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[Graknorke]

My lower right wisdom tooth has worked its way through my gum and it kind of hurts. I could swear this has happened before though.
Why is this possible.

[NJW2000]

Jared Leto as new joker: my wtf.

I mean, David Bowie as joker, yes, but why eyebrow-shaved David Bowie as joker? Like this I do not.

[IcyTea31]

My lower right wisdom tooth has worked its way through my gum and it kind of hurts. I could swear this has happened before though.
Why is this possible.

Maybe you're part-shark and regrow lost teeth. Do you go crazy at the taste of blood, maybe?

[Rolan7]

Goodness

Honestly I am starting to want to beat up the first person to ever spout the term "Magic Versus Technology"

Since the more I see it, the more I notice that it relies ENTIRELY on connotations that take place entirely outside the setting and otherwise makes absolutely no sense.

Watching this "Total Annihilation Kingdoms" Letsplay and the Creon are basically all Into technology and HATE magic. Yet they constantly spout on and on about how they destroy superstition and use logic.

Yet... here is kind of the thing
1) Magic in this setting is not an unknowable force, nor one that is learned strictly through some form of spiritualism. It is usually learned through academic study.
and
2) It isn't SUPERSTITION when these things are REAL!!! Dragons, Centaurs, and Merfolk are real living beings you can see with your eyes... This shouldn't be that hard.

It forces this whole theme of magic versus technology but it never establishes anything solid for this to work. HECK the factions aren't even inherently magical anyhow (well except two), the game pretty strongly establishes that only the nobility really have access to magic and even then the majority of their armies aren't even magical. People don't cook food with spells in this setting.

And no they aren't meant to be hypocrites, I am not missing some theme. They really are supposed to be these bastions of logic and destroyers of superstition...

Yeah they're definitely using the wrong words for it, at the least.
It can be an interesting conflict depending on the actual situation, like people have pointed out...
In settings where magic is a natural science, people may still be afraid of wizards for their power.  In which case it's just fear of science and progress, with different flavor.  Possibly coupled with xenophobia when people feel that magical entities are dangerous and should be exterminated, despite being of our world.
In other settings magic is channeled from other planes/dimensions, and that's generally where the magical creatures come from.  In these cases the use of magic often "weakens the barrier" between the worlds, forming pathways for the energies and entities on the "other side".  Which makes it inherently unpredictable and a bit risky.  Less science, more bartering and crossed fingers.  Since almost inevitably these stories end up with "oops we pulled something too big" or "the planes are colliding now".  Though Final Fantasy 6 was a nice aversion, where the mysterious other plane was basically enslaved and used to fuel an industrial revolution on reliable "magitech" energy.

I guess DND mixes both types, a lot.  Arcane and druid spells tend more toward understanding and manipulating the natural energies of the material and elemental planes, while most divine magic is channeled from extraplanar entities with very strong agendas.  But arcane casters can certainly call and summon creatures from the aligned planes, some even specialize in it, so yeah.  Mix.

[NJW2000]

Watching Piecewise get into an argument with Loud Whispers about martians...

 

Which of them is being ironic? Which is trolling the other? How much of what they say do they care about?

It's like watching spambots from the future play chess.

[Sergarr]

I've just heard someone say "only Americans play football", wtf is this bullshit

[Loud Whispers]

Watching Piecewise get into an argument with Loud Whispers about martians...

 

Which of them is being ironic? Which is trolling the other? How much of what they say do they care about?

It's like watching spambots from the future play chess.

shitpost to e5
you sunk my checkmate

[Rolan7]

I've just heard someone say "only Americans play football", wtf is this bullshit

Yeah even if they're talking about handegg that doesn't quite work.

[Tack]

I think I've seen that... SMBC maybe?

Dresden files handles it by simply having the magic cause problems with technology. The smaller the parts required for something to function, the more magic messes it up.

Yeah, Lirael and Sabriel have the same principle.

However I know of other series which have magic being this illusive element which offers itself to whoever says "hocus pocus" in the right way with the right finger wiggles.

... Not sure where this segway'd from but now I'm hooked on it so I'm gonna speel some more.

I know of another series (cannot remember) which has mages do large and complicated rituals to make their effects happen, but the ritual can be paused indefinitely, so they do 99% of the ritual each morning or something and walk around with a bunch of willow sticks they can snap or flick or shout at etc so they can throw fireballs in a pinch.

Then there's the Tamora ones which have most of the more powerful mages pull the mana from the world around them to fuel their stuff, which never really gets explained or revisited, but there's some who can use words of power which create awesome miracles to happen there, and awful disasters to happen somewhere else on the globe.

Whilst Dresden has the necessity of the huge rituals and white robes and mystic circles alleviated by enough mental focus that you can just imagine all of that happening, down to exact timing and motions, and then binding said huge convoluted mental process to a keyphrase or something so that it can be recalled and used in battle.
Which, after revisiting all that, makes the raggedy lady sound Waay more hardcore.

Uh... Point being, in a fair few series I'd happily call magic a 'science'.
I guess it's in series like Magician where that comes apart, with one of Feist's biggest spellcasters in the universe being famous for the phrase "there is no magic. Just tricks".

Though yeah I think magic vs technology divide does work better if the magic of the period is "You Have The Blood Time To Make Fire".
Or, it could just be the natural animosity between those who devoted their life to eldrich runes and those who devoted their life to t' slidin' rule.

[Calidovi]

Watching Piecewise get into an argument with Loud Whispers about martians...

 

Which of them is being ironic? Which is trolling the other? How much of what they say do they care about?

It's like watching spambots from the future play chess.

shitpost to e5
you sunk my checkmate

Have fun shitposting now, my submarmeme is still in.

[Frumple]

@Tack, the complicated rituals thing is... actually one of the major lines of explanation for vancian magic systems (i.e. D&D spell slots). S'fairly common as explanations go, from what I remember.

[stabbymcstabstab]

So I'm in freaking gridlock in Michigan's UP, some genuine decided today was the perfect day for a bridge walk over the mackinac, also police checkpoints!

[Frumple]

... having done some googling to decipher what the zog you were saying, isn't today always the day they have the mackinac bridge walk up there? First day of september, walk's an annual thing on labor day. Been going on since 1958. Over fifty years.

[Tack]

Your logic is not welcome here.

@Tack, the complicated rituals thing is fairly common as explanations go.

Which one?

Also I thought DnD spell prep was just memorising it for the day, because for some reason spells burn themselves out of your memory after casting.
... Which explains a lot about old wizards being crazy.

[Frumple]

The 99% then flick one. The burn out of memory bit is one of the other major explanations behind vancian magic systems :V