Rules For Descriptions...

[Darkblade]

Highly intelligent, perhaps, but do they not need to be sensitive to magic, enough to be able to sense the aura of magic?

Intelligence does not automatically mean that they are magical, or a mage, and thus I think that sensing auras of magic should be limited to those who deal with mages often, or those who study magic.

[Draklar]

Originally posted by Darkblade
Highly intelligent, perhaps, but do they not need to be sensitive to magic, enough to be able to sense the aura of magic?

Intelligence --> better interpretation of the aura.

Originally posted by Darkblade
Intelligence does not automatically mean that they are magical, or a mage, and thus I think that sensing auras of magic should be limited to those who deal with mages often, or those who study magic.

There\'s actually paradox here. If you aren\'t experienced in the field of observed character, you shouldn\'t be able to evaluate if it\'s better than you, right? Wrong.
Given you are intelligent;
If you don\'t deal with physical professions, seeing someone of above-normal strength, covered by many scars, with fierce expression on his face, will give you the impression you\'re much weaker.
If you don\'t deal with mental professions, being intelligent, you\'ll still be able to interpret the aura. And if you can sense aura of magic from other person, while you have nothing to do with the craft, then it\'s easy to assume you\'re weaker.

[Darkblade]

Originally posted by Draklar

Intelligence --> better interpretation of the aura.

Not always, intelligence is not being sensitive to magic, and thus being able to sense the aura. For example, a sage would be highly intelligent, but they often are not able to sense magical auras, at least in my experience.

In fact, I think that is what is important about mage characters, and what makes them so dangerous. You shouldn\'t be able to notice anything out of the ordinary, at least until they use their craft. And if they are walking down the street, you shouldn\'t be able to even know that they\'re a mage, unless they show off, of course.

To go on further, just because they use magic, we must understand the principals of magic... Which we don\'t. Or we\'re not being told.
I know two different types of magical systems:
For sensing an aura, you\'d have to assume that some sort of resevoir of magic is within them, something dectectable/ within them if you want to be able to sense an aura.

Or, it could be a channelling type of magic, where mages just manipulate energy, not really storing any of it in their body. And, you can reason, the greater the skill, the more energy you can channel within a time period.
This system would leave no aura, since there is no extra magic in their bodies.

Originally posted by Draklar
There\'s actually paradox here. If you aren\'t experienced in the field of observed character, you shouldn\'t be able to evaluate if it\'s better than you, right? Wrong.
Given you are intelligent;
If you don\'t deal with physical professions, seeing someone of above-normal strength, covered by many scars, with fierce expression on his face, will give you the impression you\'re much weaker.
If you don\'t deal with mental professions, being intelligent, you\'ll still be able to interpret the aura. And if you can sense aura of magic from other person, while you have nothing to do with the craft, then it\'s easy to assume you\'re weaker.

This is true, that if you know nothing of a profession, that if someone has a hint of being able to perform it, then they must be better than you at that profession.
However, the little message at the bottom is the power of the character in relation to yours (Meaing overal).
Surely a fighter will dominate the physical playing field, but a mage will dominate the mystical field. But the question is, how can we define if a character is better than another one, with such different skills, especially at first glance?

If you have similar skills, like two fighters who use melee weapons, or two mages, it could become readily apparent, if they\'re in a combat situation, or whatever situation that they work in.
But, if you walk up to them in the street, how could you tell which one is better? More importantly, how could you tell if they would be able to best you?

Even more confusing are skills that are entirely opposite, like magic and physical. A powerful mage could be a complete moron in hand to hand, but could kill someone without even batting an eye. A powerful fighter could be unable to even use magic, but be able to swipe off an enemy\'s head quite easily. But if you walk up to them in the street, how would you be able to tell which one would be able to beat the other? How can you size them up and decide which one would win all the time, or most of the time?

Surely scars and whatnot can tell you that a person has seen combat, but you still do not know if they survived it by running away, or if they did duke it out. You don\'t even know if they won or lost!

Also, abnormal strength can mean little. After all, there are professions of swordplay that rely on speed and grace, not clumsy and strong blows (Fencing, for example). Furthermore, just because someone is strong does not mean that they know how to wield a sword or axe properly.

As for magical auras, I\'m mostly against them. I refer you to the first part of this post

Intelligence can help second-guess, but it still is limited. A first glance, (for lo, that is what this description is.) will not allow people, especially in this world full of magic, to determine who is better or not.

[Radiant Memphis]

Ah, that little description; it can be deceiving. I once beat someone in three back to back duels, because he thought I was evaluated as much much weaker than him. It\'s funny because his description read to me that I should not disturb him. Alas, the dagger can be quicker than the eye it seems. Although, I was only using daggers; {30 slash} they where much quicker than his short swords (that mind you would and did in the fourth duel killed me in one hit) of which he had a much higher mastery of sword, than I my daggers.
  So, we became friends as he could not understand why it was some one so much weaker than he could so manifest such a feat. At this point I have little funny things written as such in my description; you evaluate that___ is a mear resistance to you and feel like fighting him and so on, and so forth. I and the few that have read it have found it somewhat funny. Besides it is a game of fun and role play. Sometimes misleading others can be part of the char. :O

[Draklar]

Originally posted by Darkblade
Not always, intelligence is not being sensitive to magic, and thus being able to sense the aura. For example, a sage would be highly intelligent, but they often are not able to sense magical auras, at least in my experience.

Well I assumed before the characters would sense the aura anyway. Intelligence would be used only as a way of understanding surroundings.

Originally posted by Darkblade
In fact, I think that is what is important about mage characters, and what makes them so dangerous. You shouldn\'t be able to notice anything out of the ordinary, at least until they use their craft. And if they are walking down the street, you shouldn\'t be able to even know that they\'re a mage, unless they show off, of course.

In a really realistic tabletop I played, there was the best magic system I\'ve ever seen. the mages would be changing more and more as they grew in power. Besides the usual rotting flesh for necromancers, there were new ways of showing it: Fire mages were acting agressive, their moves rapid. Their voices were getting really loud and their hair were turning red. I think their faces were showing signs of insanity too. Likewise, wind mages moved with grace, seemed unnaturally absent and so on.

Originally posted by Darkblade
This is true, that if you know nothing of a profession, that if someone has a hint of being able to perform it, then they must be better than you at that profession.
However, the little message at the bottom is the power of the character in relation to yours (Meaing overal).
Surely a fighter will dominate the physical playing field, but a mage will dominate the mystical field. But the question is, how can we define if a character is better than another one, with such different skills, especially at first glance?

First of all, I don\'t think first glance. Keep in mind it\'s at the end of description. A full one would contain characteristics seen on first glance, on closer observation and on longer observation. And just then the evaluation.
Second, if I think of tabletop situation, playing a mage of certain power, when Game Master would describe me physical look of some thug, I\'d be evaluating his strength in same way. Should I run or stand and fight? Again, low-intelligence characters aren\'t able to evaluate it.

Also, I used auras as only one of examples how this could be done. Physical look and personality of mages changing are my favorites \\o/

[Darkblade]

Originally posted by Draklar
In a really realistic tabletop I played, there was the best magic system I\'ve ever seen. the mages would be changing more and more as they grew in power. Besides the usual rotting flesh for necromancers, there were new ways of showing it: Fire mages were acting agressive, their moves rapid. Their voices were getting really loud and their hair were turning red. I think their faces were showing signs of insanity too. Likewise, wind mages moved with grace, seemed unnaturally absent and so on.

True, however I doubt that within this realm these traits are applied to the ways of magic. I\'m not saying that it\'s not a good way of doing it, but I don\'t think it belongs in the Planeshift realm.

Originally posted by Draklar
First of all, I don\'t think first glance. Keep in mind it\'s at the end of description. A full one would contain characteristics seen on first glance, on closer observation and on longer observation. And just then the evaluation.
Second, if I think of tabletop situation, playing a mage of certain power, when Game Master would describe me physical look of some thug, I\'d be evaluating his strength in same way. Should I run or stand and fight? Again, low-intelligence characters aren\'t able to evaluate it.

The reason I\'m saying first glance is that you have not had a chance to observe your opponent\'s skills in combat, ie. you can\'t truely compare their abillities to yours. It\'s still an impression, and impression oft turns out to be wrong
After all, a master swordsman can look exactly the same as a regular peasant and you\'d only know when he lops off a few heads or somesuch thing.

It just gives me a funny idea, wheras the players turn and run, simply because the creature gives them a nasty look xD

Also, it\'s my personal opinion that low-intelligence characters are able, to some degree, evaluate his opponent. You\'ll still notice that the other character is bigger than you, maybe has more grace, etc.
The difference is whether you stand and fight or not

I also point you to the fact that this evaluation is in relation to your character, and therein lies the difficulty.

Originally posted by Draklar
Also, I used auras as only one of examples how this could be done. Physical look of mages changing together with their personality are my favorites \\o/

That is one way mages could be illustrated, but it is my personal opinion to have slightly less obvious mages would make the game a bit more surprising

[Draklar]

Originally posted by Darkblade
True, however I doubt that within this realm these traits are applied to the ways of magic. I\'m not saying that it\'s not a good way of doing it, but I don\'t think it belongs in the Planeshift realm.

Well we do know Red way is connected with rage and so on (at least looking at spell examples on the website), but other than that not really.

To your other points I\'d mostly agree.