How would you explain magic in a sci-fi setting in a way that

Do what Destiny did and throw around words like "Quantum" and "Paracausal" alot.

I would use the biotics system in Mass Effect

>>53244211
I didn't play Destiny, guess I'll have to read up on it.

>>53244212
Biotics from Mass Effect are a little weak compared to what I want to go for.

>>53244200

Pull a 40k. Just say it has to do with quantum physics and parallel universes/the warp. Or you can say "sufficiently advanced technology".

I think that's all you can do to make magic seem scientific given how different they are.

>>53244211
The entire point of the magic in Destiny is that it isn't in the least bit scientific, it is pure fantasy magic with no justification or explanation behind it. "Paracausal" is a descriptor the Vex assigned to the stuff because they can't comprehend or simulate it like they can the rest of the Universe.

>>53244238
Different universe mambo-jumbo is my current explanation, I'm just looking for other possibilities.

Dimensional lensing.

>>53244200
Well how were you wanting magic to work? What applications does it have? Start making rules and laws it has to abide by. Start with the limits. That usually makes things more "realistic" and scientific.

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>>53244200
Psychic abilities has been the go-to not!magic for sci-fi for years (I think this started in the starship troopers novel, but not sure). However thats gotten kind of played out over the years.

What is the context? If this not!magic is old in the setting then the psychic thing may be your best bet. If it's new, just add a few scientists tearing their hair out trying to understand how this "superadvanced alien technology" works.

>>53244200
Roadside picnic (aka Stalker) has a pretty good stuff in it. You don't really need to explain it per se, just have scientists baffled by it and trying to offer varied hypothesis and observations (like effect that raises temperature always raises it precisely the same amount, 129.34 K).

>>53244312
I don't remember there being any psionic mumbo jumbo in the book.

Nanomachines, son.

>>53244200
Nanomachines, son.

Nanomachined and quantum effects if you want to get fancy about it.

>>53244200
femtotech

>>53244200

I dunno OP, how did they eplain all the goofy wizardy in the Dune series?

>>53244200
http://guilty-gear.wikia.com/wiki/Backyard

You could take a page from Aberrant:

>Super powers in Aberrant come from an individual's ability to manipulate energy at the "quantum" sub-atomic level. Since individuals who can do this have an imperfect understanding of quantum mechanics, their powers are limited by their subconscious and usually follow a specific "path" or are linked to a specific focus. For instance, all the powers of the nova called Anteus revolve around nature; he can teleport by stepping into a tree and out of another tree of the same type somewhere else, create new species of animals, or alter the normal course of life and death for plants and animals. All his powers follow his focus of nature. Other novas have other foci such as plasma, fire, water, shapechanging, or invulnerability.

Basically, a special node in the brain allows them to warp reality but there's only so much they can do due to lacunas in understanding their potential

>>53244772
Drugs and brain juice

Why not just rationalise it with basic scientific principles so that people just assume that it makes sense. For example take pyromancy you could rationalise that to just oxygen molecules in the air with sufficient kinetic energy to cause combustion and since kinetic energy is just molecules vibrating you just need to find a way to explain how your causing those molecules to vibrate, to that extent it could be said that say your pyromancer has say a gauntlet that can emit extremely high energy photons (packets of light) which can be controlled to a extreme degree. High energy photons when they come into contact with molecules pass on their energy to the molecules outer most electron orbital which due to Gibb's free energy law will attempt to return to their original energy level causing them to release energy in the form of more photons of a lower frequency (or wavelength) aswell as some kinetic energy. This mean that theoretically if you could release of a precise wavelength as to be absorbed by oxygen and with sufficient frequency to provide enough kinetic energy to ignite the oxygen then you can generate fire. Now if you want to get fancy you could use a series of electro-magnets to displace the oxygen molecules you just ignited and hey presto you've got a fireball!

TL:DR Magic = Science

>>53244200
What is a technomage?

Energy Manipulation

>>53244891
>>53244950
Bullshit some gene-modded organ or gland or something into existence that allows them to pull this crap off and just convert mana into calories since all that energy has to come from somewhere or depending on what your playing maybe just have have a massive deduction to stamina or fatigue or whatever to use said powers.

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>>53244975
>tfw have to eat lots of high energy foods to cast lots of spells
YOU HAVE TO EAT BIG TO CAST BIG C'MON

>>53244988
IT'S TIME TO LEAVE HUMANITY BEHIND

Quantum states

Dark matter

Shit like that.

>>53244975
>>53244988
This is actually the case in mass effect. Wizards - sorry, Biotics, get rations with like double or triple the calories.

>>53244988
So All wizards are now either fat bastards with UNLIMITED POWER! or walking skeleton that can't do shit till they find a mana potion (energy drinks)

>>53245106
This is why women make the best mages (their bodies are designed to hold fat) and why female mages are titty monsters

Literally Mana tanks

This is /tg/ 101

>>53245106
>>53245095
>>53244975
>>53244988
See: Soldier's Son trilogy by Robin Hobb

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>>53245128

>>53244200
Nanobots

Make magic obey physical laws with regards to energy use

Want to propel a pebble through someone's skull? Nothing simpler.
Want to boil a glass of water? Better have a ton of energy ready.
Want to conjure an object from pure energy? Oh we can do it. Hope you're packing the power of a sun with you.

>>53245269
Wheres the magic tho.

>>53245291
Space crystals

Morphological sympathies for stuff affecting bio-shit.

>>53245132
Does it have titty witches?

>>53244830

Well there you have it.

>>53245368
/tg/ Asking the important questions!

>>53244200

Midichlorians.

Problem solved.

>>53244247
>"Paracausal" is a descriptor the Vex assigned to the stuff because they can't comprehend or simulate it like they can the rest of the Universe.

... they found it vexing?

Are there any settings that use soley physical strength and endurance as magic-casting ability?
I always liked the concept that breaking the laws of physics as a literal feat of strength, requiring both study into the 'how to', but also an incredibly strong body that can pull it off.

It sure as fuck beats 'nyehhh i read books for 50 years so i got a big pool of non-specific, undefinable blue stuff that i can cast with freely until it runs out'.

Some device that's integrated at a cellular level that turbocharges the mitochondria to amplify the production of ATP and draws it into the device to be manipulated in some way that seems magical. The downside is it causes user fatigue quickly.

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That's just how the universe works. The laws of physics. Ask some university professor if you want to know the tiniest details, and maybe there is even a theory or two about why it's that way and not the other, but for most people it's a fact, like the fact that things fall on the ground if released from some height (some smartypants would start talking about gravity here and how it explains scientifically the phenomenon of falling, unless you ask them about underlying mechanisms of gravity (that are to gravity what gravity is to "things fall down") and why that gravity work this way and not the other).

>>53244200
Read the book "Rivers of London". It's not sci-fi, but it's a police procedural novel about a constable in London's metropolitan police being transferred to the secret division of the Met that deals with magic and supernatural crimes.

In the book's lore, magic was codified as a science by Isaac Newton and has clear rules based on the laws of physics and scientific principles. Should be a good basis for covering up your magic with science.

Maybe something like xcom2 psykers, but without the lame handheld thing they use.

>>53246091
Underated

>>53246784
Shadowrun magic is physically exhausting. Instead of a pool of magic points or a limited number of spells, each time you cast a spell you have to roll to resists exhaustion or even just plain passing out where you are.

It makes for some fun game mechanics too. There isn't anything limiting you from casting spells at a higher level, but you're less likely to pull them off and you roll for exhaustion if you succeed or not.

>I really need that guy down!
>I cast a really strong powerball!
>Oops, nothing happened and now I'm faceplanted in the street. Can someone drag my unconscious body back to the car?

>>53247607
It's a step in the right direction, but spellcasting and exhaustion are still tied to spellcasting 'ability', rather than the refinement of body

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>>53244200
Clarke's Third Law

>>53244200

That depends precisely on what kind of magic it is. What do you want it to do?

mitochondria

>>53244247
Rasputin uses the term Paracausal to describe the Darkness' initial attack doesn't he?

>>53246784
Try the Bartimaeus Trilogy

Magicians use demons for ALL their magic, but the summoning rituals are so tiring that they need good endurance and body health.

>>53244200
The universe is a simulation. Spells are just programs designed to alter the source code of reality to produce specific effects. Why can't people just rewrite the entire Earth however they want? The simulation resists large scale rewrites. You're interfering with the program, after all, so it's only possible to inject small, localized changes.

The downside is that wizards in this setting may turn out to be an actual goddamn neckbeard hacker collective who discover the true nature of reality. They are the targets of The Illuminati who are the ancient cabal of men who discovered the truth of the universe in ages past and who have been manipulating reality for their own self-aggrandizement, but the wizard's katana is long and strong. He shall tip his fedora in the direction of his foe and they shall know their reckoning is upon them.

Honestly at this point whoever is running the simulation, God or aliens or alien gods or aliens that collided with God and also a space probe, might as well just pull the plug on the whole damn thing because it's just sad.

I personally don't explain it. Just let them know that it works, usually, but the how and the why aren't well understood. Ideally mix and match a lot of pseudo scientific ideas and explanations and make it seem like many different fields of unknown bullshit as opposed to being a monolithic not-magic. Precognition is the result of a genetic mutation that allows 4/5d perception, the guy shooting lightning just had an ancient malfunctioning clarketech femtoswarm battery, and the guy talking to you inside your head is just flat out psychic,etc

>>53247988
You can always have some fun with that. Different magic using groups who all have different theories on how magic works which aren't compatible with each other, from science to pseudoscience to straight up fantasy, and they have their own methods/devices/rituals to perform magic - and yet each of their shit just works so you can't tell which, if any, is correct or if there are just different types of magic.

>>53247865
Not as far as I can recall. It uses the terms extra solar, transient, and titanomach to describe the threat.

>>53244200
Evolution that allows the user to control molecules and atoms to force change.

http://sorcerers-apprentice.wikia.com/wiki/Magic

Check out Mage, unknown armies, and Genius the transgression, OP. They all have really cool, interesting takes on the supernatural/magic in a modern setting, and if you kind of blend them together and fill in some gaps you get a pretty neat spectrum of approaches that basically range from gnostic enlightenment about the true order of the universe to being so crazy you make the universe crazy too

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>>53244200
Clarke had it backwards; any sufficiently unassuming magic is indistinguishable from technology.
If your setting is realistic and believable and there's a device that lets you control gravitons with your mind, people won't call it "magic".
They call it "physics", and they don't treat its associated technology as some mystical, separate thing from all the other tools they use.

"Magic" is just what we call technology that doesn't make sense to the reader. In a fantasy setting, Magic Missiles are a technology, but the audience feels like it's "magical" because we don't know how it works.
Am I correct in assuming that you just want to use something that fills the same narrative role as magic, and lets you use a lot of the same tropes/cliches?
If there's some device in your setting that lets people shoot lightning from their hands, all you need to do to make it feel and function like "magic" is NOT explain it. Technobabble it, at the very most.

So, your wizard-equivalent is a spacer who received expert-level training with a "pulsed graviton generator gauntlet", instead of a rifle or martial art.
The narrative equivalent to "studying metaphysics at the mage's academy" might be "taking a 'Responsible Operation of Gravitics Equipment' course at your local community college and applying for a PG3 permit".
"Keeper of eldritch knowledge beyond mortal understanding" becomes "the nerd who actually understands all the physics mumbo-jumbo behind that thing".
But as long as you keep the actual mechanisms of the device mysterious, people will understand that this is your "magic".

>>53244200
Higher-Dimension. The Cthulhu Mythos works on it.

>>53244200
>explain magic

...why?

>>53244200
>How would you explain magic in a sci-fi setting in a way that sounds at least somewhat "scientific"? It doesn't have to be hard science, just sound convincing enough to maintain my players' suspension of disbelief.
The players won't really care, for most part, unless you keeping drawing attention to it and keep it consistent.

>>53244200
Portals. There's infinite dimensions where every possibility happens. You don't conjure fire. You're just making your own world intersect with the dimension of fire. You don't shapeshift into a loli. You just swap bodies with a dimension where you're a loli. Most dimensions do not have this technology, so there's remarkably little chaos as a result.

>>53248798
>You don't shapeshift into a loli. You just swap bodies with a dimension where you're a loli.
That sounds extremely potentially awkward on several fronts, up to and including trying to switch back and finding out that your swapped body is now dead.

But then the obvious enough answer is, "WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO SWITCH BACK, BRAH!?!" Which would be the perfect time for loli Geoffrey Rush to appear and tell you, "You best start believing in Magical Realms, anon. You're in one."

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>>53244200
Don't offer any explanation just use psuedoscientific terminology to describe it. People don't need to know why it works, you just need it to appear like study of magic is being conducted in an organized and scientific manner.

Alternatively nano-machines always make for a good excuse even if it makes no actual sense.

>>53249099
Well, think of it like Rick & Morty. There's plenty of dimensions. Just find another with a body similar to yours. It doesn't have to be the original. But that is an interesting idea to make spells dangerous to try to reverse.

>>53244200
>How would you explain magic in a sci-fi setting in a way that sounds at least somewhat "scientific"?

1-They can use magic while we can't because their universe, multiverse or omniverse allow it.
1.1-Magic is like an second science that allow stuff normal science doens't allow.

2-NO gods

3-In the case there is a way to go to another universe/multiverse exist,
3.1 And if mages from this universe or multiverse we talk about here go to another universe or multiverse
3.1.1-That doesn't have magic, they will be useless.
3.1.2-With a "universe allow it" kind of magic system they will probably be useless too, unless the system is similar to them (imagine a universe created by time travel, that has just some changes).
3.1.3-If there is a crossover between this universe/multiverse and another multiverse that has average magicians (like if this was converted to gurps and used in with the multiverse system), mages from this system i am talking here will be useless as a average mages while they are in the other universe/multiverse.

>>53249917

4-Multiverse/universe teletransport magic to a different universe without the same magic system is only possible (to exist in setting/game) if its also possible with normal science.
4.1-This doesn't means that spells or whatever used to do it will be the same as the one used to travel to a universe that has the same magical system.
4.2-If a guy travel to another multiverse/universe that don't have the same magical system, he will need to go back with science or he will not be able to do it.

5-Magical items here are like mechanical magical casters they make the "second science" changes needed to make their magical stuff happen.
5.1-Those magical parts will not work in other universes/multiverses without the same system.

6-Magical Monsters, races, animals.. probably don't exist.
6.1-If they exist, they will be:
6.1.1-magical mutants
6.1.2-Group of guys mutated by magic that them, by reproduction and stuff became a normal specie. And also the evolution that came from those guys
(MAYBE)6.1.3-Scifi monsters formed by atom morphing magic (convert matter to other form of matter).
6.2-They lose their magic powers in the other universe without the same magical system (arrive there without it).
6.2.1-Scifi monsters can exist (realistic or not [if you are using a soft scifi setting]) in the other universe.

Some stuff I am not sure about my idea:
If it would be possible to have some magical inate person. Of course it would be possible to have to guys that have an easier time to learn the magical stuff in the same way some have an easier time as learning programming as some example.
How mana would work (IF the magical system would have mana).

>>53244200
Matter is energy and energy is matter. With enough effort, one can be transformed into the other.

But magic makes matter and energy appear out of what seems to be nothing, or at least nothing that we can detect.

What has been indirectly observed in the universe but can't be detected directly? Dark matter and dark energy.

Magical talent is the ability, learned or inherited, to transmute dark matter/energy into baryons. There are many ways to do it and study it.

If you want to go down the rabbit-hole of gods, extra dimensions, magical words/symbols, and so on you just need to find a way to relate it to that.

Personally, I like the idea that magical energy is impressed by living minds and those words/ideas/symbols are memetic. They work because enough people believe that they work, and people believe in them because they get results. One could invent one's own magical language, or symbols, or try to "invent" a god, but with a single lifetime and one person worth of belief, that's hard.

One day I was thinking about some similar idea (creating new magical society/system from scratch).

My idea was based on the question: "how would magic be if realistic?"

I came up with those "rules". Of course this is just some layout, this doesn't tell the very specific details of how magic would works, unless needed (so, the magic would be realistic without it).

Anyway MY wip rules:
>>53249917
>>53249934

>>53249957
Consciousness is another state of matter.
Mages manipulate this process, transferring consciousness into more material forms.

>>53244200
In the beginning there were two "proto-universes". Two points of energy and matter weaved around itself into impossible density. In theory they should have sparked and created two different universes with different rules. Two Big Bangs that each should have given a start to billions of billions of stars. But something didn't go as it should have and these two points hit each other.

The resulting conflagration was so spectacular its light, or whatever you may call it, for this energy didn't follow any of known to us rules, reached even some other universes. Two different powers raged against each other trying to overpower the "opponent". And in the end our universe was born.

Some places were, well you can say imbued, with the set of different laws. It was patchy and uneven. And lead to some pretty strange phenomena. Even today billions of years after the beginning and the powers leaking into each other we still can see this.

The most obvious example of course is the Spark. A little channel to the Second Power that living creatures acquired in the process of evolution. For some it allowed to be much faster or stronger, others could breath fire or fly without wings, and intelligent creatures could train to do more with it. It is hard. Extremely hard for people without genetic aptitude. But in theory everyone can reach for it and become achieve much more than their physical body offers to them.

>>53244200

Reality alteration via tampering with the unified field theory (of physics).

Like the Philadelphia Experiment.

>>53244200
>what is psionics

>>53244200
Clark Principle. It works on fundamental forces so complex that it's effectively magic. Actually works on quantum circuitry, precision magnetics, and chaos theory and occasionally "hacks" reality.

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>>53247924

>>53249573
That's how you get a new body you think is perfect but then find something weird stuck up your anus. That may or may not be a bonus depending on what it is and, of course, your own preferences.

>>53250791
Fair to say that this anon probably specifically wanted magic, as even in fantasy settings psionics and magic can be and often are separate.

Of course with the state of D&D these days...

>>53244221
>Biotics from Mass Effect are a little weak
Only in the games. Biotics can wreck storms and you can summon black holes.

Just make it a "new" evolution thing or "an nascent ancient power that slumbers within us"

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>>53244200
Same as PSO2, Make a nigh omniscient sentient ocean that teaches humanity solid light that is used for:
remote energy manipulation to use fire ice, lightning
spacetime manipulation for compressed space wind and weapon blades, teleports, energy into light crystal conjuring and matter to energy dissolution.

>>53252346
Oh, and why it is scientific.

Researchers at Princeton University have begun crystallizing light as part of an effort to answer fundamental questions about the physics of matter.

The researchers are not shining light through crystal – they are transforming light into crystal. As part of an effort to develop exotic materials such as room-temperature superconductors, the researchers have locked together photons, the basic element of light, so that they become fixed in place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1_pD4pJOGg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jasxikI9G-I
Endless series has "dust", which are is more or less nanobots that said Endless created very long ago and used it to power their...everything. The stuff is all over the galaxy when the games start, and the Endless are long gone. Chronologically, the games go as follows:
>Endless Dungeon
>Endless Legend
>Endless Space
>Endless Space 2 (probably)
Endless Legend is the "fantasy" game that follows a bunch of factions born from crashlanded prison/transport/whathaveyou ships that Endless Dungeon is about. People forgot how to science and it's back to bow'n'arrow with "magic" that is actually nanobots. One of the victory conditions for Legend is to build a spaceship and fuck off the planet before it dies, which it does actually do since it's an unlivable frozen wasteland in Endless Space, surrounded by a minefield

>>53248163
You're right, it's flagged as acausal rather than paracausal.

>>53244820
>manipulate energy at the "quantum" sub-atomic level
still doesn't make any sense. throwing in "quantum" usually makes things worse, and this would be better it said they could simply manipulate particles via strong force or something similar.

>>53244200

This has probably already been said but I'll say it anyway.

You ever hear about how we only use a fraction of our brains? Say some people are evolving to use more, and it let's them undestand and interact with the laws of psychics in ways normal people can't. A normal guy looks at a pyromancer and thinks it is magic. They pyromancer understands that he's manipulating energies in substances on a molecular level. Something something limited perception something something more than the there dimensions we percieve. Different people get different portions of their brains turned on and cue in to percieve different dimensions.

>>53244200
The Laundry series used fancy maths and Lovecraft. It's pretty neat but you really don't want to forget to carry the two.

"You see, everything you know about the way this universe works is correct—except for the little problem that this isn’t the only universe we have to worry about. Information can leak between one universe and another. And in a vanishingly small number of the other universes there are things that listen, and talk back—see Al-Hazred, Nietzsche, Lovecraft, Poe, et cetera. The many-angled ones, as they say, live at the bottom of the Mandelbrot set, except when a suitable incantation in the platonic realm of mathematics—computerised or otherwise—draws them forth."

Also there's fun stuff like basilisk guns. They refer to them as look-to-kill weapons because it's not about whether you see it, it's about whether it can see you.

>>53244200

Do magic based on anthropic principle and psionics.

Basically with an balance of induced stimulus, psychoactive substances, implants and an amplifier, it's possible to temporarily bend the universal constants in a short range for a short period of time. The "science" behind it involving punching holes in the fabric of the universe using densely focused observation. It's not subtle or highly controlled, You're metaphorically sucker-punching reality to magnify weak psionic quirks into a useful skill.

This also fixes the "How do you disarm the mage" problem; An amped and juiced psion can bring down buildings or vaporize tanks, but you take away his equipment and he's back to floating coins and keeping his coffee warm.

Mana particles and mana control organs.

>>53244212
Biotics is more a more scientifically plausible psychic powers.
The asari even the stereotype of "all of this one species is psychic" thing and can kinda sorta read minds, even though the description of what they do makes no sense when they do it that way.

>>53244211
Destiny is straight-up space magic, it's mentioned that both the Light and Dark (or Sky and Deep) are superordinate to the natural laws of the universe.

>>53244200
Same as always; replace 'mana/ether/etc' with 'ionic/quantum/etc'

extrapolate on certain interpretations of quantum physics - if observation itself can alter reality, what happens if someone convinces themselves of something untrue so hard that they actually percieve it? For these effects to be physical and lasting, perhaps some sort of apparatus or cybernetic enhancement or genetic engineering or drug to enhance human 'willpower' is necessary, or perhaps things like meditation could strengthen it.

>>53244248
Go the route SWN does it. People exposed to FTL travel can, with enough exposure to their parents/prenatally can channel the energies from the not!hyperspace into the material universe.

>>53244200
magic and science are two completely different things. if you can explain it, its science, if not, its magic.

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>>53244988
IF YOU WANT TO HAVE HIGH MAGIC YOU GOTTA HAVE HIGH GAINS BROTHER.

TWELVE BOTTLES OF PROTEIN
EVERY
FUCKING
DAY

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>>53252368
>mfw we could have hard light constructs in real life

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>>53244988
TEN CUPS OF CREATINE
EVERY
FUCKING
SPELL

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>>53244200
The universe runs on a set of laws.
The civilization in the setting has yet to discover all the laws.
Therefore proper utilization of those laws would seem indistinguishable from magic to them.

Personally, I'd go with several different systems that are all mutually incompatible:

>biotics-style ability to create dark matter/dark energy, and so indirectly control spacetime and gravity

>series of bioelectric organs throughout the user's body, allowing for the generation and control of strong electromagnetic fields, and general magnetism/electric fuckery

>internal nanomachine swarm that can live outside the host's body for short periods, and can temporarily alter the biochemistry of creatures the swarm has been programmed to understand

>various implanted miniaturised devices that each perform a single task, like shield generators, plasma casters, cloaking devices, etc.

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Blazblue universe had a character go on a very cheeky rant about explaining how magic works.

"Aw raggy, it seems like everybody is really leaving you out of the loop. I'm about to drop some knowledge bombs into that tiny brain of yours, but first: POP QUIZ! What is seithr? It's an artificially programmed particle. The whole world is made of the stuff. Seithr comes from the boundary where is released into our world using cauldrons. Why are they called cauldrons? Don't know, don't care. "

Literally gravity does everything weird

there I fixed your setting

Lurk on skeptic forums to find weird pseudo-science like traditional chinese medicine, quantum jibbery babble, indigo children, lizard people and pyramid kangz.

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>>53258794
>>53252368

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>>53261374
>weird pseudo-science
Clerics.

>FTL/teleportation via repeatable divine intervention.

>A new religion is founded. Minor at first, until it demonstrates a miracle which it can repeat on demand. Whenever people genuinely believing in the religion perform the specific ritual, they can ask their deity to relocate something in the universe and it actually works. Your spaceship engine consists of getting a cleric to pray a request that you get teleported to your desired destination.

>Ideally throw in a setting initially based off the real world for an interesting story of social upheaval and space exploration suddenly becoming comparatively easy.

>I'd just make every religion capable of this, so it wouldn't matter if you're asking Allah or Mercury as long as you really believe in it.

>"By the good graces of The Flying Spaghetti Monster, I beg of thee to guide our vessel with thine holiest of noodly appendages to our location so that we may partake of the righteous noodles of Dephanine V."

>Prayer-powered FTL works for pastafarians. Only for pastafarians. Heathens can be aboard the ship, but at least one Spaghetti Paladin is needed for hyperjump.

>Navigators using Meme Magic rather than Melange

>Clerics Of Kek serving as the engines for spelljammers built by SpaceX in a modern setting.

>>53244200
Stimulating the various fields to control the movement/interaction/behavior of particles. So a fireball would be just igniting a large area and sending out a force to propel it. Levitation is creating a swift change in density, or putting enough particles under something that they have enough force to move it.

>>53247988
>>53248140

I think if you want to do -magic- specifically, this is really the way to do it. I think the principle quality of magic is that it's unexplainable and mysterious. Once something is understood, in however rudimentary a fashion, it stops being magic and starts being some form of science; even if it's just alchemy-level understanding.

DON'T EXPLAIN IT

IF YOU EXPLAIN IT, IT'S NOT MAGIC

> some people have been gifted with a powerful brain's magnetic field
> with their thinking they can alterate energy/atoms/whatever is their magic

>>53244200
Manipulating extradimensional energy in ways that science cannot on grounds of said energy being exotic matter that does not obey the laws of physics, but does obey the laws of magic?

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>>53265841
Absolutely false. Sure there are times when magic just does what it wants, but some really good fiction and games rely on establishing careful rules for the functioning of magic. Where it comes from, how it works, pros and cons, limitations, etc. If you just let magic do whatever it wants cause it ain't gotta explain shit you run the risk of too much deus ex machina bs. Next thing you know some asshole is saying magic needs to be louder, angrier, and have access to a time machine and also whenever magic is not on screen, all the other characters should be asking, "Where's magic? Why isn't magic fixing all our shit with the wave of a wand?"

>>53244200
Depends on the tone if the game and how the players are willing to suspend disbelief.

Off the top of my head I'd make some sort of bullshit about magi powerset being fueled my near by stars or black holes

>>53244200
Take a real world phenomenon and then take it to an absurd extreme. For instance the Observer Effect in physics, that the act of observing something even down to the atomic level changes its behavior. In the real world this is attributed more often than not to the instruments used whose detection method imparts subtle changes. But who cares? Take it and run with it as "evidence" in your setting that observers alter outcomes, that mind very definitely has an effect over matter. This provides a solid enough fantastical explanation, in my opinion, for psionics, magic, and all manner of quantum based shenanigans. All you need to is say that it was discovered that this effect has been amped up from minute but still detectable effects to people being able to alter matter on an atomic or even subatomic level on the macro scale.

>>53244200
Telepathic Higgs field manipulation. The manipulation of the very fabric of what is through will alone through the mastering the control control of the brains own quantum micro tubules

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140116085105.htm

>>53268230
>micro tubules
Dude, stop talking about your penis.

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>>53244200 (OP)
>How would you explain magic in a sci-fi setting in a way that sounds at least somewhat "scientific"?

* Biotics in Mass Effect.
* Psionics that manipulate the substructure of the universe á la WH40k and many other settings.
* Psionics as the recently released Prey (manipulation of quantum mechanics and (the) akashic field(s).
* Nanorobotic manipulation like in Numenera, Anarchy Online and others.
* "The Force" as per Star Wars.

Honestly, there's a lot you can do. If it's my own setting, I'd make it something in-between all of them. Psionics, focused by ritual and actions, manipulating the akashic field and the underlying quantum substructure of the universe, generated by all sentient things (which is why "life force", "aural force" or "the cognitive metaconnectivity index" is so vital, i.e. why "blood magic" is so powerful).

>>53267718
While I don't think pic related's DM had much explanation for his magic he did have some rules involved and some limitations. When he temporarily handed off his powers to Eric it not only came with DM's knowledge but also his penchant for spouting wisdom (even though Eric barely understood any of it). It wasn't just the power, there was a duty component woven into it, which was interesting. Also there's a materials conservation rule in play. Yes, Dungeon Master can make water sprout from desert sands to quench his thirst but that water has to come from somewhere, and apparently the change is even worse on the other end of the spell. Basically selfish expressions of magic apparently destabilize the cosmic balance and the cost is always higher than the return.

But that was just for a single episode and it isn't entirely the most consistent show. Oh, and at one point DM had to recharge his "batteries" so he could fight Totally-Not-Satan who is Venger's terrible boss.

Basically my point is that even DM, the poster child for ain't gotta explain shit, still followed rules at least for particular episodes.

As far as scientific goes, you could have "Espers" in the way To Aru Majutsu no Index does it.

Basically Espers are created through scientific practices - their biology, brain structure, and psychology are altered such that they are able to distort their own reality (referred to as Personal Reality). Keep in mind they are distorting reality in the most micro and minute way - they are living in their own "reality".

Manipulating probability and luck in ways that defies observation or scientific explanation. Throw in references to quantum suicide as well.

At lower levels of ability, someone utilizing this magic just seems extraordinarily lucky. At higher levels, they can shoot 7 bullets out of a 6 shot revolver, survive an explosion by being in the middle of it and not being in the middle of it at the same time, go faster than the speed of light.

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>>53244200

Google Deepak Chopra and copy his "quantum!" bullshit.

>>53271366
W40k is science-fantasy, not sci-fi. "Psionics" is literally magic

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>>53244200
learn electrical engineering and the basics of computer science.

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>>53244988
Boy, I am ready to become a One Man Cheese Burger Apocalypse.
>Pic Related

>>53275750
>W40k is science-fantasy, not sci-fi. "Psionics" is literally magic

Bla bla bla. The question was regarding magic in a sci-fi setting, so it applies just fine. The fact that 40k psykers tap into an extradimensional layer of the multiverse in order to manipulate physical (and metaphysical) reality really doesn't change that.

>>53277071
Yeah I figure scifi that OP mentions includes light scifi and even fantastical scifi. If OP wants magic, albeit with science terminology to help handwave it, then there is no fucking way it's even remotely hard scifi.

>>53244200
Pulling and shaping energy/matter from alternate dimensions, if you want give a reason for spells working/existing it's because of god/angels, leftover tools from creation.

>>53267718
Creating rules for magic isn't the same as making a reason for magic to exist, no setting has a real reason for magic to exist.

It's not like Gods forming from emotions in the warp has a basis in physics, it makes sense in universe because in universe Gods form from emotions in the warp, there is no further explanation, and there doesn't need to be.

Create rules, and reasons but never try to make magic scientifically plausible it's just retarded.

Make Negentropy a legitimate force, such that the longer life exists and replicates, the more influence it'll have over the universe.

>>53282406
>Create rules, and reasons but never try to make magic scientifically plausible it's just retarded.

Explaining is not making it scientifically plausible.

Psychic powers

>>53282439
>Explaining is not making it scientifically plausible.
I literally stated this in my poorly written shitty, nonsensical, autistic post, how could you possibly miss it.

>>53244200
Manipulation of energy.
No, really, assuming the magic isn't time control or other such shiz, it is completely legitimate for it to be manipulation of energy.

Invasive physics from an alien universe that has been tapped into by some sort of inter-universal portal. People didn't have mystical souls before, but are starting to develop something akin to such, and are slowly learning to interact with these new physics with these new immaterial organs.

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Your starship's chief engineer likes to cosplay as pic related and randomly work magical terms into his technobabble. You've got no idea why he decided to become such a dedicated method actor/troll and you'd fire him on grounds of being really annoying, except he's the only one who knows how to keep the warp core from overloading.

>>53282406
>no setting has a real reason for magic to exist.
No setting needs a reason for anything specific to exist.

At any rate the topic was about explaining. "NEVER EXPLAIN" as the first post in the reply chain said never specified scientific, apparently desiring an entirely nebulous, capricious and nonsensical form of magic. However nearly all settings will nevertheless define magic. Few do so in scientific terms, unless we count haphazardly taking the word "quantum" to every other word in the explanation, but indeed defined by rules and behavior.

By all means I would concede magic has no reason to exist in any particular setting and therefore has no reason to exist scientifically. However the flip side of that coin is that there is no reason for it NOT to exist in any setting, even scientifically. Because there is no reason for a setting to exist as hard scifi or noir detective or mutants and masterminds, or, dare I risk a lightning bolt striking me down?, GURPS. Want some meta irony? Settings in their rawest state, which is "I want to make a setting" but having put down any details yet, are like unexplained, undefined magic. The best kind of magic that can be anything or everything for us to explore and play in. Eventually they must acquire rules, semblance, form as more ideas are tacked on. This is what allows or refuses certain elements, such as magic. And settings, like magic, can come in a wide variety. You can like your own unexplained non-scientific and others can enjoy their weird scifi fantasy.

>>53285963
>starship runs on physics breaking super fuel for FTL
>reactor leak
>entire engineering staff mutate into Galdalf style wizards

Okay, I can get behind this.

>>53282650
For some reason I'm imaging 4chan breaking out for the internet and invading the universe. Memes themselves warping reality.

But then some people on this site already believe that's exactly what has happened, especially if a post gets repeating numerics.

>>53287039
Not just Gandalf in terms of powers but throw in the spontaneous generation of flowing white hair, beards, and robes, floppy hat, long stemmed pipe and uncanny smoke ring blowing abilities. Yeah, I can get behind this.

Reminds me of fantasy settings where it turns out that the world is derived from scifi colony ships that usually crash land and shit like genetic engineering produces all the elves, orcs, dragons, and weird powers.

You could just take magic as it is in whatever system you want to use, spice it up with pseudoscience/sciency words, and then explain its existence as Earth and its system just happens to exist in a large dead magic zone while magic is an accepted and integral part of physics every where else. This also makes it fun for giving humans a solid quirk among other species, we're the freaks who evolved in a dead magic zone.

>>53287339
>Reminds me of fantasy settings where it turns out that the world is derived from scifi colony ships that usually crash land and shit like genetic engineering produces all the elves, orcs, dragons, and weird powers.
So, Endless Legend?

>>53288436
Dragon Rides of Pern, whatever. It's a common trope.

I do like the idea that in order to make FTL work science in one universe has tapped into what they think is a bizarre quirk in physics but it turns out that they're accidentally draining "magic" from a parallel wizard dimension. Wacky hijinks ensue.

Has anyone written that story yet?

Explain it by not explaining it.

Acknowledge the fact that our understanding of the universe is imperfect and relies on alot of good guesses. Explain that the phenominon called "magic" that enables individuals to seemingly defy logic and natural law is one of the parts that simply can't be explained with current technology.

The part that you *do* understand is dependant on the system, but say that scientists have been able to pin down rough limitations on the abilities of magic-using individuals and perhaps how they seem to use their powers, but ultimately the mechanism that allows them to do so, the exact criteria to enable a being to use magic, and the space from which they are drawing power are all still not understood.

>>53289596
>enables individuals to seemingly defy logic and natural law
Arcanum did that and explained it. Technology works by utilizing laws of physics, while magic bends the laws of physics. A complex machine works as a magic nullifier; a strong mage breaks machines by just being in the vicinity

>>53244200
>>53244221
>Biotics from Mass Effect are a little weak compared to what I want to go for.
Then what do you want to go for? If we knew what kind of magic you want to include in your games, we'd have an easier time finding ways to explain it.

>>53288684
Sort of. It's an immortality engine.

The Windrose Chronicles by Barbera Hambly.

>>53244200
A living being can through their will manipulate the fabric of reality on the smallest, most imperceptible scale. By undergoing a dangerous operation, a microcomputer implant in your brain can monitor your exertions of willpower and repeat them in patterned ways trillions of times per second, leading to noticeable effects. Your spells are thus really just a macro or script serving to amplify your latent ability to perceive and manipulate molecular motion. Bat away tachyons to alter the flow of time, excite molecules to superheat them, or simply redirect them for kinetic impact.

>>53244200
You don't, stop shoving in everything you like into one setting just because you think it would be le epick

>>53289811
"Machines" is an extremely broad term. Does the effect scale with the complexity of the machine, or do cutting edges and wheels stop working too?

While I think that's cool in concept, it prevents a Destiny-esque setting where advanced technology and magic are used concurrently. Which, IMO, makes for a much cooler story.

>>53285963
>>53287039
Less actually Galdalf, more a crazed cosplayer who the starship captain can't get rid of.

Basically this but in starfleet.
http://dilbert.com/strip/2000-04-17

>>53291576
Physics in general stops working how it should. A round cylinder starts moving erratically down a perfectly even slope in the vicinity of a magical source. Though mages are allowed to ride a train, but only way at the back of it so they don't 'cause the whole thing to start flying or tear apart or something

>>53291607
So the wizard gets fired from his job cosplaying as an office worker and can finally retire?

>>53288684
What would that be like from the fantasy world's perspective? The obvious answer is that magic just gets weaker and weaker as time goes on, but that's boring. What if the sci-fi world's "advanced" tech created some sort of shadow effect in the fantasy workd, and the inhabitants of the other world can affect how it operates by messing with the "shadows", but neither side knows what effect it's actually having on the other?

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>>53295044
That's a good point. If magic is a finite resource, sure, and if it is connected to a single location and yet an entire space empire is basically 'stealing' it ... Could be interesting. I think this was still going with the whole idea of a reactor malfunction and "magic radiation leak" and I was thinking of the idea that a ship could malfunction during a jump and accidentally wind up in the magic universe.

I haven't seen pic related posted in awhile but for awhile /tg/ had a slew of magic meets hi-tech threads that used it. Could be interesting, I guess.

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>>53295044
>>53295148
I'm trying to imagine this with the TOS crew where instead of the normal mirror universe with the goatees instead they wind up in a universe where Kirk is a paladin who keeps falling for breaking the Prime Directive but that's okay because he keeps defeating god with logic puzzles, Bones is the cantankerous cleric, Scotty is the drunken dwarf, Spock is obviously the elven bard singing about Bilbo, Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins, greatest little Hobbit of them all. Uhura is the acrobat.

>>53257337
Laundry Files has some amazing magic.

>>53244200
Literally just make up words. The tech is so advanced that we haven't even discovered and named the most basic parts of it yet.

>>53258794
And Arnold Rimmer would still be a smeghead.

>>53244200
Read the foundation series if you want to use psionic stuff. Especially starting in the 4th and 5th books there are really good explanations for how 'ordinary' and some not-so-ordinary humans develop psychic and eventually psychokinetic abilities

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>>53295240
http://joe-wright.deviantart.com/art/Far-fetched-216654448
>An elf lay in a tree, comfortably as if it was a hammock. A dwarf stoked their campfire and lit his pipe. The forest was quiet but for the rustle of leaves and the occasional hoot of owls. The night spun lazily above them.

>'Do you ever wonder who lives in the sky?' said the elf after a while.

>'Birds,' grunted the dwarf.

>'No, I mean the people up there.'

>'All the poor buggers who fell up into it, I would imagine.'

>The elf sighed. 'Where do your gods live?' he asked.

>'Our gods are wrought in stone,' replied the dwarf. 'What would they do up there? There's nothing to do, nowhere to stand.' He paused, then added 'Nothing to hit with an axe.'

>Silence again, until the elf thought he had found an angle to spark his friend's interest.

>'Do you think it would be possible to fashion some sort of boat? A sky boat?'

>The dwarf chewed his pipe in contemplation.

>'Possibly,' he conceded. 'But it would be a life's work without purpose. There's nothing up there.'

>'I disagree. I dreamt last night of all manner of creatures, warring in the stars with blades and arrows of light.' The elf breathed in deeply. 'For a moment I thought I heard the song of the celestial ether.'

>Exhaling bluish grey smoke, the dwarf regarded his friend, and wondered where he was getting these bizarre notions. Especially puzzling considering that he was doing it without the aid of bluish grey smoke of his own.

>The elf was drumming his fingers on a branch, and a red squirrel danced to his tune.

>'Can you imagine,' he said, his eyes aglow with reverie, 'sailing from star to star in a beautiful white ship, and witnessing an eternity of strange new worlds? Wouldn't that be just the most perfect thing?'

>The dwarf squinted at the sky as if he suspected it had been making fun of him behind his back.

>'I don't know,' he grumbled. 'Sounds a wee bit far-fetched to me.'

Halfway through its journey to the nearest star, every instrument on the first interstellar probe simultaneously peaked. None of the tests in high Earth orbit had ever seen so much as an unanticipated flit, so when the command center on Earth finally received the transmission nearly 10 years later, nobody understood why

However, some had an idea. Just between the oort clouds of Sol and Alpha Centauri was a small section of space less than a lightyear long which was completely free from matter. Free from normal matter, at least. It had long since been proven that galaxies were strung together by long intergalactic strands of dark matter, and it was strongly hypothesized that an intragalactic analogue to this existed between the stars. This had only remained a hypothesis, though. The space within each galaxy was far too messy for such a thing to be observed through composite maps based on the affects of gravitational lensing as its big brother was. Dark matter was also so much more uncommon than its tangible counterpart, despite the anticipation of early astronomers that the ratio was 50/50.

I was gonna go on about how strong the forces involved in keeping matter coherent must be, since the other 19/20ths of the universe is nearly undetectable. Then I was gonna start some slight asspulls and say it was due to a powerful cosmic background radiation which is so uniform that for most of human history it was literally undetectable, until mankind had manged to fold space upon itself, and in that infinitesimal point of folded space the radiation was doubled. The probe being exposed to deep space near such a point was why the instruments picked up on the radiation, being the only matter in a notable section of space for this radiation to affect. Then some of the sharper folks would put two and two together and basically become the "mages", inventing shit that can manipulate matter. But I'm outta time. I hope someone got something out of it anyway.