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05-10-2019, 09:08 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Florida
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Magically protected interpaths
So, I've been thinking of path- or roadways that have been enchanted to allow safe travel between one location and another. The idea is an interpath with the following attributes:
What are your thoughts? |
05-11-2019, 09:21 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: near London, UK
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Re: Magically protected interpaths
The potential for espionage seems tremendous.
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05-11-2019, 02:01 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Florida
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Re: Magically protected interpaths
That's anywhere with roads.
Oh, are you talking about the path between A and C passing undetectably through the private chambers of the king of B? If interpaths are known, there would be defenses for that sort of thing. |
05-11-2019, 02:12 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Florida
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Re: Magically protected interpaths
Interpath, sci-fi version
A group of star systems, each of which are deep in intergalactic space and unreachable by conventional FTL tech (taking centuries to reach at maximum speed), isolated even from each other except by the expressway. Travel along it multiplies FTL speeds by thousands to millions, making trips between them quite quick. It would be possible to leave mid-path into a galaxy the path cuts through, but getting back on the path or back to the remote systems would be almost impossible. |
05-11-2019, 02:31 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Florida
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Re: Magically protected interpaths
Possible drawbacks
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05-11-2019, 04:10 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Earth, mostly
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Re: Magically protected interpaths
Quote:
The difference is that since ME relay is near-instant, there's no way to leave the relay path once you've launched. If you hit the Pluto relay headed for Systems Alliance HQ at Arcturus, you're going to Arcturus, not another star along the path. A fantasy version would, I suppose, involve a magical gateway at each end of the path, which causes the trip from one end to the other to be no longer than, say, a day or so. To get from King's Rest to Far Harbor takes three weeks by conventional caravan, but the King's Men can travel between the points in three hours and arrive as fresh as when they left.
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05-11-2019, 04:48 PM | #7 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: Magically protected interpaths
So like video games where you won't face any, or at least far fewer, random monsters when on the road? Or like fairy trods with magical unseen travel?
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05-16-2019, 10:13 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Udine, Italy
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Re: Magically protected interpaths
Never mind that, the potential for invasion is tremendous.
You might have a path to a place that you thought was friendly, and you might find that useful for, say, trade across a fiercely inhospitable region, say tall trackless mountains with wolves and constant bad weather. Now the enemies of your trade partners over there have conquered and taken over that place. Normally the inhospitable region would help protect you from invasion, but... have a look down that corridor for me, please, will you? Nobody's coming along, right? |
05-16-2019, 09:49 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Florida
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Re: Magically protected interpaths
Quote:
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05-17-2019, 02:50 AM | #10 |
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Alsea, OR
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Re: Magically protected interpaths
I've been considering just such a thing for my next fantasy campaign; traditionally, they're known as Faerie Trods...
The traditional version is shorter in Færie than the mortal path... and are usually protected within færie by powerful magics.... until you step off the path. Tolkien's Elf Path is a variation on this, except that he doesn't have a separate færie realm. In the Librarians show and novels, The Library functions in a similar way - it has doors in various places, and you can walk through The Library and exit through any other door to it. It's also known as "ley line walking" when coupled to ley-line theory. In that theory, the normal mode is entry and exit only at the junctions of the ley lines. Some versions allow entry anywhere along the line for magic-using folk; a few allow exit, as well. If you know the terms, it's easy to find, and it's been incorporated in a number of settings: Palladium Fantasy & Rifts, & WWG/Atlas Games' Ars Magica have rules on using them (Palladium as spells, Ars Magic as forms of Regio in a supplement); Since Harry Dresden uses them in they noves, they're also in the Dresden Files RPGs. There are others, but I don't recall which off the top of my head. In Sci Fi, several settings make use of fixed hyperspatial paths... Niven and Pournelle's Codominion universe has naturally occurring points for FTL which require a specific drive to trigger. Starfire (SV Cole, David Webber, Marvin Lamb & the SDS, Steve White, and Whites various coauthors) has a constant speed space drive, which interacts with (apparently) natural linkages. Webber's Honorverse and Doohan & Stirling's Flight Engineer series have keyhole drives similar to Niven & Pournelle's, but with differing descriptions of the process and its effects. The Flight Engineer series has one quirk - the paths aren't point to point... they're long tubular hyperspaces with junctions and multiple entry/exits in various systems. The Vorkosiverse (Bujold) also uses a keyhole drive with naturally occuring points doing a to b travel, travel time corresponds somewhat to distance, and it involves "5-space math" and has deleterious side effects on some. Even Star Trek has gotten in on it - Voyager discovered the Borg's Transwarp conduits, while DS9 had a stable (possibly artificial) Wormhole, while another, (probably natural) one came to rest in the Barzan system (TNG). Likewise, a few Sci-Fi RPGs have some variation on the theme... not many. The most noted is VSCA's Diaspora. Instant FTL, but located way out in the depths of the system, well above or below the system's ecliptic plane, so most of the travel is N-space. SJG's Vorkosigan Saga RPG (Powered by GURPS) The Fantasy Trip has its gate system. (D&D never made it prime-to-prime; TFT did/does.) The big issue with them is that, if a natural chokepoint exists, it can be held. If it's artificial, it HAS to be staffed. In play, it has some VERY interesting effects.
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