Advancement of the Machines

Thoughts about plots involving time travel have been on my mind again lately. I read a series of three articles on the subject from a blog over at Campaign Mastery starting with When Inspiration Is Not Enough: Time Travel in RPGs, Part 1. The first is the best from the writer's perspective. The second would be useful for plotting conflicts and their results in role-playing games. The last is pointed pretty directly at physicists and physics fans and may leave you lost. I can hardly approach the topic of time travel without referencing the Terminator franchise. It is definitely my go to time travel storyline. There is one factor regarding Judgment Day--when Skynet nukes the world--which has been expressed in a few ways, but I would have liked to seen in more direct and deeper ways. Every time Judgement day is pushed back technology advances.

In the real world, between the Terminator movies, there was a lot of advancement in the field of computers and software. There was a fairish bit of improvement in robotics too--especially between the first and second movie for the robotics. Every time the intrepid heroes push back the date of the end of the current world they make the fight against the machines in the aftermath that much harder. The starkest representation of this is the difference between Arnold's T800 and the T1000. There isn't a lot of tactical advancement in Skynet's approach to thwart John Connor in the movies either. It was a welcome addition that The Sara Connor Chronicles had the luxury of looking at a broader Skynet battle plan to weaken the entire resistance. There are still yet other avenues of attack that Skynet could make use of anywhere in the timeline before T3's end.

This paragraph here contains spoilers if for some reason you haven't seen all of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines or The Sara Connor Chronicles. Skynet from the future creates a computer virus that the military uses the current Skynet to try and stop. I'm not entirely sure of the full intent of this tactic but there is a clear leapfrogging of the wait time for Skynet to become aware and it immediately sets off its murderous rampage. In the Chronicles TV series Skynet sends Terminators back in time for a number of purposes from killing the parents of resistance leaders, to plans set in motion to ensure the creation of itself, to stockpiling materials to kick start production of T800s. This is a good start, but I would like to have seen more, deeper plots and conflicts. The question is how can I delve into such a plot of my own, and bring originality not to mention avoid lawsuits.

Mood: mechanical.

Music: Zero Signal by Fear Factory and Mr. Self Destruct by Nine Inch Nails.

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Come Together, Coven Me

It's not uncommon. People are social animals. It stands to reason that magic will be a social event for people. Sure there will be loners, there always are, and as with any social context the morality of the majority or at least the strongest personalities will prevail, forcing some to reclusion for their nefarious deeds. There are many advantages to gather multiple spell casters together to work on a shared goal. We've already mentioned pooling points, magical essences, or mass quantities of will focused together as one reason. This is something that can even involve non-casters as well, depending on the setting. So, what are the other reasons for the joining of mystical forces? As with most things the first and easiest answer is logistics. These can be logistics of a martial type, but they can also be a matter of non-violent nature.

The first logistical need anyone might have is coverage. How much of an area does a spell cover? Even boosted the scale has to be less if cast by only one person. Aside from the raw size of the area multiple participants can achieve different shapes or configurations of coverage. The areas need not even overlap; the desired effect may be to affect multiple locations at the same time. Time itself can be another strategic obstacle overcome by more than one caster, especially for prolonged effects. This time-restraint may be a matter of fatigue in the short term or sleep in the long term. It may also be a matter of focus and attention that is mitigated by separate participants in a lengthy casting or ritual. Either the area or time factors are a matter of scale so don't forget to cover truly epic scales, or at least as epic as the setting allows.

Focus and attention are not limited to being maintained for long periods of time. One mind can only handle so many details at one time. Here is an opportunity to craft spells that are really impressive, like the Swiss clocks of spells. Again, consider the epic scale, dozens upon dozens of effects or a handful of effects on numerous targets. This can be devastation or construction, detriment or enhancement. Nuance is a good thing here. Layering might be a consideration as well as the tweaking of effects as they are created. Here the skill of the participants becomes important with less skilled casters doing the simplistic parts and the more skilled ones doing the tweaking, and certainly orchestrating it all. Where normally the novices would be given the grunt work only the more experienced members may have to power to shoulder the power requirements. It all depends.

Mood: relaxed.

Music: Come Together by Aerosmith and Legions by Stratovarius.

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Weather or Not

Beyond what was discussed last time about the weather in games—and this applies to all story telling—there are other factors to consider. The most visible of these factors in indeed visibility. Whether it is heavy rain, driving snow, or clinging mists, the weather does affect how far away things can be seen. This can be an important factor in game combat or in mood creation in fiction. Additionally in both role-playing and stories this helps determine the feasibility of certain actions as well as precipitates the need of other actions.

In a similar manner, knowing the temperature is one thing, but dealing with it as a force that acts upon your character(s) is something else all together. It can dictate right off the bat what clothes will be required. It can present challenges like dealing with heat exhaustion at one end of the scale and hypothermia and frostbite at the other end. More so than rain, snow, or obscuring fog the temperature in a setting can alter the moods of the characters as opposed to the moods of the audience.

Precipitation can be a part of a larger situations as well as working on its own. Watching the news one sees two big scale conditions caused by rain, or its lack. Too much rain and you have flooding. Also too much can lead to deluging rivers, and mudslides. If there is too little rain then there is drought. Drought affects crops and impacts economies and impacts the lives of everyone. It can also be a mitigating factor in wildfires whether they are caused by careless people, or they are caused by another weather factor, lightning.

Carrying over to snow and there are blizzards. They can ground planes, seal off villages, trap people in places they'd rather not be and create situations where they have to deal with other people they would likely not encounter if not for the storm. Heavy accumulations of snow can damage houses as buildings just as unpredictably and suddenly—if not universally—as a tornado. Then lastly there is the avalanche possibility when the conditions or setting is ripe for it. There is a plethora of ways to use the weather in any kind of tale, be it role-played, rolled with dice, or found static in a short story, novel, or movie.

Mood: brainy.
Music: Going Mobile by The Who and Heavy Metal Poisoning by Styx.

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