d&d and terrorism

[Munin]

Despite the sensational title, this post has nothing to do with politics in any way. I'm only trying to take a frightening aspect of this world and mold it to d&d.

From a technological standpoint, terrorism is a product of the modern age. Without access to the explosives, planes, rapid communication devices, etc that enable a handful of individuals to maim and kill hundreds and even thousands of innocents in an instant of time, terrorism in the traditional sense simply is not possible.

So if you look at a medieval setting, terrorism in that sense isn't a viable option for a group of bad guys. But if you add magic, it suddenly does become possible.
Now the modern day terrorist pretty much acts on the cheap. Take a car, fill it full of relatively inexpensive explosives, put a fanatic behind the wheel, drive it to the target, and detonate it. Simple and effective. One person, one bomb, and a lot of dead civilians.

Now, if we apply that to a magic setting, I think the same result could be achieved. Use Magic Device is a pretty handy skill that any class can use to access powerful magic. Scrolls are cheap, and it is not unmanageable for a lower level acolyte to use a scroll to access power offensive spells.

Imagine a terror campaign launched against a nation where suicidal fanatics launch themselves against the civilian population armed with Wands of Fireball or scrolls!
The terrorist could open the scroll and read it right in the middle of a crowded market, before anyone realized what was going on, he'd detonate a fireball at his feet. The players would have nothing to go on but charred remains....

What do you think?

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Terrorism ain't exactly a new thing...

The Romans had plenty of well documented terrorist problems.

Poisoning water supplies or food storage? Deliberately infecting enemies with plagues. Civilians being randomly butchered - even if it's just with swords. Etc.

1605 November the 5th - Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the English Houses of Parliament with a lot of gunpowder... that's 'modern' terror with explosives for you! No modern communications gear needed. We still celebrate his attempt every year.


As far as it goes, I agree that DnD magic would be incredibly effective for this... Aside from blasty stuff, some random thoughts: Reckon you could smuggle 250' of nasty in a bag of holding - looks just like a belt pouch? Contagion could be pretty darned effective! Teleport is a good way of taking things to places you couldn't carry them, as well as getting away.

 

[WayneLigon]

Magic pretty much means that terrorism would be the order of the day if the culture and such supports that kind of thinking. There's no real defence against it unless you invent a whole group of new spells.

Prince Valiant had a recent storyline with an invader named Horridus that used such terror tactics; it was pretty good, too.

 

[Cymex666]

While using terrorism/ists sounds like an interesting plot hook/device for a campaign, I'm a little conflicted about having it in my game. The reason I play role playing games is for the escapist element they provide and incorporating something as grim as terrorist acts into the game somehow diminishes the fantasy for me. I see enough terror on the nightly news, I don't think I wish to see it in game as well.

But that's just me, if one feels that their game would be enriched and given a new dimension by the inclusion of terrorism/ists into their game, then by all means do it.

 

[Tonguez]

I think the topic is pretty tacky in terms of timing but hey

personally I don't see the point of Terrorism in a DnD setting - afterall whats a few orcs with wands of fireball compared to a rampaging great wyrm red dragon laying seige to your city?

As for contagion and the likes - yeah fine for little folk, but my Druid 18 can cast Storm of Vegeance and Summon a swarm of Huge Air Elementals

and of course my Cleric is summoning demons to wreak equal havoc

really

and remember the worst terrorist in DnD are the PC Adventurers

 

[Hand of Evil]

Terrorism is what strikes fear and outrage into a group of people.

Mad bombers my use current tech but it is a tech that can be replaced with magic. You also have physcial actions, rape roits still go on in the world...this can include things like roits to shave dwarves or removing the ear tips of elves.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Terrorism as has been stated is pretty old, but we folks of the 21st century (paticuarly here in the good old US) like to think everything that happens to us is the first time in history.

I think your idea is pretty cool.

I once had in an epic level campaign an evil cleric who casted an epic level spell that would pretty much cause it to permanently rain fire, lightning and acid over a 10 mile area. Which is pretty much terrorism on a really big scale (ie nuclear bomb). Worked out pretty well in the game (unfortunalty important areas, such as capitol cities and holy sites of the world were ridden uninhabitable beucase the PCs were slow on figuring out what to do).

 

[Henry]

Terrorism via magic would not be a common occurrance - not via use magic device, anyway.

Let's take UMD, a 1st level commoner with a grudge, and a scroll of fireball. At 5th level, he'd need to roll anywhere from a 18 to natural 20 to successfully use it. (DC 25 for 5th level scroll, +4 for use magic device, and +3 for skill focus). even a dedicated terrorist would decide it wasn't worth it if his bomb didn't blow up 8 times in 10.

OTOH, a little wizard training, and he's got a wand, look out! But wait, that wand costs 9,000 gp (or something like that). Even that cut-rate scroll costs 190 gp to make, and 375 gp to buy! Considering even most 1st level wizards don't start off with 80 gp, that's a pretty expensive bomb (if it's a scroll it STILL fails 20% of the time).

In general, those with access to power in a D&D world will have been trained for it, usually by someone who also trained them in responsibility for it as well. Even the evil-doers don't want their minions going out on suicide runs, because the cost in training and resources is too high to squander. You might occasionally have a nutcase lich who wants to "destroy all humans and introduce perfect oblivion", but not usually. If they wanted to destroy all humans, they'd resort to something more effective than throw-away minions - they'd probably be doing it themselves, with the help of their minions.

What it does mean, though, is that the "terrorists" will be more in the Saturday cliff-hanger variety - they'll be madmen in charge of their own organizations, bent on ruling the world, rather than just sewing discord to make a political point. They're more "hands-on" men and women, than the type to train fanatics and let them go off to meet their maker on a whim.

 

[mmadsen]

From a technological standpoint, terrorism is a product of the modern age. Without access to the explosives, planes, rapid communication devices, etc that enable a handful of individuals to maim and kill hundreds and even thousands of innocents in an instant of time, terrorism in the traditional sense simply is not possible.

Really, the only modern technology you need is gunpowder. Once you can make a device that spectacularly kills a large number of people, you've got a decent terror weapon -- and the anarchist with a black "cannonball" bomb goes back pretty far.

So if you look at a medieval setting, terrorism in that sense isn't a viable option for a group of bad guys.

Please note that the Assassins were a real group of medieval religious (Muslim) fanatics, with a fortress in the mountains and a mysterious leader with seemingly supernatural control over his men. Remember the scene in Conan the Barbarian, where Thulsa Doom asks a young female acolyte to come to him and jump to her death? Yeah, that was based on the Old Man in the Mountains asking his men to jump off a tower to their deaths to demonstrate their devotion -- the demo was for the Templars, by the way.

A spectacular, suicidal attack on a political leader is pretty effective even without explosives.

 

[Style]

...they'll be madmen in charge of their own organizations, bent on ruling the world, rather than just sewing discord to make a political point...

You mean adventurers?

The final seven years of an 18-year monster homebrew that I ran were dominated by an "adventuring party" who called themselves Tsunami. They formed out of the remnants of two or three other groups and set themselves up as counter-revolutionaries, operating against a nearby Evil Empire. For "counter-revolution" read "unholy death sown from above" and for "Evil Empire" read "any creature foolish enough to be spotted by us within the Evil Empire's borders". Needless to say, Tsunami were wantonly indiscriminate in their use of firepower. The oppressed subjects of aforementioned Evil Empire were inconveniences at best. Once the Empire was nicely thrown into civil war, they moved onto global domination. One tactic involved teleporting to an enemy city, casting Earthquake and then teleporting away again. Another character carried plague samples around with him in order to carry out biological attacks when needed (the City of the Glass Pool in "Night Below" was attacked through poisoning its water supply as an opening tactic). Another (an elf) joined a secret society of elven xenophobes who controlled the military and was on the verge of launching a racial cleansing campaign against humans before the player suddenly seemed to come to his senses and underwent a 180 (the swine!). They took the approach that, in order to effectively deal with nefarious enemies on a global scale, you just had to be nerafiouser.

They're gods now. Who says terror don't pay?