How do characters in a magical high-fantasy world manage to maintain their sanity when reason and causality are constantly being violated all around them? Shouldn't they have to make difficult SAN checks when a sorcerer invites them into his house made of yellow and offers them a glass of time?
Could your great great grand parents have imagined smart phones?
>>46301467
>Shouldn't they have to make difficult SAN checks when a sorcerer invites them into his house made of yellow and offers them a glass of time?
Doesn't the Cthuluh RPG simulate this pretty well?
>>46301467
Sounds like you're playing freeform. There's your problem.
>>46301635
freeform Roleplay is the only way!
>>46301467
>when reason and causality are being violated around them
Except they aren't. To them, at least.
To a person in a universe where the colour blue doesn't exist, our universe appears to be full of awful, unnatural colour.
In fantasy, magic is part of reality. It's the underlying principles of the universe being exploited in a way that we aren't capable of in our universe. Seeing it used might be strange and weird, but it's the equivalent of when you see a video of ferromagnetic liquid or one of those anatomy models that's just the circulatory system.
This is all dependent on the person KNOWING they live in the fantasy universe, of course. You roll sanity in Lovecraft because you don't know that you live in a world of magic, aliens and gods and are confronted with that fact; thus someone who doesn't know they live in a world of fireballs and dragons very well might have to undergo sanity loss when they see flying lizards and burning balls.
>>46301467
>>46301827
Well, dragons DO have a fearful presence forcing you to roll to not shit yourself and run for the hills, so I guess there's that.
Also, depends on the setting.
Somehow, this was the first thing I thought of when I read that. Doesn't help I misread time as lime
>>46301827
This. Applying IRL standards to fantasy worlds is always stupid, whether you're talking about philosophy or physics.
No, I don't care that your character has all the ingredients to blackpowder. You're in a magical world where the four elements are Earth, Air, Fire and Water. If you want to create an explosive powder, level the Alchemy skill and figure out some potent reagents of Elemental Earth and Fire.
I've had players quit the game over telling them that they couldn't apply IRL knowledge of science in game before. Not basic stuff like leverage and momentum, but shit like that.
>>46301467
>How do characters in a magical high-fantasy world manage to maintain their sanity when reason and causality are constantly being violated all around them?
Maybe they don't
>>46301827
>In fantasy, magic is part of reality.
I am not sure OP is referring to that.
Reason and causality are not affected by magic, unless your system permits time travel.
Well, reason might be affected by magic, but that won't be averted by being used to it.
>>46301467
>his house made of yellow and offers them a glass of time
Nice try, creator of Dungeons and Dadaragons.
>>46302767
Wait, did he wear a yellow ring? Or did he actually paint the room, Robin and himself yellow?
>>46306941
He had robin paint the room.
That is perhaps the most Reddit image in the world.
>>46301467
I don't know about the rest of the players around here, but I play mine sort of like "Of COURSE you can shoot lightning out of your hands, change the flavor of meat, and bastardize the dead, magic can do fuckin' anything right? I'm not even mad, just upset whenever you have a spell that makes whatever we do obsolete because 'magic does everything'." and then grumbles about it whenever they pull out the next "no we don't need you to make a rope swing, I can just float us across"
Doesn't stop him from using his own magic to do things you have to use magic to do, like changing into a wolf if we need to track and possibly maul someone
>>46302767
>>46306941
>>46307205
I don't know if this is genius or stupid.
>>46301467
>How do characters in a magical high-fantasy world manage to maintain their sanity when reason and causality are constantly being violated all around them?
well, despite what Lovecraft would have you believe, the human psyche is a lot more resilient than you might think. Since the wierd-ass shit casters pull IS possible in that universe, and thus an observable, natural phenomena, the residents of that universe, even if they don't understand the details are fully capable of accepting that this is how things are and how they naturally work.
In short, they are used to it. In fact they'd likely freak-out if magic suddenly stopped working, it would be like in IRL Electromagnetism ceased to be a thing.
>>46310173
Its Frank Miller. His Batman runs are so gloriously insane.
>>46310197
>it would be like in IRL Electromagnetism ceased to be a thing.
People wouldn't freak out over that though.
>>46311131
Well, no, they'd all be dead.
>>46311131
>People wouldn't freak out over that though.
really? you don't think anyone would notice or care if every electrical device ceased to work because electricity and magnetism ceased to exist as a force in the universe? You don't think that wouldn't freak people out?
>>46311174
Did you know that the brain needs electricity to work?
>>46311174
We wouldn't be living enough to care.
>>46311174
if electromagnetism stops working we'll have far bigger problems than computers stopping to function. thankfully nothing will exist to care about that
>>46311193
yes, I'm assuming for this allegory that, for some reason, the human body continues to function, which would probably make the phenomenon even more unsettling for those aware that this is not how the universe works.
