Leaping over trees

From: Mikael Raaterova <ginijji_at_...>
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 17:46:38 +0200

>David Cake:
>>Leap Over Trees should let you leap over trees, not small shrubs.
>
>This got me thinking about feats (and I thought I had the rules sorted).
>Does the following sound right?
>
>If you use it to enhance a non-magical ability.
>First you have to decide if using magic enhancement allows you to do the
>impossible. Does a Leap Over Trees augmented leap let you actually leap over
>a tree or just leap better but still within human norms.
>If the latter than you're not going to be actually leaping any trees until
>your magical affinity is high enough to give you a huge enhancement.
>
>If you use it as an ability in its own right.
>Everything is fine in a simple contest. Roll against 14 with a bonus/penalty
>depending on size of the trees, succeed and you actually do leap over the
>trees.

(David Cake must surely have fond memories of this very discussion to bring it up again.)

I know that others don't share my interpretation of magical abilities, inhuman and superhuman actions, but here goes.

Whether or not you can successfully leap over a tree is a matter of relative ratings, not whether the ability used is magical or not. If a certain tree is 'tall' 17w and you have 'leap' 17ww, magical or otherwise, you stand a very good chance of leaping over the tree. If you have 'leap' 17, magical or otherwise, your chances are slim indeed.

Just because an ability tag includes a result (like 'leap over trees' or 'kill at a clance') doesn't mean that you can automatically use the power inherent in the ability; that's a matter of your rating - your capacity to utilize the ability.

Magical abilities aren't superior to similar mundane abilities; the 'magic' of magical abilities is that they can allow you to attempt actions that are inhuman: flying, casting lightning spears, igniting fires without flint or tinder.

A magical ability like 'Run as the wind' doesn't allow you to run intrinsically faster than the mundane ability of 'Run fast'. Whether you run faster or not is a matter of ability rating. The magic of 'Run as the wind' is that with that ability you can, say, run over water (the wind doesn't stop when it comes to a river, does it?), which you can't do with 'Run fast'.

If you have lots of masteries in a mundane ability, you obviously are superhuman and can attempt superhuman actions. But you can't attempt _inhuman_ actions with a mundane ability. So, whether or not you can leap over a tree is a matter of how high the tree is and how good you are at utilizing your powers of jumping.

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Mikael Raaterova        [.sig omitted on legal advice]