History Main / MagicPoweredPseudoScience

* Due to the way the backstory is set up, all of the Technology in the ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'' works like this.
** The Wonders in ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression''. They explicitly don't work on actual science, and the moment a Genius starts thinking they do, his slide into the deeper end of the KarmaMeter begins.
** Much of the Technocracy's {{Magitek}} in ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension''. And even moreso the Sons of Ether, a {{Steampunk}} tradition that rebelled against the Technocracy.

Becoming an increasingly popular way to explain science-fiction style super-gizmos in SpeculativeFiction settings. It's a good way to justify why ReedRichardsIsUseless and there's NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup. These wondrous inventions cannot be mass-produced to improve mankind or make their creator a profit because they're not actual inventions so much as temporary manifestations of their subconscious superhuman abilities. Thus, application of them will usually boil down to either [[TheyFightCrime fighting crime]] or [[{{Supervillain}} committing it.]] The setting maintains the status quo of the real-world's level of technology and the GadgeteerGenius gets to keep all of their Phlebotinum to themselves and not risk becoming less unique because the Jones family can purchase his powers from UsefulNotes/{{Walmart}}.

* JohnMFord's ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' adventure "Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues". R&D scientist Willis-G-EEP-4's inventions work well on the test bench, but fail when used in the field when he isn't around. That's because their success depends on his mutant powers of Minor Telekinesis and Luck. Of course, the fact that they work ''at all'' makes them significantly more reliable than most of the equipment Troubleshooters end up with.

* Claimed by one of Bill O'Neil's backers with the [[http://www.worlditc.org/h_07_meek_spiri_000_007.htm SPIRICOM]], to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voice_phenomenon#Spiricom justify why it only worked for him.]]

* Claimed by one of Bill O'Neil's backers with the [[http://www.worlditc.org/h_07_meek_spiri_000_007.htm SPIRICOM]] to , [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voice_phenomenon#Spiricom justify why it only worked for him.]]
* The field of parapsychology known as Psychotronics is based around developing electronic devices that help psychics and espers use their powers more effectively. Early on, it was discovered that if you left out the electronics and just included a picture of the circuit board, the devices worked just as well! (In retrospect, that should have been a tip-off.)

** Much of the Technocracy's MagiTech in ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension''. And even moreso the Sons of Ether, a {{Steampunk}} tradition that rebelled against the Technocracy.

** Dr Macabre, a non-mutant MadScientist who has killed over 500 victims in his quest to unlock the secret of the classic supernatural monsters ForScience, eventually learns that [[spoiler: his 'technology' is actually powered by a spirit tham has been possessing him for decades]].

* ''Franchise/{{Ultima}}'':
** This is basically how "magic" works in the games. The methods of casting spells may differ from game to game, partly because some were set hundreds of years apart or in entirely different worlds (and sometimes multiple worlds in one game), but [[FunctionalMagic it's all about the pseudoscience]] and the Big Bad's plot and how to defeat them is almost always based on [[MagicAIsMagicA figuring out which Magic A to use]]. In addition to your typical "Magic Scientist" wizard, most of the settings also had "Healer" characters who didn't study magic full-time but specialized in the spells that fixed what ailed others.
** Depending on the needs of the plot, in ''Ultima'' continuity "Ether" is either general Applied Phlebotinum or TheForce. Spellcasters don't have an "Ether" rating but casting spells drains their personal store of {{Mana}}, which comes from the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminiferous_aether ether]]. Usually there's spells you can get just from playing through the game, which rely on the game rules, as well as rituals specifically created for the plot of each game for both the good guys and the bad guys to use, which rely on more plot-driven rules than game mechanics.

** The Wonders in ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression''.

Becoming an increasingly popular way to explain science-fiction style super-gizmos in SpeculativeFiction settings. It's a good way to justify why ReedRichardsIsUseless and there's NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup. These wondrous inventions cannot be mass-produced to improve mankind or make their creator a profit because they're not actual inventions so much as temporary manifestations of their subconscious superhuman abilities. Thus, application of them will usually boil down to either [[TheyFightCrime fighting crime]] or [[{{Supervillain}} committing it.]] The setting maintains the status quo of the real-world's level of technology and the GadgeteerGenius gets to keep all of their Phlebotinum to themselves and not risk becoming less unique because the Jones family can purchase his powers from Wal*Mart.

* [[CityOfAdventure Academy City]], the setpiece for the ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' series, boasts a training curriculum that gives its students PsychicPowers through super-science ahead of its time. [[spoiler:The dirty secret, however, is that the curriculum is actually an exercise in applied Thelemic magic, and that the General Superintendent who designed the curriculum (and who still runs the place) is none other than archmagus and Thelema founder [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Aleister Crowley]].]] In a world where Academy City's "science" is [[MagicVersusScience constantly at odds with]] actual magicians, the implications of this secret are immense.

* In ''WildCards'', Jetman and several other Aces can invent wondrous machines that only work for them, because they're just an expression of their superhuman abilities. It's mentioned in one book that when researchers cracked open the choice device of a "tech Ace," they found only schematics and apple cores.

* An unusually in-depth example in A.L. Phillip's Literature/TheQuestOfTheUnaligned. The fire-magic of aeshes can be used not only to power devices designed to run on electricity but also to give devices far more power then mundane physics would provide, or even to do things that are physically impossible, like flying cars. Interestingly, it also cuts the other way, in that MagicItems can sometimes run on electricity.

* Many of the devices built by the Mega-Intelligent Novas of ''[[TabletopGame/TrinityUniverse Aberrant]]'' operate at least partly on the inventor's subconscious manipulation of Quantum. Many can be reproduced and continue to operate without attention from their creators, but they all eventually fail spectacularly.

** Much of the Technocracy's MagiTech in ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension''.

* In an episode of ''Eureka'', a germophobic and anxiety ridden scientist causes an accident during a cellular regeneration experiment and is fired for it. He attempts to commit suicide but ends up regenerating, making him believe he finally succeeded. However, it turns out he didn't get the powers from his compound but the explosion from the accident breached the chamber containing an artifact ''pre-dating'' the Big Bang that gave him these powers.

** Rather, disturbingly any long-range communication is this. Mostly they downplay the pseudoscience in that area, and make it perfectly plain that any technology involved in interstellar communications is at most an AmplifierArtifact for the Astropath working it.

* Possibly Bill O'Neil with the [[http://www.worlditc.org/h_07_meek_spiri_000_007.htm SPIRICOM]] as it only seemed to work for him, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voice_phenomenon#Spiricom unless the whole thing was faked.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}''

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