McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Genre Craft: Expectations of a Hybrid Genre
Quantus:
You've mentioned that you have set 4 sources of magic. Can you elaborate a bit? It might give us a better idea of where/how to fit the various "Western" elements around them.
Vryce:
--- Quote from: Nickeris86 on July 05, 2011, 05:45:05 AM ---Glad to help ;D
Another thing to consider is faith magic. Religion was very prevalent in the old west and in many towns was the most fortified building so that the villagers could fall back there in times of trouble.
I could see a lot of potential for a old powerful priest bustin out the whoop ass when the sh**t hit the fan.
--- End quote ---
That reminds me of this old Zombie moview were the presit bust outs come kung fu and yells "I Kick A$$ for the Lord!"
Paynesgrey:
If you want to limit the role of firearms without "capping" the technology level at flintlocks/muskets you an always cry "Scarcity of Iron!" So you could have proper six guns, but would have to limit your armor and weapons to bronze, with iron and steel being rare and expensive.
Another possibility would be to make them common enough, but easily hexed on an area of effect basis, possibly have regions warded against them. So while repeaters and revolvers might be common, they're of little use in large scale battles. A nation or state won't bother fielding armies with the things since a spellcaster on the other side could lay out a simple whammy and turn them into very expensive clubs rather than projectile weapons.
You could then permit individual weapons to be crafted which are warded against the hexes, giving you an excuse to have the occasional rare masterpiece sixgun that reliably works even against spellcasters and their protections, all decked out in spiffy runes and perhaps exotic materials. Letting you have the odd gunfighter without overwhelming the sword/sorcery culture with firearms. Makes for not just individual character possibilities like the odd bandit leader/Man With No Name, but also "Western Feel" elite groups like the Arizona or Texas Rangers... unit which while few and far between can a force to be respected.
Lanodantheon:
--- Quote from: Quantus on July 05, 2011, 03:41:50 PM ---You've mentioned that you have set 4 sources of magic. Can you elaborate a bit? It might give us a better idea of where/how to fit the various "Western" elements around them.
--- End quote ---
Sure, I'll give a brief overview to keep discussion going. This is still a work-in-progress and for the most part they are fairly generic and unoriginal, but they're supposed to be. Having an original Magic system is not nearly as important to me as having one that is slick, easy to follow and allows for some great drama, characters and action.
1. Arcane Science: Your standard, vanilla Newtonian Physics influenced Magic. The stuff Wizards are made of. This one is the most unoriginal of the 4, but it's a classic trope for a reason. It works.
My variation on it uses 7 elements: Water, Fire, Earth, Air, Mind, Body and "Spirit" (Temp name. I don't like the idea of Spirit). Body represents anything with a biological cell structure. A Bodyslinger could just as easily work with Trees and Grass as they could with the human body.
To make a magical effect, you need an equal amount of elemental energy to make it happen. The closer that effect is to the natural order, the easier it is to do.
The key here is that it is Power from the environment around the caster. Power can be gathered from the world around and stored into objects like say staves. When such containers are broken however, the however many spells worth of Magic always escapes violently.
A Wizard who walks around with his Staff fully-charged is the equivalent of someone with a fully loaded Gun, but at the same time is essentially holding an unstable explosive.That's why most Wizards don't, they gather the Magic they need for a SPell on-the-fly and usually from the environment.
2. Magic from another Magical Container
You can get power from an outside Container. Some Magical creatures do magic on their own. You can tap one of these creatures for power. From the equivalent of tapping an electric eel for your battery to tapping the Fire Magic of that Fire Spirit.
There also places and objects that draw in their own Power that you can Tap and get power that way.
3. Shamanism and other uses of Spirits
Getting a Spirit or Magical Animal of some kind to do your work for you is another way to Power.
One of the Cultures I'm developing I literally call Gentleman Shamans who treat Mediumship with a perspective of Metaphysical economics. They literally having commanding Spirits and Animals down to a science or at least a cultural norm. Played straight, this culture of animals and spirits doing stuff for humans en-masse in an organized hive-mind fashion could look cool. But, it's also a step away from conjuring images that are all kinds of F****d up.
One sub-culture uses fair trade, one enslaves spirits and animals outright and another directly channels them through their own body.
4. Ancestral Memory
Essentially the Magical version of Genetic Memory. In this case it ranges from having a number of Obi-Wan Kenobi-style ghosts following you and teaching you throughout your lifetime to just instinctively knowing how to farm without ever being taught. Such things are both passed along in families in a sort of Mantle and are placed directly in Magical objects you can pass from person to person.
"Faith Magic" would be a combination of these 4 in some way depending on what you're doing. I don't like the idea of it as a seperate branch because to me an "Ocean of Power that is Faith" sounds hokey. It also doesn't help that I'm not religious.
But, I also can't let the opportunity to pass to explore the birth of a new religion. The Old West was the era when the LDS Church came into being. As an author, I have to explore that kind of thing in some capacity. Especially since in a world of Arcane Science, the argument between "what is a God?" and "What is a really powerful Wizard?" is a fraught landscape.
So, even if I don't have Faith Magic, I will explore how Religion deals with the presence of Magic and Magic-users. What happens when the new Messiah CAN do miracles that baffle Wizards?
Quantus:
How deep are you planning to go with the Magic in the world. By that I mean, is Magic replacing Technology, or is it replacing Physics?
I really like this Idea, so Ive been rolling it around in my head all weekend. Near as I can come up with, these are the basic setting elements you'll want to replicate/address in order to preserve a Western feel:
The Old World - To provide a contrast to the Frontier of the "west"
Indians - A "savage" race. Primative, tribal and/or nomadic, naturalistic. Not seen as equals and/or human. Large language/cultural barrier. Original inhabitants of the Land, now being displaced by the "white man" settlers. Probably a great role for your elven race.
Slaves - Not nessesary to the "westen" feel persay, but historically relevant, especially if you have it set near a Civil War event (either leading up to a war or set in reconstruction after). Offhand, I would say the Dwarves would be a good fit: short but strong makes them good for manual labor, could have knowledge of things lost to the "Modern" way of thinking, kept alive in secret. They could also give a whole new meaning to the "Underground Railroad" ;)
Transportation - This depends heavily on your magic system and how prevalent you want to make it, but you need the same basic levels of travel:
-Horse - or similar aminal mount
-stagecoaches - or similar, basically just a slightly more comfortable than mounted travel
-trains - just make them magically driven instead of steam.
Or you can look at them a little more abstractly, and just keep the actual story impact elements. Like instead of Trains you maybe have a portal system that transports people from station to station (sending people through ether-streams or ley lines or something); it;s still fast, capable of providing a large econimic motivation, is the main means to move large volumes of people/goods to the Frontier, is schedule driven (which is what started novel new things like standardized time zones and such), and is generally safer from the dangers of the Frontier than a coach-ride.
Missionaries - Like slavery, religion isn't critical to the Western, but its still relevant if you so choose. These would be the guys "Spreading the Word", whatever that is, through the rontier. The defining traits would be magic heavily on the defensive side, but requiring more devotion/belief than the rough and dirty mechanisms of normal magic, or else maybe fueled by an actual entity of some kind. They'd need a heavy philosophy of some kinds, ideally somethign that can easily be shouted from a soap-box. They's also likely have conflict with the Natives, who already have their own religion/philosophy/worldview.
Weapons - The west was a time when guns had displaced swords as the primary tool for killing men.
-Guns
-Pistol - Basic self defense tool, various levels of sophistication, close to mid range
-Shotgun - the big hitter, shorter range, slow/limited shots
-rifle - long distance, prescision tool. Takes higher skill level to use properly
-Cannons - Bulky military weapon, more seige unit than anti-personelle. Costly, unwieldy, and powerful. Improper use will likely kill everyone nearby.
-Hand
-Dangerous tools, but have been displaced by "guns" as the specialized man-killing tool.
-Savages. Whatever the Indian analog will be uses older, more primative (at least to the white man's eyes) weapons, which are usually outclassed/overpowered by the modern guns.
-Still seen in military units, but typically more ceremonial than most (think Calvalry/officer's saber)
EDIT: finished this just as you posted the magic write-up. Will edit in light of that soon
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