Ah. Now there’s a good question.
When the metaphysics of a fictional world are brought into question, the players and the GM defer to the established norms: In D&D, all magic should be of one of eight schools, which gives hints to its nature, capabilities and limits; in Blades in the Dark all spirits are, in essence, semi-electrical, so they can be affected in ways that would make sense with magnetics and electricity in the real world; etc.
(There’s a lot to be said about the difference between these two, like how the first encourages referring to a formalised structure which allows for easy classification of power levels, while the second encourages improvised decisions according to an example-based ladder of magnitude, but that’s for another time)
In Crystal Heart, magic works along the basic lines of Savage Worlds with a specific Crystal variety (which has No Power Points, trappings which revolve around a theme, etc.). But in our case, magic is also connected directly to a truth about the world that wouldn’t normally be addressed in other worlds – the nature of human biology and consciousness – and it contradicts it.
It’s known in the world (and reiterated in the RPG) that the human mind resides mostly in the brain, but with at least some aspects of the personality and memories residing in the heart. For example, this happened. But we just learned that this situation might not be natural – humans are actually a byproduct of another sentient species, which is weird an still not fully understood. So what is natural? Does this mean we can use our real-world connotations? That means that maybe the brain could be the “truest” place of consciousness, and so, there might be some process that moves the entire mind “back” there, with not heart involved.
There’s actually a sort-of an answer in the RPG. Our players will need to discuss this some more, though.
Aviv Streamed Another Page!
Here’s a great reason to follow Aviv’s Twitch channel: Sometimes she draws a page on stream! Watch her doing so and chatting with chat.
Last Chance on Game and Merch!
We have some leftover stock from our Kickstarter on Amazon.com. Most of this is stuff we only sell personally in local conventions (that is, in the UK), so it’s a pretty rare opportunity to get it if you’re based in the US!
