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From: pdg@ihdev.UUCP (P. D. Guthrie)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Re: Invisibility and scrolls
Message-ID: <374@ihdev.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 29-Oct-85 14:28:55 EST
Article-I.D.: ihdev.374
Posted: Tue Oct 29 14:28:55 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 30-Oct-85 07:27:11 EST
References: <892@plus5.UUCP> <24400012@hp-pcd.UUCP>
Reply-To: pdg@ihdev.UUCP (55224-P. D. Guthrie)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 41

In article <24400012@hp-pcd.UUCP> lori@hp-pcd.UUCP (lori) writes:
>	I don't really think it's very workable (in game terms) to actually
>	say that magical invisibility (as opposed to the psionic kind) makes
>	a person transparent to light in the visible spectrum, as this raises
>	all kinds of problems we'd just as soon avoid.  For example, if a
> [... examples ]
>	    This being the case, and since AD&D magic can be interpreted to
>	operate any way you want it to, why not think of it like this: my
>	thief is invisible.  This invisibility acts like a tight fitting
>	force field which surrounds me and everything I was carrying at the
>	time the spell when off.  I appear to myself as a ghostly translucent
>	image but am still visible enough so as not to interfer with any
>	manual operation I may wish to perform.  This holds true for all of 
>	the things I carried when the spell went off, but not any new things
>	I may pick up in the future, since they are outside the area of effect.
>	If I drop anything, it becomes visible, since it, in effect, leaves
>	the force field.  It does not turn invisible again if I pick it up,
>	since the force field cannot be re-entered.
>	    This sort of interpretation pretty much solves the scroll problem
>	(yes, it can be read, even though you can slightly see through it) but
>	prevents abuse of the invisibility spell (tie a rope across the cor-
>	ridor and hand it to the invisible thief to make it an invisible trip
>	cord).  It seems to work in my game.
>

I personally think that we are trying to get too scientific and
objective about magic in general.  Magic is the unexplained and does not
have to be rationalized in any way, rather mediated by the DM to make
sure that it doesn't get out of hand.  It should be simple enough to say
that invisibility has a 'magical clause' that makes the caster immune to
its effects ( a sort of personal detect invisible), as otherwise it
would make the spell much less useful.  We have to assume that the
creators of the spell did not care about the laws of physics, but rather
manipulated the spell until it suited their tastes, and I personally
would see much less use for an invisibility spell that was almost as
much hinderance to the caster.

				Paul Guthrie
				ihnp4!ihdev!pdg

p.s. are there any games needing players in the Indian Hill area?