Fantasy often makes a distinction between mundane and magical or supernatural beasts, which is often arbitrary and illogical. This distinction doesn't exist in 13th Age, which relegates all such things to Beasts. However, this sort of thinking still permeates the fluff to a much lesser degree. For example, the druid's beast form power states "Stick to four-legged natural predators, not creatures with supernatural abilities or the ability to fly." One of the listed aspects is the owlbear, which in other fantasy (outside Avatar: The Last Airbender) is considered a magical or supernatural creature. (The form itself is cosmetic, so even if this was ignored the druid still couldn't fly as a bird or petrify with a gaze as a basilisk.) How could this be explained from an in-character point of view without sounding silly?
Friday, January 27, 2017
Friday, January 20, 2017
Distinguishing elementals, spirits and undead
13 True Ways and Eidolons introduced the new types Elemental and Spirit. Sometimes the distinction between these and other types may be ambiguous. I will try my best to sort that out here. Later I should write a primer on spirits and related things.
Spirits are the souls and personifications of natural forces, abstract concepts and emotions. They may overlap with spectral undead, in which case the GM could decide that spectral undead automatically qualify as both undead/spirit types.
Elementals are seething masses of base matter animated by demons, spirits, undead or similar entities. Constructs and elementals are similar because their bodies are composed of base matter and both have animating spirits bound into them. Some sourcebooks have included spontaneously animating constructs. The distinction is that the two are tied to opposing magical winds: constructs to artifice, elementals to nature.
Constructs and undead are pretty similar, being animated masses of something which isn't alive but might have been in the past. The difference between them is that they are tied to difference magical winds: constructs are tied to artifice, undead to death.
Not everything made of something other than flesh is an elemental, however. It is entirely possible for beasts and humanoids to have alien physiology based on fire or crystals or whatever. The reason why they aren't constructs or elementals is because they have a living metabolism: they eat and reproduce just like other living creatures.
Spirits are the souls and personifications of natural forces, abstract concepts and emotions. They may overlap with spectral undead, in which case the GM could decide that spectral undead automatically qualify as both undead/spirit types.
Elementals are seething masses of base matter animated by demons, spirits, undead or similar entities. Constructs and elementals are similar because their bodies are composed of base matter and both have animating spirits bound into them. Some sourcebooks have included spontaneously animating constructs. The distinction is that the two are tied to opposing magical winds: constructs to artifice, elementals to nature.
Constructs and undead are pretty similar, being animated masses of something which isn't alive but might have been in the past. The difference between them is that they are tied to difference magical winds: constructs are tied to artifice, undead to death.
Not everything made of something other than flesh is an elemental, however. It is entirely possible for beasts and humanoids to have alien physiology based on fire or crystals or whatever. The reason why they aren't constructs or elementals is because they have a living metabolism: they eat and reproduce just like other living creatures.
Friday, January 6, 2017
The Winds of Magic
As modern humans we take it for granted that the fantasy world operates according to real world physics with magic added to let us cheat. Unifying magic and nature requires detailed explanations about how physics in the fantasy world is fundamentally different from our own reality.
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
The Crusader and the Priestess: strange bedfellows?
The Crusader and the Priestess, as well as their patron gods, are ultimately on the same side: the side of Ma'at. They serve order, balance, and justice, though in dramatically different ways. The Crusader, viewed in the most positive light, is a morally ambiguous man who makes difficult moral decisions.
But Order and Balance are not necessarily the same thing. If left unchecked by Balance and unopposed by Chaos, Order would ultimately petrify the universe like a fly in amber.
Since the current age is one where Chaos is ascendant, then Order and Balance work together to oppose it. But in another age this could quite easily turn around, and the heroes would be recast as freedom fighters against an oppressive regime.
But Order and Balance are not necessarily the same thing. If left unchecked by Balance and unopposed by Chaos, Order would ultimately petrify the universe like a fly in amber.
Since the current age is one where Chaos is ascendant, then Order and Balance work together to oppose it. But in another age this could quite easily turn around, and the heroes would be recast as freedom fighters against an oppressive regime.
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