Author Topic: Bringing magic into the 21st century  (Read 2706 times)

Offline Polarbearguy90

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 61
    • View Profile
Bringing magic into the 21st century
« on: March 15, 2013, 10:13:41 PM »
In a game I am planning for I have a rather interesting idea. I want to make a powerful force within the magical community that represents the rapid growth of technology within the mortal world. My initial idea is that a moderately able mortal, either just under or over the power level of a sorcerer, who before his talent manifested was raised in a very tech savy family. When using new gadgets become difficult he set out in order to change this. Over months of work and a newly built computer that has as much magic runes and groundings as it does circuitry. And this he now has a computer within that works within his presence. From here he designs a program that will allow him keep track of his own magical discoveries and information. He then decides to super power the computer by binding spirits of intellect(cousins of bob) and lightning into it. During the ritual, somethings goes wrong and causes a city block blackout. This will gain the attention of my players.
             When they investigate they will find the charred corpse of the sorcerer and the computer unplugged and undamaged, the magical radiation oozing out of it. When they turn it on it will run like a normal computer(without being plugged in). If they open the program, it will bring to life a new being, a spiritual child in a sense of the guy who made it and the spirits he tried to bind to it. What i have planned is as other stories go on, this program will function much like bob, except its learning everything and keeping track of it. It will also desire things from the players, except instead of romance novels, it asks for information, mostly cds and movies. Up to a point the computer wont be connected to the internet, it wont have inbuilt wifi and will likley be at the wizard players house. However it will start asking to connect. If the players ever let it, it will leave the computer in a sense and go wild on the net. From there I was thinking that being a spirit of information, the more information it has, the more powerful it becomes, and since it will be in a sense the first magical being able to interact in direct metaphysical way with technology it has free pickings of the internet and everything connected to it. I have ideas of it growing and to the point of being able to manifest outside of the devices it inhabits and go into the never never to claim its own territory. I think it could start reproducing in a sense by there spawning magical sub programs from is self as it grows or by making 'viruses' that can infect spiritual beings and converting them into lesser tech spirits.  To reflect the rapid rate technology changes and expands in our own world, this minor spiritual being will grow to fey queen size extremely quickly, within months to years. It create a territory of the never never thats connected with and reflects the internet,  phantom city, a hybrid of tron and bladerunner in appearance, where viral entities lurk in dark alley ways or disguised as helpful spirits, strands of random programming running amoke, playful spirits who lock the souls of mortals into eternal games, buying and sell of memories or other insubstantial things all through the computer screen. Antiviral spirits run around trying to bring order to the city to no avail.This all ruled by the first of its kind, a king/queen of hardware and software. I love to see order and established, set in its ways, systems thrown into chaos, and have a being come into rapid power and stealing away portions of the never never, and changing the fabric magic seems like a nice way to do this. So...thoughts, ideas, criticisms?

Dr.FunLove

  • Guest
Re: Bringing magic into the 21st century
« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2013, 10:38:57 PM »
I like it...so if Sky.net was Bob. If you think about it, this being would be on an order of power akin to or even above the Archive - information is power and the Internet (or it's pseduo-magical equivalent) is all about information.

I myself have wanted to begin to inculde technology into the setting more meaningful. I recently watched TRON: Legacy and was fascinated by The Grid and the world created there. I definitely think the urban-fantasy nature of the setting allows for these sorts of variations.

More power to you, keep up the good work!
« Last Edit: March 15, 2013, 10:46:10 PM by Dr.FunLove »

Offline Haru

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 5520
  • Mentally unstable like a fox.
    • View Profile
Re: Bringing magic into the 21st century
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2013, 10:51:39 PM »
I'm not sure about mixing magic and technology, but building a magical computer should be possible. I've suggested so a few times myself. To connect to the internet, just have an optical connection, and you just need to teach your magical computer to interpret the signals. Though that should not keep you from implementing the way you described it, of course.

The idea of giving it a demesne is really intriguing, and reflecting the internet can be, well, disturbing, to put it lightly. I would imagine it would work sort of like a swarm, like you discribed, with the main program as the queen and the others as workers, warriors and drones. See if you can get your hands on some information about the matrix in shadowrun, it sounds like that is pretty much in the direction you are going for. Shadowrun also has the concept of a technomancer, someone who can use computer programs like wizards use spells. They can interact with the matrix just by using their mind, they don't need any devices. Would certainly fit what you are planning.
“Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”
― Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

Dr.FunLove

  • Guest
Re: Bringing magic into the 21st century
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2013, 10:53:31 PM »
And lest we forget techno-mages from Babylon 5 that use technology to simulate magic (because any sufficently advanced technology is going to look like magic to everyone else!).

Offline Mrmdubois

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1345
    • View Profile
Re: Bringing magic into the 21st century
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2013, 11:14:04 PM »
(click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: March 15, 2013, 11:24:18 PM by Mrmdubois »

Offline Haru

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 5520
  • Mentally unstable like a fox.
    • View Profile
Re: Bringing magic into the 21st century
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2013, 11:16:25 PM »
Even if it is a minor one, you might want to put up a spoiler tag there.
“Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”
― Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

Offline Mrmdubois

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1345
    • View Profile
Re: Bringing magic into the 21st century
« Reply #6 on: March 15, 2013, 11:25:52 PM »
Done.

Actually, come to think of it since supernatural critters don't foul up technology accidentally to be a technomancer you really only have to be a summoner.

Offline Polarbearguy90

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 61
    • View Profile
Re: Bringing magic into the 21st century
« Reply #7 on: March 15, 2013, 11:43:47 PM »
I will have to look into shadowrun...

Offline Mrmdubois

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1345
    • View Profile
Re: Bringing magic into the 21st century
« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2013, 04:24:25 AM »
On further reflection, although a summoner could be a technomancer he would still need to take precautions to keep from fowling up technology.  So keep a distance or power stuff off before summoning a spirit into stuff.  He probably couldn't make anything personally that would plug into technology, but there's probably entities that could help come up with the magic equivalents of USB devices and the like.

Offline Lavecki121

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1891
    • View Profile
Re: Bringing magic into the 21st century
« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2013, 03:11:21 PM »
Lots of circles around your tech.

Offline Polarbearguy90

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 61
    • View Profile
Re: Bringing magic into the 21st century
« Reply #10 on: March 16, 2013, 08:56:10 PM »
I was thinking that after the new queen of tech establishes her power(yes a she, personality a combo of GLADOS, the average redditor, and maybe a few other things but mosly caluclating with a bit if snark and anger, she and mab would likley get along if they are not after the same thing), she might make deals with mortal practitioners that would allow them to use tech without difficulty, which just having a deal with what will end up being a somewhat fey like being(maybe haven't decided) will likely be bad as well as if they take the deal their own magic will find a way to screw with them in some unpredictable fashion :P

Dr.FunLove

  • Guest
Re: Bringing magic into the 21st century
« Reply #11 on: March 16, 2013, 09:08:06 PM »
A Sponsored Magic - Technomancy in that way sounds pretty cool. That is one of the solutions I have thought of myself for the quandary of magic and technology. Though, as magic is a very flexible thing so is technology. Neither are straight lines and the setting is malleable enough to go in many directions.

I like this though polarbearguy90...do it. Doooo itttt...

Offline Mrmdubois

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1345
    • View Profile
Re: Bringing magic into the 21st century
« Reply #12 on: March 16, 2013, 10:35:08 PM »
Lots of circles around your tech.

Circles always seemed like an iffy solution to me.  A regular mortal isn't more of a conduit for magic than the necessary amount to sustain life.  Practitioners on the other hand are much bigger conduits of magic, more tends to move around with them, thus the tangible aura.  Circles can contain as well as keep out magic.  A practitioner closing himself off in a circle would be bringing more magic into it than a normal mortal which is why when Butters makes a circle he doesn't feel anything, when Harry makes one he feels it pressing in around him.  I think a magic user inside a circle would be just as likely to foul up technology as he would outside it.  More actually since he would be creating an artificially dense "atmosphere" of magic.  If just making circles around modern technology were enough then Harry and lots of other wizards would probably have been using that solution all along.

Offline Lavecki121

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1891
    • View Profile
Re: Bringing magic into the 21st century
« Reply #13 on: March 19, 2013, 03:14:09 AM »
Yea I kinda meant it so he wouldn't muck it up when he wasn't concentrating on the task. Have the circles "open" when he is using them and "closed" when he is not. Keep out stay energies

That being said I have played with the technomancer idea and really liked it. I made a electro mancer and most of his enchanted items worked like technology
« Last Edit: March 19, 2013, 03:16:08 AM by Lavecki121 »

Offline Sanctaphrax

  • White Council
  • Seriously?
  • ****
  • Posts: 12405
    • View Profile
Re: Bringing magic into the 21st century
« Reply #14 on: March 19, 2013, 03:24:33 AM »
A Sponsored Magic - Technomancy in that way sounds pretty cool.

Like this?

SUPER-SCIENCE! [-4]
Description: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic; any sufficiently defined magic is indistinguishable from technology. You're able to invent and build fantastic devices that are only dreamed about in science-fiction to create effects that blur the line between science and magic.
Sponsor: Super-Science! is sponsored by Science! itself. Science! is a semi-aware entity formed out of the scientific method and the collected knowledge of the human race.
Agenda: Science! desires to grow through the continued collective accumulation of knowledge and through the propagation of the scientific world-view. Beware, for the cold logic of Science can be used to justify any action...the same inspirations that created radiotherapy for curing cancer, first created nuclear bombs.
Evocation: Super-Science! evocations consist largely of the activation of supernatural weapons. As a result, they tend to be similar to exaggerated versions of real-life weaponry. Examples of Super-Science! evocations include homing missiles, laser blades, acidic bullets, and the like.
Thaumaturgy: Super-Science! rituals work through building machines and solving equations. If a ritual could conceivably be completed by those means, it may be cast with Super-Science!.
Evothaum: Super-Science does not grant the ability to use Thaumaturgy with the speed and methods of Evocation.
Extra Benefits: Super-Science! does not use the usual set of spellcasting skills. Resources replaces Conviction, Craftsmanship replaces Discipline and Scholarship replaces Lore for the purposes of spellcasting with Super-Science!. In addition, a character with Super-Science receives one free specialization in either Crafting power or Crafting frequency. Finally, a character with Super-Science! never accidentally hexes anything.
Drawbacks: Super-Science! evocations may not be cast without foci. Furthermore, Super-Science! foci and enchanted items are vulnerable to hexing. The difficulty is equal to Scholarship + twice the number of Enchanted Item slots invested in the item.