Random design musings:
FBH is still a little while away, but I try to do a little tooling around every so often. I have 2 kinds of Psionic careers (Kinetic, Telepath), 2 Magic careers (Occult, Arcane) and 2 Faith careers (Chosen, Devoted).
Now, each of these have representations in popular sci-fi/space opera media. What I haven’t seen is sci-fi druidic magic. I suppose that being connected to “the land” or to “nature” is quite hard in a starship or space station. I feel like it would require significant lore, just to make it work… which kinda defeats the point of the mix-and-match approach of the Archetype system. Usually the Archetype will take the two careers (Occult Engineer, Clandestine Chosen, Kinetic Technocrat) and explain the how and why that works.
In short, I’m struggling to find a druidic concept that is generic enough that it can be half of an Archetype, rather than dominating the archetype with all its unique baggage.
In a space-station you could be orbiting above ley lines or you could be drawing the previously unsuspected magical energy component of the Van Allen belts, atmospheric aurora, etc. It all ultimately comes from the Earth’s core. Only in deep space will a space-druid have nothing to latch on to. But maybe even the shape of a ship or a space-station will focus “energies” if you go out in EVA and figure out where to float to collect them. Sometimes a circular rotating space-station will be set up to have a focus INSIDE the station, usually in the central core somewhere. 🙂
I feel like the Ferengi’s view of how buyers and sellers find each other throughout space sounds pretty Druidic; a sense of “predestined interconnectivity” that appears in drips and drabs in Stargate and Battlestar Galactica. Space Druids (in this case, not a one-ness with nature but a one-ness with creation) show up in stuff, but they’re not blatant. They’re not running around in space!wolf pelts.
Off the top of my head, Nog’s spiel about how buyers and sellers find each other, the Jaffa’s meditative rituals and brink of death religious philosophies, and BSG’s “this has all happened before” all are at least space Druid lite.
A Space Druid is going to be a very polarizing archetype – the hippies will love it and the hard sci-fi purists will sneer. Were it me, I’d probably introduce a notion of layers of space (Hyperspace, Underspace, Nearspace, Farspace, whatever you want) – call them “The Attuned”, allow them to sense and manipulate forces just beyond the typical ability to measure and observe. Maybe this is more Space Shaman than Space Druid, akin to manipulating elements rather than manipulating nature. Tough problem. Also, hi all, glad to be joining the community. 🙂
If I might pose a Devil’s advocate question: why do you need druids in space archetypes for FBH?
I’m actually more drawn to the idea that Anthony Cordeiro just suggested for space!shamans here.
To be clear: I’m not saying druidic/nature magics are a necessity. Quite the opposite, since I can’t find setting-appropriate “broad-strokes” that would work. Most of the stuff I come up with is either spiritual (which falls under Chosen or Devoted) or elemental (which falls under Arcane).
If anything, I think that they could be archetypes themselves, combinations of Origin/Career/Career: Space Druid = Frontier Devoted Explorer, Space Shaman = Colonist Arcane Explorer. Or something to that effect.
What about animism, applied to the machinery of spacecraft? Like, a shaman who communes with the spirits of the ship and the ghosts in the machine?
What career would you use to adapt characters like Paul Atreides, Alia Atreides or the Bene Gesserit from Dune?
You said Druids are connected to Nature. What’s Nature in a sci-fi setting? To me it’s Matter and Void, which are two sides of the same coin. A Matter Druid can shapeshift, accelerate the healing process, boost your strength… A Void Druid can bend gravity and light, annihilate little portions of inanimate objects…
Filippo Guaitamacchi that’s cool.
Filippo Guaitamacchi Neat. I like that distinction.There are some seeds for really awesome powers, there.
Jeremy Strandberg Ok. Yeah. Absolutely. Machine Spirits is definitely a thing in space operas (Warhammer 40k’s Machine Cult, for example). The idea that “Space Druids” tend to machines and metal the way that old world Druids tended to plants and earth is… really cool.
Fantastic stuff. I think I can aggregate these ideas into something cool. Hopefully. I’ll tinker with a prototype and post it here in a day or two, see what you guys think.
Ambrosio Bierzo Prescience and prophecy is super difficult to pull off in most tabletop rpgs. It almost necessitates railroading, removing both choice of the players and randomness of the dice. I tinkered with a few prediction/prophetic abilities to fold into the Chosen career, but so far nothing has really worked to my satisfaction.
Sean Gomes I’d be tempted to model Prescience/Fortune Telling/Future Sight as fictional positioning for the vision-haver to Get Involved from a distance to help or interfere as needed to bring about a particular course of events.
Alfred Rudzki The thing that kept me from going down that part is the timing of it, and the fiction-breaking of a vision that might never happen in the narrative. There may still be design space there somewhere, but at the time I couldn’t quite find an elegant implementation.
There’s probably enough discussion to break off this thread have a separate threat about future sight / prediction in UW. I’ll start it at lunch time 🙂
Sean Gomes additional fodder for “techno druids” and the culture that surrounds it could be found in animistic or polytheistic religions. Think about Roman house gods, Santeria altars to different orishas, the super-localized deities of Hinduism, etc.
Then imagine that sort of thing playing out on a spaceship.
Yes. Yeesss. /steeples fingers
I’m folding this into the Cybermancer career (which was already lacking in diversity/options). Spirits of machinery, spirits of information/data, spirits of power/electricity.
Have you seen Jodorowsky’s Dune? There are some pretty trippy ideas revealed in his interpretation of the subject matter that may inspire you.