So last night, I resigned my position as Mage Storyteller of New York City. For those who aren't members of the Mind's Eye Society, Storytellers are a volunteer position elected for a term of one year for the respective venue (longer if you're in a Regional or National position). I have been running the Mage The Awakening game here since October of 2012, closing out the Chronicle (the global campaign) and creating the setting for the new Chronicle .
Then August came, and burn out came and I stopped really caring. In retrospect, I should have stepped down completely in September when I first decided to take a break. I didn't, because there really was no one to replace me for Mage, and because I loved the venue. I continued, and my burn out continued.
Mage went from a larp in a studio to what really boiled down to a tabletop in the apartments of the DC or DST, run on sundays on the same weekend we have Changeling, Accord, and Requiem. It's the last game, and you can see just the exhaustion roll in when game time comes. It's also the one with the lowest interest in the club overall, so most of the people who were interested in helping were people who were playing, and I like plots that overlap with one another which leads to a lot of Conflict of Interest for my assistants. There was also a focus more on achieving personal goals than working together, which makes a live game so difficult since you're all in a group together during a live game.
So, in short, I was the only person running a venue that cannot be done by one person. Ever. Mage covers the entire cosmic structure of the New World of Darkness and consists of essentially ten different magic systems. You cannot be everywhere at once. And then when it gets to a live game and people are coming in to character simply because the schedule says so and they have no impetus either IC or OOC, it becomes murder to get them interested.
So, with some prodding by people who clearly have more invested interest in my mental health than I do (thank you guys), I resigned from Mage.
And that sucks. It sucks because out of all the venues in White Wolf's World of Darkness, I like Mage the most. It's a game that asks pretty existentialist questions. What is the soul? What is our connection to the universe. Are we defined by our abilities or do we define them? Mages are the only of the Higher Templates (Hunters and Psychics are considered Lesser Templates) that can be argued are still human. They have normal life spans (unless you're fucking with Life and Time magic pretty roughly) and can conceive children. They are human, they've just had their souls opened to the magic that exists in the universe.
I also liked Mage because, out of the whole bunch, it got the most flak from the other players. I've been in Mage for two-three years now, and I keep hearing 1) the mechanics are scary/confusing/too much and 2) it's predecessor, Mage the Ascension was 'their game'. Mage gets the short end of the stick because it can do everything...and oddly nothing at the same time. In Accord, which throws all of the various white wolf games into an adventure against an evil presence from beyond this dimension, Mages have the most restrictions in their abilities. In a survey, the Template that people felt needed fewer restrictions was Mage. In the same survey, the Template that people felt needed more restrictions was Mage. It's a polarizing game, and I have a thing for the underdog.
There was another point that some people have put in: Mage works best as a Tabletop, not a Larp. I will refute this kicking and screaming. It's difficult for it to work as a Larp, because so much of the White Wolf games relies on going out of character to use their abilities. This becomes a problem when every solution involves showcasing your powers. My stance now is that Mage can work as a Larp, just not in the culture it's currently being played in. There is a culture that focuses too much on their own personal things and not on the collaborative efforts of the club. This some times comes off as loan-wolf types just wanting to play their sheets, to being the most influential, to cliques forming up. It becomes more competitive than collaborative and that's what larping really is: a collaborative effort. There is competition involved, and it should be involved, but in order to push others to be their best, not to promote yourself. Some people have not gotten that message.
So, where do we go from here. I am going to enjoy being a player instead of an officer for once, haven't done that in a while. Or maybe I won't, maybe I'll just take that vacation I wanted to take in September and never really got to because of my work with Mage. I'm not really sure. People have already nudged me towards playtesting Dresden Lives, and I'm tempted to. I know that I'd like to actually work on Kensei, because dear lord that game needs to be born if anything just to see what happens. I also have a ton of ideas I want to do to run freeform or even Nordic style games, because in my time in MES I've gotten a craving for deeper role play and more immersive experiences.
Part of me would still like to work with Mage though, just not in the MES. A bunch of friends have gone off to do their own game of Werewolf, and the experience there is probably better than in a club, especially when it's all based on pack dynamics. I'd like to do that, build a game for a group of people that I know and we can all come to an agreement about what we're all looking for in a game like Mage and a group that is small but has some chemistry with each other. And, of course, actually want to be there.
Which leads me to some things I would love to have done differently if I could go back and do things differently during this Chronicle. The first would be to have an already running Consilium. The Government exists and none of the players are in it unless they want to. The players would need to join PC teams (called cabals, for those non-mages) or establish significant ties with one another. That didn't happen much, and even a year into gameplay there is little to no dialogue between players or PCs.
Another thing, and my major point, would be that for the first few games that your PC is in, they are a normal human being, maybe someone who is aware of magic, but they are mortal. The idea is that I want people to get a taste of their PCs normal lives, and then have their Awakening to magic horribly alter that normality.
But that's after Detox, and that's exactly what this feels like.
Later,
C
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Location, Location, Location
A while back, I mentioned that I had been working on a boffer Larp concept called Kensei. The premise was that it was a Larp set at a World Martial Arts Tournament, with combatants, managers, trainers, merchants and reporters all running around and making deals and drama. The real drama was what happened outside of the ring. Life being what it is, Kensei hit a bit of a snag and has been on the back burner, but gamer friends of mine have expressed interest and it makes me want to explore more options.
One thing I was thinking of during the planning would be the 'where' this would take place. The actual, physical location that people would meet and put on this personal theatre for a weekend. In my mind, I thought of using the same grounds that Dystopia Rising's New Jersey game uses: Camp Sacajawea. The Camp rents itself out to Larps almost exclusively and I know of two or three that use the site regularly.
I imagined a game of Kensei to playout through the campground, with the main building being used as the central hub for the players and the managers to receive their match times and locations, the barn next door to be the medical pavillion where the medics worked and slept. I imagined the wagons and tents in the far distance of the grounds to be Merchant Mile, and have almost a Carnival/Travelling wagon flare to selling as people used the wagons and heavy tents to sell their stuff. And throughout the grounds would be designated rings, where matches would take place to the PCs attending. It would almost be a village unto itself at times, a zone where people could fight and battles could be won.
But, in discussing certain points with my friends, they were put off by the location. Camping isn't for everyone, and it would bar a lot of my friends opposed to the idea. The suggested possibly holding it at a hotel, almost as if it were a convention or conference. In an odd way, this made a sort of sense, especially when considering that that was what it was, effectively, and even more so when you consider that a major thing I wanted to take place in: The Media. Hotels have more available internet access and are more readily tech friendly. It makes sense that this is where it would take place...
But I liked the concept of the game taking place at the campground, because it was a fixed location that could be familiar and lead to a lot of fun activities out in the wild. In a hotel though, there could be more intimate roleplay, more connection. But having it in a hotel is a tenuous situation, and wouldn't be good for regular events unless we made a lot of money/donations to make it worth it to the Hotel to let us keep coming back and to reschedule, while the camp would require rent and upkeep, but as long as the checks cleared and everything remains copacetic, then we could use the place indefinitely.
This brings me to where I am now: Do I want this game to be a one off/seasonal/annual game? Or a game played on regular intervals? One location makes it very easier to do the former and the other makes it easier to do that and the latter. And this got me to thinking of something that I discussed a lot in the past few months:
Drama doesn't happen in a vacuum. You're operating in some form and space that helps bring context to your actions. I mentioned this to the actors during our run of Jedi MacBeth (you heard me!) in a black box theater. The key to acting was to make it feel like you were in a location. You weren't just walking on and walking off the stage, you were in the fields of Dunsinane/Dathomir or of the various other places. You had to pretend you were in a castle or hallway or on the field of battle and act accordingly or else your audience's suspension of disbelief dies a very short lived death.
Actors have it both harder and easier than a larper, when you consider that we are our own audiences. We have to collaboratively keep the veil of disbelief suspended for each other to maintain the performance, otherwise we're just standing there, reciting lines and not experiencing anything, and not giving our audience/fellow performers, material to work with. Not having anything to react to kills any performance dead in it's tracks. This was one of the things I was stressing to people I was working with in scenes, if you just say something, I can't respond. Give me something to work with, an emotion, a touch or a look. Let me work off of you if I can't work off of the environment.
Most of the games I've played have been in black box situations. Most games happen in studios, where we have to remind ourselves that we're doing this game in a bar, or a castle, or an apartment somewhere. Sometime, we CAN do a game at a bar or apartment, and it adds to the flavor and depth (or at the very least cuts out a lot of the work on imagining it). Then you've got some of these games, mostly the Nordic games, that take place on world war two ships to simulate retro-like battlestars in space, or in corporate offices to simulate an advertising agencies corporate headquarters. These games are all about Immersion, about the deep dive into environment, which in turn leads into a deep dive into character. Then you have the folks at Sleep No More, who are just going for the anal retentive 'everything is in character' attire where the books, notes, and tools are all able to be looked at and manipulated.
Speaking of Sleep No More, they do location and it's role in performance right. Several warehouses mashed into one superstructure with various rooms. The only way to enter the space is through a darkened, smoky tunnel where you are greeted by music from the 1930's. Suddenly you find yourself in a dive bar and you realize that the show starts now. Of course, this is the point. And the producers of SNM have made the site as much an attraction as the performance. The principle of it, however, makes all the bloody difference in the world.
Which brings me to another point, Locations help designate the Magic Circle, that area where we've designated for our roleplay. Like any good Ritual Circle, the boundaries are prepared and delineated through special (if not symbolic) tools to give us space to work in. Working in a space that is just arbitrarily declared game space takes a lot more work, and leads to ambiguous game play. This is especially true when you are in a space that could potentially overlap with the public. Where do the lines of games begin and end, locations help set that.
In a camp like Sacajawea, the boundaries are clear and the character play is solid. In a Hotel, depending on how much area control we have and how we plan it, the magic circle could be pervasive and persist throughout the whole building or just in designated areas. The former would make things awkward and possibly problematic when witnessed by those not in the game and viewing things out of context. The latter option of playing in designated areas limits the options of what players can and can't do.
In the end, I'm siding with a Hotel for the inaugural game...if of course I can get the world and mechanics ready. If the game can go a weekend, and people wish to make it a regular event, then we'd discuss other options. Meanwhile, I'll plan for the world in my head, and deal with the world outside when it's time for that.
Later, Liches.
C
One thing I was thinking of during the planning would be the 'where' this would take place. The actual, physical location that people would meet and put on this personal theatre for a weekend. In my mind, I thought of using the same grounds that Dystopia Rising's New Jersey game uses: Camp Sacajawea. The Camp rents itself out to Larps almost exclusively and I know of two or three that use the site regularly.
I imagined a game of Kensei to playout through the campground, with the main building being used as the central hub for the players and the managers to receive their match times and locations, the barn next door to be the medical pavillion where the medics worked and slept. I imagined the wagons and tents in the far distance of the grounds to be Merchant Mile, and have almost a Carnival/Travelling wagon flare to selling as people used the wagons and heavy tents to sell their stuff. And throughout the grounds would be designated rings, where matches would take place to the PCs attending. It would almost be a village unto itself at times, a zone where people could fight and battles could be won.
But, in discussing certain points with my friends, they were put off by the location. Camping isn't for everyone, and it would bar a lot of my friends opposed to the idea. The suggested possibly holding it at a hotel, almost as if it were a convention or conference. In an odd way, this made a sort of sense, especially when considering that that was what it was, effectively, and even more so when you consider that a major thing I wanted to take place in: The Media. Hotels have more available internet access and are more readily tech friendly. It makes sense that this is where it would take place...
But I liked the concept of the game taking place at the campground, because it was a fixed location that could be familiar and lead to a lot of fun activities out in the wild. In a hotel though, there could be more intimate roleplay, more connection. But having it in a hotel is a tenuous situation, and wouldn't be good for regular events unless we made a lot of money/donations to make it worth it to the Hotel to let us keep coming back and to reschedule, while the camp would require rent and upkeep, but as long as the checks cleared and everything remains copacetic, then we could use the place indefinitely.
This brings me to where I am now: Do I want this game to be a one off/seasonal/annual game? Or a game played on regular intervals? One location makes it very easier to do the former and the other makes it easier to do that and the latter. And this got me to thinking of something that I discussed a lot in the past few months:
Drama doesn't happen in a vacuum. You're operating in some form and space that helps bring context to your actions. I mentioned this to the actors during our run of Jedi MacBeth (you heard me!) in a black box theater. The key to acting was to make it feel like you were in a location. You weren't just walking on and walking off the stage, you were in the fields of Dunsinane/Dathomir or of the various other places. You had to pretend you were in a castle or hallway or on the field of battle and act accordingly or else your audience's suspension of disbelief dies a very short lived death.
Actors have it both harder and easier than a larper, when you consider that we are our own audiences. We have to collaboratively keep the veil of disbelief suspended for each other to maintain the performance, otherwise we're just standing there, reciting lines and not experiencing anything, and not giving our audience/fellow performers, material to work with. Not having anything to react to kills any performance dead in it's tracks. This was one of the things I was stressing to people I was working with in scenes, if you just say something, I can't respond. Give me something to work with, an emotion, a touch or a look. Let me work off of you if I can't work off of the environment.
Most of the games I've played have been in black box situations. Most games happen in studios, where we have to remind ourselves that we're doing this game in a bar, or a castle, or an apartment somewhere. Sometime, we CAN do a game at a bar or apartment, and it adds to the flavor and depth (or at the very least cuts out a lot of the work on imagining it). Then you've got some of these games, mostly the Nordic games, that take place on world war two ships to simulate retro-like battlestars in space, or in corporate offices to simulate an advertising agencies corporate headquarters. These games are all about Immersion, about the deep dive into environment, which in turn leads into a deep dive into character. Then you have the folks at Sleep No More, who are just going for the anal retentive 'everything is in character' attire where the books, notes, and tools are all able to be looked at and manipulated.
Speaking of Sleep No More, they do location and it's role in performance right. Several warehouses mashed into one superstructure with various rooms. The only way to enter the space is through a darkened, smoky tunnel where you are greeted by music from the 1930's. Suddenly you find yourself in a dive bar and you realize that the show starts now. Of course, this is the point. And the producers of SNM have made the site as much an attraction as the performance. The principle of it, however, makes all the bloody difference in the world.
Which brings me to another point, Locations help designate the Magic Circle, that area where we've designated for our roleplay. Like any good Ritual Circle, the boundaries are prepared and delineated through special (if not symbolic) tools to give us space to work in. Working in a space that is just arbitrarily declared game space takes a lot more work, and leads to ambiguous game play. This is especially true when you are in a space that could potentially overlap with the public. Where do the lines of games begin and end, locations help set that.
In a camp like Sacajawea, the boundaries are clear and the character play is solid. In a Hotel, depending on how much area control we have and how we plan it, the magic circle could be pervasive and persist throughout the whole building or just in designated areas. The former would make things awkward and possibly problematic when witnessed by those not in the game and viewing things out of context. The latter option of playing in designated areas limits the options of what players can and can't do.
In the end, I'm siding with a Hotel for the inaugural game...if of course I can get the world and mechanics ready. If the game can go a weekend, and people wish to make it a regular event, then we'd discuss other options. Meanwhile, I'll plan for the world in my head, and deal with the world outside when it's time for that.
Later, Liches.
C
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Patreon Support
Hey gang, I recently opened up a Patreon account. Patreon is a funding website, like kickstarter, which supports projects through generation donations and rewards. Patreon's focus is less for larger projects and more for items like blogs, videos, short stories, drawings and the like. You're paying by the post (up to a limit you set for each month). It's a great way of supporting projects you enjoy.
This blog, and furthermore this hobby, means a lot to me and has become a great source of talking to and meeting other like minded individuals. Unfortunately, times are hard and I'm unemployed. So while I'm not asking you to fun my life, I'm asking help in donating to the blog. The money spent there will go primarily to gaming and related items, which in turn goes back to the blog. So we all win.
Any donations are beautiful, and so are you. Here's a link, and one is permanently pasted in the far right corner of this page: http://www.patreon.com/WrathfulLarper
Thank you,
Craig
This blog, and furthermore this hobby, means a lot to me and has become a great source of talking to and meeting other like minded individuals. Unfortunately, times are hard and I'm unemployed. So while I'm not asking you to fun my life, I'm asking help in donating to the blog. The money spent there will go primarily to gaming and related items, which in turn goes back to the blog. So we all win.
Any donations are beautiful, and so are you. Here's a link, and one is permanently pasted in the far right corner of this page: http://www.patreon.com/WrathfulLarper
Thank you,
Craig
Monday, April 7, 2014
Magic Makes People Dumb.
My friend Brandon, who along with being the bastardly Storyteller for Requiem is also my best friend and one of the people who plays in my Mage game, sent me a link to This Article. In it, it talks about Game of Thrones and how after 12,000 years of human history, they still haven't exceeded the feudal systems that we've shaken off centuries before. The article, which is clearly geared towards cars and making for an interesting slant in the discussion of the page, believes that a lot of that has to do with the fact that Magic, the dragons and the magic that surrounds it, has only waned for a century or two, and it is making a return. More importantly, the article supposes one major thing:
Magic Makes You Dumb.
The article talks about this on a technological level. When you have powers that could conceivably alter the course of storms, fate, life and other such fun aspects of the Cosmos, then you don't really go looking into developing much afterwards. They have the knowledge and will power to, if at any point, make things like steam engines, but when you have dragons and fire priestesses and men who could change their appearances to kill indiscriminately, why?
Of course, this is looking at things on a grander scale than most of what we've talked about before, and I think it's dependent on the world you're telling. Personally, I think the author is thinking a lot of High Fantasy settings like Tolkien, Pern and other such places where it's Magic, pure and simple, and science is completely segregated (if at all). But there has been an upsurge lately of fantasy worlds that view the magic as their science. Jim Butcher, Patrick Rothfuss and Brandon Sanderson, masters of worldbuilding, do this all the time. There are Rules to their magic, as much as Science as it is an Artform. If you're creating Fire, then that heat must come from somewhere. If you exert energy here, it must come from some place here. The reason no one has ever thought in these worlds "Hey, let's build a train!" Is because:
1) They already have an equivalent to the technology needed, making a non magical version redundant, especially if magic out-trumps science in this world.
2) The ruling government doesn't want them to. This is most often in Magocratic societies where those who can use magic (or the most powerful of them) are in absolute control and to keep the population from having an equal foothold withholds technology. This is the Lord Ruler of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, having spent 1000 years of his life stunting human technological evolution and relying on feudal systems and making the nobility, which comprise those descended from the first magic users he created, the high pinnacles of power and authority, second only to his praxis. Tech doesn't exist because the magic users won't allow it.
3) No one ever thought about it. Seriously, in a world where magic is prevalent and a major part of the culture, Why would they think about it? I'm reminded of the Codex Alera Series by Jim Butcher, where every Aleran could use to various degrees the Furies, spirits of the elements of Earth, Wood, Metal, Air, Water, and Fire. The buildings were made by raising them from the sheer ground. People could fly and carry messages to the far corners of the map, all healers needed was a tub of water and some patience and a cup of water could serve as a communication tool. It was also a magocracy, of sorts, with the strongest being the emperor.
The playing field changes throughout the series because someone (ironically, the only Aleran who couldn't use Furies) began thinking of technological ways of dealing with things. He took the most basic elements of fury crafting like placing fire into glass spheres, and placing stacks of those spheres into newly patented catapults. The Aristocracy, built on it's principle of Authority Equals Asskicking, is floored by this at this means that the common folk, given enough time and energy, could level entire forces if they so please.
So while the article is based on the principle that magic makes you dumb, it's presuming that Magic is separate from science. Arthur Clarke is famous for saying that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". In fantasy these days, the reverse is true, "any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science".
In Patrick Rothfuss' Kingskiller Series, magic is treated exactly like sciences. That includes Sympathy, which is treated as thermodynamics on a larger scale. Alchemy, which is like chemistry but on a apparently markedly advanced version (the narrator is forced to admit he knows nothing of alchemy), Sygaldry is the use of sigils on items to give them special abilities, like absorbing heat to make iceboxes. The last one is markedly more magical, but used in a highly practical way. The use of Names, of knowing of things such as rocks and fire and flesh and commanding them to your will, is seen as close to true magic, even to those who can do the previous schools. That one, when the scientifically minded narrator attempts to take, becomes utterly confused by it, even frustrated. That form of magic is more an artform in the sense that there is almost a sublime understanding, but there is a method of the madness.
The problem with the technology in most fantasy stories has more to do with the era they were based on. The feudal societies of the Dark Ages times were stagnant and never ending, with technology and education going more towards the nobility and religious castes and protecting/usurping more land and resources. A novel during those days is going to reflect the technologically backwards mindset. Write a fantasy series in Rennaisance Italy or after and you'll get a different outcome. In fact, look up Clock Punk, Steam Punk, DieselPunk, DecoPunk and Raygun Gothic. Every fantasy set roughly after the Dark Ages allows the use of technology, because it makes sense that it would be there.
Now, the article was sent to me as a comment about Magic in Mage the Awakening in regards to it's players. I've already gone on a rant about how people sometimes view magic in Mage. Where most people see it as a I see thing, I use thing; I view magic in Mages in terms of applied sciences. Death magic is no more important than a wrench when things happen, and over specializing costs a lot.
A friend playing in Accord (where all the New World of Darkness venues are legal to play) recalled to me a scene of where a Mage recently learned the abilities to speak to and deal with Spirits and the Spirit Realm, and then immediately coerced him (my friend) into going into the spirit realm with him for no other purpose than to show off. The Spirit Realm, where anything and everything is potentially alive and disproves of your life choices (you're alive, bad choice) and you just bring someone in to jerk your staff a bit.
This notion is prevalent throughout Mage quite a bit, as I've seen. People respond to everything in terms of "how can I magic this." Magic isn't always the answer, if anything it's often the problem. It's widely considered that the forces that inhibit the mages, despite the fact that it is imbued with an alien and malevolent will, is in fact a good thing. It's often seen as the only answer because the players see it as the only answer. One of the problems I have with the culture of the Mind's Eye Society games is a sense of one-upsmanship that a friend of mine once called The Arms Race. "This party has the ability to call Shadows and be fused to the Spirit of whatever Domain their in, then I must have the ability to summon the Sun and exorcise even the mightiest of Gods".
It's not just Mage, it's the other games as well. It's keeping up with the Jones' and the Cold War in the same gasp, with Accord putting into place some pretty strict rules that make pvp a bad idea. However, you still see some of that come through. There's a sense of being the special snowflake, of being the one that is THE authority in the thing and playing it out on their sheet instead of building it up through role play and through out of character and in character collaboration. It's tacky, it's cheesy, and in a game system where actions take someone out of character, entirely derails roleplay.
Magic makes players dumb, giving them far too many options and making them want to show those off. And as someone who loves the magic in these games, especially Mage, I want to play in a culture that actually rewards roleplaying over the length of one's magic staff.
Night Liches,
C
Magic Makes You Dumb.
The article talks about this on a technological level. When you have powers that could conceivably alter the course of storms, fate, life and other such fun aspects of the Cosmos, then you don't really go looking into developing much afterwards. They have the knowledge and will power to, if at any point, make things like steam engines, but when you have dragons and fire priestesses and men who could change their appearances to kill indiscriminately, why?
Of course, this is looking at things on a grander scale than most of what we've talked about before, and I think it's dependent on the world you're telling. Personally, I think the author is thinking a lot of High Fantasy settings like Tolkien, Pern and other such places where it's Magic, pure and simple, and science is completely segregated (if at all). But there has been an upsurge lately of fantasy worlds that view the magic as their science. Jim Butcher, Patrick Rothfuss and Brandon Sanderson, masters of worldbuilding, do this all the time. There are Rules to their magic, as much as Science as it is an Artform. If you're creating Fire, then that heat must come from somewhere. If you exert energy here, it must come from some place here. The reason no one has ever thought in these worlds "Hey, let's build a train!" Is because:
1) They already have an equivalent to the technology needed, making a non magical version redundant, especially if magic out-trumps science in this world.
2) The ruling government doesn't want them to. This is most often in Magocratic societies where those who can use magic (or the most powerful of them) are in absolute control and to keep the population from having an equal foothold withholds technology. This is the Lord Ruler of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, having spent 1000 years of his life stunting human technological evolution and relying on feudal systems and making the nobility, which comprise those descended from the first magic users he created, the high pinnacles of power and authority, second only to his praxis. Tech doesn't exist because the magic users won't allow it.
3) No one ever thought about it. Seriously, in a world where magic is prevalent and a major part of the culture, Why would they think about it? I'm reminded of the Codex Alera Series by Jim Butcher, where every Aleran could use to various degrees the Furies, spirits of the elements of Earth, Wood, Metal, Air, Water, and Fire. The buildings were made by raising them from the sheer ground. People could fly and carry messages to the far corners of the map, all healers needed was a tub of water and some patience and a cup of water could serve as a communication tool. It was also a magocracy, of sorts, with the strongest being the emperor.
The playing field changes throughout the series because someone (ironically, the only Aleran who couldn't use Furies) began thinking of technological ways of dealing with things. He took the most basic elements of fury crafting like placing fire into glass spheres, and placing stacks of those spheres into newly patented catapults. The Aristocracy, built on it's principle of Authority Equals Asskicking, is floored by this at this means that the common folk, given enough time and energy, could level entire forces if they so please.
So while the article is based on the principle that magic makes you dumb, it's presuming that Magic is separate from science. Arthur Clarke is famous for saying that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". In fantasy these days, the reverse is true, "any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science".
In Patrick Rothfuss' Kingskiller Series, magic is treated exactly like sciences. That includes Sympathy, which is treated as thermodynamics on a larger scale. Alchemy, which is like chemistry but on a apparently markedly advanced version (the narrator is forced to admit he knows nothing of alchemy), Sygaldry is the use of sigils on items to give them special abilities, like absorbing heat to make iceboxes. The last one is markedly more magical, but used in a highly practical way. The use of Names, of knowing of things such as rocks and fire and flesh and commanding them to your will, is seen as close to true magic, even to those who can do the previous schools. That one, when the scientifically minded narrator attempts to take, becomes utterly confused by it, even frustrated. That form of magic is more an artform in the sense that there is almost a sublime understanding, but there is a method of the madness.
The problem with the technology in most fantasy stories has more to do with the era they were based on. The feudal societies of the Dark Ages times were stagnant and never ending, with technology and education going more towards the nobility and religious castes and protecting/usurping more land and resources. A novel during those days is going to reflect the technologically backwards mindset. Write a fantasy series in Rennaisance Italy or after and you'll get a different outcome. In fact, look up Clock Punk, Steam Punk, DieselPunk, DecoPunk and Raygun Gothic. Every fantasy set roughly after the Dark Ages allows the use of technology, because it makes sense that it would be there.
Now, the article was sent to me as a comment about Magic in Mage the Awakening in regards to it's players. I've already gone on a rant about how people sometimes view magic in Mage. Where most people see it as a I see thing, I use thing; I view magic in Mages in terms of applied sciences. Death magic is no more important than a wrench when things happen, and over specializing costs a lot.
A friend playing in Accord (where all the New World of Darkness venues are legal to play) recalled to me a scene of where a Mage recently learned the abilities to speak to and deal with Spirits and the Spirit Realm, and then immediately coerced him (my friend) into going into the spirit realm with him for no other purpose than to show off. The Spirit Realm, where anything and everything is potentially alive and disproves of your life choices (you're alive, bad choice) and you just bring someone in to jerk your staff a bit.
This notion is prevalent throughout Mage quite a bit, as I've seen. People respond to everything in terms of "how can I magic this." Magic isn't always the answer, if anything it's often the problem. It's widely considered that the forces that inhibit the mages, despite the fact that it is imbued with an alien and malevolent will, is in fact a good thing. It's often seen as the only answer because the players see it as the only answer. One of the problems I have with the culture of the Mind's Eye Society games is a sense of one-upsmanship that a friend of mine once called The Arms Race. "This party has the ability to call Shadows and be fused to the Spirit of whatever Domain their in, then I must have the ability to summon the Sun and exorcise even the mightiest of Gods".
It's not just Mage, it's the other games as well. It's keeping up with the Jones' and the Cold War in the same gasp, with Accord putting into place some pretty strict rules that make pvp a bad idea. However, you still see some of that come through. There's a sense of being the special snowflake, of being the one that is THE authority in the thing and playing it out on their sheet instead of building it up through role play and through out of character and in character collaboration. It's tacky, it's cheesy, and in a game system where actions take someone out of character, entirely derails roleplay.
Magic makes players dumb, giving them far too many options and making them want to show those off. And as someone who loves the magic in these games, especially Mage, I want to play in a culture that actually rewards roleplaying over the length of one's magic staff.
Night Liches,
C
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