1. The people cried out to Mod: “Why have you left us perplexed?”
2. And the LORD looked up bleary-eyed from his throne and beheld the people.
3. Said the LORD Mod: “Allright, allright, I’ll get to it. Damn!”
On Retcons And Secret History: Nobody - and I mean nobody - knows this; any hints that somebody does will be persecuted with extreme prejudice. Clear? Okay, good. So. The big retcon/secret history is that magic existed in Fenspace but at a level nobody could really use or even experience. That changed on whatever the whateverth, 2008, when interdimensional traveller Doug Sangnoir used his magic on a sample of handwavium. The feedback loop from this acted as a catalyst, causing an exponential spike in the local background count that spread outwards.
On Mana Levels: In GURPS terms, Fenspace mana levels were Very Low to None until things were catalysed into action in 2008. Since then the level averages out to Normal, but in practice it’s very chaotic. There are hot spots and cold spots, some are stable but others drift and change shape over time, like weather fronts.
On Availability: As of 2022, very few both a) have it and b) know what it is. Manadynamics is the talk of the science journals and the press has gotten hold of some of it, but there hasn’t been a huge upswing in wand-waving accomplishing anything.
On Magic and Handwavium: They’re related. That’s not to say they’re the same or even all that similar, but they are related.
On Magic and Genetics: A genetic basis for magic makes some sense to me (also it makes my Perpetually-Threatened Shadowrun Crossover easier to swallow) though I’m not sure of percentages. It’s only in the mid/late-2020s that natural affinity for magic should start appearing, though - manufactured affinities (like say, Honami Ambler or Jade Hasegawa’s abilities, or Noah’s magegift activated via his interactions with the Girls) can show up earlier but the background count’s only been high enough to ‘trip’ the genetics in the last couple years. As the man once said “it’s your kids! Somebody’s gotta do something about your kids!”
On Technomagic: In my initial rambling screeds on the Soviet manadynamics project this is where I was focusing. Because inherent magegifts are only just starting to show up (and even then ~all the new mages are, like, toddlers) the majority of work on magic so far has been aimed at poking at it using modern scientific & industrial tools. Which makes sense if you think about it in a historical context, but that’s a rant for another post. Anyway, while it won’t get to the level joked about in the thread for a good while (the Soviets have been laboring away with a Giant Space Brain and so far have achieved 1% of an enchanted ENIAC. This is gonna take some time) I think the close integration of magic and technology is the way most Fenspacers will go.
On That Old-Time Religion: The main difference - and thus the main problem - between Fenspace’s magic theories and Warrior’s World’s UTM is Warrior’s World had working magic traditions for umpty-ump years before the UTM was even formulated. So they knew magic was real & could be accessed in a dozen different ways going into the project. Fenspace was up until less than two decades ago a very-low-to-no-magic world; while there’s a lot of traditions floating about, none of them actually worked. So it’s an interesting reversal, instead of starting with dozens of traditions and reconciling them into the UTM we’re starting with the UTM and trying to sift through dozens of traditions for the functional bits.
On the Perpetually-Threatened Shadowrun Crossover: Ha. Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha hahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! [/joker]
On Nerfing: I’m against it. Handwavium was nerfed because it was extremely useful out of the box, and starting a nerd arms-race was never the intent. Magic on the other hand is just starting out as a phenomenon people can research and understand, let alone utilize in any productive manner; there’s no need to nerf it right off the bat. That means that yes, in the fullness of time all sorts of bad people can use magic to do bad things, but all sorts of good people can use it to do good things too.
On Rules: Sky’s the limit. Bear in mind that these are early days and nobody yet has the ability to get really gonzo. People sussing out the operational envelope for their particular system is encouraged and expected. Also expected are headlines along the lines of “researcher accidentally implodes self.” Paradox can be a right bitch.
On Rules in a Meta Direction: I don’t want to tie Fen magic down with a lot of hard and fast guidelines, because I know that if I do agree to hard lines they’ll a) be in the wrong direction, b) get rules-lawyered to uselessness, c) eventually become obsolete, d) spark dozens of fun-killing arguments or e) all of the above. If necessary, I’ll make summary judgements, or I’ll delegate summary judgement duties to somebody I trust.
On Dichotomies: To be honest, I’m not a fan. I think magic as a concept gets wrapped up in that sort of dualism far too often. I prefer a more holistic approach.
On Spirits, Souls, etc: I’m not touching that livewire for all the tea in China. If it becomes important we can figure it out later, but assume a bland spirituality and then kick it to the background.
On Reconciling Metacontinuity Magic Systems: Not our job. We’ll leave that one to the philosophers and sperglords.
On Fenspace and Amber: No, non, nein, nyet, nix, nuh-uh, not happening.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
2. And the LORD looked up bleary-eyed from his throne and beheld the people.
3. Said the LORD Mod: “Allright, allright, I’ll get to it. Damn!”
On Retcons And Secret History: Nobody - and I mean nobody - knows this; any hints that somebody does will be persecuted with extreme prejudice. Clear? Okay, good. So. The big retcon/secret history is that magic existed in Fenspace but at a level nobody could really use or even experience. That changed on whatever the whateverth, 2008, when interdimensional traveller Doug Sangnoir used his magic on a sample of handwavium. The feedback loop from this acted as a catalyst, causing an exponential spike in the local background count that spread outwards.
On Mana Levels: In GURPS terms, Fenspace mana levels were Very Low to None until things were catalysed into action in 2008. Since then the level averages out to Normal, but in practice it’s very chaotic. There are hot spots and cold spots, some are stable but others drift and change shape over time, like weather fronts.
On Availability: As of 2022, very few both a) have it and b) know what it is. Manadynamics is the talk of the science journals and the press has gotten hold of some of it, but there hasn’t been a huge upswing in wand-waving accomplishing anything.
On Magic and Handwavium: They’re related. That’s not to say they’re the same or even all that similar, but they are related.
On Magic and Genetics: A genetic basis for magic makes some sense to me (also it makes my Perpetually-Threatened Shadowrun Crossover easier to swallow) though I’m not sure of percentages. It’s only in the mid/late-2020s that natural affinity for magic should start appearing, though - manufactured affinities (like say, Honami Ambler or Jade Hasegawa’s abilities, or Noah’s magegift activated via his interactions with the Girls) can show up earlier but the background count’s only been high enough to ‘trip’ the genetics in the last couple years. As the man once said “it’s your kids! Somebody’s gotta do something about your kids!”
On Technomagic: In my initial rambling screeds on the Soviet manadynamics project this is where I was focusing. Because inherent magegifts are only just starting to show up (and even then ~all the new mages are, like, toddlers) the majority of work on magic so far has been aimed at poking at it using modern scientific & industrial tools. Which makes sense if you think about it in a historical context, but that’s a rant for another post. Anyway, while it won’t get to the level joked about in the thread for a good while (the Soviets have been laboring away with a Giant Space Brain and so far have achieved 1% of an enchanted ENIAC. This is gonna take some time) I think the close integration of magic and technology is the way most Fenspacers will go.
On That Old-Time Religion: The main difference - and thus the main problem - between Fenspace’s magic theories and Warrior’s World’s UTM is Warrior’s World had working magic traditions for umpty-ump years before the UTM was even formulated. So they knew magic was real & could be accessed in a dozen different ways going into the project. Fenspace was up until less than two decades ago a very-low-to-no-magic world; while there’s a lot of traditions floating about, none of them actually worked. So it’s an interesting reversal, instead of starting with dozens of traditions and reconciling them into the UTM we’re starting with the UTM and trying to sift through dozens of traditions for the functional bits.
On the Perpetually-Threatened Shadowrun Crossover: Ha. Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha hahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! [/joker]
On Nerfing: I’m against it. Handwavium was nerfed because it was extremely useful out of the box, and starting a nerd arms-race was never the intent. Magic on the other hand is just starting out as a phenomenon people can research and understand, let alone utilize in any productive manner; there’s no need to nerf it right off the bat. That means that yes, in the fullness of time all sorts of bad people can use magic to do bad things, but all sorts of good people can use it to do good things too.
On Rules: Sky’s the limit. Bear in mind that these are early days and nobody yet has the ability to get really gonzo. People sussing out the operational envelope for their particular system is encouraged and expected. Also expected are headlines along the lines of “researcher accidentally implodes self.” Paradox can be a right bitch.
On Rules in a Meta Direction: I don’t want to tie Fen magic down with a lot of hard and fast guidelines, because I know that if I do agree to hard lines they’ll a) be in the wrong direction, b) get rules-lawyered to uselessness, c) eventually become obsolete, d) spark dozens of fun-killing arguments or e) all of the above. If necessary, I’ll make summary judgements, or I’ll delegate summary judgement duties to somebody I trust.
On Dichotomies: To be honest, I’m not a fan. I think magic as a concept gets wrapped up in that sort of dualism far too often. I prefer a more holistic approach.
On Spirits, Souls, etc: I’m not touching that livewire for all the tea in China. If it becomes important we can figure it out later, but assume a bland spirituality and then kick it to the background.
On Reconciling Metacontinuity Magic Systems: Not our job. We’ll leave that one to the philosophers and sperglords.
On Fenspace and Amber: No, non, nein, nyet, nix, nuh-uh, not happening.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"