Sci-fi magic, how to do

[Azazel_Unbound]

So, my players want a more sci-fi oriented campaign setting and campaign in general. I have a couple players who enjoy being casters though. Any suggestions on how to incorporate casters into this scenario while keeping them believable? Anything to keep in mind? I saw a discussion on how magic and science relates, which posed this question for me.

[Shadow_in_the_Mist]

Okay, first things first, you need to establish how "hard" you want to make the sci-fi portion of the show - sci-fi and magic mix together best with soft sci-fi settings. For classic examples, I point you towards Star Wars - "The Force" is basically magic (or at least psionics) which has a rational explanation in the form of "magic is the ability to tap into an otherworldly energy field that can be manipulated in ways that defy the conventional laws of physics". Warhammer 40,000 is a more grimdark example of the same kind of thinking.

Then there's the approach that science and sorcery are literally just two different ways of looking at the universe. They're both valid, they both exist, and their reliability may fluctate, but they're both natural. Look at anime like Tenchi Muyo or Outlaw Star, or 80s cartoons like Visionaries, Thundercats and Skeleton Warriors. There's never any real explanation why they exist, we're just supposed to take it for granted that they do.

Then there's the approach of "science IS sorcery" - I'm literally building a setting based on that core precept, where traditionally science fiction trappings like energy blasters, laser swords, space travel, chainswords, androids, etc are all merely magic wearing a funny coat.

I hope this provides some help.

[Knaight]

Putting aside the question of why you're using D&D for this at all (there are systems that handle science fiction), are you sure the caster players will even want to play casters in a science fiction game? They might want to play characters with a roughly analogous role (e.g. science officers), or that have a broad combat toolkit (e.g. pilots of complex vehicles), or something else. Check with the players to see if you even have a problem before looking for how to solve it.

[Fey]

Check this webcomic (http://www.alicegrove.com/) for some inspiration. One of the characters uses all sorts of "magical" abilities: she can fly, she can create energy blades she controls with her mind, she can throw fire from her hands, she can create energy shields to protect herself, etc. She does it all with nanotech, but in game terms, it would essentially be magic.

Nanobots could infest a person's body and start breaking down their flesh, essentially being the equivalent of a poison or negative energy spell in D&D. They could get into someone's brain and mess with the energy of their neural pathways, having the same effect as enchantment spells. They could generate energy for attack spells, create holograms for illusion spells, etc etc. Controlling them would require a special type of neural interface and a lot of training, making it a specialized thing not everyone can do, limiting it to certain character classes.

[Foxhound438]

the best way in my opinion would be to say that it's some kind of tech that allows you to access abilities that are abstracted in the same way magic is (aka "reflavoring"). No change to how any of it works game wise, but a wizard might have an "all purpose effect generator" instead of a spellbook or casting focus.

[Unoriginal]

Just say that there are wizards and other casters in your Sci-fi story.


Sci-fi isn't an aesthetic, it's a genre based on the theme explored.

If you meant technologically-advanced/futuristic, then just say that there are wizards and other casters in your technologically-advanced/futuristic story.

There is no reason for a D&D world to lose its magic even if the technology gets better.

[Goober4473]

I built a setting that's basically just D&D, but in space. So there are spaceships and laser guns and everything, but also wizards and clerics and all that. It works incredibly well. Kind of feels like Star Wars in a lot of ways. You can find it here (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R7q_ZOABIATBD3aukbofH7GKl1tm-Hug063BOnR7ToY).

[Sir cryosin]

In my home game world it's takes place million's of years from now. There are no faster then light travel. There three mega population earth, Mars, Venus. I reworked firearms. So I explain magic as the caster using technology help the to manipulate matter to simulate casting a magic spell.

Sorcerers: have the natural abilitys to shape and form matter but they need nanobots to pull energy from around they to provide power to control the manipulation of matter.

Wizards: study the law's of universe. They see things as circuitry and binary numbers. They use there spell books to keep track of there mathematical and scientifical equations and problems in. Then you use there equations and components to create what would be equivalent to magical spells. But it all rutted in science.

Bards: I haven't put to much effect into fluff them but. I see bards as using Placebo effects and mind of matter type of thing. Think about how today magicians, Illusionist work in this bay and age. They manipulate people's way of thinking and their perception. And they just so good at manipulating people that when they do casts a spell on somebody it's technically not a spell but the person that they're doing it to believes it so so they actually get harm similar to like a placebo effect.

Clerics: are just doctors with technology divices.

Warlocks: I like to let the players tell me how there getting powers. I like to leave this to put a little fantasy into it.

Druid: are biochemistry, genetic manipulation and altering. To wildshape spells are produce like natural abilities like putting off pheromones or producing stink glands or producing the Civic spits just biochemistry messing with somebody's bio. They try to replicate things that creatures can do in nature.

Mystic's: are just psionics.

[DivisibleByZero]

So, my players want a more sci-fi oriented campaign setting and campaign in general. I have a couple players who enjoy being casters though. Any suggestions on how to incorporate casters into this scenario while keeping them believable? Anything to keep in mind? I saw a discussion on how magic and science relates, which posed this question for me.

Easiest way to use casters in a sci-fi scenario is to simply remove "casting spells" entirely, and replace spells with tech.
Casting cure wounds? Nope, that's a med pack.
Casting scorching ray? Nope, that's a flame thrower.
Casting shield? Nope, that's a deflector field.
Casting fly? Nope, that's a jet pack.
So on and so forth.
Whenever new "spells" are gained, the character finds or builds a piece of tech that does what the spell description states.

Spells are gone.... but not really. In reality they're just refluffed.
And it makes sense. If you think about the every day things that we take for granted these days, a few years/decades/centuries ago these marvels would have seemed like magic.
I can pick up a tiny little box and speak with someone on the other side of the world, right now, instantaneously. I can use that same little box to look down on the entire world from the perspective of the gods themselves. I can use that same little box to see the face of my dead mother, or to answer any question that I have about literally anything, or to do mathematical calculations in the blink of an eye, or to take a still photo of an image, or to entertain myself with mind games, or to listen to music, or a million other things.
And that's just my cell phone!
MAGIC! That's what tech is. Or at least, that's what people decades/centuries ago would have though about every day things that we take for granted.

[Millstone85]

"The Force" is basically magic (or at least psionics) which has a rational explanation in the form of "magic is the ability to tap into an otherworldly energy field that can be manipulated in ways that defy the conventional laws of physics".Yeah, I find ambient energy fields, like the Force or the Weave, to sound very magical in a sci-fi context and very sci-fi in a magical context.

One way to emphasize the sci-fi angle would be, as maligned as that has been, to bring up the midichlorians. Do people have a measurable genetic predisposition to an effective interaction with the field? Would Subtle Spell be defied by the monitoring of one's brainwaves? Does a recent use of time stop leave a trail of chronitons? Are spells themselves five-dimensional lifeforms in a strange symbiotic relationship with organic species? And so on.

[Vogie]

Wizards - In Pathfinder's Occult Adventures, they have a class called an Occultist. Their 'magic powers' are defined by their cantrips, but any spell with a level above 0 is actually a UMD check on a magic implement that's on their person. In practice, it's the same as wizard, but in theory, it's not. Your "sci-fi" wizard, in the occultist style, by having a myriad of technology that has to "recharge" (After, say, a short or long rest), runs off consumables (not spell components) or both.

Your Floating disk or Fly spell uses antigrav, Jump is mechanized jump stilts, continual flame could be non-sickening radioactively glowing paint, Scorching ray is "cast" from a flamethrower, "magic weapon" is nanobots that reinforce and serrate the blade they're placed on, a phantom steed is closer to the lightcycles from Tron-Legacy, haste/slow are nerve stimulants/depressents, "Scrying" is hacking cameras, and so forth. You use weather machines, bombs, teleportation belts, cameras, hacking, et cetera. It makes sense that you can't swap out your "spells" on the fly, because you need the actual devices to "cast" those spells, and they can't do that in the middle of a battle... but if you've got 20 minutes, they can figure it out ("Rituals") or while everyone is resting, they can unload and reload the devices onto their person.

Sorcerers - Unlike wizards, who uses device they can swap out on a daily basis, Sorcerers have them integrated in their body. These Cyborgs are locked into a fixed number of things that are integrated into their bodies, and upgrade them only with that company's technology - Draconic, Inc, the Phoenix Foundation, the Stormborn Collective, or whatever. These integrated tech may be biohacking, grafts, nanobots, et cetera, or some combination thereof.

Clerics - These individuals have been initiated into specific companies, planets, religions or cults, and have a blend of supernatural abilities, integrated and external technology that work together. A Protection Domain Cleric, for example, have not only better force fields, but can quickly manipulate them, and are trained by a force field manufaturer; Trickery Clerics have hologram projectors, and could be entertainers or work in the military; Knowledge Clerics have wetware in their brains, and aspire to be living computers, often employed by corporations & governments alike; and so on.

Warlocks - A darker version of clerics, in the sense that these were given their tech and knowledge from something sinister - Organized crime, Alien Overlords, and even beings from beyond the Outer Rim of known space.

Druids - You could keep it as the original supernatural element, or make the class only available to sentient constructs, such as Warforged, Gearforged, and Vect - that is, they are Transformers, and the "nature" spells are refluffed as manipulating the technological world around them.