If any of you can think of a way to make this work, please, feel free to tell me. Otherwise, I see little choice but to return to full-on fantasy RP...
In four hundred years, technology should've evolved so much that technology could replicate magic. Just keep it reasonable and give a thorough explanation of how your character can perform "magic". or you could just do what the moderator says
Magic doesn't exist! Blue truth! [ The Bone Dragon could be the mere skeleton of a Dragon long dead, and is being controlled remotely by mystery person X! The Skeleton could be held together by small magnetic devices that allow for movement, and the fire breath could be a very powerful flamethrower! ] Can you refute this with red?
Your creative scope must be rather limited if you are having issues working within the lore we have been provided with in Starbound.
I'll be roleplaying My Little Pony on the weekends. Anyone interested in joining me? We'll save the universe with friendship and bad RP.
"Dude, it's the fucking future!" As one of my characters said. Meaning, if you cannot think up some technological or even quasi-scientific way to explain things that happen then it is best that they do not happen at all.
Even though I know my explanation of the Bone Dragon is wrong, it sure as hell beats the magic theory. Also, Sen. I will join you, only if the frog is there.
Ooh. Can we make this a quote thread? I can get the ball rolling! Here's one from a Greek philosopher some have heard of. Most people agree he was pretty creative, too.
It is possible to have magic in any setting. Now, lower the pitchforks and torches and listen (read) for a second. People in the real world now believe in magic. If you gave Aristotle an Ipod, science doesn't exactly cover that. Someone in the distant future crashing into some planet, finding technology that works in a way that cannot be ascertained is something that is entirely possible. The difference is that the IC is saying "This shit is magic" while OOC "This is just an Ipod". Starbound has magic orange horseshoes that can phase matter in and out of existence. Characters are allowed to have willing suspension of disbelief, but you as the author need to be responsible in assuring that 1) It isn't some crazy god-mod power, and 2) to have the creativity to have a character interface with something they think is magic. Although not the most relevant example, Cortés and the conquistadors being seen as gods by the Aztecs. Forerunners in Halo, Protheans in Mass Effect, and whatever in some thing I am forgetting. Technically all of this stupid advanced tech did have a reason it worked, however as far as the characters were concerned it was powered by rainbows and unicorn farts. Disclaimer: This does not mean make some crazy superweapon that kills anything because I dunno. This is more like "Why the bloody hell is it snowing on the Halo? WHO SIMULATES A SNOWSTORM ON A DEATH RING!?!? There is a place for fantasy in the Starbound universe because there is fantasy in our universe (ghosts, psychics, MAGICIANS). The difference that I think Twitch and others are trying to impart is that it isn't magic because magic. Things are magic because you are unable on a personal (IC) level to say that it is possible to be made with tech. I've started doing the thing where I am just making my point in different ways, so if there is anything someone wants to pick apart go right ahead. I've played around with forming an old lunatic that thinks radiation is a god (yes, Fallout is a thing, I know). Geiger Jackson believes in magic, why can't you?
(( ^ one of the few constructive responses to this thread I've seen. You sir need an Interweb Point. I agree entirely.))
As much as I want to comment on that wall of text, I can't. I was only here to counter the blatant magic, is all.
Gonna be honest you did get VERY aggressive with his idea.. For all we know he could be using Tech from Ancients.. -Shrugs- I aint got half a clue.
If this becomes a thread where people just sit here and attack other people, I'm just going to ask the Admins to lock it. I don't mind them attacking me. It's when they attack other people on the thread that I start to have a problem. In fact, Admins, feel free to lock this thread any time you feel the need. The people can just PM me constructive criticisms. Or they can just ignore that this ever happened.
Now, see, Sermane actually said this in a very effective way, and I give him major props for such. This is kind of what people have meant in regards to "keep it world-friendly". Nobody here is saying that creativity is disallowed or discouraged, because that would be exceptionally strange to do on a server that thrives on creativity. The guideline is simply to try and keep these sorts of things within logical parameters, OOCly. ICly, things like this can be unexplained, but you have got to be able to explain how you've got, say, bolts of lightning coming from your fingertips, even if we cannot explain such in-character. Races such as the Floran and the Glitch are very likely to believe in things like magic, demons, and the supernatural, simply due to the races are more simplistic in nature. If you're playing one, even your character might very well believe that he is able to use magic after discovering an artifact of some kind, and explain it as such ICly. That is perfectly alright, and I honestly encourage it. (It's interesting!) And if you're asked by a skeptic OOCly about how your character's able to do something, then have an explanation to back it up if needed! That isn't too outrageous a request, I don't think. Use logic and thought in a creative way; that's where the "fiction" comes in "science-fiction". Not everything you do has to be scientifically accurate in real life (hence the "fiction"), but it does have to have some basis in reality (hence the "science"). Starbound's universe has a lot of advanced tech, and it should not be difficult for someone with creativity to be able to explain a great number of things that we would consider impossible, even today. (Examples: Flight technology and regenerative stimpacks.) You don't have to be able to explain every detail of every thing in a scientifically-accurate manner. But you do need to have a reasonable explanation of some kind. Otherwise, it's a form of godmoding, because it doesn't make IC sense for your character to be able to do what they're doing. And, as we all probably know, godmoding is bad.
TLDR; Magic without an OOC explanation that is non-magic is unacceptable. IC you can believe whatever your want, and with technology and Sci-Fi there is always a better mousetrap made by some hyper-advanced, reality transcending, space octopi.
Precisely. So, to go back to the earlier example of, say, a Glitch that can shoot electricity from his hands, claiming it's magic. If you're asked to explain it OOCly by a skeptic, saying, "it's magic that I learned from a magic book" isn't going to cover it as an explanation, because it's not really feasible and it doesn't actually explain much of anything. "It's a portable, high-powered electrical weapon that my character found from the wreckage of a research vessel" just might, and it has the same in-game result and effect, while keeping everyone involved happy.
Like the asgardians in SG-1. Fucking little gray men to the max. ACTUALLY! SG-1 is a great example for this! The Gua'ld (or however you spell it) rule primitive humans using what they believe is magic but is in reality just all hyper-advanced tech and some weird alien parasite.
I wasn't being aggressive. I was actually only playing around, that blue truth thing was just a reference that clearly NOBODY got. Hell, magic would be extremely convenient for me!
