This comes up in the context of a fight scene in Industrial Mage. Our intrepid hero casts a tornado-ish air shield around himself and it moves with him. Instead of a fireball, he creates a fire-whip, which behaves mostly like an actual whip. He casts water bullets at the bad spider creature, targeting the joints, of course.
So, what is the magic cast upon? What is the target?
In the first case, the target is himself – not where he is, because it follows him. In the last case, the target is where a joint currently is (or he expects it to be), because some of them miss when the creature moves. In the whip case, it’s not at all clear. The spell is cast, but the whip is directed physically like a real whip.
One of the keystones of my story is that no one knows what’s going on. They need to figure it out as they go. (It will not all happen “on screen”, I promise.) Inconsistencies such as that may be due to the mage, not the magic.
However, it doesn’t take long to figure out that, if one can create a fireball that can be thrown but stays in one’s hand while running, there is a certain amount of flexibility to where magic “is”. It “sticks” to a moving source. Does that flexibility extend to targeting? That is, can I target someone’s elbow? Not where the elbow is now or an attempt to lead to where the elbow will be, but the elbow itself and the fireball (or whatever) does the tracking. That seems to be putting a lot of burden on the magic for tracking, but a fire-whip? It’s not a crazy burden on the magic to make the not-actually-existing whip obey the standard laws of physics, including snapping at the tip?
If mana is just mana whilst inside me and on (over? so I don’t get burned) my hand it becomes a fireball that I can throw, can I just throw the mana and have the fireball form at the target? That would be much sneakier. What is the distance limitation between mana and effect? Why? One might detect that a bunch of mana is inbound, but not know what it will turn into when it arrives. What about air? If I want to throw a tornado at someone, does it need to appear in my hand (or near me) like a fireball then move to the target? Or can I center it on the target to begin with? If the latter, why don’t fireballs work the same way?
My twist is that werewolves are immune to magic. However, they are not immune to the physical effects of magic. For example, throwing a magic missile at one does nothing, but levitating a rock over his head and letting the rock drop will hit him on the head with a rock. Targeting is an interesting corner-case. Can the targeting magic lock-on to a werewolf? I think “no” because that’s pure magic – and it makes them resistant to even physical effects because they can dodge the undodgeable.
This leads to all sorts of complications. It’s generally accepted that fireballs are pure magic; there is nothing really burning. Contrarily, it’s also generally accepted that water (or ice) is really water. That would mean that werewolves are immune to fire bullets but susceptible to water bullets. I don’t like the asymmetry.
If water bullets (or earth bullets or air bullets) are actually water (or earth or air), then fire bullets need to actually be fire. Perhaps fireballs are actually plasma balls and the magic is providing containment. Modern physics and Aristotelian elements collide. I don’t have an answer (yet), but Brad and Stacey (parents) are going to have a great time helping Marcy (teenager) figure it out – without her burning down the house.
As a last resort, fire can become a thing, not a process, but that screws with other “apply physics to magic” ideas because if fire is a thing, what else is surprisingly a thing? Or the reverse, what things have become processes? I need a simple answer or the framework becomes too complex to keep track of. And I’m making it up! Why make it difficult?
This extends further. The eternally refilling quiver is a common trope. I see no reason that an eternally filling magazine cannot work. If anything, gun powder (even the primer) is significantly simpler on a molecular level than wood. If magic can create actual wooden arrows, creating actual cartridges should be simpler, not more complex. If it’s a magical Xerox machine – put an arrow in, get multiple arrows out; put a cartridge in, get multiple cartridges out – one can do all sorts of neat things with the concept. And is copy degradation a thing? Is magic analog or digital? Doh! Quantum, of course. A manum is the quantum unit of magic. I wonder how far I want to push that…
Like all LitRPG authors, I’m going to fall back on “system fuckery” as a common explanation, but I’d like to have some sort of coherent framework in place. I’m clearly not there, yet.
This is mostly what book two is going to be about: Figuring out how all this stuff works so it can be properly utilized. The rest of the multiverse is going to show up at some point. Earth needs to be ready to compete with civilizations who have been studying this stuff for millennia. The system does want to help; if it wanted everyone dead, it could just kill everyone. I’ll try to make it fun to read by making them try all sorts of ridiculous things, just to see what works. There will be ‘splosions!
One of my big gripes about fantasy magic is technology stagnation. A blacksmith can make a legendary sword out of mithril, but he can’t manage a rocket nozzle? How can you have a “freeze” spell and not notice that different stuff precipitates out of the air? The water will freeze and fall out. Later, the CO2 will freeze and fall out. Later, the N2 will freeze and fall out. Later, the O2 will freeze and fall out. I think hydrogen is last. One doesn’t even need equipment. Just cast the spell and watch what happens.
What else happens? If it is a closed volume, stuff freezing and precipitating out will tend to create a vacuum, which will then cause the precipitate to sublimate back into a gas. It’s a race between the freeze spell solidifying the gas and the vacuum re-gasifying it. How close to absolute zero can the spell get? If it’s not a closed volume, it will create an in-rush of (warmer) air, which may prevent one from noticing the staged precipitation because it never gets cold enough to create more than ice.
Digression: Now I need to find out where thermometers stop working… Mercury freezes at -38 C, which is not very cold. CO2 freezes at -78 C. Not taking that temperature with a mercury thermometer. That doesn’t seem all that cold. What’s Antarctica’s low? “The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was −89.2°C (−128.6°F) at Vostok Station in Antarctica on July 21, 1983.” Huh. CO2 snow in Antarctica, who knew? The red stuff is ethanol, which freezes at -115 C. Nitrogen freezes at a chilly -210 C; it boils at -196 C (standard pressure). As long as I’m looking all this up, oxygen boils at -183 C and freezes at -219 C. I would suppose that around -180 to -200 one would get nitrogen and oxygen fog, although with water and CO2 already frozen out, we’re not at standard pressure any longer. For digital thermometers, I think I’ll experiment by buying a chunk of dry ice and seeing what they display (I have a probe one and a point-at one).
There is going to be a skill for matching pre-system physics to post-system physics. I haven’t come up with the name, yet. “Sage” seems overly broad, but it’s the current front runner. The guy (and it will be a guy) who gets it is a retired professor of some sort. He’s going to “just know” some of this due to the skill, but he’ll also do research and experiments. Meanwhile, Marcy, who was using fireballs as strategic weapons in an RPG game with her dad before the world ended, will be experimenting with magic. Luke has already eaten a magic missile.
Oh, speaking of bullets (way above), I need to redo the HP regeneration formula. Werewolves are well known for their healing ability. I need to stick in some sort of bonus that speeds up the nominal formula. Yes, I’m doing all the game mechanics. Someone is going to notice and leave a bad review if I just invent it all as I go – assuming anyone reads it and leaves a review to begin with. I plan to keep it all behind the scenes, but when I do show numbers, where they come from should be figure-out-able, if anyone tries to reverse engineer it.
Marked Up 