, but I couldn't really think of anything else either.

I personally don't see anything wrong with "chemical", though. I could've called it "acid" or something, but it isn't just acid, so I didn't.

Unfortunately, I don't think I can tweak the elements system any more than I already have. If you have any suggestions, though, feel free to toss them at me.
But seriously, I'm just a bit confused, say I want my character to be some sort of swamp monster, controlling slime/water/life, how would I change the elemental table for this?


You could just have Water and Life as your starting elemental cores. That way, you'll have high masteries in Water and Life, which will allow you to use Slime-based (i.e. Water and Life-based) abilities with ease.
@JohnSolaris Dammit. My hopes for making a pugilist that fights by punching people with spells coming out of his knuckles are dashed.


Uh, not really? As I said above, it's entirely possible to make spells come out of your fists just as you punch people; you just have to time it right to have the casting coincide with the punching. The casting is just triggered by your mind, not by your fist, but through practice you could get some good muscle memory going to make it reflexive.
Though, question: is it possible to punch magic? Like, make a fireball by punching someone in the face really hard?


I'm not sure what exactly you mean by "punching" magic. Sure, you could make a fireball, wrap it around your fist, and punch someone, but the fireball wouldn't be made by the punching. Alternatively, you could shoot a fireball from your fist just as the fist makes contact with your opponent's face, but it's still not the act of punching that creates the fireball.
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