Magic, the ability to manipulate the natural forces of the world to achieve extraordinary effects, has been a subject of fascination and debate for centuries. While some dismiss magic as mere fantasy or trickery, others believe that it is within the realm of possibility to have magical powers. Proponents of magic argue that throughout history, there have been numerous accounts of individuals who claimed to possess magical abilities. These practitioners, known as magicians, witches, or shamans, have been reported to perform acts that defy natural laws, such as levitation, telekinesis, or casting spells. These claims, although often anecdotal in nature, have been passed down through generations and are deeply ingrained in various cultural and religious traditions. Moreover, proponents of magic point to the existence of various esoteric and mystical traditions that teach the acquisition and cultivation of magical powers.
Moreover, proponents of magic point to the existence of various esoteric and mystical traditions that teach the acquisition and cultivation of magical powers. Practices such as meditation, ritual ceremonies, and the use of sacred objects or symbols are believed to unlock the latent potential within individuals to access supernatural forces. These traditions, which span across different civilizations and time periods, suggest that magic is not a mere fabrication but an inherent aspect of human existence.
Realm of the Powers Core Rules.
A very long time ago, Bill Underwood wrote a gaming system called Beasts Men and Gods. While the lab at Dan and Andrew’s Game place has a few copies, the rule system mostly died out in the gaming world. We wrote our own version which grew to more that 10,000 pages and required a master’s degree to play. The rules that we are reviewing in this post are the Stage II light-weight version with a number of innovations from decades of experience as fantasy game players and referees. Interested? Read on.
The core rules, linked above, are a light-weight system with most of the content out-sourced to source books that give things like the areas of magic in a campaign, the types of monsters and treasures that are available, and skills and talents that are specific to a particular campaign environment. We will be releasing source books through this blog in the future.
Realm of the Powers has material, mystical, and celestial characteristics. These are strength, agility, intellect, knowledge, personality, and beauty (material), magic, spirit, and intuition (mystical), and ascendance, resilience, and omniscience (celestial). This is a lot of statistics, but many of them are sleepers that are sitting there waiting for the referee to activate them.
Material Statistics
The six material statistics have an average value equal to the character’s material base allowance. They describe the physical and mental properties of the character. These characteristics can give you the potential to be a mighty warrior, a master thief, or a scholar of renown.
Realm of the Powers does not have character classes. Instead it has skills and talents, purchased with points, and based on your statistics. Characters get some points and can get more by having problems. You can do a good job of approximating a character class by picking up the right collection of skills and talents. Skills are things that can be taught; talents require innate ability and may need to be trained to a standard.
Mystic Statistics
Magic is your potential to be a mage or wizard, Spirit is your potential to interact with the spirit world or exhibit psionic powers, Intuition quantifies your ability to just know stuff and to develop intuitionistic powers. All three mystical areas have a corresponding talent that means your talent can express itself: mage talent, spiritual awareness, and intutitionism.
The intuitionist’s powers are fairly unique, including things like immediate precognition (useful for disarming traps or out-maneuvering your opponent), the gift of tongues (understanding anyone that can talk), and even intuitive damage which lets you whomp an opponent in exactly the right spot.
Celestial Statistics
The celestial statistics solve the problem of why gods and demigods get so much better a deal than normal characters. Normal characters have just enough celestial statistics for the gods, and their agents, to push them around. Ascendance is your ability to dictate the state of reality with your will. Resilience is your ability to laugh off damage instead of take it. Omniscience is about knowing everything, or at least everything near you.
Celestial characters have access to skills and talents that other characters do not and these grant them absurd power. Instead of making the gods wildly overpowered normal characters, we make them another type of character. This also applies to senior demons, angels, etc. There will be source books for angelic and demonic characters in the tradition of In Nomine.
One of the big advantages that celestially aware characters have is a ready reserve of divine power (essence) that is like character points, but that can be shifted around. So if the god of theft needs to be an incredible pick-pocket, he shifts some of those points into his relevant skill.
Exponential Hitpoints
The combat systems (physical, mental, and celestial) in Realm of the Powers used a strange “hitpoint” system in which each addition point of body (mind, chi) doubles the amount of damage you can take. The damage system can hit the whole lower range of damage levels but getting into the higher range is twice as hard per added point of body you get. A monster with 10 body has about 1,000 “hitpoints” and an expert warrior can do about 60-100 “hitpoints” with a really good hit. Once you get used to it, this is a better system.
To do damage you roll either d6 (interpreted differently for lighter or heavier attacks) or, for really big attacks, you roll multiple dice and take the largest value, plus one more point of damage for each other die with that amount. This means that really good rolls can take out really big monsters — but not often. Rolling three sixes would do 6+1+1=8 points of body. The damage system is not too hard to learn and it is much closer to the variability of damage that physical weapons do.
What else is different?
Characters start with base allowances for material, mystical, and celestial stats. A base allowance of zero means you don’t exist for that stat. A golem with only material stats is transparent to and immune to powers that act on the mystical or celestial plane. Of course, celestials can summon physically damaging attacks, but you cannot mind control a golem because, no mind! The player choses their stats, subject to the restriction on their average value.
A basic area of magic is included in the core rules, but mostly areas of magic are campaign specific. On the Moon of Metropoluna (coming up soon) they have three areas of magic that originated there that are rare elsewhere: slaver lore, chicanomancy, and gynomancy. The first is just what it sounds like. Chicanomancy is the magic of crooked lawyers; gynomancy is the magic of women.
One of the source books has the elemental areas of magic conflated with cults of the elemental gods. Different campaigns have different alchemical rituals (potions). This outsourcing of magic to the source-books means that magic tends to be more campaign appropriate.
Magic: two types.
Magic is divided into spells and rituals. Spells are things that might well happen in combat. Rituals have potentially long lasting effects but take lots of preparation and time. Enchanting a sword is a ritual; flinging a lighting bolt is a spell. Spells give you the ability to do something, like throw a lightning bolt, and as long as you can hold the spell you can keep throwing them. This apparent increase in the power of mages is offset by the exponential hitpoint system.
Spiritualist (psionic) and Intuitionist are both types of characters. Your referee may decide not to let you run them, but there are some interesting possibilities. A warrior with talent at striking in just the right place or a rogue-like character that can speak with the spirits or natural creatures. The number of different types of mystical character and slightly mystical character are greater in Realm of the Powers.
It is too much! Let me sum up.
This has been a brief summary of what’s in the core rules and mostly of what’s different from most other systems. We will be releasing source books and adventure modules as we find the time to clean them up from the drafty versions we use in our own gaming groups. We welcome comments and suggestions.
This is Dan of Dan and Andrew’s Game Place. Let me know what you think about this post in the comments. If you get ideas from this post, give us a pointer!
What else is different?
However, skeptics argue that magic is nothing more than illusions and sleight of hand tricks. They emphasize that most of the alleged magical feats can be explained through psychological manipulation, misdirection, and advanced technology. Magicians and illusionists, they argue, have mastered the art of creating the illusion of magic through their skills in deception and showmanship. Science, they assert, has never provided any tangible evidence of supernatural powers, and therefore, magic remains firmly within the realm of fiction. In conclusion, the question of whether it is within the realm of possibility to have magical powers remains a topic of debate. While some argue that the existence of magical abilities can be seen through historical accounts and mystical traditions, skeptics maintain that magic is nothing more than clever trickery. Until concrete evidence is provided, the true nature of magic will continue to be shrouded in uncertainty and speculation..
Reviews for "The Power of the Mind: Unleashing the Potential for Magical Abilities"
1. John - 2/5 stars:
I was really excited to read "Is it within the realm of possibility to have magical powers" as a lover of fantasy and magic. However, I was sorely disappointed. The book promised to explore the idea of magical powers in a realistic way, but it failed to deliver. The author didn't provide any substantial evidence or explanations to support the existence of magic in our world. It left me feeling unsatisfied and unconvinced. Overall, I was left questioning the purpose of this book as it didn't provide any meaningful insights on the subject.
2. Sarah - 1/5 stars:
"Is it within the realm of possibility to have magical powers" was a complete waste of my time. The book had a promising concept but fell flat in its execution. The author seemed more interested in rambling about personal anecdotes and unrelated topics rather than delving into the question of magical powers. The lack of structure and coherence made it incredibly difficult to follow the author's train of thought. I would not recommend this book to anyone looking for a thought-provoking exploration of the supernatural.
3. Michael - 2/5 stars:
The title of "Is it within the realm of possibility to have magical powers" caught my attention, but unfortunately, the content didn't live up to my expectations. The book seemed to be filled with pseudo-scientific explanations and speculative theories, rather than solid evidence to support the existence of magical powers. It felt more like a collection of unfounded opinions rather than a well-researched exploration. While the author touched on interesting ideas, it lacked depth and failed to provide a convincing argument. For those seeking a substantial exploration of the topic, this book may not be the best choice.