Dawn of Magic

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Whitewings

When the pain keeps going and he can't say his lines, everyone will notice.

Oh, certainly someone will eventually notice. But unless the witch is meant to dismiss the curse or the character is supposed to shake it off before the scene ends (probably with a curtain close), will it be obvious to the viewers?

"Hank. Hey, Hank! Curtain's closed, scene's over, you can stop screaming now. Hank? Uhh... guys, I think something's really wrong with Hank."

Of course, if the witch is meant to dismiss the curse, if she were that meticulous with casting it I think her dismissal would be successful. But the problem likely would indeed become obvious at that point - there's almost no way the actor would correctly deliver his lines after getting hit with the equivalent of the Cruciatus Curse (in fact, chances are pretty good he'll immediately break character in some way).

[Whitewings]

The least bad option would be to drop the curtain, get the guy offstage and improvise (or just jump to) a scene where the person(s) involved placate the witch and she removes the curse. That’s going to be extremely obvious to anyone familiar with the play, or looks up the script. And the original curse-setting scene is going to get changed in a tearing hurry. At the least the witch will start using a nonsense incantation and different set dressing.

By itself this won’t get a lot of attention, but at some point the troupe will get investigated by various TLAs. That’s going to be a truly monumental ongoing turf war.

[Whitewings]

Which agencies would have the strongest claims to jurisdiction once the new phenomena are accepted as real? The CIA has little ability to operate within the US. The NSA has jurisdiction only over communications (and that remit desperately needs to be reduced). The FBI is a police force, period. And so it goes.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Unless the target is meant to be unaffected, or to somehow deliver lines through the pain rather than collapsing and writhing whilst screaming... would anyone actually notice? Or would they just think "Wow, this guy can really act" (or perhaps more likely "Ugh, this guy is overacting this part")?

They'll notice when a Shoggoth appears and starts munching on the scenery.

[Michael Cule]

The problem with this scenario is that there are two parts of magic (as modelled in GURPS and most other RPGs at any rate).

There's the access to the power and there's the knowledge about how to manipulate and use the power.

It's the second that limits what can happen once the power flow is restored. If mana has been absent for most of human history then the number of people who have any idea what they're doing is going to be limited. There's absolutely no reason (that I can see) why the rituals and theories that modern day would-be witches and wizards are using should be true at any level.

And until you can restore the knowledge magic will continue to be unreliable.

One way to give the people of the world a motive to investigate is to allow default but not safe usage of magic. People with access to the mana (who might or might not be everybody) will be forming desires and wishes and the mana will flow into it... And if they manage to control it then they get what they want or something like it. If they fail at any level there's a magical fumble.

This makes for an interesting few years and possibly a revival of the witch hunt.

I have done this myself, though not in the modern day: I set the return of magic in the 1660s after an unwise experiment by Isaac Newton. The way I got to a new age of magic rapidly was to give thirty-six people (including all the PCs) access to the Words of the Thirty Six Decans of GURPS CABAL (One Word per customer) and a set of Verb-Noun skills with which they could improvise spells. They started teaching and spreading those skills and then started arguing about who should be allowed to learn magic and how they should use it...

When we abandoned the campaign there was a major Wizard War looming on the horizon (probably between the French and English) and a return of Puritan witch burning after Charles II's first legitimate child was born with glowing eyes, a side effect of the magic used to get her concceved in the first place.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Whitewings

Which agencies would have the strongest claims to jurisdiction once the new phenomena are accepted as real? The CIA has little ability to operate within the US. The NSA has jurisdiction only over communications (and that remit desperately needs to be reduced). The FBI is a police force, period. And so it goes.

That's going to be an absolute mess.

Magic can be used for communication, so the NSA is going to make a claim. FBI will argue that crime is crime, and therefore their jurisdiction, regardless of its nature. The IRS may even make an argument that attaining magical power should be treated as capital gains.

[dcarson]

Originally Posted by RyanW

That's going to be an absolute mess.

Magic can be used for communication, so the NSA is going to make a claim. FBI will argue that crime is crime, and therefore their jurisdiction, regardless of its nature. The IRS may even make an argument that attaining magical power should be treated as capital gains.

BATF since it can be a destructive device. FDA since it can do medical things. Etc.

[Michael Cule]

ICA if magicians can teleport across borders.

There are three ways government can react I think.

1) Decide to ban it or only allow it under government control. Which leads to something like the Mutant Registration Act or the Inquisition. One agency to control the problem.

2) To allow magic but only under liscence/supervision. Which leads to something like the Medical Profession.

3) To observe but frustrate it which means letting all the agencies who want to stick their oars in go right ahead.

And there are multiple ways the magical folk can react too from hiding to instituting an actual magiocracy.

[hal]

Can magic, absent intent, happen by accident? If the answer is no, then an actress muttering words and engaging in some ritual - no matter how correct, should fail - as she is not casting a spell by intent.

One movie worth watching is THE SKELETON KEY - if you haven't watched it, I suggest you find a used copy on Amazon or on ebay and watch it, it is a true treat.

The key line in the entire movie is "It can't hurt if you don't believe"

Me? I use the idea that if your parents are "Daughter of Man" and "Sons of God" - what you're really saying is a Mortal woman mating with an Angel (be it fallen or not!) who is automatically born with Magery 4.

Merlin is reputed to have such parentage. Bloodlines for those who have Magery at all, are essentially descendants of someone who was a Nephilim. Magery 0 means someone whose descent from such a blood line is distant. Someone with Magery 3 comes from multiple blood lines (ie, two different mothers and two different angelic beings - who then produced offspring with each other - reinforcing magery...)

There is just one minor problem with being born Nephilim. Seems that both Angels and Demons want you dead...

Just a thought.

[Whitewings]

Originally Posted by hal

Can magic, absent intent, happen by accident? If the answer is no, then an actress muttering words and engaging in some ritual - no matter how correct, should fail - as she is not casting a spell by intent.

That’s why I specified that she was just deep enough into character to have enough actual intent for the curse to work. Accidental magic will be very rare, like a one in a thousand fluke. But with a global population of eight billion or so, even one person in ten thousand performing a potentially effective ritual once a day comes out to several thousand efficacious rituals daily. And if religious rituals count as potentially efficacious, that one in ten thousand and one a day are ridiculously low.