As I said a few days back, I'm getting some folks into Space: 1889. I've never played it before. I love Edgar Rice Borroughs, though, so that gives me a leg up. The discovery of S89 (as I'm now dubbing it) was fortuitous in the extreme. While on a trip to the Galapagos Islands Jocelyn and I came up with an idea for a game that has both a PnP and a Board Game expression. The idea, which I'll expound in some later blog post, is currently called The Amazing Journey and focuses on the adventures of a group of explorers (the PCs or boardgame players) from the 1800s journeying through a one-way magical wormhole to a procedurally generated world of science-fantasy Vernian madness and trying to find a way home.
We have yet to play it. However, my preliminary instincts are that it's great. Even if the rules are absolutely awful (which I don't think they are), the attention to detail throughout the main rulebook is stunning. There is an entire chapter on Martian canals, their anatomy, how they intersect, their pumps, etc. The history sections are very detailed and accurate, and interpolate the alternate history of the ether, Edison's landing on Mars, and the British Crown Colony of Syrtis Major with excellent style.
This ain't Steampunk, son. This is Sword and Planet. And I love it.
We've been making characters for the past few hours as I write this. The biggest focus currently is on the science and invention section. The rules are great. WAY better than the clumsy card drawing of Deadlands. Just thought I'd throw that out there. A problem I've found is that the organization of the book has either hidden from me the maximum carrying capacity of a character or else there simply isn't one. Other than the fatigue penalties at the end of a travel period, I'm not sure why someone couldn't carry their own body weight in gear.
Ruminations on fiction, roleplaying, and assorted irritants.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Monday, December 30, 2013
Magica Conflictus Capit II: The magic of Late Antiquity
Having just finished reading Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity, I think I'm in a good place to talk about real magical and ritual practices of Antiquity and how they can inform the design of fantastical systems of magic. The first and most important thing is, of course, to ditch the term magic, which was a polemic used to compare people with the hated Magians of Persia who were presumed to perform profane and unholy arts, particularly because they were said to sacrifice human beings to their gods (as first reported by the Father of History and Father of Lies, Herodotus).
Thankfully, there is actually some real antique evidence that rehabilitates or reinforces (or at least informs) the use of spoken-word spells and gestures, so I don't have to feel so damn bad about all that wizardly hocus pocus in my games (do I have to feel bad if it doesn't have historical precedent? Probably not).
The old divisions of magic/religion as elaborated by Frazier in the Golden Bough (magic demands things of supernatural beings, religion is a supplication) have been swept away by new theoretical frameworks. "Magic" itself is a negative term used to denigrate the religion of the Other and prove that it is somehow inferior to one's own. This can include branches of non-orthodox or orthoprax religions that the polemicist actually shares beliefs with.
The Types of Magic:
Magical Speech
This is the most similar to the magic of D&D and the Lord of the Rings. Janowitz discusses the use of language as a non-semantic, pragmatic tool—ie, language that carries no meaning as language but rather causes actual, automatic effects in the world. The most common instantiation of this magical speech in the Late Antique period is actually in the names of Gods and daimons (the kind of spirit that may be either good or bad, as according to Greco-Roman mythology, not the "demons" of Christianity, though those too fall under this heading as creatures compelled by or named by magical speech). Necromancers and magicians bind and control spirits for what Janowitz calls "automatic effects" that is, spells or formulae that are effective no matter what the original intention or semantic setting is. This is similar to the accidental out-loud reading of a magical tome causing the spell to become active; the effect happens because of the language.
The development of non-semantic expression and automatic effects is somewhat similar to the way that magic works in the 10th Age, so I'm pretty pleased with this. While the efficacy in D&D doesn't necessarily rely on messenger spirits (unlike the root of D&D magic, Jack Vance's Dying Earth) it still incorporates a number of important ideas from the antique world.
Performative Magic
Here's the meat of this blog post, the thing which you will probably find most useful—Janowitz's tables of rituals as described in the Book of Secrets, a Jewish text of (presumably, though like all Late Antique magical texts only versions from the 13th-15th centuries are extant) Late Antique origin. All these rituals are great.
Ritual Purpose: Healing
Ritual Practice: Burn incense, chant
Ritual Purpose: Destroy an enemy (creditor, etc.)
Ritual Practice: Fill vessels with water, smash vessels, tell spirit this is what you want it to do to your enemy
Ritual Purpose: Know future
Ritual Practice: Put written slips in oil, imprecation of the Sun
Ritual Purpose: Influence king
Ritual Practice: Write names of angels/spirits on the heart of a lion, adjuration to Aphrodite
Ritual Purpose: Enter presence of a king
Ritual Practice: Anoint self with mixture made from previous heart
Ritual Purpose: Bind yourself to a great woman
Ritual Practice: Collect your sweat in a flask, bury it under her doorstep, adjure spirits
Ritual Purpose: Speak to ghosts
Ritual Practice: Face tomb, hold oil and honey, adjuration of Hermes, singsong release chant
Ritual Purpose: Give enemy trouble sleeping
Ritual Practice: Bury dogshead with spells written on it nearby
Ritual Purpose: Light an oven in the cold
Ritual Practice: Write angel names on a sulfur lamp, place in oven
These are some of the most interesting rituals present in Janowitz's chapter on the Book of Secrets. She goes into detail about some of them, though it is extremely theoretical. It's a good book, though absolutely not necessary to play and enjoy any kind of game or even to enjoy fantasy. You know me, though: always looking for the next bit of real information to incorporate, study, or devour.
Thankfully, there is actually some real antique evidence that rehabilitates or reinforces (or at least informs) the use of spoken-word spells and gestures, so I don't have to feel so damn bad about all that wizardly hocus pocus in my games (do I have to feel bad if it doesn't have historical precedent? Probably not).
The old divisions of magic/religion as elaborated by Frazier in the Golden Bough (magic demands things of supernatural beings, religion is a supplication) have been swept away by new theoretical frameworks. "Magic" itself is a negative term used to denigrate the religion of the Other and prove that it is somehow inferior to one's own. This can include branches of non-orthodox or orthoprax religions that the polemicist actually shares beliefs with.
The Types of Magic:
Magical Speech
This is the most similar to the magic of D&D and the Lord of the Rings. Janowitz discusses the use of language as a non-semantic, pragmatic tool—ie, language that carries no meaning as language but rather causes actual, automatic effects in the world. The most common instantiation of this magical speech in the Late Antique period is actually in the names of Gods and daimons (the kind of spirit that may be either good or bad, as according to Greco-Roman mythology, not the "demons" of Christianity, though those too fall under this heading as creatures compelled by or named by magical speech). Necromancers and magicians bind and control spirits for what Janowitz calls "automatic effects" that is, spells or formulae that are effective no matter what the original intention or semantic setting is. This is similar to the accidental out-loud reading of a magical tome causing the spell to become active; the effect happens because of the language.
The development of non-semantic expression and automatic effects is somewhat similar to the way that magic works in the 10th Age, so I'm pretty pleased with this. While the efficacy in D&D doesn't necessarily rely on messenger spirits (unlike the root of D&D magic, Jack Vance's Dying Earth) it still incorporates a number of important ideas from the antique world.
Performative Magic
Here's the meat of this blog post, the thing which you will probably find most useful—Janowitz's tables of rituals as described in the Book of Secrets, a Jewish text of (presumably, though like all Late Antique magical texts only versions from the 13th-15th centuries are extant) Late Antique origin. All these rituals are great.
Ritual Purpose: Healing
Ritual Practice: Burn incense, chant
Ritual Purpose: Destroy an enemy (creditor, etc.)
Ritual Practice: Fill vessels with water, smash vessels, tell spirit this is what you want it to do to your enemy
Ritual Purpose: Know future
Ritual Practice: Put written slips in oil, imprecation of the Sun
Ritual Purpose: Influence king
Ritual Practice: Write names of angels/spirits on the heart of a lion, adjuration to Aphrodite
Ritual Purpose: Enter presence of a king
Ritual Practice: Anoint self with mixture made from previous heart
Ritual Purpose: Bind yourself to a great woman
Ritual Practice: Collect your sweat in a flask, bury it under her doorstep, adjure spirits
Ritual Purpose: Speak to ghosts
Ritual Practice: Face tomb, hold oil and honey, adjuration of Hermes, singsong release chant
Ritual Purpose: Give enemy trouble sleeping
Ritual Practice: Bury dogshead with spells written on it nearby
Ritual Purpose: Light an oven in the cold
Ritual Practice: Write angel names on a sulfur lamp, place in oven
These are some of the most interesting rituals present in Janowitz's chapter on the Book of Secrets. She goes into detail about some of them, though it is extremely theoretical. It's a good book, though absolutely not necessary to play and enjoy any kind of game or even to enjoy fantasy. You know me, though: always looking for the next bit of real information to incorporate, study, or devour.
Friday, December 27, 2013
A Return to Form
Long time. There's really no excuse worth writing about. Anything I'd have to say would just be a waste of text. Instead, I'll give you a forecast: I'm writing a new novel called the Flowers of Summer (I don't know if any will appear here). Some stories of mine will show up in the Pulp Mill Press publication come January. I'm working on a board game called The Amazing Journey. I'm also about to start a game of Space 1889. I haven't played the 10th Age in a while, it's on the back burner for now.
LET THE WORDS FLOW!
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