TL2 Fantasy Tips

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by fritzbc

Yup! One second, let me pull up what I have written down for him.



Thought I should add that Peyrn and Volos are the higher gods, with Dazhbog, Zvaroz, and Mokosh being lesser gods (although technically the three are part of a family)

You got lots of light, life and goodness. There's no Chernobog, no dark forces which you invoke or sacrifice to in the hope that they bypass you and yours?

Or does Volos get also dominion over all that is dark and full of terror as part of his chthonic aspect? Nature and the wilderness are also fearsome, for that matter.

[fritzbc]

Volos commands all that is evil and dark, although isn't evil himself. Both deities are to be respected. Let me grab the snippet I have for him.

Volos is the second god, who has many abilities and things that he does for us. The most important, is bringing the souls of those who have passed on to the realm of the dead to the underlands. He brings all that is evil in our world to our lands, providing balance from all that Peryn does for us.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by whswhs

No thunderstorms or lightning bolts? No legends of Zeus or Thor or Indra?

Magical lightning controlled by a mage who had managed to survive when his or her mind had been "faceted" by a supernatural experience (or lightning created and shaped by the mind of a god) worked just fine, as did the random storm-generated lightning bolt, since those are pretty destructive if they hit anything, anyway.

It just couldn't be generated and contained without conscious control, and in modern worlds where mechanical electrical generation was possible, magic was already disappearing everywhere

As presented in GURPS: Cabal, a universe is a "hologram" formed from the 12 fundamental forces released from the Realm of Pure Forms (aka, the Forge of God) at the core of reality. Those forces mix and mingle as they radiate through the Inner Spheres, becoming an ever-more finely-grained and coherent strucure.

By the time they emerge into the outermost sphere of material reality, the mix is so fine it's difficult to alter, as compared to the Inner Spheres. It's still doable, for awhile, since mind and spirit are somewhat apart from material reality, but sentient minds still interact with the hologram and influence its form.

However, as sentient minds and spirits discover the rules that govern material reality, the fabric of the "hologram" becomes ever-more rigid and inflexible, until such time as "bending" those rules becomes nigh on impossible and the universe functions according to rational rules of logic and science.

At that point, such "irregularities" as interdimensional portals disappear completely and mages can no longer exist. That happens as a material world transitions from TL 8 to TL 9.

Until that happens, though, a huge burst of magical energy (such as, say, a naturally-occurring isolated magical portal opens to a different reality...) would slag any low-power electrical device currently operating in range, and more powerful electrical items currently functioning failed more spectacularly. The usual way to keep them safe was to shut them down and put them in lead-lined trunks when the portal was scheduled to open.

So, for instance, the portal that opened in the catacombs of Paris meant the electricity on the area got shut down for a few minutes to "reset the old switch system," every month, because the local Cabal lodge exercised considerable control of the bureaucracy in that particular arrondissement. ��

Similarly, the lodge that controlled the Empire State Building had secretly used orichalcum for the radio antenna on top of the structure, which siphoned down the magical energy from the opening of the portal in the air just above the building and used it to charge mana-batteries, in part to prevent it from blacking out a big chunk of Manhattan. ��

All that said, the world as it currently exists has very nearly reached the point where magical phenomenon becomes impossible. Only a few more decades remain until the fabric of reality becomes so fine, and so coherent, that it cannot be altered through force of will, ever again, and those portals close forever.

[Thökk]

I think somebody might've mentioned it before in a thread it's quite old, but I'll chime in, if it's there. One thing I would to make fantasy feel more consistently between magic and technology is have less actual wizards with spell schools, but keep the magical creatures, fantasy races, magical plants.

It would makes sense to have some of magical phenomena, that cannot be consistently observed, understood and definitelt not replicated.

TL2 is a rise of interesting theories about the world, its origins, its fundamentals and its essense, as well as origins and purpose of human condition, but those theories were varied just as they were wrong. Yet some observations and conclusions were incredibly accurate and closer to the truth, than they could've imagined.

I'd love to talk endlessly about the weirdness that is greek philosophy, but I'd say you better take that journey yourself. Both mythologies, religions, philosophies and magical beliefs of that time can give you interesting ideas both about how the supernatural world functions, how people relate and conceptualize the supernatural, how wrong or informed are they about tge world, how they deal with ignorance and inconsistencies, whether the supernatural is interested in keeping the mortals adequately informed aboit the functions of the supernatural, its hierarchies, requirements, rules and limitations.

One way I would do lower TL magic as a practical tradition is more through Advantages, whether they are borne of theurgy, faith or being chosen by a patron, circumstance of birth, foreign influence or accidental brush with a supernatural, I'd leave very few options to learn Magic, rather than learn lore about magic. You might be a scholar of magic and your culture or region might know some herbalism or geomancy, but it's not something that you produce out of thin air, not immediately, and sometimes, you can't even do it alone.

Another thing is that the further in time you go, it seems, that the line between magic and technology or skill gets blurrier. TL2 looks to me like a transiotional period in that regard. Smithing can be seen as magic. Charisma and great leadership could be seen as magic. Empathy and rudimentary psychology could be seen as magic. Medicine and herb lore was seen like that. Chemistry was seen as magic for centuries. Talents and Wildcard skills could be magic. Tactics and strategy could be seen as blessings of the god. And who knows, they might as well be blessings in TL2 world.

So, any mundane skill might be treat magic. Some of the relatively common magical phenomena might enhance, replace or justify mundane skills/technologies. Mundane skills might get certain techniques available with a right advantage, like a supernatural blessing, patron, background or material.

Classic magic system might still work, but I'd think about social context, availability, cost and time investments. The idea is less about how much magic is there in the world, but how much magic is controllable and tamed. Magical wolves might be capable of telepathy and protected by force fields made of moonlight, but it doesn't mean people know how to take advantage of that or replicate it.

Another vector to think about it is that magic can be still very, very powerful. Just because you don't have arrogant Atlanteans in golden spires with magical WMDs, it doesn't mean that powerful magics should not exist. Whether employed by gods, unluckly sods, fate or nature – powerful miracles of great terror and great renown might exist in the world. Despite being higher TL, Song of Ice and fire gets this part, by marrying natural phenomena with magic and faulty people very well. Tyranny with its Edicts and general sense of mystery is more Bronze age, but I think it gets this feel as well. In such a setting, to be a "powerful sorcerer" might as well be a curse, rather than career choice and even for those gifted with blessings those rarely come without costs, downsides, duties, serious character flaws, etc. As I said above, TL2 feels more transitory between fully mythical age, but even medieval fantasy genre tends to take inspiration anachronistically from all over the history. This period gave birth to many a great sages, mystics, scholars, mediators and sceptics. As well as legends and people who very very good at writing down their own history and crafting their own legend. People who wielded a spoken and written word with immense power, that impacted the world for many a century to come.

Ah, a bit meandering comment, more prose at times than actual advice, but I was writing down the ideas as they came to me. And I thought it's important to set the tone anyway. If you've got things you wish to discuss more in concrete detail, ask away and I hope I can help.

[fritzbc]

Kind of Necroposting here, but I am starting a project that requires a list of items that are "daily basics" of the people in this time period, stretching into early TL3 and very late TL1. I don't need a large all-encompassing list or anything, I just need to know what you consider the basics to be. For food and drink, bushels and barrels is preferred. Thank you to everyone that has helped me so far and will help me in the future, you've influenced my world and adjacent worlds in major ways.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by fritzbc

Kind of Necroposting here, but I am starting a project that requires a list of items that are "daily basics" of the people in this time period, stretching into early TL3 and very late TL1. I don't need a large all-encompassing list or anything, I just need to know what you consider the basics to be. For food and drink, bushels and barrels is preferred. Thank you to everyone that has helped me so far and will help me in the future, you've influenced my world and adjacent worlds in major ways.

See if you can pick up a copy of the Iron Crown Enterprises game supplement, "...And a 10-foot Pole."

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...a_10_Foot_Pole

[stranger38]

Originally Posted by fritzbc

Hey all. I am going to attempt to run a TL2 Fantasy game at some point soon to test the waters of TL1 or TL2 gameplay. I have ran "standard" GURPS Fantasy (à la Dungeon Fantasy), but I haven't yet experimented with earlier tech-levels than TL3. As well as this, do people have worldbuilding or adventure tips? I haven't quite thought up an adventure yet, but my ideas have been ranging from a fallen TL11 civilization that the players discover, to a classic evil dungeon crawl with a dragon or necromancer at the end, to running a pre-existing module from a different system.

I am late to the party, my take on TL2 fantasy is a Roman game with monsters and magic almost a historical fantasy.

Satyrs prowl the roads, barbarians fight centaurs, etc

[fritzbc]

Yup, that was suggested up there, the author of GURPS Fantasy suggested for me to read the Roma Arcana section.