So… what other small touches of garlic-planter proportions might you find in the urban planning of a fantasy setting?
I’ve often held, for example, that it seems as if cremation would be a natural solution for fantasy lands crawling with the undead. (On the other hand, if you can provide a reason why people believe their loved ones should be buried with whole and undisturbed bodies you will probably simultaneously explain why they find the creation of undead abhorrent.)
On a similar note, what does the well-stocked arensal of a city guard look like? Silver bullets for werewolves seem like a nobrainer. What else?
ARCHIVED HALOSCAN COMMENTS
Scott W.
Drugs. See, your average out-of-the-way City Watch simply doesn’t have the budget you’d need to contain a man who can turn to shadow, punch holes through masonry, call down the lightning, kill with a word. So if they have to keep such a being contained without killing them, for reasons procedural (he’s a prince from a neighboring country, which would declare war if he was killed) or concrete (she can only be slain with a silver sword in the light of a full moon)… well, trying to physically restrain them is an exercise in either futility or ludicrous expense.
But if they can’t think, they can’t escape. So drug them. If it doesn’t work, drug them some more. (“Why not just beat them unconscious”, you say? Well, even among normal humans, inducing unconsciousness through physical trauma is an iffy proposition. And it’s easier to increase the dosage of a drug than it is to increase the severity of a nonlethal beating, easier to fix if you overdo it and need them alive, and less likely to have lasting side effects if that’s going to matter–and if the inverse is preferable, you can go ahead and snip their tendons while they’re under.)
And it doesn’t strain suspension of disbelief, either: humanity has been skilled with mind-altering substances since before we knew how to write. And it’s not going to be prohibitively expensive, either, if the drugs are locally grown (even if not, surely it would be easier to cultivate herbs than it would be to cultivate archmages).
Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 10:00:22 PM
Justin Alexander
Thanks for the kind words everybody. Sorry February has been a little light on content. I’ve been casting the next ten shows in the Complete Readings of William Shakespeare, so my free time has been negligible at best. But I should be getting some more stuff up sooner rather than later.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 1:41:05 AM
Doom
I would expect a holy water pump on wheels, sort of a medieval fire engine except it shoots water. Seems like there’d be nothing better for taking out undead hordes, with minimal chance of collateral damage.
(Heck, it’s probably got an interchangeable water reservoir, depending on duty)
Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 4:02:45 PM
Guest
I’m envisioning a lot of detect and dispel magic would be needed. Perhaps scrolls or potions or a psionicist.
Immobilize / web spells would be a must.
Also, “truth serum” spells. Especially in worlds where ‘puppet’ or possession / domination type spells exist.
I also enjoy your work, from the two deaths of whateverhisnamewas to your re-working of Shadowfell to your analysis of Trail of Cthulhu, I am amazed and impressed. Hell, even the Shakespeare stuff is interesting, informative and entertaining.
I keep bouncing back here to check for new content, and I couldn’t leave you hanging with only two comments any longer. Smile
In other news, have you ever turned your considerable experienced and perceptive powers of observation on a little system called Savage Worlds (www.peginc.com). I’d love to hear what you think. Keep up the great work!
Shannon
Tuesday, February 09, 2010, 11:56:32 PM
Starfox_SFX
I seem to recall in an earlier version of Shadowrun that astral projecting (or etherial?) mages and critters couldn’t go through living things, so corporations built buildings with lots of planters and vines and waterfeatures to create “living walls” to hedge out mystical intruders. I thought it was kind of funny since it meant the grim and gritty cyberfuture was also greener and the higher security a place was, the nicer it was to work there.
Friday, January 29, 2010, 12:49:07 PM
Andrew
Wall decorations of chain nets in areas where creatures phase through stone (but not metal).
A tradition of art involving spikes and shutters in mountainous areas plagued by flying attackers. Like painting doors, but more wickedly sharp and festive.
What about temples where undead clerics take a community’s dead and put them at rest, unless they are chosen to serve? Interesting symbiotic possibilities.
In a high fantasy setting it would be excellent to have a piece of riot gear like a massive chest on poles for carrying, that froze time for 10 minutes; the guards could pluck out the leaders and minimize damage. But what happens when the local criminal element steals one? It has a secret ritual/lock to use it, but that can be circumvented.
City officials must have a minimum of 300 years of natural life remaining.
(I really enjoy your work.)
Friday, January 29, 2010, 9:52:48 AM
1d30
I think a device that attracts the attention of creatures would work better. They could call it the “Meat Wagon” because it’s this metal cart covered in hooks and they stick meat on it so monsters will grab the wagon instead of attacking one of the Watch. While the monster is thus distracted, the Watch is able to get people out of the area and bring in reinforcements and whatever special weapons are needed (the SWAT team would be the ones to have silver weapons and such).
Also, the Meatwagon bait is heavily drugged and is rigged to pump the area full of poison gas if one of the Watch Sergeants pushes his Magic Garage Door Opener within range of one.
Watch tactics against dumb monsters involve straw dummies sprayed with meat dust and coated in fat, which stand on their own little skateboards and can be pushed forward with long poles during the assembly phase of a defense. These each contain a canister stuck inside just before deployment. That canister could be full of holy water, or oil, or poison. And the canister is set to burst with a minutes-long fuse. It’s really only a big enough explosion to disperse the contents over a 5′ area, but if that happens inside a creature it would be devastating.
There would also be a variant on the Meatwagon, called the Lootwagon. It’s loaded down with fake treasure: glass cut like gems, brass and tin instead of gold and silver, and rune-covered objects (possibly treated with magic to glow if they’re checked for enchantments). This is intended to be a bribe for intelligent attackers. Of course the creature will probably return angrily later, but that gives the defenders a chance to set up ambushes and plan against its weaknesses.
They always mass in the direction of the most vulnerable buildings, leaving an escape route for the monster to leave the city. If it flees, they harry it with missile weapons but do not close to melee.
And finally, any city with a wall should have some kind of standing army. The Watch will summon soldiers from the nearest barracks to help defeat the threat, and these folks will be trained in skirmish tactics to slay large creatures and backed up by spellcasting officers who can help identify the threat. They employ illusion spells to make it look like there are more defenders than there really are.
One thing they will not employ to a great extent is fire. You don’t want the city watch destroying the city more than the monster does.
Monday, March 15, 2010, 5:23:32 PM
1d30
You can’t count on high-level magic possessed by the city.
If you could, an arrow that radiated an Antimagic Shell for a few minutes upon being fired would be invaluable. It would cancel the magical defenses upon a target before it struck, and leave it unable to use destructive or healing magic or to escape (such as with Teleport or some Contigency).
Such an arrow might be carried by the SWAT team in the Watch, by the best marksmen in it, and fired only if the target appeared to be magical or have magical protections. A guy in robes appears and begins hurling Fireballs around? Bam, roll to hit an unarmored elderly doofus with no magic, and if you do he is neutralized. The hail of arrows that follows, if it doesn’t kill him outright, prevents him from figuring out which arrow to pull out. And when he dies, they chop him up and dissolve him before the arrow’s duration runs out.
Monday, March 15, 2010, 5:23:44