[Space/Thaumatology] Stargate: Fantasy - Worldbuilding thread

[Prince Charon]

Stargate Command Question V

OK, what system or systems do people at the SGC have Potential but otherwise unusable access to? Unless one system has significantly more votes than the others, there will probably be several 'winners,' here. I'm leaving Material Magic off the list since it doesn't have any advantages to have a Potential Advantage perk for. (Also, note that if people from the SGC who start learning to use their magic both do so in unsecured locations on Earth, and are noticed by other Earthfolk with magical Potential Advantages, those other Earth-native Potentials could start fixing their misunderstanding of magic without the SGC knowing about it.)

1. Magic as Powers (could have a fairly large variety of Potential Advantages).

2. Path/Book Magic (both Magery and Path/Book Adept are Potential Advantages).

3. Spell-based Magic (the Potential Advantages are Magery variants).

4. Syntactic Magic (unless this is Realm Magic, which I'm not sure we want to use, the Potential Advantage is a Magery variant; Symbol Drawing Magic does fit with the Vikings having a settlement near the nexus, but so does Path/Book Magic).

5. Social Connections as Magic (probably the easiest to justify rapidly powering up in-character, as before going through the 'gate they haven't met any spirits or other such beings to have connections with).

6. Low Magic (not really sure what, if any, Potential Advantages best fit with this one).

7. Something else (please specify).

Please remember to include the number(s) of your preferred option(s) when you vote.

*******

Answer: 2 has four votes and 1 has three votes, so they'll be the main ones the SGC has, with Path/Book Magic styles being somewhat more common. 3 (Spell-based Magic) and 5 (Social Connections as Magic) have one vote each, so would probably require a small UB cost.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Stargate Command Question V

Answer: .

(2) interests me.

(3) I can of course work with.

I don't particularly like (5) but i will note that the prerequisite to it per RAW would probably be spirit Empathy.

[adm]

2+5 2 to have a base understanding of magic, 5 to power it up.

I can also see the rare 1 for story hooks.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Stargate Command Question V

I'll go with 2: Path/Book, as that seems like the sort of skills one would gain following a not-working magical tradition. And no wonder - it was designed to more closely mimic such traditions!

[Kesendeja]

1. Magic as Powers (could have a fairly large variety of Potential Advantages).

It gives the most option to tailor the system to the setting.

[Prince Charon]

2 has three votes and 1 has two votes, so unless someone votes before I post the new Question, they'll be the main ones the SGC has, with Path/Book Magic styles being somewhat more common. 3 (Spell-based Magic) and 5 (Social Connections as Magic) have one vote each, so would probably require a small UB cost.

New Question should be posted either later today or some time tomorrow.

[ericthered]

1 and 2 are the choices I lean towards as well.

[Prince Charon]

Stargate Command Question VI

This is more of a short-essay question: How do you think the SGC should be organized and operate, at least in terms of what the players need to know (including how the mages are organized, once the SGC has active magic-users)? This includes the SG teams, since I think that's what most PC groups will be. I suggest limiting the reply to a few paragraphs, probably no more than five. Depending on the responses I get, I may do another multiple choice question, or I may try to combine some answers and make a 'Does this look good, and if not, what should be changed?' question.

*******

Answer: Too long to summarize here. See next Question.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Stargate Command Question VI

This is more of a short-essay question: How do you think the SGC should be organized and operate, .

At the top level of how the Five Eyes committee works and why you're in Newfoundland I've got nothing. That's why I didn't vote for either option.

As for "Gate" teams let's look at the structure of the original SG-1. You've got a Leader with enough rank to be given the authority to make decisions. Also a primary combatant. Then there's a Native Guide who's also a primary combatant. if no Native Guide is available you need something like an intelligence officer. Then you have two experts. One in hard sciences and the other in soft sciences and one is a secondary combatant of note. SG_Atlantis came pretty close to this too and it might be where I'd aim a PC group to start.

I wouldn't expect enough mages to organize a corps of them. They'd be rare and placed ad hoc.

[Varyon]

For mages, I'd imagine SGC will be torn between having them stay on-base for purposes of researching magic (likely with a bent toward developing magitech that just about anyone can use) and deploying them with SG teams - probably just one to a team (although the flagship team, SG-1, may be composed differently - I could easily see both Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter functioning as mages of some flavor, and Teal'c as a Jaffa could be one as well, just leaving Jack O'Neill as the odd man out). They may opt for a compromise - all mages have to contribute some number of man-hours per month to magical research, but those who opt to deploy have a reduced quota.

I do agree with Fred's general breakdown for the SG teams, although the hard scientist may need to be replaced with someone who has a solid understanding (or at least as solid as SGC can manage) of magic - Dr. Samantha Carter was invaluable for dealing with alien superscience, but our SG teams are going to be dealing with alien magic. That's a natural role for a deployed mage, in addition to the benefits having magical support would lend to the team. That said, at least initially SGC will likely want someone with a hard science background, to try to make sense of whatever technology the Goa'uld are using and disguising as "magic."

I can't remember exactly how the other SG teams were setup in the show (particularly because, as the show's title implied, we pretty much just stuck to watching the antics of SG1), but it seems like a good way to do it would be to have "first contact" teams (like SG1 in the series) that are basically equipped for any situation (stealth, diplomacy, combat, deciphering ancient artifacts, etc) and are sent to investigate new locations - these are most likely the PC's. You'd then also have strike teams to pacify identified hostiles, eliminate (or extract) key targets, etc. Humanitarian teams to help distressed natives, as well as research teams to investigate ancient ruins, emplaced artifacts, etc, are also possible - although maybe not so much the former, as the public are (presumably) completely unaware of SGC (any humanitarian aid would likely be provided on a more-or-less ad hoc basis by the responding team(s), rather than having actual dedicated humanitarian teams).