Hi Dark, Well, I have my own mixed feelings about science. I personally love science, have always been interested in it since I can remember,and I do think it is the best way mankind has found for gathering knowledge about our environment we live in. However, that said, I'll be the first to admit science is far from perfect. There are a number of subjects that science is incapable of explaining.
For example, the subject of life after death. Human beings have believed in some sort of afterlife for as long as there has been recorded history. Yet, the scientific answer is that the concept of an afterlife is wishful thinking. Problem is that science has no evidence to base that conclusion on any more than a religious person has evidence there is an afterlife. Its one of those kinds of questions that can't be proven or disproved through science alone. The real reason science claims there is no afterlife is because of the world view science has adopted regarding the origins of life. Most biologists will tell you that we pretty much started out as single celled organisms, and after billions of years evolved into human beings. Fine, but how did life begin in the first place? No one really knows that answer for sure. Its still one of sciences unsolved mysteries, and I'm not at all sure they will find the answers to that question. However, because science has concluded we all evolved through some natural means therefore there can be no afterlife. There isn't enough evidence to prove either theory as yet. Despite sciences shortcomings there is quite a lot science can and does explain. Just like anything else there is good solid science and bad science out there. A person simply has to be intelligent enough to see the difference between the two. So what does all this have to do with gaming? I'm all for using imagination, creativity, but there are certain aspects in science fiction I find unbelievable simply because it defies certain scientific laws I happen to know is true. Of course, science and a good story aren't totally compatible, and here is a case in point. You are sitting at the helm of a starship. The captain orders that you engage the FTL drive. The second your hand accesses the controls the ship enters light speed and you are turned into mush. What happened? Its simple. The faster you travel the greater the mass of the spaceship and the people living on board it. The inertia and g-forces would crush anything living into mush long before the spaceship reached light speed. However, while this is proven fact scientifically its not very practical in terms of a good SF story. The only way to get around this problem is to come up with some sort of clever device that is scientifically plausible. On Star Trek, for example, they created something called an inertial dampener that somehow keeps the inertia and gravity consistent during space flight. We don't know how this would work in reality, but it does explain why the crew isn't turned into mush when flying from planet to planet. In short, I guess what I meant to saying my prior e-mail is that anything I do in a RPG game should be scientifically plausible. It may not necessarily agree with science as we understand it today, but those things are explained in a way that could be plausible enough to be believable. With a story like He Man that's actually a bit of a different situation than your normal piece of SF because it all takes place on an alien planet that is quite different from our own. Who says magic doesn't occur somewhere else in the galaxy? In any case the uniqueness of the story, characters, etc really took presidents over realism. I think that is because it was primarily meant to be taken as fantasy, completely imagination, rather than attempting to be scientifically plausible the way something like Star Trek was. The SF elements in He Man were simply added into the fantasy setting rather than simply being classic science fiction in of themselves. As to the questions you had about He-Man many of the answers were actually answered in She-Ra, a spin-off series, that picked up where He-Man left off. For example, in the pilot episode, "Secret of the Sword," He-Man is summoned to Castle Grayskull after the Sorceress has a bad dream and wakes up to find a power sword floating above her head. Its identical to He-Man's power sword accept it has a jewel set below the blade. Once He-Man arrives at Grayskull she sends him through the mysterious portal that opens to find the one the sword is intended for. As it turns out it happens to be his long lost sister, Princess Adora, who was kidnapped by Hordak 20 years earlier. He-Man brings Adora back to Grayskull where the Sorceress explains to them both the events of the great war between King Randor and the Horde, and during that telling she reveals who Skeletor was and how he became disfigured. So the historical back story of Skeletor in the2002 series is actually a reinvention of Skeletor rather than the original cannon. As for Grayskull that was explained in one of the original He-Man episodes. I don't recall which one off hand, but Grayskull is the source of magic on Eternia. It also is where all the wisdom of the Counsel of Elders was kept. Therefore the person who inhabits the castle, is the keeper of its secrets, is the most powerful person on Eternia. What Skeletor never understood, though, is that only a person with great honesty and integrity can ever use the magic of Grayskull. For example, in one episode the Sorceress tells He Man her story on how she became the Sorceress and the Keeper of Grayskull. Centuries before He Man begins she was a peasant girl named Teela, and her village is attacked by an evil group of aliens from another dimension. She escapes and ends up at Castle Grayskull. The original Sorceress was old and unable to help, and was near death. She tells Teela, AKA the current Sorceress, that if her intentions are honest and good, that she is willing to serve Eternia, to use the powers given her for good she would succeed her as the Keeper of Grayskull. Naturally she agrees and assumes the powers of the Sorceress of Grayskull, and kicks the villains off Eternia. So that's the story. Now, I've always thought it was interesting the Sorceress's real name is Teela, and I suppose that makes sense since He-Man's friend Teela is the Sorceress's daughter. Man-At-Arms simply named her after her mother. Cheers! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
