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.

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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.

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The Strength of Magical Times

The use of magic in role-playing games has an additional requirement, beyond those discussed already, that must be dealt with in the mechanics to give it a sense of realism. Stick with us, even if you're not a gamer, because this has as much to do with creating the setting and the effect of magic on that mood, and the mood of any scene or scenario where magic is involved as it does games, numbers, or rules. As with so many other situations this requirement for magic and verisimilitude involves time. It's not just about creating an air of reality though; it's about dynamics and the implications that are spawned by setting out the rules, the physics, of magic and what is involved in its use. The mechanics are a factor of time because magic takes time, how much dependent upon the dictates of the setting which of course are set out in the rules.

In our more realistic setup for magic the ability to cast a specific number of spells per time period is off the table. Instead magic points are used, with each spell requiring a certain number of points to cast. It takes time to regain these points. How quickly they are used is more important game-wise than how long they take to recharge, but for fiction writing the significance is about the same unless magic only takes as long as the time to cast it--there is no need to figure it takes anything more than will and knowledge. The time required to cast spells and the recharge time can affect the pacing of your timeline if not the pace of the story. Often there are also methods by which a spell caster can gain and use additional points, such as rituals with multiple members, and sacrifices. Both of those right there add flavour and mood to the magic, and impact the setting.

There is yet another option for gaining magic points that involves an external source. Some settings have places of magic such as locations where mystic temples were built, lines of magical force that criss-cross the globe called ley lines, and places that are just plain magical whether because of a bleed-over from another dimension, the influence of magical beings like faeries, or at the decree of deities. Beyond that, these locations and others may have increased magic at specific times of the day, month or year, or when certain celestial alignments come about. These places and times can cut short the time required between spells, and allow for stronger spells to be cast than normal. All of these of course change the dynamic of the story or the game without even getting into the nitty-gritty of them. The exact mechanics and number crunching flow from the story elements.

Mood: relaxed.

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Nothing But Time

The game changing nature of powerful healing at accelerated rates presented two factors upon which the differences were built. The first was the change in risk aversion factors. The second was the effect on the time scale. The shortened time makes for altered pacing. In the fantasy setting this is especially true because of the otherwise limited state of medicine and lack of pain medication. While quickening the plot pacing changes the game or the story one way, shifting things in the other direction has alternate effects. Longevity has its own way of changing the game in a setting. Long lives, immortality, and the changes caused by continued healing and durability are one possibility. The other is less fantastical but no less powerful and involves controlled cross-generation planning.

Many fantasy settings have long lived elves and other inhuman beings. They have immortal wizards both of the perpetual living and living dead kinds. The same is true of settings with vampires of enough intelligence to keep a lower profile and out live generation upon generation of mortals. It is not often enough that the immensity of possibilities this creates is touched upon. These beings can achieve singularly what others cannot. They can plan according to the long view of things, adapting as they go, patiently manipulating events in tiny increments over a vastly extended time. This affords them a lot of power. Beyond that it allows them to cultivate great experience and with it wisdom. This experience and wisdom is stronger for being first hand.

Magic, supernatural biology, or the science and futuristic equivalents of those, are not strictly necessary to take advantage of this game-changing element. Family groups, organisations, secret societies and sects, and some tightly focused societies can do so as well. For them it requires more discipline due to the larger number of members required. It also requires all parties being able to understand the plan not only to fulfill their parts of it, but also to the greater degree of being able to pass on the knowledge and impart the importance of the actions that go into it. If any later generation fails in understanding or implementation, even in gradual degrees from one generation to the next, then the plans and their benefits diminish, fail, or outright disappear.

Mood: fluid.

Music: The Edge Of Darkness by Iron Maiden and Ride Thru The Storm by Desperado/Dee Snider.

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Anatomy of a Horror Setting #4-4: After All, A Small World

Perspective bears a relationship with scale in regards to the setting when considering the story’s location as the specific setting compared to the overall setting. To clarify, the places in which the story takes place are an important factor in horror beyond the world-building concerns of the setting. The creation of a fantasy horror story or setting can hinge on the change from the overview perspective to the immediate perspective of the characters involved. The key word to consider is immediate, immediacy. Horror can only benefit from a sense of immediacy, of urgency. Certainly it begins with and even capitalises on foreboding and a sense of impending doom, but without a follow through it plays itself out. This is where the line between setting and location comes in.

The following is an example of using the location to determine localised setting conditions. A village’s viceroy sends word to the capital that a monster is killing his people. The King dispatches some knights to deal with the menace, but it is winter and a snowstorm blocks the only pass that leads to the village/province. The local setting goes far enough to set up part of the plot in this example. The location portion of the setting involves details such as terrain, weather, and the types--or lack of--of characters available. The setting’s influence on characters, and those limitations are the bread and butter of the horror. Those pesky knights will be limited to the local garrison, which could be as few as three knights, locally trained, and of little experience. They are also likely to be the first to fall.

The example also demonstrates one factor that is new to the discussion--but not limited to the fantasy setting per se. It is the factor of time that is determined by the setting. The menace carries on from the first attack through the long couriering of the message to the capital, on through the extensive wait for the King’s knights. Isolation is a strong factor in a horror fantasy setting. To keep this so take instant magical communication off of the table. On the flip side consider prophetic dreams and the factors discussed for clairvoyance in the psychic horror setting. They need not be psychic powers, but can be the visions of priests and oracles, or the fodder of prophecies. The information gleaned from these visions can have timing that is faster or slower than the regular channels as needed.

Music: Mountain Song by Jane's Addiction and Limelight by Rush.

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Of Light and Shadows

Light shows us things. It leads us through the darkness. It frightens us when it goes out, suddenly plunging us into darkness. It frightens us almost as badly when it appears suddenly, out of nowhere, with no cause, and no rhyme or reason to it, defying the laws of physics. Light is one of the number one tools of the horror moviemaker. It is a huge factor in photography, like the kind in which I have been involving myself. The powers and limitations of light can be just as important in art of the written form. In that format of storytelling light is—just as in physical terms—a matter of time. When the story takes place on a small time scale, like the time of day, is just as important as when it takes place on the larger time scale, like which decade.

First let’s talk about horror movies. It is not my creationary forte at this time, but I consider myself something of an authority from a viewership standpoint. If I didn’t I wouldn’t be running Bob’s Reviews and I especially wouldn’t have the horror focused second entrance Bob’s Reviews: Horror Reviews. Being as I watch a fair variety of movies outside the genre as well, I feel particularly confident in saying that I see a lot more thought and consideration put into lighting in horror movies than I do in any other genre, though sci-fi sometimes does it very well. I mean this most in the condition of how lighting is used in an atmospheric sense. This can be further specified in the sense that there is more variety than consistent bright sunny days with no variations, and night scenes always well into the night but not too far—no twilight times, no dawn times.

Bringing this back to writing, the same sorts of conditions can be approximated to a certain limited degree, but should be used nonetheless, as well as they can be used. Every story shouldn’t be set in some nebulous time. Light is a huge enhancer of mood visually and can be used in much the same way when you ask your audience to imagine the scene. The more detail that can be pumped in this way, to set the scene, the better it is. The more that they have help to imagine the story, as if they are watching it unfold, the better it is. Just as likewise the weather can be helpful. Just as likewise even the hour can be helpful because 9 p.m. feels different than midnight, than does 4 a.m., 10 a.m., noon or 6 p.m. In time is where we live.

Mood: exhausted.
Music: Keep Your Eye on the Money by Motley Crue and Locomotive by Guns 'N' Roses.

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