the_gneech (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
the_gneech) wrote2002-12-11 11:14 am
the_gneech) wrote2002-12-11 11:14 am
Entry tags:
Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig
Ice storm here; but this time, I had work to bring home yesterday so I can work from here and not have to use up all of my vacation time. But who cares about work, when there's writing to be done?
Had a bit of a chat last night with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katayammma about Michael Macbeth, but didn't get any real interesting breakthroughs.
What I need, really, is just an interesting spark -- an original idea, a twist ... some kind of underlying idea that the story is about. Like the guy with the pocketwatch that turns squirrels into gold [1]... some kind of an idea that works, but is from out in left field somewhere.
While pondering MM, my gaze happened to wander across my Mage: The Ascension books, and my mind flirted with that for a bit.
As you may or may not know, I wrote some stuff for Mage back in its earlier days. The line developer, Phil Brucato, was one of the players in my Richmond gaming group, and he brought one of the first copies up and ran a little playtest session with Laurie and me, which was fun and seemed to have a lot of promise.
Key word being "seemed." All of the potential coolness of Mage got rapidly sucked out by the inherent crappiness of the "World of Darkness" setting and the whole White Wolf Games mindset; within a matter of months Mage was just spitting out the same "technology is evil, angst is good" garbage that made Werewolf so annoying. Almost everything I wrote for Mage systematically had the neat and interesting ideas yanked out, to make room for more of that junk, which then had my name put on it.
Bitter? Eh, maybe a little. :P
Anyway, that's all ancient history now (in as much as 1996 can be considered ancient), and the thought I had last night was, "Y'know, there was stuff you liked about that first pass at Mage, before it was crap. And since WW never used any of the good stuff, it's still yours ... if you can dredge it up out of your memory and build something new out of it, it'd be like a pheonix rising from the ashes!"
All very well and good, but then the "Hold on a minute..." part of my brain said, "Wait, wait, hold on. Modern day wizards? Where have we heard this before? Are you sure this isn't just an attempt by your subconscious to plagiarize Harry Potter and claim it's your own idea?"
I dunno, is it? I've been using the basic "fantasy elements in the modern world" idea for a decade with NeverNever, and really Michael Macbeth is that same basic premise ... so unless I start writing "Larry Potter and the Muggles," I don't think I have to worry about that too much. But at the same time, let's not push things, eh?
The main advantage that going all the way into explicit wizardry would have over Michael Macbeth is my "let go and jump" problem. Magi will naturally encounter all sorts of wild things; Michael can only encounter things that would be right for Michael, and those things have been eluding my imagination. (Michael could not, for instance, encounter a unicorn, childproofed or otherwise. It wouldn't fit. A mage might very well be able to.)
Ah well. Have to let my subconscious chew on it some more. I need to get back to work anyhow. :)
-The Gneech
[1] And no, I can't use that idea; I stole it from "Freakazoid."
Had a bit of a chat last night with
katayammma about Michael Macbeth, but didn't get any real interesting breakthroughs.What I need, really, is just an interesting spark -- an original idea, a twist ... some kind of underlying idea that the story is about. Like the guy with the pocketwatch that turns squirrels into gold [1]... some kind of an idea that works, but is from out in left field somewhere.
While pondering MM, my gaze happened to wander across my Mage: The Ascension books, and my mind flirted with that for a bit.
As you may or may not know, I wrote some stuff for Mage back in its earlier days. The line developer, Phil Brucato, was one of the players in my Richmond gaming group, and he brought one of the first copies up and ran a little playtest session with Laurie and me, which was fun and seemed to have a lot of promise.
Key word being "seemed." All of the potential coolness of Mage got rapidly sucked out by the inherent crappiness of the "World of Darkness" setting and the whole White Wolf Games mindset; within a matter of months Mage was just spitting out the same "technology is evil, angst is good" garbage that made Werewolf so annoying. Almost everything I wrote for Mage systematically had the neat and interesting ideas yanked out, to make room for more of that junk, which then had my name put on it.
Bitter? Eh, maybe a little. :P
Anyway, that's all ancient history now (in as much as 1996 can be considered ancient), and the thought I had last night was, "Y'know, there was stuff you liked about that first pass at Mage, before it was crap. And since WW never used any of the good stuff, it's still yours ... if you can dredge it up out of your memory and build something new out of it, it'd be like a pheonix rising from the ashes!"
All very well and good, but then the "Hold on a minute..." part of my brain said, "Wait, wait, hold on. Modern day wizards? Where have we heard this before? Are you sure this isn't just an attempt by your subconscious to plagiarize Harry Potter and claim it's your own idea?"
I dunno, is it? I've been using the basic "fantasy elements in the modern world" idea for a decade with NeverNever, and really Michael Macbeth is that same basic premise ... so unless I start writing "Larry Potter and the Muggles," I don't think I have to worry about that too much. But at the same time, let's not push things, eh?
The main advantage that going all the way into explicit wizardry would have over Michael Macbeth is my "let go and jump" problem. Magi will naturally encounter all sorts of wild things; Michael can only encounter things that would be right for Michael, and those things have been eluding my imagination. (Michael could not, for instance, encounter a unicorn, childproofed or otherwise. It wouldn't fit. A mage might very well be able to.)
Ah well. Have to let my subconscious chew on it some more. I need to get back to work anyhow. :)
-The Gneech
[1] And no, I can't use that idea; I stole it from "Freakazoid."
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This can easily evolve into wizard collectives where 2 or 3 stay at home base and try to mod spells for new machines as 2 or 3 wizards scour the globe for the necessary components for the spells as written. And since everyone will be after the same components, the collectives will be in competition with other collectives. Not all "houses" will be nice and play fair, either.
I can imagine some wild fight scenes inside a pawn shop - and a very wide-eyed pawnbroker witnessing the whole thing.
How's that?
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And remember: Magic is Green.
Peace;
- PunkTiger!
Story thoughts, ideas and stuff...
Plus, if stuff like Shadowrun can get away with FUTURE Age + Magic = Good... why not modern? Doesn't seem like too big of a jump really. No real different than if you have a teenage girl fighting vampires in a modern age (Buffy) or if you've got some English guys fighting vampires in the 19th century (Dracula).
The main thing is to decide how BIG magic is. Does everyone know about it? Does only a select few know about it? Do you really need all those caldrons and stuff, or was that just a bunch of bumpkis? And how much does one's life really get affected by it.. I mean, does everyone go home and watch their Crystal ball and surf the Mage Wide Web (the MWW), or does everyone still use the good old TV and internet?
Oh, and someone mentioned magic and technology together... Why not have something like that be seen in stuff like the Philidelphia Project (you know, the one that was supposed to stealth a battleship in WW2 but ended up all messing up stuff). What if part of the stuff that was involved was magical based and had worked? What if that WAS the start of techno-magic, was that experiment. Not many would need to know about it. But its effects could have spread outward. Think cold war spies trying to find out what the other is making with their new technology and magic. Shoot, you could even use Indiana Jones as reference. Whats the big difference between having a WW2 archeologist hunting after 'magical' artifacts than setting it in a more modern age? Nothing really. Just the setting, and maybe how things are said and done.
Bweeeeeeeeeee! I'm full of ideas today! Hope those spark ya imagination. And if you wanna use any of the ideas, your welcome to them. I just sort of borrow ideas from things I read and remember, and thought was cool. Shoot. If your desperate for an idea... what about the Bermuda Triangle?
--Rhan
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Wizard is out of breath and running for his life. 3 enforcers from the mob are after him, trying to catch him alive. He slams the double doors closed and puts the fire extinguisher nozzle through the handles. His familiar, a teddy Ruxpin looks over his shoulder.
"That won't hold them for long," he says in a mechanical voice.
"It won't have to," the wizard says, taking note of the contents of the warehouse. "Quick! How many spells use a Dell inspiron 1250 as a component?"
"Just one," comes the reply. "Verm Locuta L Hora."
"You've got to be kidding me!" the wizard yells as he rushs to the nearest pallat of laptops. "I can't use that - it's useless!"
A loud bang from the doors interrupts the conversation.
"I predict that your pursuers will be inside with only 2 more hits," the familiar notes.
Another loud bang comes from the doorway.
"Correction: one more hit."
The wizard shakes his head rapidly from side to side then spreads his arms wide. "All right," he fumes. "If that's all I've got... maybe it'll buy me some time."
The doors burst open, and the three burly men rush into the room. They are perplexed to see their quarry in the middle of the room in plain view with his arms outstretched.
The wizard closes his eyes tight. "Verm Locuta L Hora!!" he cries.
There is a shimmering of light around all the crates as literally thousands of laptops are used for the spell. Almost immediately, rats begin dropping from the cieling onto the armed men. The gunmen, surprised at the sheer number of rats falling upon them, begin to scream aloud and fire every which way but toward the wizard, who is beating a hasty retreat outside through the main loading dock.
"Oops," the Teddy Ruxpin chimes in. "My error. There is a Lightning spell, too. But that destroys the component when you use it."
The wizard growls under his huffing breath. "Remind me to change your tape when we get home," he grumbles. "Right after I change my shorts..."
Re: Story thoughts, ideas and stuff...
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Anyway...
It would certainly suit the mindset of many that the highest technology placee (manufacture of medicines and microprocessors, etc) were actually behind closed doors using mages for this purpose. A society built this way, a little bit like "aliens in our midst" is woven into Men in Black might be interesting.
Real geeks and supertechs and science wonks disappear, and/or become secretly indoctrInated into this hidden world. Absent minded professors that can't, teach--but the ones that can, do magic.
Nanotechnology is an enchanting concept...
===|==============/ Level Head
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Re: Story thoughts, ideas and stuff...
--Rhan