Wizard Baiting For Fun And Profit

[bibliophile20]

So, saying that wizards have a slight problem with modern technology is alot like saying that someone's "a little bit pregnant".  Bony Tony tried to use that to his advantage in Dead Beat, but failed to fully realize the arrogance of the man he was dealing with.  But his attempt to safeguard his loot using not one, but two layers of mortal tech, drove the plot quite satisfyingly. 

Thus, I've been playing with similar ideas for game plots--methods by which mortals can outfox wizards and other supernaturals by taking advantage of various mental and perceptual blind spots.  However, it doesn't seem that I'm quite canny enough, so I'm throwing this out there to see if anyone else has any ideas. 

Right now, the only thing that I've really been able to think of myself are QR Codes; freely available for both generators and readers, convenient reading of one "out in the wild" as it were, requires a smartphone, something that would last for about, oh, five minutes in Dresden's presence. 

Anyone got anything else to add to the pile?

[devonapple]

Gathering all of a GM's tricks in one place? Pretty clever!

[wyvern]

Well, one villain in my campaign has his home base set up in a basement.  On an island that's only just above sea level.  With a complex pumping system to keep all the water out.  Which means if the local Warden swings by and starts blowing things up, the place will *flood*.  Running water > magic.  Warden sans magic (hopefully) < pack of ghouls.  Not the greatest of places to *live*, really, and actually flooding the place will mess it up quite a bit - but it sure beats not having that kind of defenses when the Warden comes knocking...

[Katarn]

Traps that only stay "passive" when receiving a coded signal from several transmitters.  Also, running water and circles galore.

[UmbraLux]

Thus, I've been playing with similar ideas for game plots--methods by which mortals can outfox wizards and other supernaturals by taking advantage of various mental and perceptual blind spots.  However, it doesn't seem that I'm quite canny enough, so I'm throwing this out there to see if anyone else has any ideas. 

Electronic locks which fail closed (most do) - could be anything from a front door to a time locked safe.

Any information is easily encrypted and stored on electronic media.  Wizards could destroy it but not access it.

Alarm circuits targeted at wizards may simply be set to go off when any remote sensitive electronic item fails.

Messages passed by electronic means are probably safe from most wizards.

A building with elevator(s) but no stairs would be challenging (though would fail honest building inspections) and might end up being a trap.

[Cyberchihuahua]

A trap wired to a magic battery,

(click to show/hide)

like in Even Hand

, that causes a hex-bomb to go off. This might ensure the above fail-safes fail, OR it could mess up the technology the Wizard and his allies are carrying. Even a well made automatic rifle,  time piece, or other mechanical device could fail if deliberately hexed.

[Sanctaphrax]

Two ideas:

1. Douse the wizard with a firehose.
2. Drag the wizard onto a moving airplane, dare him to try his spellcasting.

[Slife]

2. Drag the wizard onto a moving airplane, dare him to try his spellcasting.

Sure thing.  I'm a pretty good spellcaster, and I think I can pull together a levitation spell

 
On the fly.

YEAAAAAH.


More seriously, keep data offsite and encrypted.  Do some research on what the Archive's limits are, and try to keep the nosy little girl out of your business.  Set up an area where the equivalent points in the nevernever are nasty business for just about everyone - or, ideally, are buried deep in the ground or similarly obstructed. 

Riddle the place with circles, which'll hopefully make it harder to divine even if they get past the outside.

[toturi]

Circles (thresholds) should work universally against supernaturals. How effective the circles are, are another matter.

I am not certain that wizards and technology are that uncompatible. Game mechanically, it would require the GM to compel the wizards (and other similar types) and keep doing so even after they have paid off the initial compels.

[sinker]

I am not certain that wizards and technology are that uncompatible. Game mechanically, it would require the GM to compel the wizards (and other similar types) and keep doing so even after they have paid off the initial compels.

That's really what most of these are from a mechanics standpoint. Ways to compel your wizard.

[toturi]

That's really what most of these are from a mechanics standpoint. Ways to compel your wizard.

Yes, but after the first time the wizard buys off the compel in that scene, these are going to look more like excuses to compel the wizard than simply ways to do so.

[Sitrein]

Sure thing.  I'm a pretty good spellcaster, and I think I can pull together a levitation spell

 
On the fly.

YEAAAAAH.

/facepalm lol

[Sitrein]

On a much simpler end of things, I just like setting up electronic locks that my party's wizard always tries to hex. Seriously, the guy never learns that if he just shoots off the hex button like that, I'm going to say he broke the lock and now it won't open at all.

[Richard_Chilton]

One thing to remember is the concept of "fail safe".  It doesn't mean that something won't fail, but that if it fails it will so in a safe way.

It's something that the Mythbusters will go into details about at times.  For example, if they have a large remote control vehicle (say a car or a truck) and the remote fails (signal is somehow lost) then the vehicle will stop.  That's the safest result they can think of - much better than the car speeding out of control.

Of course safe means different things to different people.  If an automatic door fails at a supermarket then the safest way to handle it is to allow people to manually open the door.  If an automatic door on a vault fails the safest way to handle it is to keep the door shut.  And all of these "go to a safe setting" bits are dependent on technology so there's no real guarantee that hexing them will make them safe.

Richard

[devonapple]

This all goes back to the question: "If a technological device is BUILT to fail, then would a Wizard's Hex make it actually work?" Hexing ultimately isn't about contrariness. It's about stuff just not working anymore. Circuits breaking. Solder points failing. Capacitors turning to inert chalk. Gremlin stuff.

I'm inclined to allow failsafes to "fail safely" always, unless the Wizard knows enough about a given failsafe to justify Hexing it accurately, or there is a compelling (Compelling?) plot reason to have it fail unsafely. An elevator has a dozen or more failsafes, several relying on simple (and presumably un-Hexable) principles of gravity, friction and inertia. But in movies, they fall all the time, because it is good theater.