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After reading through these articles and interviews, it just hit me:
Power Source = Mana?
There are definitely some similarities there.
Anyone else see this as a similarity to WOTC's Magic: The Gathering?
If it followed a MtG paradigm, 'mana' would tend to come in elemental flavors (well, elemental and 'death').
It could also follow a GURPS 'mana' paradigm and just be some normally insubstantial energy that permeates everything (much like the Force, back when it was an energy field and not a bacteria), which could better fit the Realms setting, which can have areas that have been drained of mana entirely, and areas where the mana is tainted and magic behaves unpredictably. (Eberron's Mournlands might also constitute a kind of 'Wild Mana' area.)
You'll likely get a few posters who think that referring to Magic the Gathering is some sort of uber-insult (the same ones who freak if any comparison is made to Warcraft, I imagine, which is only a fantasy franchise that WotC would bear Grazz'ts babies to be able to match). The setting and some of the concepts behind MtG would make for a fascinating game-world and certainly the idea of different 'flavors' of mana, based on the four elements, the plane of shadow (black mana?), or the feywild (green mana?), could be interesting.
We haven't heard of anything that would fit the concepts of white, blue or red mana, really, so it might be premature to make this connection.
On the other hand, the 'roles' of Controller (blue, I negate / restrict your action), Leader (white, I restore / augment others), Striker (red, I keel U!), etc. seem to at least marginally fit the color scheme. Still, they are very basic tactical 'roles,' so it could simply be parallel evolution.
I'm sure that someone who knows something about chess (waaay too complex for me. I'll stick to Star Fleet Battles, thanks!) could force a similar parallel.
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Owner - Johnny Scott Comics and Games
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Thanks, Set. I was looking at it from more of Magic's concept of Mana as a source of power rather than a straight color to color concept. Your GURPS analogy may be more similar to the actual 4E concept, though.
This is pure speculation on my part, with no facts to back it up.
I just saw a parallel and wondered if I was the only one who may have seen this.
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Thanks, Set. I was looking at it from more of Magic's concept of Mana as a source of power rather than a straight color to color concept. Your GURPS analogy may be more similar to the actual 4E concept, though.
This is pure speculation on my part, with no facts to back it up.
I just saw a parallel and wondered if I was the only one who may have seen this.
I noticed it awhile back, and the response was 'epic strawman FAIL' whatever the hell that means.
Apparently suggesting that the company that makes Magic the Gathering might be taking some of the best ideas from that game and using them to liven up the D&D brand (which, barring the Realms and Dark Sun, has usually treated magic as a sort of 'black box' that didn't have a source or any sort of internally consistent rules or themes) was considered to be some sort of attack.
Apparently suggesting that the company that makes Magic the Gathering might be taking some of the best ideas from that game and using them to liven up the D&D brand ... was considered to be some sort of attack.
To be fair this was the battle cry against 3E very much the way that 4E is just turning D&D into a WoW clone. There was some very heated hate about this subject back then.
I am with you though that it would be a very interesting world and was shocked that we never really saw a d20 version of it.
All that said, I don't really see how they are working the power sources as coming out like any of the mana methods I have seen out there. (Not that it would be bad if it were, I just don't see it this time is all)
Sean Mahoney
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Owner - Johnny Scott Comics and Games
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If they could somehow incorporate some of the MTG elements into D&D's magic system, I believe it could make magic more versatile and definitely easier to use in game.
As for d20, I really think that WOTC is missing the boat by not launching a campaign setting based on their MTG franchise. They've really fleshed out a pretty decent setting just from the card flavor text and the few novels that have come out. Of course, with one campaign setting a year, it's possible we may see this for 4E.
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To be fair this was the battle cry against 3E very much the way that 4E is just turning D&D into a WoW clone. There was some very heated hate about this subject back then.
Ironic that I missed it, 'cause I really hated Magic the Gathering for taking all of my gaming friends away from me (although I really had nothing against the game itself).
They finally kicked the habit and we can play role-playing games again. These days I like flipping through the MtG setting specific stuff, and it is a cool game world with lots of interesting elements, but the whole collectible trading card thing (not just MtG, but all of 'em) struck me as somewhat less interesting than (and very much equivalent to) setting money on fire and watching it burn.