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Something of an update.
Sabers and... is still progressing.
I'm just so dang buried in world building that I'm not to the point of outlines or plotting, though I do have some good characters.
Trying to get Sioux culture right is vexing, because there's been some sanitizing over the years.
They've got some skeletons in their closets and some activists should really stop casting aspersions at the evol whyte mahn.
Slavery, misogyny and (possibly) cannibalism.
But no matter, my Sioux don't have to be the real, historical, Sioux any more than my 77th Cavalry is a real, historical, unit. (Hint, it's not)
But what hit home in my research is the American Indian is a TL0 culture.
They have access to TL5 technology, but they cannot make any of it.
The Googoo are also a TL0 culture without that access to high-tech.
I think the distinction I'm going to hang on the GooGoo is they're going to be, effectively, at TL0+1 society because they don't have a myth-parallel hanging over their heads forcing their society from changing thanks to ready access to magic.
Magic SHOULD change society markedly, but the myth-parallel keeps history on track without significant changes to the outcomes.
Like Kennedy still getting killed despite having an active missile-shield in place.
For the Sabers and... universe, the myth-parallel is intact until the mass emigration through the gates to Maka Tanka.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
ReplyDelete― Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible
Given that Mr. Clarke didn't believe in magic per say, could magic be a sort of technology in GURPS?
A TL? personal force shield vs a Sheild spell level 1 D&D?
You could make it a form of technology, the rules are sufficient to do it if you wanted to make the effort.
DeleteFuzzyGeff has done some exploration with it. The flavor isn't what I look for in a world with magic, but it does work within the rule-set.
The spells in Magic will tend to work better than technological stuff because a spell like missile shield makes you immune from conventional bullets and a force field will have a DR rating that can be penetrated if you hit it hard enough.
For example, missile shield will cause a 16" shell to miss you, but you'd need DR 4,464 to be immune with a force field and a max roll of the 6dx62(2) pi++ of the round.
On the plus side, that force field will protect you from the 6dx26 cr ex blast, missile shield will not.
I certainly understand the problem of being buried in world building. I’m having similar issues with book 3 in my ‘Republic of Texas Navy’ series. (I’m only trying to re-write WW2, shouldn’t be too difficult, right? :-) )
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which can you please contact me at d.a.brock@protonmail.com? I have some questions about WW2 era armored vehicles that you may be able to help me with.