Retarded Science, forgotten magic
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As we have aleady agreed, science and magic will be used "as appropriate". I just want to clarify that a bit...
- Medical science - This would be almost none existent. What we can do today is pretty palid compared to cure light wounds spell or cure disease. With no motivation, this science would not have developed at all. The Heal skill as written in the players had book will propably be suffient to represent the retarded medical skills of the fourth world. The only exception to this will be if there are a race of atheist out there who are unwilling or unable to become priests.
- Wizz bang spells - who cares about fireballs when you have grenaids, artillary strikes and nuclear weapons? There will be a place for magic in warfare, but technology can blow things up a lot easier. Boom Boom magic will be a lot more limited - possibly even more associated with terrorists.
- Analytical science - Divination could do all of this easier, so our world is unlikely to contain much scientific equipment. Shame, particle accelerators are so much fun.
Any comments on these points? Any other conclusions I've missed? Andy 11:36, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
Well the Rhino Men are going to be functionally atheist (they believe the gods exist but don't see that as a good enough reason to worship them) but they don't have any problem with using priests of other races.
Military use of magic is probably going to be on the performance enhancement side. One elite unit of soldiers I was planning on bringing in at some point go into battle with a PIH (Potion Injection Harness) that pumps potions of Strength, Speed, Grace, Wisdom and so on as required.
On the other hand boom-boom magic would have a role in the James Bond school of espionage, with explosive magics and wands being built into ordinary looking items by the Fourth World equivalent of Q-Branch.
And I suppose air traffic control is now going to consist of one diviner sitting in an armchair instead of dozens of dials and control panels...--Alex 14:23, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
That all sounds interesting, but I suspect air teaffic control would still have a few radar screens - I don't think divinatin spells don't usually have a long enough duration for the 24 hour traffic that airports see. Mind you, someone with weather control would be very valuable to an airport. I suspect that a single person would service more than one air port, using magic to travel between them swiftly. Given that doing so would require quite a bit of magical power, I suspect that that the person in question would be an independent contractor who works for all the air lines companies, and is payed per casting.
Anyone else have any thoughts? Andy 13:23, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
I guess space exploration is going to actually be slightly more advanced than in the real world. With the use of bulk teleportation rockets are going to be pointless. (Yes I know that there aren't going to be that many mages of a level high enough to teleport large chunks of metal, but hiring one is still probably going to be cheaper than building a Saturn V style rocket, and he is reusable.) Space stations can be built in sections on the planet, teleported up into orbit in small chunks and finally assembled up in the big black. Probes exploring the outer planets are more likely to be magical items used to extend the divination powers of mages back on the home planet, and astronauts may be able to use magical telepathy to beat the annoying delay in communications the further you get from home. And that's saying nothing of the usefulness of back-up spells woven into the spacesuits to keep astronauts alive for a few precious minutes if the suits get breached. --Alex 13:44, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
There might be spells that make space suits unessessary, at least for awhile. Not having to wear those huge gloves would makes repairs a lot easier. Still, space suits would be safer for long term use (Especially if you can't cast spells!), and as you say having a built in Mend spell would be very comforting. Anybody fancy a Spacesuit of selfmending? It might also be possible to use magic to extend the air supply. Cast a spell not dissimilar to waterbreathing, use that until the duration expires, then switch to the mundane air supply. Andy 14:52, 15 March 2008 (UTC)
I guess one technology which wouldn't have died out as quick on this world would be sails for boats. With weather control possible they would remain practical even after the discovery of steam power. Of course golem powered paddleboats would also appear sooner than their steam powered equivalents...--Alex 18:57, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
Quite possibly, though I suspect that cost issues would have given stram power the edge in the end. A golem is pretty expensive, especially when the damn thing want do as it is told. Andy 14:03, 24 March 2008 (UTC)
I Had a bit of a thought over nukes and nuke power i figured that people would proble not be quite as scared of the dangers of radiation what with spell to clense the body of all poisions and heal and restor spell to patch up the damage. I feal that this is proble not a good thing in that nuke is suposed to be a highly feared development in the art of war. Maybe we sould make radiation perticularly resistant to magic? somthing that diefies magic healing and refuses to be clensed from the land. this i feal would send a ture note of dread though most dwelers of a magic world.--Geoff 17:04, 28 April 2008 (BST)
Perhaps as well as the much famed EMP effect, how about if a nuclear blast also acted as a high level dispell magic effect, which means that spells suchas sanctuary or blink aren't going to save you. Andy 14:59, 3 May 2008 (BST)
