What is Karl Combatmage?, when in doubt, vote Options

[Herald of Verjig...]

Since it came up, what do you think the trid star is?

[Grinder]

A mundane actor - boring solution to a boring idea.

[hyzmarca]

He's one of the Ally Spirits from Dunkie's will.

[Kagetenshi]

Bone Crown is Awakened, and if Bone Crown was Karl Combatmage Bone Crown would be, by definition, an actor. Therefore, I vote "multiple of the above".

~J

[Rajaat99]

I thoguht I read somewhere that Karl Kombatmage was an illusionist that used his magic to make the special effects.
He can't be Bone Crown, that honor was taken by Jerimah Adams, leader of the Cult of the Seventh Seal.

[Kagetenshi]

Where did you get the idea that just because one person is Bone Crown, another cannot be?

~J

[Fresno Bob]

Yeah, there's more than one Elvis.

Anyway, Karl Combatmage is probably an awakened actor.

[Teulisch]

i suspect Karl is a mage specializing in illusion magic, probably initiated, and making a LOT of money in royalties. Theres going to be a couple of other mages offscreen to help karl out with a lot of spells, like reaction boost. they cast it on him and maintain it, so he can focus on his acting.

remember, Karl has been doing this for many years. it may be a different actor from the original (like james bond), or it may be the same guy (like Arnold the terminaror)

different actors makes more sense to me. otherwise what if he gets extracted?

[hyzmarca]

[Nasrudith]

He's probably mundane, they are probably using special effects, after all his magic is magjorly overpowered and probably a comedy to any real mage from how wrong they get it.

[Calvin Hobbes]

Bear in mind that Karl Combatmage is a Sim series. Therefore, if he's a mage, he's either an initiated mofo, or geas'd out of his mind: sim gear is expensive.

[Platinum]

He's a partially burnt out mage with a huge trid phantasm spell. (they pump up his power with some spell foci so he can resist the drain) You could not tell anyhow, as the sensations on controlling magic doesn't translate into simsense, and has to be overlayed.

[nezumi]

Also keep in mind, CGI is cheaper than a mage on hire. Why would he be a mage? Why would they hire competent mages just to make things explode? It's not worth the money.

[Platinum]

Hiring a mage with trid phantasm is so much cheaper than CGI *AND* it is an illusion that actors can interact with.

Who knows, I do not even know why they would bother with anything other than recording in a UV environment. The only place for cameras, are interviews and news reports. Everything else could be virtual. Cuts the prices for props and sets, and extras. Anyone can them be karl combat mage, because he is just a high res persona module. Same with dragons and any manner of spirits.

[nezumi]

The illusions required to make an entire building explode while Karl jumps out of his spinning, out of control helicopter and levitates himself onto the flying RNA roto-attack-drone are very, very, exceptionally impossible, with tremendously high drains, which would mean boku money spent. It's fairly trivial to do that with special effects.

Come on, do you even watch the show?

[Platinum]

Watch it.... heck I was on the set last month.

Check out Shadowbeat pg 76. Magic is used for effects all of the time, the only thing it is not used for are the astral sequences which are totaly fake. If you talk to you local mana chucker he will tell you that is not what is it really like, but it is a cool interpretation. BTW, Karl isn't the only one that has some spells, there are a number of mages in the wing that help boost his power, or take care of the spinning helicopter.

People like realism and find that the emotive track isn't as pure or strong when you render a scene.

[nezumi]

SR4 manual specifies that Karl was made using CGI.

[Kremlin KOA]

actually Karl is an AI created by the interaction of JohnnyBGood and a host that was part of the body of Artificer


This AI was then downloaded, network style, into a comatose Mage and learned to harness its magic and his own horror nature.

[Platinum]

That would be impossible since everything would have been lost in the crash. ;)

Excuse me while I go wash my eyes with bleach.

[hyzmarca]

And decent trid show would use a combination of computer graphics, physical special effects, illusions, and real magic. The fact is that there are some things that work well with one method but would come out looking like complete crap with the otehr methods. Likewise, some methods are cheaper for certain effects. For example, if you want to light a Karl's cigar actual ignite spells and actual lighters are both cheaper than complex CGI and sustained illusions.

[Grinder]

[nezumi]

Alright, I partially misremembered. But here we go:

[QUOTE SR4 page 40]
The problem (at least to hear real magicians and adepts tell it) is that the trids and sims don't often get it right. Oh, sure, they retainn "magical consultants" on staff to tell them that you can't blow up a building with a powerbolt spell (not even if you're a dragon), but as soon as the story calls for boffo mojo, the spellslinger-in-residence might as well step out for a sandwich for all the good her advice is going to do. As long as the box-office extravangazas like the "Karl Kombatmage" series pull in big nuyen for the studioes, the bosses arne't going to worry too much about whether their magician characters are doing things that would have a real practitioner's brains oozing out his ears. Because they use CGI for all the special effects.[/QUOTE]

See? Right there at the end.

[emo samurai]

Why can't you blow up a building with a powerbolt spell?

[nezumi]

Because it says so on page 40 of SR4.

(In truth, I think i'ts because the TN would be tremendous, do to the size and complexity of the thing, and so the corresponding drain would kill most people, especially in a world where you're not allowed to have stats over 6.)

[hyzmarca]

That's just what the movie consultants say. That doesn't guarantee that it is true. In fact, I'm willing to bet that very few consultants who say that Dragons can't blow up buildings are not themselves dragons. Likewise, I'd imagine that most dragons employed movie consultants are young adults with little clue as to what the real big boys are capable of.

A sufficiently constructed building (as opposed to a shack, shanty, or a lean-to) should be treated as having a bulwark rating, really. Powerbolting a skyscraper into oblivion about as easy as powerbolting an aircraft carrier into oblivion. Are there dragons who can do so? I wouldn't put it past any of them.