>Yes.....but!
>
>At least for me, the process of trying to find an 'in game' sense for
>it tends to shake out all sorts of interesting things.
I don't disagree. I prefer it when these things all come together. But in the case of the magic in question, there's just no way to justify the way magic is handled in game when you end up with a comparison between the magic effect and a similar mundane counterpart. From a sim POV, they're on different scales. So comparing them directly can only make sense with narrativist direction of the outcomes in a non simulative way.
It's like Christian said, one moment, I can jump a tree, but the next I can't beat a guy who can't jump more than a person maybe. That can't mean that I've become less of a jumper, it has to mean that I lose because of something else unrelated directly to the scale of the jump. Maybe I've heard of the guy, and chicken out, not knowing how high he can jump. Maybe I trip running up. Something plausible happens that makes me lose. That plausible thing can't be that my ability to jump is somehow lessened just because of my opponent*.
But these are contests, not in-game measurements. If we tested my ability to jump independently, and his, we'd find that I can jump much, much higher. What the comparison represents is that character's story immunity to me clubbing him over the head with my magic.
*There's another wacky interpretation which is that Greg is saying that magic only exists in the metaphysical sense, meaning that from a sort of objective third person observer's position that in fact, I can never jump over a tree. I only think I can, as do others who would not oppose me. So, when I apparently jump a tree, the unbelieving observer would see me jumping a shrub. My POV would be that when jumping against him, that he jumps as high as trees as well. Or my power fails me in contests with him. Basically there is no objective world, really, just our character's own subjective takes on it. This is really hard to wrap one's head around, however, so I leave it to those who go for the whole obfuscation rout to play with.
Mike
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