Urban Fantasy/Sci fi slice of life.

[Ermine]

Gisk said Ermine: How about you write something new, instead of porting from another RP?

That IS a new character. I had intended on that being a sample character for the system I'm working on (hence the system being partially detailed), but hadn't intended on ever RPing using the character because I didn't want to run something.

[Gisk]

You obviously already made the character, therefore it's not new. It wasn't made with this world in mind, is what my problem is.

I like that she uses a tablet and phone to contain her spells. Definitely the sort of tech/magic marriage I was after. Not sure how I feel about the pirating and hacking in the character.

[RumikoOhara]

Saw the No spaceships part on the odd character class I made up
Sorry but I hear Sci-fi I think starships an Green dancing girls lol

I was responding to your request for idea's an the class is basically a combination of a Rift's Bio wizard and the Fact I've been watching the Tenchi series once again and wondered who took care of the trees of Jurai
Hope all that wasn't referenced from too many obscure sources

I am filled with ideas that draw on but don't replicate things I've observed in anime, sci-fi and table top rpg books
Heck the potion making bartender idea reminded me of Tales of the Floating Vagabond an old RPG I read when I worked at my uncle's Gaming/comic/anime store
I almost want to see someone come up with a dwarf class that has the skill combat feasting because the idea that a character could munch on his or her foes weapons is down right amusing

[Ermine]

Gisk said
You obviously already made the character, therefore it's not new. It wasn't made with this world in mind, is what my problem is.I like that she uses a tablet and phone to contain her spells. Definitely the sort of tech/magic marriage I was after. Not sure how I feel about the pirating and hacking in the character.

A few points.
1) I made the character with a generic modern urban sci fi setting in mind, so she could easily be worked in when I had a world to put her into.
2) There is no merge of science and magic. There is science replicating the effects of magic.
3) The "magic" she does is with hacking. She's not so much a pirate as someone saving money by using other people's connections.
4) Her hacking is what creates the effects in the first place. I use "hacker" in the true sense, not the sense of "thief"; she doesn't break in to steal, she breaks in to see if she can. Doing things to learn how to do them, because she finds learning fun.
5) She's not a mage. She's just really smart and antisocial.

Edit: 6) I'm probably coming across as a persistent bitch. I don't mean to.

[Gisk]

You are, but it's okay. It's important to argue your case.
So she doesn't do any actual magic? I don't like the idea of technology mimicking magic. I meant for them to be separate entities with separate fields. No toe stepping, as it were. Or very little overlapping.

Rumiko: I don't get any of those references so you'd have to spell out exactly what their purpose was.

With magic adding to this world's capabilities, humanity has made it as far as Jupiter, where we have two small moon colonies. We have more on Mars. There are no aliens, the only "races" are humans, androids and dolphins.

[Ermine]

Is magic something a person is born with in your world? Or is it something just anyone can pick up? Because in a world where magic is something you're born with, human nature dictates that we would try to emulate it. Look at prostheses: devices made to replace lost body parts (or those you were born without). This is basically the magic equivalent.

Really, all it's making me do is look like a more serious RPer than I am.

Edit: Forgot to mention that every spell effect she wants to emulate, she has to program. She can't just cast any spell. She has to make it first. She's pretty much limited to fire, ice, electricity, and illusions. Maybe a couple other things I can't think of.

[UnendingEmpire]

Perhaps an android would-be novelist trying to study magic for said novel could work in this RP? Given technology's most basic foundation is being bound by universal laws, and magic often breaks these same laws on varying levels, a person born from technology would have her work cut out for her trying to figure out how magic works.

[Hailfire]

Rumiko. Your character would fit PERFECTLY into an rp concept I've been flinging around in my head in which technology and magic are merged to make living cities. In my setting the spells've gone wrong and the city starts eating people though... Anyways, its not a concept I am really driving for launch at the moment so don't hold the character back or anything. The coincidence was just too great for me to ignore.

Ermine. I see no reason you couldn't have the tablet device cast genuine magic. Ultimately it's almost irrelevent as to whether or not it emulates or is magic it just happens magic sits better with this setting (or so I've gathered). I really like the character concept there. Am I right in thinking you were planning to tweak it anyway?

Unendingempire. I love that character concept. [I] think its genius. Obviously final call is down to gisk.

Gisk. I am working on my character sheet at the moment and some stuff regarding the sport. There should be a pm with your name on it in your inbox later.

Also rumiko. Life's gonna suck when you grow up When you grow up, when you grow up Life's gonna suck when you grow up It sucks pretty bad right now. (I've probably embarrassed myself by posting this at the wrong rumiko now.)

[Ermine]

Hailfire said Ermine. I see no reason you couldn't have the tablet device cast genuine magic. Ultimately it's almost irrelevent as to whether or not it emulates or is magic it just happens magic sits better with this setting (or so I've gathered). I really like the character concept there. Am I right in thinking you were planning to tweak it anyway?

In order:
1) Because the whole basis of the character is she isn't magical. She just wants people to think she is, and found a way around it.
2) It's only relevant in how she "learns" new effects; playing around with code vs playing around with fireworks. ^~^
3) Thank you. I really like this character and would totally snuggle her all the time if she was older. And wouldn't kill me.
4) Yes, of course I'd tweak it. Never denied that. ^~^ I'd have to convert her to whatever the final character sheet looks like, which would bring in more details and maybe drop some of what is there. But the concept will stay the same (in theory. Which is how I work. <.<)

[Hailfire]

Ok. Thats my pm sent off.

Ermine I'm gunna hafta leave you with gisk. He has the last word on this stuff. I was just throwing in my two cents.

[Ermine]

I know. Answered likely inevitable questions, either way. ^~^

[Gisk]

Magic is a sort of resource in the world, anybody can pick it up and manipulate it, even machines. That's why a tablet casting spells is viable, and an android actually could conceivably use magic as well. I actually liked the idea of a techno mage, because I was going to make a "traditional" magician, and I thought it'd be funny if they were rivals.
As someone said, the difference between emulating magic and actually using it is kind of blurry, in any setting like this.

Anyone ever read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell? First of all, that's pretty much how I imagine magic in this. Second of all, in that book it's said that fairies(though there won't be any in this) and humans both have a faculty for logic, and one for magic. In fairies, the magic is high, but the logic is low. In humans it's the other way around. In this world, androids have a high faculty for logic(of course) but often can't wrap their heads around magic. Humans vary greatly. People who are too logical and literal have trouble with magic, but that doesn't mean they can't do it.
Androids can in fact utilize magic, as it's not coming from the "soul" or anything. It's just a force, a resource that exists in this world.
It comes from the stars, basically it's an additional kind of radiation that stars give off in this world.

Did I miss anything? Is any more clarification needed?

[Ermine]

So...mine could be emulating magic through machinery because she focuses more on the logic than the magic.
But I'd be fine if that caused a rivalry with someone who was more of a magic person.

[Gisk]

Alright, how does your magic emulation work, does it not use the same "magic" resource that's present in the world? What does it run off of, and what does it do?

EDIT: Before you answer, take a look at this. It's part of a convo I was having about this world with Hailfire. Kinda forgot that it wasn't common knowledge when I started asking questions.

Magic is produced in stars, but there's a finite amount that can be used in a given time frame. A limited amount per day, as it were. People have a daily magic ration, which is set up through a system like tax and budgeting every year. People who don't use much end up having their ration cut, and will have to apply to have it increased again, with documentation of the reason they need it. Because magic is basically in the air, ration breaking is easy, but there's a sort of social contract that keeps most people from doing it. Ration breaking is also a very serious crime. Because it's considered disruptive, even damaging to society.

Most people use up their ration with magic utilizing devices. But not everyone uses such things, so a lot of people would actually have a Magic Ration of 0.

When magic energy(let's just go ahead and call it Mana. This makes sense in a way, because it's literally something that's coming from the sky) is used up, or "burned" it can be detected and measured with scientific devices. Anyone who has a magic ration must have one of these monitoring devices on their persons, which will tell them their daily ration, and how much they've used. It also gives this data back to the Mana Conservation Committee, which is a worldwide organization that was formed under the UN when human population started to grow and people realized that mana was limited.

Using the same technology, large amounts of untracked magic can be detected and an investigation can be made into who was responsible.

[slint]

definitely interested, I'm thinking vaguely on a character that is human but since suffering a horrible accident he/she has required robotic implants. still thinking about their bigger motives within the world though.

I'm just wondering how the androids work? are they humans with body mods (both medical and cosmetic), robots with human exteriors + consciousness, or a mix of both? Maybe most (not all) humans reject androids and the truer androids reject the humans with body modifications? could provide the world with an interesting climate of prejudice.

[glibglobb]

It's an interesting concept. You don't often see the magic scifi mix in an early type 2 civilization. Usually it's advanced type 3 or primitive, industrial or information age.

Some questions:

1) What's the deal with dolphins. Are we talking cyber cetaceans like in Jonny Neumonic who swim around in digital space or is this merely a political extension of animal rights and dolphins in this world are the same as dolphins in our world.

2) What are the solar politics. Is there a solar system level state or are the extraterrestrial colonies independent. What about earth, is it unified or are there still warring nationstates?

3) Are there spirits? AKA organisms of a purely magical nature?

4) What is the means of extraterrestrial transport. Are we talking ships or dimensional portals? Is transport technological in nature, magical or both?

[Ermine]

Gisk said Alright, how does your magic emulation work, does it not use the same "magic" resource that's present in the world? What does it run off of, and what does it do?

Magic emulation wouldn't use the same "magic" resource -- at least...she doesn't think it does, whether it does or not. I'll let you decide that part. -- theoretically it runs off of an internal battery (like an idevice). It can do whatever she can figure out how to program it to do, but that mainly limits it to heat, cold, electricity, and holographic projections. She's figured out so far that she can use electricity. She hasn't refined it enough to do heat and cold stuff, but she can do like...a cold/hot touch thing (her palm gets hot or cold).
She'd have to learn more to make it particularly useful, but it's theoretically "off the grid" in terms of magic, like I said.

[Gisk]

slint said
definitely interested, I'm thinking vaguely on a character that is human but since suffering a horrible accident he/she has required robotic implants. still thinking about her bigger motives within the world though.I'm just wondering how the androids work? are they humans with body mods (both medical and cosmetic), robots with human exteriors + consciousness, or a mix of both? Maybe most (not all) humans reject androids and the truer androids reject the humans with body modifications? could provide the world with an interesting climate of prejudice.

Androids are literal robots. Exteriors range from human facades to blatantly inhumanoid forms. Human facades have a sort of uncanny valley type lack of appeal, and humans actually like them less than more obvious robots.

glibglobb said
It's an interesting concept. You don't often see the magic scifi mix in an early type 2 civilization. Usually it's advanced type 3 or primitive, industrial or information age.Some questions:
1) What's the deal with dolphins. Are we talking cyber cetaceans like in Jonny Neumonic who swim around in digital space or is this merely a political extension of animal rights and dolphins in this world are the same as dolphins in our world.
2) What are the solar politics. Is there a solar system level state or are the extraterrestrial colonies independent. What about earth, is it unified or are there still warring nationstates?
3) Are there spirits? AKA organisms of a purely magical nature?
4) What is the means of extraterrestrial transport. Are we talking ships or dimensional portals? Is transport technological in nature, magical or both?

1) Political extension, I guess. It was kind of a joke.
2) Earth is at peace, if not unified exactly. There are colonies on Mars and Europa. Mars is under UN control, but no particular country. Europa is owned by China, and pretty much nobody else is allowed there.
3) No.
4) Ships to leave Earth, dimensional portals to go any further than the Moon. The portals are satellites around earth, which collect their own magic, independant of the magic on earth. They can only be run three times a day, which can choke up traffic, leaving waiting lists. They're double sided, so they require a partner on the other end(There's one at Mars and one at Europa.)

Ermine said
Magic emulation wouldn't use the same "magic" resource -- at least...she doesn't think it does, whether it does or not. I'll let you decide that part. -- it runs off of an internal battery (like an idevice). It can do whatever she can figure out how to program it to do, but that mainly limits it to heat, cold, electricity, and holographic projections. She's figured out so far that she can use electricity. She hasn't refined it enough to do heat and cold stuff, but she can do like...a cold/hot touch thing (her palm gets hot or cold).She'd have to learn more to make it particularly useful, but it's theoretically "off the grid" in terms of magic, like I said.

This still really feels like it's being shoehorned into my world.

[glibglobb]

Thanks for the detailed reply Gisk. I'm not really attached to spirit magic, I was just probing my options.

Folks need to understand that from a GM perspective, a shoehorn character is like a slap in your face. It's like preparing an awesome dinner for your friends and one of them ignores it and orders out for pizza instead.

I'll have to think a bit about a character, Gisk, and whether I have time. I always made the mistake on old guild of joining too many games and over extending myself. Don't want to do that on new guild.

[Ermine]

If you don't like the character and don't want them in your world, I really don't need to waste any more of my time with this RP. I've logically and fully justified features based on information provided of the world, suggested changes, etc. Your best defense has been (paraphrased) "I don't like it." There's a difference between having a basic concept that can be inserted into any world that matches the genre and a character that is "being shoehorned into" a world. Mine is the former. There are legal limits on magic. Naturally, there would be people who would work around it. Obviously, this character that I put hours of work into isn't ever going to be allowed into the RP solely because she wasn't made specifically for this game. No point in wasting anyone else's time by trying. Not worth making a new one, since obviously any character I make I'll just be accused of shoehorning in if they use anything that relates to sci fi, despite sci fi being listed in the title.