| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
NPCs and other characters and creatures upon Golarion are quite familiar with--and use in common parlance--what we players might consider "game terms" and similar classifications. Examples include the schools of magic, traditions, spell levels, class names, and many spell traits. (Though I'm sure this was obvious for many, SoM makes them far more familiar with specific terms than I ever would have imagined.)
What have you learned from reading Secrets of Magic, however big or small, serious or frivolous?
| 8 people marked this as a favorite. |
What I've learned?
Patience :p
(my books have yet to ship)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I have not yet learned patience and biting my keyboard everyday I wait in agony
| 8 people marked this as a favorite. |
NPCs and other characters and creatures upon Golarion are quite familiar with--and use in common parlance--what we players might consider "game terms" and similar classifications. Examples include the schools of magic, traditions, spell levels, class names, and many spell traits. (Though I'm sure this was obvious for many, SoM makes them far more familiar with specific terms than I ever would have imagined.)
What have you learned from reading Secrets of Magic, however big or small, serious or frivolous?
I love this, personally. Golarion is the setting for an especially gamey RPG, I think the characters should be generally aware of fundamental mechanics of how the game works in the same way we're aware of our own laws of physics. The less handwaving of the gamey things you do the more they just feel like they're as much of a fact as gravity is.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
I suppose a lot of these mechanics are consistent and demonstrable enough in the game world that it makes sense that people noticed them and named them.
Plus the rulebooks are translations into English (or other Earth language) where we, the readers, use such terms. Likely there are a dozen+ magical traditions that have all sorts of fancy terminology tied to their culture, but when it all came down to it there were enough similarities to make a common lingo...which hey, happens to correspond with game terms.
The rigor in PF2 may have slackened a bit as many NPCs develop outside of the PC paradigm, yet enough NPCs do follow it that it'd be a "norm". I could see circles that develop differently enough for long enough time having different jargon, yet if the have the appropriate magical tradition skills they'd still know the "PC talk".
Funny (maybe) side story. Had a player who'd metagame and fish for NPC power levels by asking about what they could or couldn't do, especially with casters. I had one Cleric answer she could cast 4th level spell X, but not 4th level spell Y and it stunned him, like truly stunned "had to ask several times" stunned him. "Buh, buh, but..."
In game the reason she couldn't cast spell Y is it went against her deity's nature and wouldn't be provided even if prayed for. The player had chosen example spells poorly. :)
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
With any familiarity with Hindu Esotericism, the idea of "spell levels" is really not so weird. Levels of ascension, existence, and all that. Maybe magical energies exist in hierarchical strata? I kinda like it
I learned that Anthony Barnett left us a little token on page 250. XD
I also learned that in order to target something, casters need to first name it.
Page 244 says "A public name can be given without consent, which is how spellcasters who rely on names work magic on those they don’t know, improvising a nickname or simply referring to the target with a noun, like 'elf.'"
|
I learned that Anthony Barnett left us a little token on page 250. XD
I also learned that in order to target something, casters need to first name it.
Page 244 says "A public name can be given without consent, which is how spellcasters who rely on names work magic on those they don’t know, improvising a nickname or simply referring to the target with a noun, like 'elf.'"
I guess the name thing is only for those who use name magic, and not for traditional casters, right ?
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'm happy to see it explicitly stated, I've been arguing that all these game mechanics are empirically observable in universe and that scholars would treat them much like we do various laws of physics.
10 is a number that shows up a suspicious amount sure, but there's plenty of physical constants that just show up everywhere in real science.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I learned that I still don't have Secrets of Magic.