Author Topic: Tech  (Read 6414 times)

Offline jbigelow22

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Tech
« on: June 22, 2010, 11:18:14 PM »
I think I have an explaination on why technology doesn't well with Wizards. As we know technology needs constant and specific energy in order to operate. Wizards emotions cause energy to shift and change. So when an wizard goes through life he or she continually shift thoughts and emotions causing tech failure. Presumably a magical surge protector stabilizing the energies in the area (specific to electricity) would address the issue but impeding any electrical spells. Just a thought.
Let me know if you think that makes sense.

Offline Kordeth

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Re: Tech
« Reply #1 on: June 23, 2010, 12:24:07 AM »
There's as pretty extensive discussion of this on p. 228 of Your Story, and in Grave Peril if I recall correctly Harry has Butters create a magic circle when he uses the GPS system to cut down on the likelihood of random hexing shorting it out. (I think--or did he just have Butters step well away before turning it on?)

Offline Mal_Luck

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Re: Tech
« Reply #2 on: June 23, 2010, 12:34:43 AM »
There's as pretty extensive discussion of this on p. 228 of Your Story, and in Grave Peril if I recall correctly Harry has Butters create a magic circle when he uses the GPS system to cut down on the likelihood of random hexing shorting it out. (I think--or did he just have Butters step well away before turning it on?)
Dead Beat  :P
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Offline Kordeth

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Re: Tech
« Reply #3 on: June 23, 2010, 12:36:24 AM »
Dead Beat  :P

Yeah, I always get the two death-pun-titled books mixed up.

Offline Mal_Luck

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Re: Tech
« Reply #4 on: June 23, 2010, 01:28:54 AM »
Yeah, I always get the two death-pun-titled books mixed up.
What about Death Masks:P
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Offline Kordeth

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Re: Tech
« Reply #5 on: June 23, 2010, 01:46:12 AM »
What about Death Masks:P

That one's less punny, so doesn't get lumped in. ;) I do occasionally mix up Summer Knight and White Night for the same reason, though. :)

Offline jbigelow22

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Re: Tech
« Reply #6 on: June 23, 2010, 01:51:33 AM »
Must have missed it. So then, could Harry put a stereo on a timer 5 minutes out (simple device) - wrap a circle (close it) around the stereo and get mood music or do something similar with a water heater? If that's the case, why not since a circle is supposed to take a little energy?

Offline Mal_Luck

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Re: Tech
« Reply #7 on: June 23, 2010, 02:55:55 AM »
I think the connections of the pipe to the shower would ruin the circle, same with the cord to the outlet for the stereo. Now the stereo might work if it would battery powered.
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Offline Kordeth

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Re: Tech
« Reply #8 on: June 23, 2010, 03:21:51 AM »
Must have missed it. So then, could Harry put a stereo on a timer 5 minutes out (simple device) - wrap a circle (close it) around the stereo and get mood music or do something similar with a water heater? If that's the case, why not since a circle is supposed to take a little energy?

Do you want to be around when a cockroach scuttles across that circle and suddenly days or weeks worth of pent-up wizard energy suddenly crash down on your hot water heater all at once? :) Circles are too fragile for that kind of thing.

Offline Ornithopter

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Re: Tech
« Reply #9 on: June 23, 2010, 03:25:27 AM »
I think the stereo trick should work.  Similarly, I imagine he could use a (battery-powered) computer inside a circle with one of those laser virtual keyboard things projecting out of it.  Or he could set up a projector/camera thingie inside a circle, and use a system similar to SixthSense, only bigger.  For internet, I'm thinking 4G wireless would be the best bet...

I've spent way too much time thinking about this.

FutureGameDesigner

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Re: Tech
« Reply #10 on: June 23, 2010, 04:00:37 AM »
That's mostly right.  It's not so much that technology requires consistent rules but that it requires CERTAIN rules.  Magic is the same way, but the rules of technology generally keep its effects confined...otherwise it might interfere with magic as much as magic interferes with it.  Technology has less bleed-out.  Probably the same principle as with supernatural creatures.  They're each of a singular purpose and therefore don't suffer from the seepage that follows even the best wizards.

It seems that whatever effects are leftover from spells or seep from the wizard personally tend to be assimilated by whatever other forces they interact with.  Which is why even strictly mechanical devices, even simpler ones can still be hexed.  Electronics get surged, mechanics have their momentum unbalanced, etc.  It's not so much that magic's power is incompatible but rather that if a device is already doing its job, the extra "oomph" from the adaptive power of magic overloads everything, even simple machines.  Humans aren't affected because we operate under variable and dynamic circumstances already.  Probably why wizards have so much more range than other supernaturals...humans have built-in buffers and shunts.

I'd be willing to bet that with the proper control, a wizard could power an electronic device on his own, without any outside current.  He could probably do the same with other devices, but there wouldn't be much point in that.  Usually their magic can do more than most machines.  However, there's very little in a wizard's repertoire that can compare to things like the internet.  A wizard with at least semi-reliable and unhindered access to the information superhighway would have a vast advantage.

Offline Wordmaker

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Re: Tech
« Reply #11 on: June 23, 2010, 09:20:44 AM »
Assuming a wizard has some mundane (or at least low-level practitioner) friends, the easiest way to share in listening to music or watching TV is for the wizard to have his own chair and close a circle around it, blocking his own magical energy from leaving his immediate vicinity.

I imagine that would work okay. Still inconvenient, but not as much as blowing up your friend's new HD television...

Offline Tsunami

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Re: Tech
« Reply #12 on: June 23, 2010, 11:42:23 AM »
Assuming a wizard has some mundane (or at least low-level practitioner) friends, the easiest way to share in listening to music or watching TV is for the wizard to have his own chair and close a circle around it, blocking his own magical energy from leaving his immediate vicinity.

I imagine that would work okay. Still inconvenient, but not as much as blowing up your friend's new HD television...
IIRC Jim said that's how Molly watches TV with her family.

Offline Wordmaker

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Re: Tech
« Reply #13 on: June 23, 2010, 12:28:46 PM »
Why do I suddenly have an image of little Harry jumping up onto Molly's lap right in the middle of the family watching a Cubs game and the TV getting wrecked?  :P

FutureGameDesigner

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Re: Tech
« Reply #14 on: June 23, 2010, 07:41:52 PM »
Why do I suddenly have an image of little Harry jumping up onto Molly's lap right in the middle of the family watching a Cubs game and the TV getting wrecked?  :P
Wow...one way or another it's always "Harry's" fault.  lol

Someone mentioned piping and wiring breaking a circle.  I don't believe that's the case though.  If you draw the circle over a surface and there are objects in the path that don't or can't move, drawing the circle over those still completes the circle.  What would break it is the water flowing through the pipes, most likely.  It would be complicated, but it could be possible to fashion a ring around the pipe that acts like a "hole under the fence" to draw the circle over and not be directly crossed by the water.  Since the pipe separates the water from the ring and circle, it shouldn't ground out the energies of either.  It seems that running water has to be in direct contact or close to it...at the least there can't be anything separating it from you except a step or two of distance at most.  Otherwise plumbing in modern buildings would bar the activities of most supernatural creatures.

Frankly...I think it'd be worth it to have hot showers, a furnace and A/C.