Magic and modern tech, what would it be like?

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Winged

I'm interested in ideas about a setting where magic and tl8 coexist. Not in the "magic is a big secret" kind of way that you see in a lot of fiction, but if it was a common and widely studied studied discipline and the entire world population had magery 1.

In a hypothetical version of the world in which at some point in the 1940s magic was "discovered" and since then has become as widely studied as modern technology, what would our modern world look like?

Define "magic".



GURPS Standard Spell System as you mentioned Magery 1? The world invariably ends in an orgy of demons and mass-death roughly ten years after magic is made public.

7 000 000 000 (human population) * 9.6 (one-tenth the number of fatigue points recovered per-waking-day per-mage; used as a stand-in for the maximum number of spells cast per-waking-day per-mage) * (1/266) (odds of getting an 18 on 3d6) * (1/266) (odds of getting a demon from a critical failure) = 949 742 and change.

Every day, nearly a million demons enter the world as part of the background noise from having that many mages casting spells (or trying to cast, as every mage can try to invent new spells by trial-and-error).

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

GURPS Standard Spell System as you mentioned Magery 1? The world invariably ends in an orgy of demons and mass-death roughly ten years after magic is made public.

Just like 1/216 flights in aircraft result in a disaster? Wouldn't the normal use of Magic just be a monthly job-roll with regular consequences (loss of pay, maybe minor injuries)?

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Just like 1/216 flights in aircraft result in a disaster? Wouldn't the normal use of Magic just be a monthly job-roll with regular consequences (loss of pay, maybe minor injuries)?

Spells are always rolled within the standard spell system. Casting a spell always has a chance of meaningful failure.

Originally Posted by GURPS Basic, pg 343

WHEN TO ROLL
To avoid bogging down the game in endless die rolls, the GM should only require a success roll if there is a chance of meaningful failure or gainful success. In particular, the GM should require success rolls when . . .
• A PC’s health, wealth, friends, reputation, or equipment are at risk. This includes chases, combat (even if the target is stationary and at point-blank range!), espionage, thievery, and similar “adventuring” activities.
• A PC stands to gain allies, information, new abilities, social stand-
ing, or wealth.
The GM should not require rolls for . . .
• Utterly trivial tasks, such as crossing the street, driving into town, feeding the dog, finding the corner store, or turning on the computer.
• Daily work at a mundane, nonadventuring job. (To evaluate job performance, make monthly “job rolls”; see Jobs, p. 516.)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

Spells are always rolled within the standard spell system. Casting a spell always has a chance of meaningful failure.

If spellcasting is a mundane job, then it falls under "Daily work at a mundane, nonadventuring job. (To evaluate job performance, make monthly “job rolls”; see Jobs, p. 516.)"

Just like flying an airliner.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

If spellcasting is a mundane job, then it falls under "Daily work at a mundane, nonadventuring job. (To evaluate job performance, make monthly “job rolls”; see Jobs, p. 516.)"

Just like flying an airliner.

Pilot doesn't cost fatigue points. Spells do. :) But this is an old argument and probably should be split off into its' own thread or one of the threads covering the topic resurrected rather than derailing this one further.