kjm@ut-ngp.UTEXAS (Ken Montgomery) (10/05/85)
[] >> If, in the course of a D&D game, the DM starts handing out spells >> which have been in the past, or are currently being used by certain >> religious groups (i.e. Satanists, Voo-Doo, etc.), the >> play ceases to be fantasy and becomes reality no matter what your own >> personal religious beliefs are. By reality I mean that someone once or >> still takes them seriously. [not attributed] If the bit pattern of the sequence of instructions executed by the VAX I'm using right now happens to correspond to some group's representation for a spell or prayer, does that mean that the VAX is casting a spell or praying? Or that I'm doing it, since I'm causing the machine to execute the instruction sequence? If some sequence which is not now a spell should become one at some point at the future, will the VAX suddenly become a mage? >This is an unusual definition of reality. Does a Christian have to >find out what everybody else's rituals are so that he can avoid them? >If some fraud or mental case makes up a belief system with chants >and gets others to adopt them, do the chants take on some power? >[Al Filipski] Exactly. And consider: in the large (potentially infinite) number of possible belief-systems held by various entities in the universe, very nearly _every_ combination of symbols is liable to be a spell of some kind or another. (I wonder what common combinations of commands to my fullscreen editor might do... :-)) In addition, what happens if one spell is used by two different groups for two different things? Which group wins? Does the effect of the spell depend on the belief of the caster? If so, why should FRP gamers worry? They don't believe that the spell will do anything in reality! -- The above viewpoints are mine. They are unrelated to those of anyone else, including my cat and my employer. Ken Montgomery "Shredder-of-hapless-smurfs" ...!{ihnp4,allegra,seismo!ut-sally}!ut-ngp!kjm [Usenet, when working] kjm@ngp.UTEXAS.EDU [Internet, if the nameservers are up]