Brainstorming: Lord of the...WTF?!?!

[Riley37]

I misunderstood the intention there.

Carry on in that case

When I put "because subtlety is the notable trait of Hammer movies" as an aside, with ellipsis (...) before and afterwards, I meant those ellipses as markers that I was switching tone: from straightforwards, to sarcasm, back to straightforwards. If I said the sentence out loud, I would pause at the ... to help signal my intent to the listener.

I was glad to find, in this thread, that we can encourage and support each other's ideas on a fantasy story topic, no matter how hard we disagree elsewhere. This exchange might help me understand why so many of our posts in That Other Thread disagree on the surface, even though you and I clearly share some values on the topic of that other thread.

If we want to explore this, maybe we should do so by PM, to avoid de-railing Danny's topic. On another hand, Danny might have some quite helpful observations on how you and I might be misunderstanding each other on that other topic, since he's also a participant there, and he's seen our posts there, both in his role as a human with thoughts and feelings on the topic, and in his role as a moderator who watches for whether people are acting with "good faith" in their disagreements.

 

[Riley37]

I think if you go with wuxia and xianxia style magic, you could blend that with technology. Much of it is based on Qi cultivation and stuff like acupoints. I can easily see that being extended into computer systems for example.

Insofar as acupressure and acupuncture involve precise placement, computer systems are useful for increasing precision well past human abilities.

A kung fu master who had a cybernetic implant linked to his optic nerve, which calculated the target's individual pressure points and marked them on a HUD in his field of vision, could perhaps use that boost to practice "dim mak", the touch of death, also known in D&D as the Quivering Palm.

In HERO system terms, that might be Find Weakness, with say +10, but that +10 bonus has a Limitation, because it would not work if an EMP de-activated the cybernetic enhancement, or if anything else disrupted electronics. If this story involved both magic and technology which disrupts electronics, the limitation might be more than -1/4.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Insofar as acupressure and acupuncture involve precise placement, computer systems are useful for increasing precision well past human abilities.

A kung fu master who had a cybernetic implant linked to his optic nerve, which calculated the target's individual pressure points and marked them on a HUD in his field of vision, could perhaps use that boost to practice "dim mak", the touch of death, also known in D&D as the Quivering Palm.

In HERO system terms, that might be Find Weakness, with say +10, but that +10 bonus has a Limitation, because it would not work if an EMP de-activated the cybernetic enhancement, or if anything else disrupted electronics. If this story involved both magic and technology which disrupts electronics, the limitation might be more than -1/4.

In HERO, I’d probably make a campaign rule that all cybernetic/bionic implants had that EMP flaw. But a proper understanding of magic might mitigate that weakness. There might even be magical analogues that wouldn’t work where magic was exhausted or suppressed.

 

[Riley37]

In some cyberpunk games, there are levels of EMP and shielding.
Here's a scenario: my reflex boosters give +15 DEX, with the +1/4 advantage of level 1 shielding.
Your reflex boosters give +10 DEX and have the +3/4 advantage of level 3 shielding. About the same active power points.
You generate a level 2 EMP. It fries my gear, without affecting yours. You still have that +10 DEX, while I'm no longer boosted.

If I have bones and claws made from high-tech alloys, those should still work fine... unless popping the claws involves an electronic switch linked to a nerve in my arm, in which case either I already have them out or I can't deploy them.

Shadowrun goes deep into the combinations of magical boost and technological boost. I don't like some aspects; tech implants damage the subject's "humanity" as well as their capacity for magic. I wear glasses, and I don't think that makes me any less humane OR any less magical. If I had an implant replacement for my cornea, that shouldn't affect my humanity either.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Not sure how much I want to get into portable* EMP shielding. Seems a bit anachronistic for the era. Just a simple version will do, I think- and likewise for any mystic analogs that may exist. Only the most powerful magic items will work in read of low magic, and then not all that well.


* at least, man-portable.

 

[Riley37]

Perhaps the appropriate mechanic for EMP, is that an EMP is a Dispel, Drain, or similar ability. EMP shielding would be Power Defense, with an appropriate limitation.

I ran a Fantasy Hero character with an amulet of warding: 10d6 Dispel, Triggered to act on any power which affected the PC or his hex, any power with magic SFX, one charge, focus. So that if someone (or a trap) hit him with Web or Suggestion or some such, it would probably negate the first attack, which might be quite the surprise to the caster. Dunno if it was the best use of the points, but it was insurance, in a campaign which was likely to feature traps, ambushes, and other hazards involving the element of surprise.

 

[Riley37]

The Steve Austin example is Telescopic Vision, offsetting range penalties to a perception check. If he had an onboard computer and could tell it "scan my field of vision for geological anomalies", that would give a bonus... but I dunno if even speculative fiction in that era was imagining such a thing.

LOTR has quite the back story. Isildur is a legend to Boromir, an ancestor to Aragorn, and a former friend to Elrond. Would this story also refer to previous ages? Would you go with the concept that magic was more widespread in previous centuries, declined (whether in 400 AD or 800 or 1200 or some such), and is on the rise again - or might rise again, depending on the outcome of this adventure? Game of Thrones involves such cycles. In one variant on the Mage back story, magic didn't decline naturally; a cabal cast a huge spell to redirect *all of humanity's magic* so they could monopolize it for their own use, right around the beginning of the Age of Reason.

 

[Bedrockgames]

When I put "because subtlety is the notable trait of Hammer movies" as an aside, with ellipsis (...) before and afterwards, I meant those ellipses as markers that I was switching tone: from straightforwards, to sarcasm, back to straightforwards. If I said the sentence out loud, I would pause at the ... to help signal my intent to the listener.

I didn't realize ellipsis were used to denote sarcasm.

By the way, my initiate response was meant to be humorous, not challenging.

 

[Riley37]

They indicate a pause. Possible reasons to pause mid-sentence include: sarcasm, embarrassed hesitance, taking a moment to think of a euphemism.

More specific marker of sarcasm: /s

 

[Riley37]

Lower tech option for the HUD to highlight pressure points, for precisely targeting strikes: goggles.

What are some other ways to apply technology to Chinese medicine, wuxia magic, and so forth? Or other synergies?

How do we implement the Ringwraiths? I guess that might depend on the nature of the Ring-analogue. They might not actually be bonded with the Central McGuffin, but they should at least be minions of its creator. If the One Thing is the control chip for the Orbital Mind Control Laser satellite system, then maybe they're early test subjects of the mind control device, thus their fanatical loyalty. What about their mounts - are they still animals, that is, horses and then pterosaurs? or motorcycles and then flying motorcycles?