My thoughts are all over the place on this, imagining possibilities here. So I apologize in advance if this seems disjointed.The power cords would break the circle, or not allow you to put one up in the first place. Plus, if it's Harry making the circle, that traps Harry's own magic inside the circle with it.
Hexing - If an empowered circle keeps out errant magic, couldn't Harry or any other wizard just make a circle around their ultra expensive 50 inch plasma TV to keep it from frizzing out? Couldn't they get a modern speaker phone that answers to voice commands and put that in a circle to allow him to have decent voice conversations over the phone? If Harry were to ward a water heater or other appliance with a circle or an actual ward couldn't he then use them? What if the actual electronics stuff wasn't in the vicinity? It is apparent that Harry has some sort of Area of Effect wherein the stuff he is around fizzles.
Soul Gazing - This one has always puzzled me. When I look back at myself a mere 10 years ago I know that I am a fundamentally different person than I am at this moment now that I am both a husband and a father. But the books hint that once you've soul gazed a person you never need to do it again. Even looking at Murphy before Dresden's date with destiny in Changes/Ghost Story, she's not quite the same person afterwards. If Wizard had soul gazed me 10 years ago, would he not see something different now?Word of Jim is that if a person changes significantly enough, yes, a second Soulgaze could occur.
What about if in that intervening time I had become a black court vampire? Surely that would completely change what I looked like?Yes. It would mean you don't have a soul and thus couldn't be soulgazed.
Magical Talent: Was just listening to the audio book of Side Jobs and came across the one told from Thomas's perspective. He outright says in there that Magic is a skill like anything else. Any bozo can learn how to do it it's just that some people are better at it than others just like (insert modern equivalent here) Michael Jordan was so much better than most people at playing basketball. I'm pretty sure Harry said that in Ghost Story (which I am listening to now) as well.Thomas is talking ritual magic, rather than evocation. That sort of thing would fall under the "Common Ritual" trapping of Lore.
Doesn't that mean that I could in fact pick up some minor to middling spells over time sorta like the way a boyscout can pick up first aid with no major formal training but brain surgery is going to be beyond him without intensive training and natural talent?
Fedgov: Lastly, thus far in the books we have had a supernaturally aware police division and four FBI agents that had the ability to wolf out. I can't believe that the US (or any other) government would be unable to discover that magic and the supernatural exists. Upon discovering it I cannot believe for one instant that they would not immediately set DARPA out to exploit it for anything it's worth.They may well be. Remember that the video of Harry and Murphy killing the Loup Garou was very quickly and conspicuously disappeared and claimed as a hoax.
They may well be. Remember that the video of Harry and Murphy killing the Loup Garou was very quickly and conspicuously disappeared and claimed as a hoax.
Personally if I was Butters one of the first thing I'd do is get some cheap discard able circuit boards and mount LEDs on them (hardware hackers call them 'throwies') and lay them out every six cm or so and see if I could determine the area of interference around Harry. Then I'd start trying to map it out. Accidental and deliberate hexing almost sounds like the Wizard is generating some sort of biological EMP field.
The power cords would break the circle, or not allow you to put one up in the first place. Plus, if it's Harry making the circle, that traps Harry's own magic inside the circle with it.
They may well be. Remember that the video of Harry and Murphy killing the Loup Garou was very quickly and conspicuously disappeared and claimed as a hoax.
Then Butters would know the probabiy dimensions of Harry's (or Molly's) hex field. Now when Merlin showed up, all that would get toss out the window. Additionally for whatever good Harry and Butters could use that knowledge for, countless of his enemies could use the same to harm Harry. Plus, its never a 24/7 time of thing for Harry. The reason Harry doesn't have a gas hot water heater isn't because it won't stop working as soon as they get it installed. He just don't want to wake-up one of these mornings with the smell of gas weeks, months, or years later.
Its a real roll of the dice...
Ok what if it's battery powered. And if Harry's on the outside of the circle then his magic is trapped outside right? If the device is on the inside then it should work shouldn't it?
Hexing is avoidable and preventable to an extent. So a circle around the computer could work, if you jumped through enough hoops.
Probably not worth the effort, though, unless you're either very weak or very good at controlling your power or very dedicated to computer use.
As for anyone being able to pick up magic, anyone can take any Power. But you need to justify it narratively, satisfy the Musts, and spend the Refresh.
Yeah I also note that stunts are 'mortal stunts' but like, Bucky the Murder Doll has one. That confused me a bit.
My other thought about the tv was, why would Harry even care for all the new tech when his old tv works fine enough for him. As for a computer, he has things called books to research stuff in.
Kinda like my mother, never had a computer so she never misses on now.
But from his one-liners, Harry must had watch a buttload of 1980's tv shows.
The way governments are run don't lend themselves well to magic focused departments, it simply doesn't fly for long. As mentioned tough a division focused on information, especially history and the like will be far more effective at breeding a in the know crowd. However these sort of organizations are less do and more observe and anallize in nature most of the time.
Library of Congress. Special Collections Division. To quote Jim: 'Don't mess with the Librarians. Holy Moly. Just don't.' :o 8)Exactly what I was referring to. ;D
Exactly what I was referring to. ;D
I was thinking more like Wizards who are born now. If you're born during the current decade in the 'first world' you're growing up around plethora of computers of all descriptions. Even supposed third world nations are more apt to see smart cellphones than analogue telephone lines these days because the infrastructure required for analogue is a hell of a lot more extensive than just putting up a few cellphone towers.Indeed not. Molly has to sit in a salt circle just to watch TV with her family, and in The Warrior she can only pretend to listen to an iPod--the earbuds aren't connected to anything.
So would wizards growing up these days not be able to play an Xbox without a RRD?
That reminds me of a question I had about the hexing mechanics and compels.
If Alice is a wizard and hexes Bob's smartphone through accepting a Compel, who gets offered the FP?
It's Alice's aspect, but it's not her smartphone.
Bob's inconvenienced by not having a smartphone, and has no Aspects relating to hexing or smartphones.
For purposes of this example, Alice is unaffected by the state of Bob's phone.
Addendum: If Bob's phone being broken inconveniences BOTH Bob and Alice, should they BOTH get FP?
Its a economic crisis out there and we don't have the funds to frivolously spend on whatever your doing down there. No I wont come and look at what it is, I'm a rational man who doesn't believe in magic and besides no good Christian would allow such things, god forbid. ::)
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I also look at someone like Mort though.Keep in mind that Mort is NOT a Wizard. He's a wonderful ectomancer, however he doesn't have quite the oomph that Harry does. Or Molly for that matter.(click to show/hide)
And I'm pretty sure Mort, when he mentions having a cell phone, also mentions having to replace them pretty often.