mhd

Re: Magic systems based on science?

And so forth.

I see what you might have done there.

Re: Races of Men

Whenever gods are taking turns or doing some other kinds of splitting the labor, there just has to be someone messing things up. Usually the trickster or the "evil one", but in this case I could easily imagine some compassionate goddess bestowing on all of them the ability to inter-breed. Therefore the people of mixed descent are under her patronage.

(Note: The "Evil One" bestowing the same gift would probably mean that the results of that aren't very nice.)

Re: Magic systems based on science?

Hmm. Perhaps using this psuedo-magic requires a brain capable of understanding computer code at an instinctive level. So all mages possess varying levels of a particular kind of computer enhanced autistic savantism.

Or computers. Some "nano infection" creates a computer with a primitive AI system within the body of the wizard. As opposed to a normal disease, this isn't about who's resistant, but who's actually susceptible, i.e. who's able to accept the neural connection. (Maybe some bad rejection syndrome is responsible for bringing back mental problems to a populace who descended from people who were eugenically "cleansed" from such problems)

This would fulfill the trop of the wizard's familiar. You're talking to your AI to translate "magical terms", and it might possess a rudimentary intelligence beyond being a more sophisticated mental command line interface. So you're talking to thin air, or if you (and/or your environment?) can't cope with that, you assume your pet is talking to you.

And within meditation, you're now fully within your "computer" environment and can meditate upon things magical. If one were to take this further, even communication ("astral space") or observation (access to orbital spy satellites) would be possible, although I won't be using that for my campaign.

Re: Magic systems based on science?

Master: "System, initiate user upgrade, user ID: Em Aitch Dee"

 

Mysterious Voice: "Confirmation code required."

 

Master: "Confirmation code: Jolt and Java Red Chicken One Seven"

 

Mysterious Voice: "Define new status User ID Em Aitch Dee"

 

Master: "User ID Em Aitch Dee status Junior Sysop"

 

Mysterious Voice: "User ID Em Aitch Dee voice confirm new status"

 

Apprentice (reading scroll): "I am Em Aitch Dee. I am a Junior Sysop"

 

Mysterious Voice: "Voice print confirmed. New status active."

 

Master: "No longer are you an apprentice; now you are a journeyman wizard in your own right, known to the spirits forever as Em Aitch Dee!"

 

Former Apprentice: "Thank you master. I know I have much to learn and I won't disappoint you."

Reminds me of the "Wizard's Bane" novel, where a computer programmer gets summoned into a fantasy world and develops a "magical programming language" to tame the pretty wild laws of sorcery there.

Features unixy stuff like "backslash cd slash grep moira exe"…

And his fairy-like familiar was called "Emac". (Nerds are allowed to groan now)

Re: Magic systems based on science?

[forget this post, thought my first one was eaten by gremlins, but it was just left open for mod approval. no need to repeat myself]

Re: Magic systems based on science?

Let me see if I understand you.

 

You want a certain class of people, "magicians," who are able to manifest powers that other people do not.

That's correct. I'm more of a fan of the "gift" approach to wizardry than simple academic study, whether we're talking about "normal" magic or this Magus Ex Machina approach. It can be done with castes (not that many knights, either), but that wouldn't prevent the typical adventurer from branching out into magic sooner or later.

Especially if the world is low-magic.

So if there are' date=' for example, machines that control climate and can even create immediate local effects like a fogbank or lightning bolt, it is not enough if they respond to any individual's expressed wish, say, if saying a certain short phrase anyone can memorize can elicit a given phenomenon. Nor is it acceptible if such machines exist but they are essentially automatic and not controlled by anyone. It should be possible for some people to deliberately manifest certain effects, but not possible for just anyone to easily do so?[/quote']

 

Yes, those are my current design limits. Never mind the background, I want to run a low fantasy campaign. Which (in my experience) works better with a more limited approach to magic. The PC wizards have to pay. No late entries. No "multi-classing into magic-user". Bonus points if wizards are weird.

 

The latter could be the result of weird, long studies (and being the only one with an education), and/or the side-effects of the genetic modifications that make you able to create your spell effects (maybe wizards "see the numbers", and thus are a bit OCD or borderline autistic).

 

Some things I've been considering:

 

• Communication is just learning an arcane programming language, but feeding the paramters is hard. Your genemod is a 3D spatial sense that allows you to quickly determine coordinates, distances etc.
  
• Communication is done by the genemod, you have to figure out the coordinates yourself. Around your wizard's tower, you're doing swell. Away from it, you have to mess around with the stars, primitive sextants etc.
  
• Instead of a genemod, you've got a crystalline communication device implanted as a third eye. They're rare, so quite often you only get it through the death of your master.
  
• Your device/mod creates a coordinate system with you as the center. To establish this and to start the communication, you require quite some energy. You can't generate this, but you're the receptacle for it. So you have to stand in the proper place where the "ley lines" (broadcast power lines) are. Better if they converge. The power grid isn't that good anymore (low/no mana areas)
  
• This time no weather control. Broadcast power, "ley lines", but your spells are done by crystalline devices that focus and redirect the power. Most of them are from old devices that haven't survived the ages. There's electrical backlash. Wizards are descendents of old energy workers and have a high electrical resistance (not in the Ohm sense), and a general "feeling" when they're close enough to a power line to activate their lenses.
  
• For the above: There are rumors of a magical academy that actually has a method of imprinting new cyrstalline spell lenses.
  

Re: Magic systems based on science?

A world that seems like a fantasy world yet isn't sounds like an idea presented in the anime series "Scrapped Princess."

I asked a similar question at rpg.net a while ago and I believe it was mentioned. Also "Genesis Survivor Gaiarth", after which I've decided to read a few books first before going back to anime (it had a character called "Queen Ayatollah", 'nuff said).

And yes, genetic imprinting seems a popular choice. Carriers of the "sysop" genetic sequence. Then the computer just listens (audio-visual or "mind-reading", depending on how close to 11 my super-science is) to their commands. I would like a bit more flavor than that, but apart from people gengineered to detect a certain visual wavelength that helps in their endeavors, I couldn't come up with a lot.

Re: Magic systems based on science?

I really don't see a big difference between psionics, magic and being bitten by a radioactive spider (i.e. comic book super powers).

I'm not going to go absolutely hard science, but I can't imagine believable biological modifications that would be sufficiently magic-like. So the power basically has to come from an external source, which is controlled by a few select people. Call it divine magic where the "gods" are the computers. (Note: No, not literally. Don't want to go all Star Trek on the campaign)

Haven't decided yet whether it's a planet, ringworld, Dyson sphere etc.. But when it was created, it had some very powerful control mechanisms installed, and even though everything went kablooey on the planet quite a while ago, the systems are still there. I don't want to open the can of worms that is transporters and replicators, but otherwise, high sci-fi is out there.

Just need a good way for wizards to check into that matrix, and more variation of spells (i.e. more planetary systems and/or neat ways to use them for your own gain).

Re: Golden Age: Past or Present?

I'm fine with either, as long as it's more a philosophical question and not the absolute Truth. I always got the feeling that Tolkien's Middle Earth was the latter, where the pinnacle was reached and now it's going down. And the Age of Men is something to lament, instead of yet another change.

If there's an ebb and flow of civilisations, that's fine for me, too. Maybe someone already did "all this" (where all this ranges from "smelted bronze" to "went to the stars"), and there has been a cataclysm in the past. Maybe there's just a short "dark age" where things aren't exactly progressing and there's even some stuff lost, but nothing that a few centuries can't cure…

The one thing I like the least in a lot of pre-fab backgrounds is something different: stagnation. If your setting is in the "middle ages" for 4000 years, there better be a damn good explanation, and preferably something that my characters can do about.

Currently prepping my next campaign (using either HERO, to which I'm pretty new apart from an old bout with 4E Champions, or the other generic point-based system.). I'm trying to generally establish the usual fantasy tropes based on a post-apocalyptic setting (way, way back, i.e. no electronical/mechanical stuff lying about). Dwarves and elves based on ancient bio-engineering, for example.

And of course, magic that literally is sufficiently advanced technology. Now, I don't want to simply exchange lightning bolts for laser pistols, if I can avoid artifacts most of the time this would be great. And no lackluster "the apocalypse created a rift between dimensions, voila, magic!" copout.

Right now I'm thinking about one branch of magic that is basically people manipulating the weather control system. This, of course, was highly advanced so local micro-climates are definitely possible without interrupting the whole world. Nevertheless, the wizards are on their towers for a reason: They have to guard their region, as neighboring mages are likely to send bad weather their way.

Another possibility would be manipulating the broadcast power and defense grid (energy explosions, force fields etc.) or some kind of nano-goo (whether that's omnipresent or wizards have to bring their own "pixie dust").

Now mechanically I don't see a big problem. Never mind the justification, you have your usual power frameworks with foci, incantations etc. I'm here looking for those justifications and neat examples.

One "problem" that is common to most of these magic subsystems is the initial perk that qualifies someone to be a mage. On the lower end, I could imagine simple knowledge of the "magic language" would be sufficient, so once you learn how to shout "WCS: 35.4 67.8 MAX SURGE EXEC." you'll be a wizardly bolt slinger. But maybe a rarer prerequisite would be fine: There has to be some kind of way to a) perceive some magical data, and connect to the system. Maybe some genetic engineering that allowed the descendants of former overseer colonists is still within the population. Not quite sure what that would be, barring wishy-washy super-science.

And yes, of course, a wizard's staff that is a comms device. But that is almost a bit too obvious. Wizards hoarding a secret formula to make gems/glass to observe obscure "sky-writing" or some way to deduce coordinates would be more up my alley.

So, anyone got some ideas? Or some neat stuff from other RPGs, novels, animes etc. that one could "borrow"?