One does not simply fly into Novosibirsk from the USA.
One does, however, fly a light aircraft from Helsinki to Moscow, and land in Red Square.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Rust
One does not simply fly into Novosibirsk from the USA.
So far we're going with evil use of technology vs. better, more ethical use of technology. What role does wild magic play in that mix? Are we applying Clarke's law, and explaining the super-jumps as an outcome of bionic leg muscles? Or is there a tension between magic and tech?
Saruman and Gandalf both use magic; only one of them has a base which produces smoke, soot, and oil stains. In JRRT's story, the battle between good and evil is also the battle of industrial vs. pastoral.
I favor this variant: the engineers who designed the Eye of Sauron satellite don't know their boss is a wizard who has augmented it with magic. The "ghost in the machine" is literally an undead spirit. Those augmentations are the reason why conventional counter-hacking methods fail, and our heroes are necessary. Only by opposing tech with tech, AND magic with magic, can our heroes defeat the BBEG. Maybe the PCs range from the white-hat hacker who doesn't believe in magic, to the martial arts mystic who counts time by dawn noon and dusk rather than by the clock. With the cyber-ninja in the middle of that spectrum.
I’m thinking magic real, not Clarkian. That fits better with the wuxia/Hammer films/Kolshack etc. vibe. Practitioners are rare- IDK if it’s because nonbelief minimizes the number of people trying to learn it seriously, or if it’s linked to heredity and/or rituals.
Mixing tech & magic needs to be thought about a bit. Are they antithetical? Is one more powerful than the other? Or can they be mixed and matched to achieve a given goal? Are they actually necessarily intertwined?
For even more subtle themes... because subtlety is the notable trait of Hammer movies....
I’m thinking magic real, not Clarkian. That fits better with the wuxia/Hammer films/Kolshack etc. vibe. Practitioners are rare- IDK if it’s because nonbelief minimizes the number of people trying to learn it seriously, or if it’s linked to heredity and/or rituals.
Mixing tech & magic needs to be thought about a bit. Are they antithetical? Is one more powerful than the other? Or can they be mixed and matched to achieve a given goal? Are they actually necessarily intertwined?
Wait a second. I've seen the Lost Continent and The Vampire Lovers. I love Hammer Movies, but I am not seeing how they are subtle.
(Was kidding)
Not quite THAT cartoonis, of course. A middle path.