11-06-2015, 10:01 PM | #21 |
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Lafayette, COlorado
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Re: High TL 9 vs TL2+RPM
When I use magic dependent societies, I like to use the alternate TL advancement rules. so for example, if you have a group of people that only use mundane technologies up to TL 2, but use boatloads of magic in order to
*Support a post scarcity society *Cure any and all diseases *Teleport intergalactic distances *etc, etc, etc. Then they're more or less TL 12. Thus, they come in at TL 2 +10. As for the war, it would depend largely on how "Organizationally Advanced" the magic people are. If they're basically organized into tribes that can't support much in the way of population & specialization (there aren't many of them & more or less everyone has to spend a bunch of time gathering they're own food) then they're probably screwed. Alternatively, if they organize into cities of millions and support a diverse class of specialists, they'd have much more of a chance. Also how centralized are they? If every tribe is independent they probably won't even be able to put up any resistance. The invaders will be able to just chew through them one at a time, even occasionally allying with a rival tribe if necessary. You should probably consult the records of colonial Africa and India in order to get an idea of how this will probably go. Just give the defenders better capabilities. |
11-06-2015, 11:16 PM | #22 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
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Re: High TL 9 vs TL2+RPM
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I have further problem with your proposed conquest though: Somehow the invaders have enough technology on hand to subjugate MULTIPLE worlds, capture and exterminate ALL the mages (except perhaps a sole traitor tribe), figure out how magic works and develop countermeasures and establish themselves as the ruling body across an entire planetary system- but they fear AI, aren't prone to research, are hidebound, and don't have the tech to even keep their ships in operational order? Once again, this is surmountable, but it involves making the invaders evil (and I mean that in the most genuine sense of the word- in that they are putting their own petty belief system above the rights and lives of an entire indigenous people; full on space Nazis ). |
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11-06-2015, 11:28 PM | #23 |
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Lafayette, COlorado
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Re: High TL 9 vs TL2+RPM
I think it was implied that the mage people had regressed from their space-crossing world-terraforming days. How that happened, I have no idea. Maybe all of that took place under the rule of one king taking advantage of a super high magic astrological event, and when that ended his empire collapsed?
As for magic being used to hold the invaders off, remember that they need to raise the energy to target the invaders, which is pretty expensive. With low populations, mass sacrifices can only get you so far, especially as you can only sacrifice one person per ritual by RAW. And even more so when you consider the fact that your people probably aren't willing to make that many sacrifices. |
11-07-2015, 07:11 AM | #24 | |
Join Date: Oct 2015
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Re: High TL 9 vs TL2+RPM
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How about putting the ship on autopilot? Put the well-dwelling colonists into hibernation, and thaw them out on approach. Now, you have colonists who remember living on a planet and want to live on another one, and because the autopilot can't make such complex executive decisions, don't know about the "natives" until they're already on approach. Take a page from Honor Harrington. Maybe the TL9 ones are on a slowship, and they were beaten to their dutifully registered destination by claim-jumpers, who have now managed to get three or four generations in on "their" planet, or even in the ground on "their" planet, if you want to make the slowship journey long enough. Possibly, they were given a ride to a new world, again per HH, and the Graysons, or the ST:TNG episode, "Up The Long Ladder", by smugglers, to a place where they could get away from Demon Technology, (the magic was an unexpected bonus.) Naturally, the squatters are not going to be welcoming to these long-heralded new arrivals, and will want to take them out of the sky before they can land with their Demon Supertech. |
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11-07-2015, 04:05 PM | #25 |
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Re: High TL 9 vs TL2+RPM
I sort of wondering why the natives are resisting, especially with how much people are suggesting the use of human sacrifices to stop the invaders
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11-07-2015, 05:58 PM | #26 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
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Re: High TL 9 vs TL2+RPM
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Also- who are you talking about when you say 'the natives', its a TL2 world, so there is a strong ruling class (of which magic using shamans/priests are likely an important part), for the rank and file serfs being sacrificed is something that gets done; even if they don't like it they don't know anything else. If they even know about the the threat from the stars, they will only know what the shamans and leaders tell them, which will not be flattering. |
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11-07-2015, 07:24 PM | #27 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Re: High TL 9 vs TL2+RPM
One way to make interplanetary travel uncommon is that gates are fixed relative to each other. So a gate to a planet doesn't work you need to use a teleport. This lets you avoid the semipermanent connection. Each trip is a major bit of magic.
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11-09-2015, 12:32 PM | #28 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: High TL 9 vs TL2+RPM
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Of course, nothing says that's the way it has to work in your setting, or that leadership had the foresight to set up such a legion. |
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11-09-2015, 03:06 PM | #30 | ||||||
Join Date: May 2007
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Polite disagreement
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In short, would you want to live forever in a glorified can in space looking at a perpetual night -- or on a sunny hillside looking down at flowing water? The latter might be worth killing for. Quote:
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The high tech invaders know that somehow the indigenous peoples have an incomprehensible ability to move across space without high tech. Given that many beings are territorial leaders of the intruders would wonder, really wonder, if these locals will be forever happy letting colonizers use all the resources of the outer solar system. Maybe the locals will see the asteroids as their own birthright. When will the locals say "Enough!" and act to throw the intruders out -- or exterminate them? Sure, at tech 2 they can't do it now -- but what about a thousand years from now? One of the best ways to jolt a low-tech society into frantic efforts to advance is the presence of a higher tech exploiter. (See Japan, c. 1868.) If the original inhabitants of the system outnumber you do you as the high-tech intruder want to wait a few centuries then fight outnumbered against folk with only a slightly lower tech level? There are precedents for "pre-emptive wars." These might well be reasons for deciding on violence. Quote:
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Remember that the GM doesn't have to have the most rational choices made by the space fleet commanders, nor the best -- only possible ones. Human folly is always credible. See Tuchman's "The Guns of August" for an example, or her later "The March of Folly." Never underestimate the power of human beings to make the wrong choices. |
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ritual path magic, tech levels, warfare, worldbuilding |
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