 Deser Wars: how important is magic? |
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 May 4 2004, 12:40 AM
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#1
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Moving Target  Group: Members Posts: 173 Joined: 4-March 03 Member No.: 4,196  |
I know there's information on the Desert Wars in Target: Waste Lands, but I don't own it. I'd like to know how important magic is. Since it's a time for megas to show off and kick ass I figured a lot of it would be weapons, cyber, and vehicles/drones, but since magic is such a powerful force, it'd make some sense for it to be integrated in some capacity.
How often are spirits employed? Is magic primarily for support or is it also used as a spearhead for attacks? The downsides are it's only a desert domain (of course), and it'd have an almost permenant background count [edit: just noticed the typo, is there a way to retitle topics?] |
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May 4 2004, 12:53 AM
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#2
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Beetle Eater Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 4,797 Joined: 3-June 02 From: Oblivion City Member No.: 2,826 |
Magic is rarely used according to T:WL.
It [military magic] doesn't translate well to Trid and the Corps see the Wars as good old fashioned fighting. Magic plays mostly support roles, but the terms of its use are agreed before conflicts. |
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May 4 2004, 12:54 AM
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#3
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 897 Joined: 26-February 02 From: TIME OUT Member No.: 1,989 |
the sprinkles in the dessert wars war magic, IIRC
the cola wars were purely nuclear however |
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May 4 2004, 01:19 AM
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#4
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 173 Joined: 4-March 03 Member No.: 4,196 |
Would you clarify this? Does each participating corp just let the other know they'll have a mage-medic or a combat mage? Or do they have to be more detailed: "We're fielding an initiated Snake shaman as a medic she knows the following spells...and an initiatied Hermetic mage will be in squad X, he has these elementals bound..." Or something inbetween?
Do they exchange any information on the nature of the vehicles and weapons used as well? Kanada Ten, thanks for the reply. |
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May 4 2004, 02:04 AM
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#5
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 224 Joined: 6-April 02 From: ab.ca Member No.: 2,522 |
One of the things that I've gotten as an impression is that magical capabilities are several limited in zones of protracted combat because of the tendency of battlegrounds to produce background counts.
So support roles in terms of healing in the rear areas, or surveillance, protecting key installations or personnel. That sort of thng. |
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May 4 2004, 02:06 AM
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#6
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Beetle Eater Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 4,797 Joined: 3-June 02 From: Oblivion City Member No.: 2,826 |
You have to understand that Desert Wars is like MTV's Real World and Operation Desert Storm mashed into a Coke-a-Cola commercial.
Most of the time there is detailed information about all the happenings and participants prior to commencing - if just to have the right recording equipment going in the right spot. That doesn't mean the teams are briefed to that extreme, just mamma and papa corp. The amount of intel is probably a critical factor in match difficulty and could be used as handicap. The only time magic comes into battle use is as part of a special story arc or training session. Mercenary games are also more open to the use, IIRC. Otherwise, magic is kept on the sidelines, for healing injuries or dealing with spontaneous interference such as shedim - (the former site of a nuclear explosion, background count of the battle field is pretty high, too). +And Daishi is correct, as well. |
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May 4 2004, 02:19 AM
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#7
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Traumatizing players since 1992 Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,282 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Las Vegas, NV Member No.: 220 |
I think neither. It's a negotiation "we agree to use mages only that do X and Y if you do". Not, "Bam, we're bringing mages, cope".
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May 4 2004, 12:52 PM
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#8
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 138 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Paris, France Member No.: 639 |
IIRC also the field of the Desert Wars is not kind toward magic (backgorund count, toxic zone, warps and so on).
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May 4 2004, 01:00 PM
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#9
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Canon Companion Group: Members Posts: 8,021 Joined: 2-March 03 From: The Morgue, Singapore LTG Member No.: 4,187 |
Which is why a good magician on the team can win you the battle.
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