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From: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Magic and Material Components
Message-ID: <14092@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Apr-85 09:55:37 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.14092
Posted: Thu Apr 25 09:55:37 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 26-Apr-85 03:49:56 EST
References: <4950@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Reply-To: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 53

In article <4950@ucla-cs.ARPA> mccolm@ucla-cs.UUCP writes:
>Why does magic require material components?  No matter what explanation you
>have, it boils down to this:  The spell power, or at least some part of it,
>derives from the natural properties of the component.

Actually, this is just one explanation of material components, a sort of
"scientific" one.  There are others.

For example, suppose that ALL magic is performed by pacts with otherworldly
spirits.  Reference: in Black Easter, by James Blish, all magic is performed
by demons or angels.  The demons do not want to do magic things for anyone
(nor do the angels); but they are bound by a covenant with God (in this book)
that if someone performs a particular ritual EXACTLY right, they must do
what they're asked.  The transfer to a fantasy campaign is obvious.  Unless
you perform the spell with precisely correct components, the spell agents
are free to ignore you.  No substitutes are accepted.  (When Asmodeus says
he wants a human sacrifice, you don't kill no sheep, fool!!)

As another, suppose that all magic actually proceeds from innate mental
powers in the spell-caster (psychic powers of one type or another).
The spell rituals are actually so much mumbo-jumbo intended to free one's
mind from mental blocks that stifle the power.  You have been told by
magic teachers that a particular ritual will have a particular effect,
and your mind has been trained to give that particular effect in response
to the ritual.  If you KNOW that you are using shoddy materials, then
you will have poorer results because you aren't fooling yourself as well.
(This raises the interesting possibility of what happens when someone
tricks you into believing that you have genuine Black Dragon blood when
it's really only cheap acid.  In this model of magic, the spell should
still work...and you'll keep casting spells successfully until you begin
to have reason to doubt that something is wrong.)

I think either of these theories would be an interesting basis for a
magic system.  The first is close to many campaigns: you get it exactly
right or it doesn't work.  The second would be prone to abuse by the
players:
   Player1 : Hey, MU, here's some (wink, wink) red dragon blood.
   Player2 : Amazing that you just happened (wink, wink) to have
	     that.  Let's cast a spell.
But I think a creative GM could squash this stuff fairly fast.  For
example, if the MU ever finds out that his teammates gratuitously
lie to him about material components they produce, he could turn paranoid
and distrust ALL material components.  The MU's powers would be vastly
weakened by this distrust and he would be virtually useless until his
faith was restored (using material components he was sure of).

By the way, I love these pseudo-science discussions of magic.  I think
net.games.frp is the place for them, and a subsection for net.games.frp.physics
is unnecessary.  I haven't heard anyone complain that they don't want
to read this stuff.

			Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo