MetaMythos - RPG Campaign and World Design

Magic in a Mundane World

Template:Magic Articles A collection of four short essays regarding magic in an otherwise mundane world.

Suppression

One problem that has come up in my experience both as a player and as a GM has been the concept of magic existing in what otherwise appears to be our own relatively mundane world. In a Champions pseudo-horror campaign that I was in, I played my own concept of a Unicorn, and he had Invisibility so that he could stay out of sight. (I figured that there should probably be a good reason not to go public...) If I was really concerned about maintaining an aura of mystery around magic, however, I probably didn't help things by playing a supernatural creature myself. It's one thing to maintain a delicate balance in a story where there are magical things and strange creatures lurking in the shadows, but where it just so happens that these things never come to light.

In various pulp stories, if the city of Atlantis is found, or some magical artifact, or what-have-you, it either is destroyed by the end of the story, it is buried deep in some government warehouse as the credits roll, or the heroes decide that "The world just isn't ready for this invention." Thus, the stability of the "world as we know it" is maintained by freak events, bad luck, and other plot contrivances.

However, when you have a role-playing game and enter PCs into the mixture, you can't rely on the players to maintain this "balance" on their own -- They're always looking at the game from the perspective of their own characters" motivations, and it is difficult to ask them to throw those aside for some arbitrary plot mechanism. (I know few writers who simply sit down and make the whole story, plot and all, from beginning to end in one sweep. That's what you have to accomplish if you're wanting a role-playing game to turn out exactly like the stories.

So, in the aforementioned campaign, when my character discovered the true name of an arch villain vampire and let the other PCs know it, the other PCs at various occasions would just yell the secret name out in a crowd to see if anyone would respond, and other strange tactics that just didn't quite feel in keeping with the mood. I figured there was probably some reason why some ancient sage would discover secret power names for immortals and keep them locked up in a dusty tome rather than making them public ... but unfortunately I couldn't come up with it.

Then, on the other side of the GM's screen, I tried to run a sort of Indiana-Jones-type adventure. Most of the world was relatively mundane, and in the various tombs,temples and catacombs the PCs visited, I tried to make most of the traps and puzzles as "naturalistic" as possible. I didn't want to have the strangeness of magic be a regular occurrence. However, as part of my story, there was a certain magical artifact that one of the PCs came across which was instrumental in locating the object of the PCs" quest. I tried to come up with an "elegant" explanation as to how magic and even magical creatures could exist in this world,but only lurk in the shadows. I came up with a gobbledygook explanation of how in the present age, magic was relegated to shadow and mystery -- that magic is strongly related to dreams. Things of magic exist in the corner of your eye,so to speak, but vanish if you peer at them too closely, or expose them to the full light of day. Thus, an artifact with "great power" can only be used in certain circumstances, but not to perform grand feats in public and to totally shatter everyone's conceptions about reality and the conception of magic.

It was a very difficult tightrope to walk. It doesn't help when I'm having to constantly amend my own magic-speak gobbledygook over the course of an adventure to explain why a PC can't take a certain action with the results he expects.It's not that I want the PCs to fail, or even that I want to say that it's impossible for the PCs to change the world ... but there has to be some reason why nobody has done it already, and surely there have been plenty of heroes in the past,and plenty of people (crazy or noble or both) who have wanted to change the world by whatever means.

The World of Darkness games seem to touch on this concept a bit, and it's certainly necessary, as the players take on the roles of supernatural beings who, without any constraints, could easily show to the world that magic truly exists. For the Vampires, there's the Masquerade (a rather flimsy restriction, since it requires the PCs to actually care for their own hides in order to maintain it -- All it takes is a suicidal psychopath to bring the house of cards tumbling down...). For the Werewolves, there's the Delirium (some phenomenon where humans subconsciously cannot accept the existence of Werewolves, and even if they see them, their minds will go to extraordinary lengths to blot out or rationalize away any evidence of their existence). For Mage's, there's the strange effect of Paradox.

Individually, these rules seem to provide at least some explanation for why magic exists in an apparently mundane world, and why the secret hasn't gotten out (except for among fringe elements that don't have real impact on popular opinion). Together, though, these three systems seem to run into some problems which I could probably go into an even greater discussion about.

Still, the idea of magic being suppressed except in secret, dark places, or of magical beings simply not being visible to humans because they cannot accept their existence sounds like an appealing approach to the problem. The PCs, of course, could be among the select few who have been "awakened" to the existence of magic and therefore aren't having to worry about all these psychological rules that would prevent them from seeing their enemies. However, I am reluctant to make use of any of these concepts in my own campaigns because someone will inevitably accuse me of ripping off the World of Darkness setting. I'd like to think that the concept of magic existing in the mundane world (and some sort of explanation as to why the secret hasn't gotten out) not being the exclusive property of White Wolf Games. Are there any other precedents to point to? Are there any other novel ways to approach the problem of keeping magic a secret from the world at large? I'm not just concerned with a modern-day setting, and have no interest in Vampire conspiracies. For one thing, I've been pondering some way to make a medieval setting where the existence of magic is a bit more low-key and mysterious, where a great wizard won't be inclined to produce fireworks for everyone who asks.

It's not even that much of a concern for me that the PCs somehow be prevented from "letting the cat out of the bag." In a medieval setting, even if they opened a few eyes to the existence of magic, I could still rationalize the historical setting in that some recorded miraculous event in history might prompt a few pilgrimages or even a new cult, but it wouldn't necessarily shatter the world as we know it. In the modern day world, hey, the future is yet to be written,and it should certainly be up for grabs. I merely need to have some sort of explanation why someone with similar abilities to the PCs has not already shattered the illusion already, whether purposefully, accidentally, or due to pure derangement. Simply having all the monsters involved in some grand conspiracy seems a little far fetched for me.

This is a topic that has been on my mind for a long time, and I'm sorry that I've been unable to word my "questions" a bit more concisely, but any discussion of this via e-mail or on the newsgroup would be of great interest to me at least.

Simple Explanations

There are several ways of explaining magic in the real world and why it is relegated to the "shadows." " Pick your favorite!

1. Magic does exist in the world, but it is difficult to use and very risky,i.e. you are never quite sure a spell will work. Well, this is all well and good, but there are others who know about magic too. These "others" are using magic for evil purposes and do not wish to have some meddlers giveaway the game for them. Naturally, these nasties do not trust each other either,and an informal rule of thumb is that if you catch someone else using magic then you should try to eliminate them as quickly as possible to get rid of the competition.
   
   This explains why magic using folks never took over the world. When they tried to unite in covens, the large religious organizations (ala" Inquisition) steppe din and broke up the party.
   
   In game terms you could say things like "after you cast the spell, you think you see something out of the corner of your eye or "you had the strange feeling someone was watching you, and it was malevolent."
2. Magic is really some form of high technology, left over by a race that live don the planet long ago. (This is an applications of Clarke's Law.) This was not a benign race, and they would not be happy to know you were using their items. Very few sorcerers know the truth, and those who do just tell their apprentices to use magic sparingly.
   
   It only takes one or two grisly disappearances before the PCs figure out "hey,this magic stuff is really dangerous!" " :-O This again explains why magic using groups have not taken over the world.
3. Magic is a way of tapping into the "Dark" " forces. These forces could be Satanic or Lovecraftian or whatever. But, right minded folks disapprove.

Cream Also Rises

Over here we use a simple premise. I call it, "cream also rises." The first part you have to understand to use this premise is stratified "power" levels. My working list as follows: individual, gang (squad), faction, city, state...This works on the idea that the actions of one level impact mostly on that level.One level up and there is notice but not usually regard for said actions. Two levels up and almost no notice. And so on. One level down and the actions are out of the actor's "league." And et cetera.

For example

1. faction leader N orders gangs A and B to destroy a building in faction O's territory. This is the "act" of a faction to the gangs they must perform or be subject to similar treatment. To the individual in gang A, the action is a mystery (at least the motive is). To the city this is merely a breach in conduct and will be punished only if the specific individuals are caught(remember to hire good help), otherwise not at all. The country obviously doesn't care.
2. a minor goddess (country level power) decides to destroy the neighboring country of nonbelievers. Each level below her feels increased need to do as she commands and has less and less understanding of why. (I hope you get the picture.)

Anyway, now for the "cream." Let's say a group of kobold miners uncovers some ancient artifact. Being kobolds the immediately put it to use. But what kind of use? Main and destroy, et cetera. They have no concept of subtlety, nor do they care what the artifact can do or was created for. They serve purely their own interests. Nay, perhaps their leader has some designs on "moving up." Then he will begin using the item (which fell to him to use as he was the strongest)to attempt to take over his tribe (a faction in this example). During this whole scheme, a great and powerful good mage has gleaned that someone has found the ancient artifact. Using the formidable powers that are his to command (he is of city status) he simply takes the item away. And thus the "cream" rises.

There are always differing power levels in any world. (Might actually does make right and it is fortunate we use democracy to work together and thus have great might.) As a game master you must grasp some idea of what some of the "movers and shakers" are on power levels approximating those of the players. A static world like you suggest you wish to use must be the product of a "status quo." Sort of a great "Mexican stand off", where the powers that be have an agreement which keeps things the way they are. (It is unfortunate that so many bad writers fall back on some sort of "code of behavior" amongst demons and other greatly powerful beings. In this system, as a demon, you don't screw around because of what your boss will do to you, not because it's against some rules or other.) This may sound like an unstable balance (and it can be when that is the focus of world shaking actions by small groups of characters), but usually it isn't. This kind of balance follows that of the predator/prey balance in nature. If prey overpopulates then predator populations rise to take advantage of the increased food supply, which in turn strangles the growth of prey-population,which forces the predator-population to recede, and so on. It balances because of "predation" principle. About as easy as balancing water in the bottom of a bowl.

What you need to do is to always think of the world as the "establishment." It is obviously old and wishes to take care of itself. That is, no boat rocking.It is the establishment who sets the rules and administers them. Revolution is always crushed (like in Haiti or Iraq?) and the establishment continues on.In your world, you must constantly remind yourself that "the powers that be "wish to keep magic out of the public eye. This is much easier than it sounds.Let's say the players get the artifact from where the good mage buried it thousands of years before (or more likely the museum its hold up in) and decipher some of its workings. Gleefully they romp around and start using it. And BLAMMO,they are attacked by the minions of the evil lich (formerly the good mage...hey,times change). Since he can no longer use the item but knows how useful it is against him (it was his for a couple of hundred years after all), it is in his best interests if it disappears again. Now don't get the lich wrong, he knows that an excessively messy murder will only draw attention to these "secrets man was not meant to find out" so he simply has it stolen, drained, whatever.Even if he fails the players are given the feeling that if they continue to "hose" firepower around they will attract undue attention. (This generally inspires some rather paranoid practices from characters and is the primary reason the lich is cloaked in secrecy by you, so as to heighten this paranoia.) Obviously now the players understand it is in their best interests to keep this magic stuff kind of quiet. Oh and don't worry about the press finding out about the few times they did get to use the magic item. Modern scientific method (and the misunderstanding of same) causes the papers and media to ignore anything that isn't or can't be reproduced. (The lich will see to it that they won't be able to use the press as a shield.) Well, except for the tabloids (or pennydreadfuls in this is an historic game) and you know what people think of them.As for any previous culture, they simply don't have the information transmitting ability we have. Most such stories are considered hogwash. I realize this is kind of a new slant on things, but that is what I do.

Practical Magic

Here's a suggestion I haven't yet seen mentioned:

You just answered your own question.

Magic does exist in our own mundane world. Wait now, don't switch off or reach for the "kook" labels; I'm not saying I believe in pyramids that sharpen razors, or that the hippy shop on the corner really does carry crystals of occult power. What I'm talking about is the practice of magic.

Wicca is a growing faith in Britain and America, and has a heavy magical bent.If you're interested in more traditional forms of magic, look to orders like the Golden Dawn and the traditions they handed down. There are a lot of practicing magicians around: exact figures are hard to come by, but it looks to be in the tens of thousands in Britain alone.

If they are right -- and it's irrelevant for our purposes whether they really are or not, because we're talking about a game world now -- then magic works.It has real, tangible effects. Magicians believe that this is the case without rejecting a belief in the mundane world of cars and shopping and jobs.

So, let's imagine a game world in which the magicians are right, and magic is efficacious. It doesn't have to be too different from the real world (if it had to be different, the magicians would find it hard to sustain their beliefs).In this world, almost all magic is ritualistic -- or, if not technically ritualistic,at least not of the "Zap! Fireball!" variety.

There tends to be a high level of standing around pointing your sword at the four points of the compass, invoking the archangels and acting out Egyptian myths. In more nature-oriented creeds such as Wicca, replace this with meditating in a circle and visualizing mythical creatures. (Forgive me for forgetting details. Although I've taken part in rituals of both the hermetic and Wiccan varieties, I'm not a practitioner of either.)

In short, it takes half an hour to perform even a short magical ritual. On top of that, timing is important. It's no good performing a moon-worship rite at any old time: you do it at full moon, and if that's not for three weeks, why,then you wait. Ritual preparation comes into it too (bathe in salt water,etc.).

You begin to see why, even if the result of all this were a fireball or lightning bolt, such effects wouldn't exactly be thick on the ground.

But "real" magic doesn't work like that. A lot of modern magic has very esoteric, long-term aims, or aims which affect no-one but the participants. Spiritual improvement is a typical aim. More practical reasons for performing ritual shave included revitalizing the health of the nation: try finding that on your D&D spell lists.

Here are some examples of effects more applicable to role-playing:

• Finding accommodation and work for a member of the group;
• Ensuring good luck;
• Warding hearth and home against burglars or intruders;
• Bringing love;
• Encouraging someone to abandon an obsession with power and pursue a more spiritual path.

The common denominator, science fans, is that all of these effects are unverifiable.Did magic help Bill find a job, or was it just that he was hanging around the job center at the right time? Is it just luck that so-and-so has never been burgled ever since he started reading Aleister Crowley?

Jordan, none of the above addresses your original question about playing a unicorn in Champions, but that's life. There have been a lot of posts answering your implied question, "How can I get away with zappy, high-powered magic,and retain consistency with the real world?" I've tried to illustrate a different approach, which involves looking at how real magicians view that same real world.It isn't as immediately impressive as tossing off fireballs, but I've found it worth pursuing.

My main reference for the examples and statistics, by the way, is Tanya Luhrmann,"Persuasions of the Witch's Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England" (Picador;sorry, no US publication info). This is a detached but sympathetic study of belief, its causes and its effects, and is highly recommended. As mentioned,I have also drawn on my very limited personal experience of magical ritual.

Dig out some books on Middle Ages and Renaissance magic: alchemy, astrology,etc. Mary Gentle's novel "Rats and Gargoyles" has a wonderful feel to it. Read articles on Bacon, Fludd, etc. (I know I am mixing periods horribly.) Try to pick up a copy of "Lace & Steel" or "Chivalry and Sorcery", and loot it for goodies (yes, this is mixing periods even more horribly). In short, use the same excuses the medievals did for why it didn't work.