[Saxony Tarn]

Welcome to the thread, Aragorn, and let us know if you're going to post that tale here so the rest of us fiction-hungry Wights can read it! B) (paranoid-Denethor conspiracy theorists, unite? okay, so i've got a murder plot to solve in the D&D game i'm playing in tonight, and i'm just getting warmed up! B) )

looks like i may have sparked another good one with my question about magic, so, w/ hand on stack of holy texts guaranteeing LMP and others that there will be no idea theft here... (in fact it will be prosecuted, by not serving the offenders any more drinks!)

most of the paranormal effects in my project, so far, have been what in FRPG terms would be called "psionic" or mental powers. In the game that i run (with its 2" thick house rules hacked up from every game i've played in the past 25 years) the special effects fall into three main groups:

1) Hermetic Magic, where the energy is nearly all external to the manipulator (most Classical magical texts making use of the alchemical principles, astrology, demon summoning, punishing, and banishing, and general smoke and flashes of light fit here),
2) Shamanic Magic, sort of the crossover point, where the manipulator is often in a trance state (indigenous tribal magic from Siberia to Africa and points westward, often very close to religion, and spirits dealt with are more often friendly and helpful, or at least not overtly hostile)
3) Psionic paranormal ability, AKA Talent, where the energy is nearly all internal to the manipulator and manifest outward (Uri Geller bending keys, but for real, Edgar Cayce's paranormal healing talents, others) In the game as well as in the story, certain Talents tend to show up more frequently in certain races, for example, all Elves who can trace their lineage to Valimar have the potential to be able to walk on snow...

Anything outside of those three is considered to be the province of Deity-class entities.

Now, if i wanted to be singlehandedly responsible for pushing us to seven pages, i'd expound more on the nature of energy storing devices, spell focuses (such as a priest's holy symbol or shaman's animal-totem fetish) and other such things, however, i'm just going to thank LMP for reminding me about Aragorn's healing Talent being pretty much that -- a function of heritage. In which case i would now submit, wouldn't anyone else up in Arnor be able to duplicate the effects?
What about any remaining Numenorian blood down South? Or is all they can do with it make potpourri and cure headaches? It would seem to me that if it's a function of the plant, then anyone could use it, but if it's a function of Aragorn, then he should need the plant for a specific non-property-related reason -- thus the alternate explanation i was working on, which gave him the specific inherent power, but in order to use it, he needed to smell fresh kingsfoil tea (sort of like the Mage game from White Wolf -- one i, alas, have not played yet) thus the plant would be a "focus" -- like a Druid of yore w/ sacred mistletoe. Otherwise, i have a hard time getting it past my "does not compute" sensors.

s.t.

|_|) <-- Keep those discussions coming -- i'll keep filling the mugs!

[ June 05, 2002: Message edited by: Saxony Tarn ]