Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site utcsstat.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!utcsstat!laura
From: laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: My world -- and welcome to it
Message-ID: <1239@utcsstat.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 8-Oct-83 13:43:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsstat.1239
Posted: Sat Oct  8 13:43:39 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Oct-83 10:26:32 EDT
References: lanl-a.2390, <5977@unc.UUCP>, <1214@utcsstat.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada
Lines: 67

if you got an article that was completely full of 'U's, I am sorry. The
modem on the machine end packed it in as I was posting this article.
i cancelled the old version, but csrg was talking to us at the time,
so you may get the funny version anyway. 

next, i am assuming that you got my previous article (utcsstat.1214)
(this article is a followup to that one.) the last one was too long,
so I am not going to repost the definitions I used in it.

Okay -- I got mail which said "your system is flawed since there can
be no magic resistance". I find this strange, since I think that this
is one area where the "magic-as-a-non-renewable-resource" crowd is
on pretty shakey cosmological grounds; i suppose they must think the
same of my cosmology.

okay. by definition it is impossible to have magic(1) resistance. Anything
with magic(1) resistance would exist without having the ability to act,
since all acts are magic(1) in nature. And anything that can not act,
cannot communicate its existance to the rest of the world. So it is
classified with all the other things that are a priori unmeasurable
and unknowable -- it does not exist.

however, this does not preclude magic(2) resistance, which is what the
vulgar term "magic resistance" anyway. however, it requires a better
understanding of magic(2). Magic(2) is not a tool like a sword or an
axe. Magic(2) is a specific description of the universe which is
highly interrelated. Thus you cannot talk about "Suppose there was nothing
in the world but a magic user and he cast a fireball", because the specific
condition (or description) of the world that produces fireballs is not
one in which there is nothing in the world but a magic user. Another way to
say this is that magic(2) does not come soley from the mind of the magic user,
but also from the universe.

So there is no way to bring about the conditions that will produce a
magical effect in the vicinity of a magic resistant creature, in the
same way you cannot produce a fire effect in a fire resistant creature.
Where does magic resistance come from? Well, from the will of the resistant
creature. (you have to modify this slightly to get resistant items, either
by giving non-living things a will, or by making their resistance part of
the will of their creator.) So, if a magic resistant creature wants to
be effected by magic, then it can be. (but there may be some resistance
to the idea, which explains why creatures who are willingly ploymorphed
still have to make a saving throw...)

When I first ran a dungeon, I used these words literally. Somebody tried
to cast a spell at Osiris (who he did not recognise) and I countered
with "you could not think of doing this". i figured that it would be
like asking a stone age man to explain Canadian Income Tax Laws.
This did not go over very well with the group. I held my ground for a
few weeks, but then found that this was not a very workable system, in
that the first thing that people did was cast spells at every new item
and monster. If they couldn't, they knew that it was magic-resistant...

These days, I let you cast perfect spells (to your flawed perception
at any rate) which have no effect. You have, of course, botched the
spell, but in a subtle way that you do not understand.

It is interesting that in some respects my world and Tim Maroney's
world will be opposites -- i gather that he has magic resistance as
a conscious act of magic, where I would have the power to override
magic resistance the one that requires consciousness. 

laura creighton
utzoo!utcsstat!laura

ps -- these days I do not let my Gods wander through the world indiscriminately
	either -- you live and learn.