Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

[cyst13]

Has anyone ever run a gameworld in which the only available magic has only one effect? Specifically, I was pondering medieval Europe with the addition only of gate magic. Certain talented individuals who have been trained in the art of gate magic can set up teleportation gates to allow individuals or large groups to instantly jump hundreds or even thousands of miles. Other than that, there is absolutely no magic or other fantastic elements. How would this one aspect affect medieval Europe politically, militarily, culturally, and religiously?

 

Any comments about either Europe or any other setting in which you've used a single-aspect magic system would be most appreciated.

[John Desmarais]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

Has anyone ever run a gameworld in which the only available magic has only one effect? Specifically, I was pondering medieval Europe with the addition only of gate magic. Certain talented individuals who have been trained in the art of gate magic can set up teleportation gates to allow individuals or large groups to instantly jump hundreds or even thousands of miles. Other than that, there is absolutely no magic or other fantastic elements. How would this one aspect affect medieval Europe politically, militarily, culturally, and religiously?

 

Any comments about either Europe or any other setting in which you've used a single-aspect magic system would be most appreciated.

 

I would probably not refer to it as magic. Instead, I would call the gates a naturally occuring phenomenon that certain people has an ability to control. Once you start calling magic, some players can get into a certain rpg mind-set: If one type of magic exists, so must others. Which at best can be a nuisance, and at worst can constantly side-track your campaign.

 

As for the impact on society, I would think that the biggest change would scale. Expansionist cultures will expand farther, colonial cultures will colonize further from their center, exploratory cultures will explorer farther from home, etc, etc.

 

Also, on the economic front, unless opening gates is hard and the talent is rare, for the most part there will be no "expensive because it's exotic and from far way" type of items. (England will have spices )

 

No doubt, there will be at least one religion that will claim the gates are a way to heaven, and another that will proclaim them to be doorways to hell.

[Outsider]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

How much it will impact the society will also depend on just how common the gate makers are, and what, precisely, the limits on forming gates might be.

 

Are they so rare that only monarchs have access to them, or are they so common that there is probably one in every good sized village?

 

How precise are their gates? Can they, for example, create a gate that opens in a specific room in a castle, or can they only guarantee that their gate will open "somewhere in the vicinity of" the target location? Does the exact end location of the gate depend on how far it is from the start location? If it is precise enough and common enough, one will not see castles as we know them develop, unless, perhaps, one gatemaker can prevent another from forming a gate within an area large enough to encompass at least a castle.

 

Or perhaps the gate requires a gate maker on both ends? This would greatly reduce the tactical military potential of the gates, but preserve their strategic importance. One could not just gate past someone's castle walls. If one gate maker cannot prevent another from forming a gate, AND it requires a gatemaker on either end, Castles become even more formidable obstacles, as they cannot be starved out any longer, and can be reinforced with ease.

 

Are people who can make gates distinctive in an undisguisable or difficult to disguise way? If it takes a gatemaker on both ends of the gate this becomes an important issue. If they are distinctive (even if only to other gate makers) then sneaking a maker into enemy territory/strongholds to set up a later invasion becomes less than practical.

 

Can a gate maker maker a gate to enywhere, or is he limited to places he himself has been? Places he has heard of? Places that he has a pound of soil from? Do both ends of the gate have to be in air at the surface of the earth? If not, could one put the destination end high in the air, underwater, underground, or even in space? If so, can objects pass through the gate without being carried by a living being (ie, a deep underwater gate would have water under high pressure rush from destination to entrance, one high in the air would have atmosphere rush from entrance to destination) Could one form a gate ABOVE an enemy fortification and push boulders through, or have archers lean through and shoot people?

 

Or is it not so much a standing gate, as a AoE teleportation (ie, you're here, then you're there, without any inbetween)

[cyst13]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

Outsider,

 

Wow! That was some incisive commentary. You've given me a lot to think about. Just goes to show that even a single change in the nature of reality can have profound consequences.

[sbarron]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

I could easily see the people who could create or use gates forming a guild similar to the Spacer's Guild in Dune. The guild would regulate all use of gates, and probably place themselves outside (above?) of any political or national relationships.

 

In this way, they could control trade, could make or break any nations during wars, and pretty much make everyone pay through the nose for their services.

 

Just thinking out loud here.

[Outsider]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

Thats definitely a possibility also, sbarron.

 

If the gatemakers have been around long enough, and are common enough, they could also stunt the development of certain technologies.

 

Ship building, certainly, would be more basic, as there would have been no real necessity to develop it. Freight/trade wouldnt necessarily move by sea anymore. And given that the development of warships, whose real purpose is to deny the use of the sea as a highway to an enemy's trade, would not develop either. There might still be boats, but probably no ships.

 

The building of wagons and roads might be retarded as well. Again, because they arent really needed. If every decent size town has a gatemaker, each of them will become the hub of a small network of paths, tracks and lanes sufficient to carry goods to and from the local villages in relatively small sized lumps. No high roads connecting the great cities in this world.

 

All the sciences and areas of knowledge that got a boost from travel/shipping/prevention of same related tech might be behind as well. Navigation and Astronomy and Architecture (no strong bridges or aqueducts, or possibly military fortifications needed) would be stunted, at the very least.

 

Another interesting thing I just thought of... IF non-gate travel tech is going to be stunted AND Gate makers can only go somewhere they've been/have soil from/have a known gatemaker at, then contact with remote islands or continents would be considerably delayed. There would be no great age of exploration by sail, since there is no sail, and no real motivation to find a 'shorter' way to the orient. One could even end up with a society in the old world that is in most ways modern, but that has never discovered the new world!

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

There would be no great age of exploration by sail' date=' since there is no sail, and no real motivation to find a 'shorter' way to the orient. One could even end up with a society in the old world that is in most ways modern, but that has never discovered the new world![/quote']

 

But the premium on discovering new places for gatemakers would be immense. If they were the only person that 'knew' a place then they would have an effective monopoly for a while. So a different age of exploration and a different pattern of contact and colonisation.

 

I was also wondering whether the gatemakers would be able to interact. As has been pointed out, warships were developed to prevent the use of trade lanes by competitors. What would be possible in disrupting the formation of gates - or diverting them - or even bushwhacking those travelling by gate.

 

A lot of possibilities - probably all developed during a campaign as 'new' things are precisely what PCs were made for in the first place.

 

 

Doc

[cyst13]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

I'm wondering how the gates would affect population distribution. Let's assume you have to get somewhere the traditional way first, and then create a gate there. So you can't just pop around to anywhere on the planet. Also, creating gates is expensive and difficult. So only large guilds or city govts. or kingdoms can afford to finance them. This would probably mean that the great majority of gates would be erected in population centers (ie cities, towns, castles). What would that leave in between? It's already been mentioned that roads would fall into disrepair. Would this also retard the incentive for people to build in undeveloped areas? Would this allow for a greater proportion of wilderness areas between pop. centers?

[StGrimblefig]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

Has anyone ever run a gameworld in which the only available magic has only one effect? Specifically' date=' I was pondering medieval Europe with the addition only of gate magic.[/quote']

 

I cannot say that I have used this gimmick before, but it has some interesting possibilities, depending upon when in history the magic became available and how many people can perform it. Of course, a lot depends upon what kind of campaign you and/or your players want to run.

 

If you want a straightforward action campaign, make the gate magic well-known and plentiful, and figure out the esoteric details of the "technology," so that your players can push their limits. You could have warfare, gate chase scenes, a murder mystery or whatever else tickles your fancy. The gate mages could be public utilites of sorts -- registered, bonded or whtever, to keep them neutral to all issues not regarding transportation. For this to be the case, the magic would have to have been developed long ago to be so well-understood and plentiful, and Outsider's comment would definitely be applicable for societal changes.

 

If you want a more intrigue-centered game, make the gates known only to princes and kings. Their agents, guards and diplomats use them to expedite matters of state, but they are unwilling (or unable) to use them more widely. Perhaps the gate castings are extremely difficult and fatigueing, or the process that the mages use to cast them makes them unable to do anything else (like the Guild Navigators in Dune). Perhaps the casting makes the mage obvious, or otherwise puts him/her at risk of attack or identification. How does a ruler keep control over someone who can create teleportation gates? How can a king prevent his gate mage from being bribed, threatened or otherwise coerced into gating an assassin into his bedchambers? Keep him/her out of sight as much as possible, use his services only when necessary and do everything you can to identify your opponent's gate mages and steal/kill/neutralize him.

 

For another angle, perhaps the gate mages are formed into a secret society, and jealously guard their secret from all but a chosen few. This would put them in the role of kingmakers and power brokers, conspiring to control the direction of history. Their motives could be anything from benign to malevolent -- trying to drag humanity out of its barbaric origins to an enlightened (dare I say 'Illuminated') future, or power for its own sake with the fringe benefits that go along with it. Of course, some measure of their time and effort would have to be concerned with finding and recruiting any others with the "talent." You could even tie this in with a little research into the Knights Templar or some other conspiracy theory favorite to weird your players out with an alternate viewpoint of history.

 

Very interesting idea.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

For another angle' date=' perhaps the gate mages are formed into a secret society, and jealously guard their secret from all but a chosen few. This would put them in the role of kingmakers and power brokers, conspiring to control the direction of history. [/quote']

 

Almost like the Catholic Church in medieval times. No legitimacy without their support...or a whacking great army!!

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

I'm wondering how the gates would affect population distribution. Let's assume you have to get somewhere the traditional way first' date=' and then create a gate there. So you can't just pop around to anywhere on the planet. Also, creating gates is expensive and difficult. So only large guilds or city govts. or kingdoms can afford to finance them. This would probably mean that the great majority of gates would be erected in population centers (ie cities, towns, castles). What would that leave in between? It's already been mentioned that roads would fall into disrepair. Would this also retard the incentive for people to build in undeveloped areas? Would this allow for a greater proportion of wilderness areas between pop. centers?[/quote']

 

I think the main effect would be in the main highways. You would have a more parochial transport system - something needs to be there for the transport of basics such as food and materials from where they are produced to where they become manufactured goods. Those manufactured goods would possibly be high value enough to warrant gate travel. Corn would probably not.

 

Kingdoms might deliberately ban the construction of main highways, after all they would be the main thoroughfare for an invading army. If you can deny such an army easy travel into the heartlands then you have a tactical advantage and require expensive gate travel to be used instead...

[tarragon]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

Has anyone ever run a gameworld in which the only available magic has only one effect?

 

Answering the generic question, and not the specific question, this is a lot like the speculation involved in any alternative history. There are a lot f resources for steam punk alternative realities that answer similar questions. What happens if Babbage finished his calculating engine? What happens if internal combustion engines never develop? What happens if the steam engine is developed 500 years earlier?

 

You might want to look at some of the steam punk resources, like Gurps Steampunk for the kinds of things that need to be thought about to develop your history.

 

For the gates example I like Outsiders writeup. I like the idea that gate makers needed to have seen both ends of their gates. To me that implies several things:

* there would be a few incredibly well funded expeditions to discover new territories

* there may never be any long range transport, so long range transport may never become "safe"

* opening a new area and controlling the only way in could be very valuable until other gates get opened into it and the value drops drastically.

 

This will make constant dangerous exploration a career for certain gate makers.

[Outsider]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

Here is another variation...

 

Nearly EVERYONE can create gates, even the peasants. The thing is, very few people can create gates that will actually carry a person, or send the target very far. A typical peasant might be able to send a few pounds a few miles. Great for emptying the chamberpot, but not world shaking. Some people, however, can send great distances, or great masses, and are much sought after. A very few people indeed can send both great distances AND great masses, and their services are reserved for kings.

 

Actually... Aside from stunting the development of plumbing... This variation would almost certainly increase literacy, since it would allow for fast communication via the sending of notes. Long distance communication could be via long gates, or by way of a short gate relay. In either case, improved communications might make long lasting, strong central government over LARGE areas viable in an otherwise "medieval" setting. Small, but common gates = telegraph.

[cyst13]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

I can see why you would liken your scenario to a telegraph, but I'm not so sure it would provide incentive for the peasants to learn to read. Since the peasants would not be capable of sending people or large items through the gates, it would likely be of limited use for them. Their lives would likely continue to center on their native village, the rest of the world being a mere interesting curiosity. Literacy among the lower classes would require not only the incentive to read, but the resources to teach.

 

All said, though, you've done a remarkably fine job of extrapolating onto a richly imagined world. I applaud you, sir.

[Outsider]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

It doesnt take much in the way of resources to teach someone to read and write. Time, mostly, plus a slate and chalk. Time is available to peasants in the non-crop tending season, and shipping small slates/chalk becomes a LOT cheaper if they can just be gated about. The real expense in writing is durable materials. Good, strong parchment/paper that is extremely light for its strength, and Ink that doesnt bleed or fade, costs money. But you need them if what you've writted is going to survive the passage of time and the rough handling it might see during delivery. If you can write on something fragile with something ephemeral, and just gate it directly to the intended recipient before it deteriorates, most of the expense goes away. The peasants wouldnt necessarily be reading literature, or be truly 'literate' in today's sense of the word. Maybe they would have the equivalient of a lower gradeschool level of literacy.

 

 

Or...

Maybe the peasants use a complex system of signs that arent actually representations of spoken language per se (an alphabet), but run more along the lines of certain symbols representing certain words/concepts (ideograms). They would likely have a written vocabulary consisting of several 100 characters, enough for day to day chatter, and to set up a time to meet in person for those times they have more to say than they have the ability to write. If writing materials are still too hard to come by, the peasants might just use small objects commonly found in their environment as the ideograms, and either send them in series, or arrange a cheap, reusable way to send them in an arrangement all at once. All of the local people would probably have a particular trinket/object that represents them in communications. Certain other objects might represent common verbs, and others nouns. If the ability to gate small objects to each other isnt just suddenly introduced, but instead has always been around, communications by this means would almost certainly have a long history, and have developed to a fairly elaborate state.

[dbsousa]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

If every peasant had the ability to gate a letter to a destination of his or her choosing at will, the effect would be like the cell phone or e-mail explosion of today. Many letters, sent locally, more out of habit than convenience. Every household would receive dozens of letters saying "Increase thy Manhood without Darke Magickes." and "Sende this letter to ten friendes to avoide the plague." each day.

[Outsider]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

I would set it up as a teleportation usable as an attack, megascale (only 1 or 2 levels for peasants), only to fixed locations. And add in a new limitation (-1/4 per level) "half mass" (peasants usually have 2+ levels of it) Then give each person a number of fixed locations related to their INT and their age (usually particular people, wherever they might be, and maybe very familiar places also) Highly talented Gatemakers might have more levels of megascale, extra mass adder instead of lower mass limitation, and maybe floating locations.

 

No mass mailings this way, though there could still be chain letters. To get a letter to someone you dont have as a location yourself would require sending it through a chain of intermediaries. Knowing all the intermediary chains in the local area (usually family) would be valuable! Farmer White : "No, I cant send to Farmer Black myself, but my wife's sister is married to his cousin, who can send on to his mother, who can then send to her sister, and on down to him."

[StGrimblefig]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

Here is another variation...

 

Nearly EVERYONE can create gates, even the peasants. ...

 

Actually... Aside from stunting the development of plumbing... This variation would almost certainly increase literacy, since it would allow for fast communication via the sending of notes. Long distance communication could be via long gates, or by way of a short gate relay. In either case, improved communications might make long lasting, strong central government over LARGE areas viable in an otherwise "medieval" setting. Small, but common gates = telegraph.

You are forgetting that in medieval times, it was in the royalty's best interest to keep the peasants uneducated and/or illiterate. It made it more difficult for the peasants to realize how much the local lord depended upon the peasants for his way of life. That was a large part of how they kept in power for so long.

 

If a lord of a fief believed that everyone being able to create these gates would erode that power base by increasing the literacy of the people, he might possibly demonize the ability (with the help of the church, as they had just about as much to lose), and make it illegal to practice it. With both the royalty and the church behind the belief that the ability is evil, most peasants would likely not try it.

 

And, if only royalty and the church are able to practice it, their ability to control the population is magnified. With the ability to send troops instantly to any point in your realm, counterinsurgency is made a lot easier. Guerilla tactics are less useful, since any strike could be reported and troops dispatched to the site within mere minutes. Unless, of course, the first target of the strike would be the main gate mage at the site. But, if the peasants were told by their lord and the local priest that the ability was evil, and not to be practiced by law abiding, God-fearing people, who would believe that the lord himself had people in his employ that used the ability? Only, perhaps, a deposed noble who was leading a small band of men against a corrupt nobleman (a la Robin Hood).

[Outsider]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

If the ability to make gates suddenly manifested in a limited number of people in an already established medieval society, yes, those in power would almost certainly try to suppress it. What I was envisioning was a society that has developed from its earliest stages in the presence of everyone being able to create more or less powerful gates. A political or religious power that came along and tried to suppress gatemaking would have a hard time doing so in this case.

 

And I am also presupposing that in such a society a form of gate communication via "literacy" of one form or another would already be in place from those earliest stages. The natuaral communications hierarchy would be : Whisper => Speak => Shout => Gate.

[cyst13]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

Outsider,

 

Assuming your intuition is correct and gates do promote near-universal literacy, what effect would this have on politics and religion. Would this initiate the Rennaisance sooner? Would a literate society foster a greater rate of social and technological change? How dangerous would literate peasants be to the medieval hierarchy?

[Outsider]

Re: Implications of single-aspect magic on game worlds

 

It depends on the kind of literacy, I think.

 

If it is the later variety, where the peasants have a 'vocabulary' of only a few 100 words sufficient for the transmission of basic ideas, and they are 'written' by means of arranging in series small objects found in their environment, then religion would be impacted hardly at all. Not only is the gate-speech is a kind of pidgin, and too limited in its expressive breadth to translate the bible (or any equivalent religious tome) into, but it is also very much a manual enterprise, not lending itself easily to any sort of mass 'printing', which is really what broke open religion in medieval/renaissance Europe. While someone might translate the bible from 'high language' into the vulgate, the peasants arent actually literate in the vulgate... only in 'gatespeak'. And even if 'gatespeak' were broad enough to translate the Bible into, the resulting collection of pebbles, twigs, acorns, and so on, would be too bulky for most peasants to gate. They might be able to send a verse or two at a time, but the whole Bible would take far too long. Political slogans and propoganda, being a good deal less complex than religion, might viably be distribued in 'gatespeak' though, so even this limited form of 'literacy' would probably make the peasants a far less politically isolated group.

 

The other variety, where the peasants have a large 'written' vocabulary that can be actually written in the way we think of writing, will have an impact on religion and politics that depends largely on the writing materials and technology available to the peasants and the society in general. If the materials available to the peasants are ephemeral in nature, such that every 2 or 3 times the writing is transmitted it has to be rewritten entirely, the impact will be low. If the peasants have access (directly or indirectly) to durable wrinting materials, the impact will be increased, and the peasants will become a more politically (and religiously) active class. If the printing press has been invented, then the impact will be enormous. The peasant gate network would be a very difficult to suppress means for the distribution of heretical or revolutionary ideas. Basically, increased literacy among the common people and them having the means to communicate quickly across great distances, would make for a political and possibly religious scene that looked a lot more like the 16th-19th centuries than the 11th to 15th.

 

Basically, if you have truly literate peasants, you wont have a really medieval society anymore, even if the height of military power is still an armored man with a lance, atop a great big armored horse.