Magicpunk for Rokugan

[Harzerkatze 262]

Ok, here is the thing: Most Steampunk is our normal, regular world, but with changes brought by different steam-powered technology.

Rokugan has magic that is actually working. So I asked myself the question: What should the effects be on everyday life?

Now, compared to a lot of other fantasy, Rokugan magic is fairly limited:
- No spell reaches farther than the horizon, and few last longer than a scene, which may be an hour.
- Regular magic items are almost unheard of. All that exists are nemurania, which are ultra-rare, and cursed Artifacts of Jigoku, which are bad for you.
- Compared to mages other fantasy worlds, shugenja are somewhat hesitant to perform their invocations, as that is calling in favors from the kami, not just using your magical powers. So they would not just pump out their spell slots to feed and heal the poor before going to bed.

Still, I think having access to magic should be seen in SOME parts of society. So I try to come up with ideas where that might by, to give the world some additional sense of wonder:
- Long-distance communication is a major problem in all pre-modern societies, and the roughness of Rokugan's terrain adds to that. Messages would take weeks to get from Dragon lands to the wall, if not months. While no long-distance telepathy, Sending, teleport, Palanthir or Speaking Stones or Mirrors exist, Shikigami would make a believable way of quicker communication: If a shikigami dragonfly travels as fast as a regular one (18 mph, www.speedofanimals.com/animals/dragonfly), since it literally has the Tireless advantage, it could fly for 24 hours, which could cover up to 400 miles in a day. Always in danger of being intercepted or soaked by rain or blown away by wind, of course. But still, at least possibly a fast way of communication for important information. And the Dragonfly isn't ever very fast for an insect, some butterflies and moths fly 30 mph.

- With The Rushing Wave being a simple Rank 1 invocation that can be performed 1x/scene and lasts for 1 scene, very important travellers, messangers and transporters by boat could have a shugenja on board to double their rate of travel.

- As we have no illness mechanics and thus no disease healing spells, the hospital and healing system would be not as impacted as e.g. in a D&D world with instance healing of any disease. Still, the ability to remove Seroius Wounds by magic would at least have some effect on the healing systems.
(I think it is best to gloss over the options to remove they Dying condition, as that tends to open questions like Why Do Emperors Die etc.)

- The ability to Commune with the Spirits and the facts that talking to the equivalent of minor gods actually works should have an effect on things like harvest and agriculture productivity, but as that isn't really quantified, it is not very visible outside of narrative scenes.

Any other ideas how the existance of kiho and invocations could affect everyday life at least of the upper class (except for all the ways to die, of course)?

Edited February 6 by Harzerkatze

[Magnus Grendel 11,673]

35 minutes ago, Harzerkatze said:

- With The Rushing Wave being a simple Rank 1 invocation that can be performed 1x/scene and lasts for 1 scene, very important travellers, messangers and transporters by boat could have a shugenja on board to double their rate of travel.

You do see Storm Fleet Seers - shujenga who specialise in that sort of thing - in the Mantis Clan fleet. The presence or abscence of one amongst a crew's company is a good indication of the captain's standing in Gotei Port.

35 minutes ago, Harzerkatze said:

- The ability to Commune with the Spirits and the facts that talking to the equivalent of minor gods actually works should have an effect on things like harvest and agriculture productivity, but as that isn't really quantified, it is not very visible outside of narrative scenes.

Agreed. But you will see a detectable variation in the productivity of farmlands based on the general happiness of the local Kami. As, when and if we get a territory-management chunk of rules, this might have some mechanical effects, but right now it's purely narrative. It's a good generic hook for a minor clan campaign, though; if the local river kami is angry, every farm dependent on that river for water is screwed.

35 minutes ago, Harzerkatze said:

- Long-distance communication is a major problem in all pre-modern societies, and the roughness of Rokugan's terrain adds to that. Messages would take weeks to get from Dragon lands to the wall, if not months. While no long-distance telepathy, Sending, teleport, Palanthir or Speaking Stones or Mirrors exist, Shikigami would make a believable way of quicker communication: If a shikigami dragonfly travels as fast as a regular one (18 mph, www.speedofanimals.com/animals/dragonfly), since it literally has the Tireless advantage, it could fly for 24 hours, which could cover up to 400 miles in a day. Always in danger of being intercepted or soaked by rain or blown away by wind, of course. But still, at least possibly a fast way of communication for important information.

I don't think they specifically move at anything above walking pace - technically there's no reason why they couldn't be folded into a flying creature, but at the same time I guess it's not like they have the strength or weight - as noted, a light breeze will screw them over, and it's questionable if - given Rebellious - they're smart or trustworthy enough to find their way and make a long journey on their own. Plus the shujenga in question is having to give up an invocation for the duration of the Shikigami's existence to create it.

A far more feasible approach for emergency messages is the Water Invocation Dominion of Suijin.

• Activation: As a Movement and Scheme action, you may make a TN 2 Theology (Water) check targeting one position containing a body of water at range 0–1.
• Effect: If you succeed, you scry in the ripples. The target body of water displays an image of a second body of water of your choice and its surroundings as if the onlooker were just below the surface. This second body of water must be at range 0–6 of the target position, and you must have concrete knowledge of a specific body of water to use it this way.
• Water : The location you see can be any distance from you (but must still be familiar).

Getting  is not an unreasonable challenge, and allowing a shujenga to see the presence of, and read, a scroll placed, say, above a pool in a shrine on a regular basis allows....if not instantaneous communication, at least instantaneous observation, of the status of a remote fortress.

Obviously, the extreme version...

• Water : In addition to being able to see out of the other body of water, you and a number of other characters up to your Water Ring may pass through the temporary portal you have created to the other location. The trip is always one way for a given use of the technique, and you always arrive soaked.

Would require  - which is doable but bloody hard for, say, a Water 3 individual as it requires either  or  to succeed. Channelling and assistance does allow for this, though, as would preparations which add rerolls (offerings) or automatic  (appropriate omamori charms).

35 minutes ago, Harzerkatze said:

- As we have no illness mechanics and thus no disease healing spells, the hospital and healing system would be not as impacted as e.g. in a D&D world with instance healing of any disease. Still, the ability to remove Seroius Wounds by magic would at least have some effect on the healing systems.
(I think it is best to gloss over the options to remove they Dying condition, as that tends to open questions like Why Do Emperors Die etc.)

One might suggest that beyond a certain point of illness or age, Dying is essentially re-inflicted on you on a regular basis. If an Emperor has to followed by the Elemental Master of Earth, using Jurojin's Balm every few minutes, just for him to survive through the day, clearly it's time to let go and move on from the mortal plane...

...Another big thing to bear in mind is that by the mindset and theology of Rokugan, death is not something to be feared. Healing someone to allow them to finish the fight and complete their duty is one thing. Being scared of natural death from age is quite another.

I would suggest you will see a dramatic difference in average health as one goes up the social ladder, though. The fact, for example, that Bayushi Shoju should be a cripple with the partial use of only one arm, as opposed to the awesome swordsman we see in The World A Stage - where he  'interviews' a captain for his elite bodyguard by ordering her to kill him and seeing how long it takes to beat the crud out of her! - is entirely due to the potions produced by his clan's shujenga.

 

 

Other suggestion:

 

During Wildcats and Dragon's Teeth, Sotorii complains about the weather, and Agasha Sumiko is left with an even bigger disdain for the boy than she already felt because he doesn't get how petty ordering imperial shujenga to use invocations to 'fix' the weather just because he's annoyed would be. Which implies they could, but don't want to do so for petty reasons.

Which in turn means that when it is important - they will. So on really important days - coronations, funerals, weddings, and big festivals, there will always be good weather for the big moment unless either the Kami are angry or rain is part of the thing being celebrated.

 

 

Wards are effort-intensive to create, but you will essentially get magical defences and alarm traps in treasuries, etc, taking the place of the 'laser tripwire' and 'pressure plates'  of high tech heist stories. Obviously purely mechanical traps are available too - nightingale floors, dart traps, etc - but for really important things expect to see both types of measure employed.

 

 

 

Edited February 6 by Magnus Grendel

[Harzerkatze 262]

The problem with Dominion of Suijin is that its maximum reach is sight, a few hundred meters. A semaphor signaler with flags will do that cheaper and faster, and unless you have a signal chain of hundreds of shugenja, you can't really send messages with a serious time advantage over sending a rider.

The shikigami description says that they flutter about, so they seem to be flying, and as spirits in paper creations, there is no reason to expect them to need rest or food. Even just a 3 mph walking pace would be 70 miles in a day, cross-country as the raven flies. That is not bad, even if it stays way behind the speed of the shikigami in Spirited Away.

[AtoMaki 1,431]

Thing is, Rokugani magic is not really magic in the classical sense. The Shugenja doesn't cast spells out of their own power, they very nicely ask a nearby spirit to conjure an effect of the Shugenja's choosing. If the spirit thinks the Shugenja is BSing then they won't do crap and the spell won't take effect. Similarly, the invoked effect is not just some nice energy wave or something similarly innocent-looking but an actual spirit manifesting and doing the thing - depending on the spirit summoned, this can be a pretty darn unpleasant experience because spirits don't give a crap about looks. The more complex the effect is the more powerful the summoned spirit must be, so the problems do scale, and in most cases the spell becomes more trouble than worth. 

This , of course, not counting the potential backlash from offending the summoned spirit or botching the invocation. Or turning a spirit into a "recurring guest" in a palace. The latter was a fun story . 

[Magnus Grendel 11,673]

18 hours ago, Harzerkatze said:

The problem with Dominion of Suijin is that its maximum reach is sight, a few hundred meters.

Not true. It's basic use is limited to range-of-vision, but note the first opportunity:

"Water : The location you see can be any distance from you (but must still be familiar). "

i.e. it can be a location hundreds of miles away provided it is personally known to you. That's why I suggested the minimum to get the idea to work was being able to reliably generate  in order to activate this opportunity.

 

Edited February 7 by Magnus Grendel

[Harzerkatze 262]

4 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Not true. It's basic use is limited to range-of-vision, but note the first opportunity:

"Water : The location you see can be any distance from you (but must still be familiar). "

 

Oh, I didn't realize that, That makes long-range communication trivial: Write the news on a chalk-board and hang it above the fixed water bowl that is known to the other telecasters in your organisation. With TN 2 and 1 Opportunity, that doesn't even require a high-level shugenja.

Travelling there through the water does, however, 4 opportunities are quite something to achieve.

[Myrion 528]

Not quite trivial, at least as I take it. "Personally known to you" means "must have been there before". So you must send your telecasters on very long (and thus somewhat risky) trips or exchange them (so the caster from X goes to Y and stays there and vice versa). And that just means they don't need return trips.

Edited February 7 by Myrion

[Magnus Grendel 11,673]

Essentially, yes. Since the "travel through the water" is a thing, albeit a hard thing to do, I'd suggest ceremonial pools in shrines - large enough to "jump" through, and an appropriate place to find a shujenga. 

Don't forget both channelling and assistance is a thing. So if you have a central shrine where they're all taught, it's known to them by default.

Meanwhile, if you keep moving people back and forth, the shrine in each 'rural' castle is known to at least one person, and if needs be you have enough shujenga at your HQ to shuttle 2-3 extra shujenga to any outpost that needs them.

Obviously this is with the approval of the Kami, so shouldn't be done lightly, but for well-placated kami and critical messages it should work. The flaw is that whilst you can "go look", you can't alert the recipient there's a message until they do, and the setting frowns on invocations being used in a 'routine' fadhion