Magic and Warfare
"War never changes." That line from the Fallout games is oft-quoted. In the process, I'm reminded that another game (Metal Gear Solid 4) pitched the counterpoint: "War has changed."
Last night, the question game up of whether the group of FurryFaire players playing on Discord would want to see a world war play out. One player pointed out this would likely fracture the PCs who are only sort of starting to come together now. For simplicity, I probably should have backed that position (which I find to be true) or just simply answered "no." Instead, I fell back on other thoughts and reasoning against it. Ah well.
I've considered the impacts of magic on warfare before - at least since I read and did a book report on Pools of Darkness, a Forgotten Realms-based D&D novel. I've long since forgotten many of the details, but at the time that was a facet of the story that struck me. "Simple" things like being able to march an undead unit through a river without concern or flying units immediately throw the book of real-world tactics out the window.
I wonder if my teacher and/or classmates worried about me.
It's also something that's been explored in numerous anime/manga series. Izetta: The Last Witch put forth a single, powerful magic-user whose defense of a small nation keeps it from getting overrun. Being the "only" witch, she's a hell of a trump card and makes a real difference.
Youjo Senki gets into things more with corps of mages who can fly, shield, and blast. Even with a relatively limited skill set, they take the place of highly mobile units largely supplanting a normal air force. This goes one step beyond that by being an isekai series - the main character has knowledge of the world wars in our world, so is quicker to realize effective ways to use that air power than natives who are still shaking off more traditional tactics.
And that is something that would come up in roleplaying as well. Players inherently push setting boundaries with their knowledge. If their characters have the power, they'll nudge societies more toward the players' norms/ideals and implement tactics that might otherwise seem heretical in-setting. This is why you have a fundamental design rule in RPGs: don't balance mechanical benefits with roleplaying drawbacks.
And those settings have built-in limits on what mages can do. Izetta doesn't nuke a battlefield and then conjure all the dead as ghost soldiers. Tanya doesn't resurrect the dead or nuke cities from halfway around the world. Furryfaire... has traditionally not had those hard limits. Exactly what can be accomplished with magic has varied from version to version, but we have historical precedent of dead coming back to life and large numbers of people being wiped out or neutralized by a single caster. And the Godbound rule set includes invincible defenses against some things and attacks that cannot be perceived until it's all over. Narratively exploring that without serious constraints is going to get messy real fast. And introducing active (and possibly conflicting) players into it even more so.
To me, it looks like a recipe for anti-fun.
Nevermind that I've already conceptualized a Kith Kanaan in a state of war and it's pretty bleak.
Last night, the question game up of whether the group of FurryFaire players playing on Discord would want to see a world war play out. One player pointed out this would likely fracture the PCs who are only sort of starting to come together now. For simplicity, I probably should have backed that position (which I find to be true) or just simply answered "no." Instead, I fell back on other thoughts and reasoning against it. Ah well.
I've considered the impacts of magic on warfare before - at least since I read and did a book report on Pools of Darkness, a Forgotten Realms-based D&D novel. I've long since forgotten many of the details, but at the time that was a facet of the story that struck me. "Simple" things like being able to march an undead unit through a river without concern or flying units immediately throw the book of real-world tactics out the window.
I wonder if my teacher and/or classmates worried about me.
It's also something that's been explored in numerous anime/manga series. Izetta: The Last Witch put forth a single, powerful magic-user whose defense of a small nation keeps it from getting overrun. Being the "only" witch, she's a hell of a trump card and makes a real difference.
Youjo Senki gets into things more with corps of mages who can fly, shield, and blast. Even with a relatively limited skill set, they take the place of highly mobile units largely supplanting a normal air force. This goes one step beyond that by being an isekai series - the main character has knowledge of the world wars in our world, so is quicker to realize effective ways to use that air power than natives who are still shaking off more traditional tactics.
And that is something that would come up in roleplaying as well. Players inherently push setting boundaries with their knowledge. If their characters have the power, they'll nudge societies more toward the players' norms/ideals and implement tactics that might otherwise seem heretical in-setting. This is why you have a fundamental design rule in RPGs: don't balance mechanical benefits with roleplaying drawbacks.
And those settings have built-in limits on what mages can do. Izetta doesn't nuke a battlefield and then conjure all the dead as ghost soldiers. Tanya doesn't resurrect the dead or nuke cities from halfway around the world. Furryfaire... has traditionally not had those hard limits. Exactly what can be accomplished with magic has varied from version to version, but we have historical precedent of dead coming back to life and large numbers of people being wiped out or neutralized by a single caster. And the Godbound rule set includes invincible defenses against some things and attacks that cannot be perceived until it's all over. Narratively exploring that without serious constraints is going to get messy real fast. And introducing active (and possibly conflicting) players into it even more so.
To me, it looks like a recipe for anti-fun.
Nevermind that I've already conceptualized a Kith Kanaan in a state of war and it's pretty bleak.
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