Re: Folk Lore & Folk Magic

--- Dreamer <dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk> wrote:

> That all sounds pretty reasonable, but how are you
> suggesting it
> might be integrated into a game?

Most of my games are story driven and it help flesh
out the societies that my players run into in space.
You will agree that powerful magic, trade and skills
are rare in backwater region of space. Low magic and
skills are always present because of superstition,
folklore, or rare wild talents. Instead of a 3rd-Level
cleric, you might find a midwife, a witch doctor or
even that elderly herbalist healer. There are very few
places where you can boast that your neighbor just
happens to be a 10th-Level magic-user/cleric/fighter.

> For example, looking at a population, might you say
> the 1-in-20
> or the 5% rules applies?

In most society a golden child would appear
1-in-millions. A wild talent/dark outcast could appear
1-in-100. While folklore based knowledge, magic, skill
or trade handed to the younger generations by elders
would appear 1-in-20, even 1-in-10 for society based
on purely folklore and folk magic.

> In other words, 5% of the population have a 'folk
> magic' talent,
> or at least the potential for one? You might say
> that 5% of that
> 5%, i.e. 1-in-400, will show the talent to a greater
> or lesser
> extent, even without any training? And, that someone
> who has used
> a talent for a number of years, has a chance of
> sensing someone
> else, say a child, who has the potential to be
> trained in their
> talent?

In a backwater society every person would know which
plants, fruits, animals are dangerous. Only a handful
depending on type of society would know how to extract
needed fever lowering medicine from the plants, which
fruits are the basic ingredient to a love potion and
which animal blood the scavvers can't stand.

Wild talents can be dormant in people until such time
and event that help the person realize their gift.
Shape shifter wild talents sometimes are able to
change form  for the first time when they are in dire
predicaments. [Shape Shifter class was introduced in
my games while marrying different game systems into
the abandoned AD&D: Evolution house rules. Don't ask,
I don't remember any of the rules.]

> You could also say, that having many folk magic
> talents, or
> potential for these, means that the person could be
> formally
> trained in magic, either arcane or divine, and that
> such training
> typically over-rides the talent? And, that having a
> really strong
> talent (being one of the 1-in-400) can make it more
> difficult to
> absorb formal training, and might lead someone to an
> arcane
> magical specialization, or calling to a particular
> divinity?

Depending on the type of the wild talents, one can
have a harder time learning properly structured magic.
Wild talents are about feel and learning by
experience, while school learned magic are about
theories and lab work. I would change that rule about
divine magic since powerful beings and their servants
are active in the wild talents learning process. A
specialization are often the results when wild talents
learn school magic.

> Also, by tradition you could dowse for all sorts of
> things, water
> being the well known one, and you've added air, but
> minerals was
> also known. Popular with miners. I believe a
> pendulum could also
> be used, instead of a suitable twig, or divining
> rods. But, it is
> possible that this is an unnecessary complication,
> to the basic
> folk magic talents that you have listed above.

I think dowsing is an intuition type talent based
partly on knowledge about water and part gut feeling.
Any gear that would help bolster the confidence of a
dowser in finding water can be useful. Magical dowsing
equipment can make even a person without dowsing
ability find water.

> Another couple of classical talents, are being a
> medium for
> spirits of the dead, in particular ancestors, and
> being
> elementally sensitive, so you call sense the moods
> of the land,
> and maybe the weather, so you know when things like
> earthquakes,
> or storms are on the way. Being able to sense
> whether there was
> anything associated with an asteroid, whether living
> plant,
> animal, spirit or undead, or anything with elemental
> connections,
> say earth, could be very useful.

Those are the things I am talking about when I mention
backwater asteroids and planets. The players have to
realize that they have to role play and find answers
in every nook and cranny of a game world. Because they
can't find a sage does not mean they are in a dead
end, but should be a start of a great story.

This is a great place to jump your ship into the
spirit world trying to help the villagers. You can
also be sucked into Ravenloft wildspace if you are not
careful.

> Hope some of the above might be useful to you.

More than helpful, I thank you very much.

> --
> Dreamer
> dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
> http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/

A.Sibal
Lord Alexander "Temogen" Steel (SysOp)
Steel Realms Bulletin Board System

PS Forgive the rambling...very early in the morning to
write this reply to your message. =)





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