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We were discussing this topic in the staff forum, and then I realized that it might be a lot more productive to make this public and see what the prevailing opinion of the shop is!

Essentially, right now there isn't a whole lot to distinguish awakened stags/hinds from regular bucks/does in the Dreaming, aside from their increased physical attributes and statelier appearance -- a far cry from the waking world, where the difference between a stag/hind and a buck/doe is pretty huge. This got me to thinking that it might be interesting to give awakened guardians magical abilities in the Dreaming. With the addition of magic comes the need to describe it and define its limitations to rule out the possibility of abuse, so this discussion is twofold: Do you think magic for awakened guardians (in the Dreaming only) is a good idea, and if so, what should it be like?

(One note before we go any further: Some of you have mentioned or submitted contest entries about guardians who observe the natural world as a type of divination practice. In case there was any doubt, I wanted to mention upfront that that kind of thing is fine according to the present magic rules (or rather, lack thereof) -- we don't consider it a form of magic so much as a spiritual activity, as long as the results it generates remain open to interpretation. After all, humans do stuff like that IRL all the time!)

Here are some options for magical powers to get the discussion going:

• All guardians are granted a common set of minor magical abilities upon awakening. They are able to call upon the will of the forest to purify tainted water or land, cause vegetation to grow and flourish, influence the minds of wild beasts, and even heal the minor injuries and illnesses of other guardians with a mere touch. Occasionally, if they listen hard enough to the forest's rhythms, they are able to catch glimpses of truths in the Dreaming's past, present, and future.
  
  
• Once your guardian awakens, you can select one magical ability from a list of potential abilities. This one is pretty self-explanatory! Examples of potential abilities would be stuff like healing, empathy, plant growth, illusions, future-sight, etc. Elemental abilities are also a possibility here.
  
  
• Your awakened guardian's magical ability is randomized or predetermined. Awakened guardians' abilities could be determined by the shape of their totem (maybe with the option to get your totem "reforged" into a different shape upon awakening if you don't like the one you have currently) -- to make it more fun we could add a couple of additional rare totem types. Alternatively, abilities could be randomized in some other way such as a dice roll.
  
  
• You get to make up your own magical ability for your awakened guardian and submit it for approval. This one would allow for more creativity and variation among guardian abilities, but could present a higher risk of godmoding/abuse. It might also cause member strife if there are concerns about copying (either real or imagined).
  
  
• No magical powers at all!

We could also give ALL guardians magical abilities, awakened or no, and make awakened guardians' abilities more powerful or otherwise differentiated.

The above options aren't your only choices; if you have a different idea, please explain it here! In general, I'd like to avoid types of magic that seem too "human" or otherwise out of touch with the atmosphere of the Dreaming. Examples of this might be the ability to teleport, conjure fireballs, or summon objects out of nothing.

I like that idea! If it's staff-determined, we could always write up a big masterlist or 20 or so different abilities and then present each applicant with a choice of 3 or so based on what we think would suit their guardians' personality/habits the best. That way it wouldn't be TOO much work on the staff's end (as opposed to coming up a unique ability for each guardian), and the applicant would still have an element of choice as to which ability they receive.

Edit: Although in retrospect that idea (my list one, not yours) would be pretty much exactly the same as the "choose an ability from a list" option, so maybe not!

I love this idea, and I agree it would be better if guardians weren't restricted to only abilities that "matched" their personality types!

I, personally, am very concerned about copying powers.
I've had numerous character concepts and ideas stolen, and it's never fun.

I'm not saying that someone can't have a similar power, because there are only so many categories, but I think that maybe if someone were to choose a power that's very similar to one that's already being used, they should contact the owner of that pet with the power.
Just a thought on a way to prevent conflict.

I do think that we should leave power choice open to owners, however, because they have a certain character concept in mind and would probably prefer something that coincided with that. But I do like the idea of staff approval being needed, so that someone doesn't sneak by with a power that dominates all others. I think this would also promote a lot of creativity with powers, since they wouldn't be limited to a defined list or a set of number-generated powers.

Just a few thoughts!

Argh, I like this one too! I think the element of randomness would be really fun and would also ensure that the different types of abilities guardians manifest are evenly distributed. The only issue I could see arising is if the person had awful luck and none of the abilities they got even remotely suited their guardian (not even in a challenging opposite-to-their-personality way) -- maybe if that happened they could appeal their rolls and, if their case seems legitimate, we could allow them one or two extra rolls to give them a chance at something more suitable. (Bearing in mind this wouldn't occur very often.)


Probably what we'd do in a "choose your own ability" scenario is not place any restrictions on common, popular powers like healing, summoning fire, manipulating shadows, etc that are basically something along the lines of "My guardian is able to start fires."

What we would restrict to one guardian are very specific things like "My guardian divines the future by watching the movements of ladybugs on cornflowers."

Even so I do think there is still potential for drama to arise. For instance, is "my guardian influences the minds of other guardians by singing" a unique ability that we should place a restriction on or not? It's based on the Lorelei/siren myth, which is common in both fantasy and popular culture. So that could get pretty complicated, and it's something we'd have to work on!

Thanks for placing your votes, Snoof!

Yeah, you know, I've been thinking about the appeals thing and I think if we went that route it would be best to nix it entirely. While it would be nice on the very rare occasion that someone was granted permission to reroll, it might just serve to make everyone else who applied and got rejected feel angry and frustrated, even if -- or perhaps especially if -- they were just abusing the system in the hopes of getting a "cooler" ability (which I agree would probably happen). Concerns about favoritism and unfairness could arise.

Maybe instead we could give people the option to complete additional RPs to earn themselves an extra roll -- there's already an option like that in place for custom edits, so it would be easy to implement.

I like the idea of gaining new power through rp that some people have brought up. I think it would be neat if all awakened guardians started out with a basic level of abilities that are the same for all, and then based on their experiences in the Dreaming and Waking they gain additional powers. So say one deer was very interested in the stars and started learning the ability of divination through stargazing. Maybe with increased roleplay their abilities would grow and they would be able to have increased abilities in this field. (kind of like you start at "level 1", and then can progress to "level 2", "level 3", etc), similar to what Draconic suggested.
So this way gaining powers would be an rp perk, and perhaps as music suggested some stuff could also be gained through specials events, etc.

I also think Draconic's idea about the branches being able to intersect is really cool too!


But I also like the idea of giving all awakened guardians the same sort of abilities like mentioned in the first bullet (healing, plant growth, etc). And then perhaps through more rp they gain more affluence in those abilities, or choose to specialize in a field or something. This would also keep the powers from becoming too out of hand since often times powers can be difficult to keep in line when there are so many vastly different ones.

So essentially a personalization of the skill they already posess? Adding interesting and personal bells and whistles?