McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Classic Magical School Drama all F&$#%d Up
Lanodantheon:
--- Quote from: Quantus347 on April 26, 2009, 01:37:29 PM ---int he great Wall, how does it affect things geographically? By that I mean, when he fades out does he find himself in whole new magical land, an empty city, or in a crowd that cant see or hear him (and if it goes both ways can he see or hear them, if not how do they keep from running into each other, etc). If there is still communication (for business, credit etc) how is that accomplished, how do you keep the bank from forgetting that you have an account? Whatever it is, I highly recommend you read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman which has a very similar premise of a magical world coexisting and when you get caught up in it you are lost to the real world, where everyone forgets you and most times cant even notice you.
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Again, the exact physics of the Magic/Mundane world mechanics are still in the design phase. I'm leaning right now towards a Light World/Dark World idea of two sets of geography occupying the same place at the same time on different frequencies. When you are filtered out, the filtering follows Occam's Razor to rearrange data. Your bank accounts wouldn't disappear they would stay in the system as orphaned accounts. In the case a Milliionare gets filtered out, his assets would be redirected to the most likely person who could inherit it. But, questions like that are ample story material.
Geographically, you're still on earth in the magical world so communications will still work, but good luck finding a landline or a power outlet in most parts of the magical world. It's hard to conceal something hooked into a computer controlled power grid. But again, ample story seeds to consider later.
--- Quote from: Quantus347 on April 26, 2009, 01:37:29 PM ---In the school, if everyone is a different age and everyone gets a different sort of curriculum for their education, how are those curriculums designed/assigned? Is an upperclassman assigned as a mentor to help chart your path? Do you just sign up for classes on a big registration day with pre-made curriculums like most colleges? Or maybe you get subjected to a big series of placement exams and are pigeonholed into whatever area/vocation/skill level they decide you are? If its the last one, take a look at Sky High, a delightfully bad movie about a high school that teaches superpowered kids to be superheroes, and on the first day you ore sorted into hero or sidekick classes/castes.
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I actually never thought about the ciriculum til now so I'll take 20 mins to ponder it while I work on a project.....
...done. (That's actually how I design stuff, in bursts of creativity)
A new student at the Brewery gets an Entrance Placement Exam. The exam has 3 parts,
Part 1: The Written Exam
No mystery here it's just comprehensive encompassing all 12 disciplines of Magic as well as History, General Knowledge of Myth & Legends and common logic and reasoning questions like the 4 gallons of water with a 5 gallon and 3 gallon jug problem.
Part 2: Interview by the Staff and "Student Council" or whatever.
Part 3: The Array of Solomon
The Array of Solomon is a tool used for gauging magical talent. Still centuries into development, the Array lights up and gives information about the applicant's abilities. The Array of course, is far from entirely accurate, but it can reveal abilities still latent and identify high end "Gifts" that are beyond just a talent. The Gifts revealed are akin to Perfect Pitch or Eidetic Memoryn ut more Wizardy like "The All-Seeing Eye" or the being a Sponge, a magic-eater.
They have a gen-ed path all students are required to follow, but otherwise you take classes to get titles, certifications and such until you decide to leave. For example, a student cannot be called an Alchemist until they study enough to pass an Alchemy certification.
A "Choose your own Curriculum" path it is though. Your path is evaluated by Faculty, but you are assigned 2 Mentors: a Student Mentor and a Faculty Master. The Student Mentor is like just that. They stick around and show you the ropes of the school til you're situated. The Master evaluates your progress like an adviser in college and they determine if you are ready for the certifications tests. Usually your faculty master is the person who is going to test to to become a Full-Wizard or the like.
Quantus:
--- Quote from: Lanodantheon on April 27, 2009, 07:58:41 AM ---A new student at the Brewery gets an Entrance Placement Exam. The exam has 3 parts,
Part 1: The Written Exam
No mystery here it's just comprehensive encompassing all 12 disciplines of Magic as well as History, General Knowledge of Myth & Legends and common logic and reasoning questions like the 4 gallons of water with a 5 gallon and 3 gallon jug problem.
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Does the migration to the magical world give you any of this knowledge? I know it wipes old memories, but does it give anything back? I just ask because most anyone new, freshly filtered, etc. (you may want specific terms for that, both official and derogatory) will fail it miserably. Is there much of a social stigma on being freshly into the magical world as opposed to being born there? I figure there would be at least one group/country/social element that feels that way, but is it very prevalent?
LizW65:
I really like the name The Brewery for a magical school. Reminds me of Andy Warhol's The Factory. ;D Do they brew their own beer and sell it to finance the school's operation? Or did it used to be a brewery that was converted to a school?
Quantus:
--- Quote from: LizW65 on April 27, 2009, 10:50:45 PM ---I really like the name The Brewery for a magical school. Reminds me of Andy Warhol's The Factory. ;D Do they brew their own beer and sell it to finance the school's operation? Or did it used to be a brewery that was converted to a school?
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Beer nothin' Its powerful Magical Potions!! Or maybe some brew of a Norse Jotun... :D
Lanodantheon:
--- Quote from: Quantus347 on April 27, 2009, 01:31:47 PM ---Does the migration to the magical world give you any of this knowledge? I know it wipes old memories, but does it give anything back? I just ask because most anyone new, freshly filtered, etc. (you may want specific terms for that, both official and derogatory) will fail it miserably. Is there much of a social stigma on being freshly into the magical world as opposed to being born there? I figure there would be at least one group/country/social element that feels that way, but is it very prevalent?
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At this point I can say that with my design of Magic having Equivalency that the following is true in that regard: It's an equivalent exchange.
When you are filtered out and crossover to the magical world (Which could use a term, but I'm horrible with names), you temporarily tap The Akashic Web, the vast network of magical knowledge laid out by Wizards along Ley Lines. Normally, tapping the Web will fry your brain, melt your soul, etc, but the first time you crossover the automation put in place(Essentially a harnessed God) allows you an exchange. (This is mostly to ensure they don't just tap the web instead of going to school)
The exchange is your memories for knowledge. Most people leave behind most of their memories outside of their core identity. The result is usually the afore mentioned clean slate. In exchange, the initiate gains the ropes like language, geography, and magical fundamentals but it is proportional to the amount of memory you sacrifice. This logic would also dictate that there would be some Wizards who sacrifice everything in order to be everything short of a full-blown Wizard. However, in that case you would know the intricacies of magic, but have never actually applied or practiced it. This would lead to a lot of hot shots.
This would also save the magic user a bundle on therapy now that I think of it....
The MC is special. The MC decides to use Mnemonic devices in hopes of retaining his memories so that one day he can get them all back. This also creates the side effect that he is essentially gibbing himself. He could be like nothing else academically, but he'd have to forget everything to do it, so he chooses not to.
--- Quote from: LizW65 on April 27, 2009, 10:50:45 PM ---I really like the name The Brewery for a magical school. Reminds me of Andy Warhol's The Factory. ;D Do they brew their own beer and sell it to finance the school's operation? Or did it used to be a brewery that was converted to a school?
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--- Quote from: Quantus347 on April 27, 2009, 11:05:17 PM ---Beer nothin' Its powerful Magical Potions!! Or maybe some brew of a Norse Jotun... :D
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Let's see, I never really thought about it.... a little bit of column A, B and C.
I know for a fact it was founded by The Hermetic Order of Alchemists so that's part of it. I always figured that if you were going to riff on the using Mundane Currency theme, a front in the Mundane world would be a great cover and a great land mark for Light World/Dark World world hopping. That's the A column.
For the B & C columns, The Brewery is an old Brewery because The Hermetic Order was experimenting with Mass-Production of Potions and magical materials. It's one thing to see Harry Dresden or The Shadowman or hell even all of Snape's Potion's class make potions in cauldrons and pots, etc. It's another to walk into an actually brewery or factory and see Mass-Production in action. The Brewery is like any University trying crazy stuff in that regard. Other universities have robot competitions, MoCap systems, Research Schools, Hospitals and Nuclear Physics Test facilities in the real world, in the magic world The Brewery deals with 5000 gallon tanks of potions usually made in pints.
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