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In a week? A smouldering ruin.
In a year? A smoky ruin.
In a decade? A monster-ruled wasteland.
In a century? A monster-ruled civilization.
In a thousand years? Humans MIGHT have enough of a grasp on the new mojo to start making inroads, but my money's on the extradimensional at-will teleporting mind-bending demons who ALL know how this stuff works.
It would be a pretty radical change because for that to happen, it would mean that physics and most of reality had suddenly stopped working the way it had for billions of years.
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it would look like d20 modern, and it would not be pretty.
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The most terrifying thing about this would be all the folks who built 'cults of personality' suddenly having Power to Do Things beyond brainwashing.
The changes would be small at first, I suspect, as people attempted to adjust to them.
Governments would collapse, possibly in nuclear fire or worse as they attempt to retain control.
Several thousand years will pass with humanity (and all the other new races) teetering at the edge of complete barbarism before things claw their way out of the Dark Age.
d20 Modern was mentioned, but this is also sort of the set-up for RIFTS and Shadowrun...
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The most terrifying thing about this would be all the folks who built 'cults of personality' suddenly having Power to Do Things beyond brainwashing.The changes would be small at first, I suspect, as people attempted to adjust to them.
Governments would collapse, possibly in nuclear fire or worse as they attempt to retain control.
Several thousand years will pass with humanity (and all the other new races) teetering at the edge of complete barbarism before things claw their way out of the Dark Age.
d20 Modern was mentioned, but this is also sort of the set-up for RIFTS and Shadowrun...
The setup for Rifts also included apocalyptic levels of physical disaster along with heebee jeebees showing up.
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I would struggle with having to do everything in five foot increments.
I am very much a metric system kind of guy.
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In a week? A smouldering ruin.
In a year? A smoky ruin.
In a decade? A monster-ruled wasteland.
In a century? A monster-ruled civilization.
In a thousand years? Humans MIGHT have enough of a grasp on the new mojo to start making inroads, but my money's on the extradimensional at-will teleporting mind-bending demons who ALL know how this stuff works.
I've played Doom. All it takes is a lone marine with a pistol to solve all your infernal monster problems.
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Well, it depends upon how many things show up on Earth, and how obviously. If a few things showed up obviously and made trouble, they would probably get made into Swiss cheese and lab rats. Actually, that might happen even if they didn't make trouble -- this has been known to happen to ordinary inhabitants of Earth who happen to be in disfavor with those in power.
If a lot of things (and/or some very powerful things) showed up obviously and made trouble, we might be in trouble.
If some things showed up very clandestinely . . . hey, do you suppose certain political candidates might actually be certain lower planes-connected villains Smurfing here?
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Shadowrun.
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Starting tomorrow, people have the capacity to learn magic, religious leaders are able to perform objective miracles, some people gain sorcerous power, and monsters of all kinds show themselves in places that sort of make sense, like yetis in the Himalayas and mummies in Egyptian tombs. Some dungeon-like locations might be discovered too, like the Darklands, the ruins of Azlant deep within the Atlantic Ocean, the Pit of Gormuz in the Middle East, and let's say the Worldwound in Antarctica.
What will the world look like in a week? In a year, decade, century or millenium? What nations and elements of society would drastically change? What would the average person's life be like? What or who would you be?
Okay here is my slightly more serious answer:
Pathfinder doesn't model the relative lethality of modern weapons very well. If you look at a more realistic rules set like GURPS you have to be a tough veteran warrior with a lot of magical support and luck to take down a dragon with medieval weapons, but a rookie with a machine gun can take down a dragon easily. If using somewhat realistic fantasy rules a horde of monsters should be annihilated by a modern army, and therefore no threat to civilisation. Using Pathfinder rules the reverse is more likely though.
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I think it depends largely on speed of the changes. If fast we're all dead. If slowly enough to adjust maybe we'llhave time to learn the new rules and get our collective s*** together.
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I would say it largely depends on how much time the monsters have to adapt. Modern military tactics and weapons would have a huge advantage.
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armies would quickly integrate defensive magic then later offensive magic.
This would be like tanks with runes giving it constant protection from evil.
I'd put a modern day non-magicified (U.S./Chinese/Israeli/etc) soldier at around CR 6 with most material(tanks SPGs, etc) would be CR 12 or up. tanks and what not have their armor designed so basically i'd consider a large portion of it to be deflection bonus.
soldiers would probably be issues wands from the military or magic items that give various good benefits, in the same way they hand out supplies to various soldiers. someone gets the SAW, 3 guys get assault rifles, and him? he gets the scrolls and wands and several other "nukes".
because of this the armies would fair pretty well as BOTH SIDES figure out how to beat each other.
a dragon is scary, a fighter jet can shoot it down from over a mile away, that's really scary.
sure demons are also scary, but i bet even an old hellcat could take down most demons let alone modern tanks.
social change? probably some though not as much stories often protray. those people swinging signs in protest are like less than 0.1% of the people, and since a ton of people will have suddenly gained this power, most people would have equal exposure to it.
magic would for a brief period see the innovations of the early scientific revolutions before it becomes corporatized and weaponized.
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Presuming things just 'start to happen', you'd mostly have modern day with 'Monster Hunters' and a few more 'cults of personality', because as is pointed out above, a real pistol firing a bullet (average 2500 fps, feet per second) far surpasses an arrow (320 FPS or so) at point-blank range - and a bullet's velocity drop-off is much more gradual over distance than that of the arrow.
The worst-case scenario, however, is clerical magic - because holy war is never pretty - and the potential for what Cole talks about up above. A powerful mage/cleric can have only so much direct effect, because raining down spells, low level or high, at Long range (400' + 40'/level) is readily surpassed by sniper weapons, artillery, or airstrikes. The place that magic would have its heyday is with the 'cult of personality' effect, where the mage/sorcerer/cleric/etc. can enhance their social abilities, sway masses to their side, charm key people, and never have to directly engage the enemy.
Lesser-skilled mages or priests can become insanely force-multiplied terrorists, walking 'unarmed' into key places and causing massive magical havoc before escaping because they appear to be just like everyone else. Assassinations by teleporters, or masses of explosives that get shifted back in from the shadow or ethereal planes ...
Bypassing the 'active intervention from the Outer Planes' part, massive cultural shifts worldwide, even if the overall collapse of all society above the subsistence farming level doesn't take place.
Mad Max would look nice.
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Well, it depends upon how many things show up on Earth, and how obviously. If a few things showed up obviously and made trouble, they would probably get made into Swiss cheese and lab rats. Actually, that might happen even if they didn't make trouble -- this has been known to happen to ordinary inhabitants of Earth who happen to be in disfavor with those in power.
If a lot of things (and/or some very powerful things) showed up obviously and made trouble, we might be in trouble.
If some things showed up very clandestinely . . . hey, do you suppose certain political candidates might actually be certain lower planes-connected villains Smurfing here?
Please save the politics for other forums.
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There is an anime for that, called "Gate: The JDSF Fought There" (or something VERY similar, I get name of anime, manga, and light novel confused).
IT is not so much that magic and monsters swarm the earth, so much as a fantasy world Romanesque Empire creates a gate and invades Japan with monsters and dragons etc... it does not end well for them. The rest of the series is about the Japanese going to the other side.
Not a perfect example but pretty close to what you are talking about.
I enjoyed the show immensely.
I saw a bit of that manga.
And it's very interesting to note that some of the toughest things in the fantasy world are still insanely terrifying to a modern military (Dragon, for example. Magic withering curses that impact one gender, for another.)
Isnt this Shadowrun in a nutshell?
Except we would have godlike 20th level wizards trying to rule the world instead of godlike super dragons.
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Enhancement magic and resurrection spells alone would radically change the world as we know it.
Never mind the fact that psychopaths and genocidal maniacs would suddenly get superpowers for worshiping demon lords and the like. And Gods helps us all if they manage to create a Worldwound.
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Re: Rifts
To be fair, it's the human's escalation of conflict to a nuclear exchange that causes the monster invasion. The sudden loss of life, release of all that life energy caused the ley lines to swell with power, making them hundreds of feet tall walls of energy crisscrossing the Earth that wreaked havoc on the workings of physical law, causing magical storms of biblical proportions and opened random portals to other dimensions by which monsters of legend and other things inconceivable to modern people invaded and took part in the bedlam. Millions of people died from the initial eruption of the ley lines, and millions more died at the hands of "demons" after.
All caused by a limited nuclear exchange in South America, on the day before Christmas, no less.
Rifts begins with two future-historical premises: first, a golden age of humanity occurs, with tremendous advances in science, technology, military, and society. Humanity as a whole is at peace as a majority of Earth's nations decide to cease world war and begin to share ideas and technology freely. Much of the solar system is conquered, humanity's wars will end, and harmony will reign. Second, that this golden age is followed by an apocalyptic nuclear war, causing a disaster that cascades into tremendous destruction via a domino effect.The cataclysm begins with border incursion by NEMA (North American Economic Military Alliance, comprising Canada, The U.S., and Mexico) forces in South America during the year 2098. A nuclear response that follows involves the deaths of millions of living beings, and the simultaneous release of their PPE.
What is already a huge release of mystical energy is multiplied as a result of several special conditions: a rare multi-planetary alignment, occurrence during the Winter Solstice, and all at midnight. The deaths of millions at this time amplifies these already high psychic energies, triggering many powerful natural disasters across the world, including the return of Atlantis.
The energy release from the deaths of millions more in turn releases even more mystic energy, causing more disasters in a vicious cycle. Ultimately, the total destruction brings an unprecedented energy release of billions. Ley Line networks that crisscross the globe are energized as never before, causing rifts to open both on Earth and throughout the Megaverse. Untold numbers of alien beings are pulled from their own home worlds, while Great Powers of the Megaverse are alerted of a new and valuable planet to conquer.
For hundreds of years after the holocaust, many creatures, both mythical beasts and alien beings, come through the Rifts - some of them now permanently opened - to wreak additional havoc. The old world gone, a new dark age dawns and humanity's shrinking population is reduced, due to catastrophe and domestic failure, immeasurably.
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In a Word: Rifts. I would pay good money to see Paizo do something like this or even 3pp.
Enhancement magic and resurrection spells alone would radically change the world as we know it.
No to mention wreck havoc on many existing religion. When one has priests who actually are channeling divine power. Not to mention beings like Archons, Demosn and Devils. It's going to be one hell of a revelation for some. As those creatures are no longer creatures of myth or scripture and now walk among us.
Never mind the fact that psychopaths and genocidal maniacs would suddenly get superpowers for worshiping demon lords and the like. And Gods helps us all if they manage to create a Worldwound.
Again pretty much Rifts. I can see a Worldwound created with various factions with nuclear weapons trying to bomb the largest concenrations of evil creatures and making it worse
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Some random guy would playfully say Pazuzu's name again and again, and than it would take him but a breath to unleash Deakari into our world.
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EH....watch the anime GATE and you'll probably get a better idea of how it plays out.
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Please save the politics for other forums.
I didn't specify names . . . .
* * * * * * * *
What happens would also depend upon where and with whom the "first contact" occurred: If you're worried about a Worldwound forming, nukes aren't the only possible origin -- suppose some corporation, cult, intelligence agency, military department, or other institution sees the opportunity to gain great power by calling upon the Lower Planes . . .
* * * * DOOM * * * *
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Remember Guns target Touch AC. We'd be fine from a military standpoint (Seiously, Even high level magic lacks the raw destructive power that we have now).
Arcane magic would take a while to get off the ground - Sorcerers would start at level 1 would take time to learn. Wizards would be an even slower process.
Divine magic would be where we'd have problems/salvation. Since clerics get their powers from the gods it's totally possible they'd get way more power way more quickly. This could go either way: Someone rises up to save the world, or some evangelical Murder-hobo takes over.
Create Water & Remove Disease would be absolute game-changers, especially in the 3rd world.
Also having actual miracles being performed all over the world in this age of mass-media would definitely be a cultural change.
Incorporeal Undead could be a real problem, but since Magic weapons should start cropping up I doubt they'd be a worldwide extinction event... Although I could see us losing a continent before we get that under control.
I think the real danger would a much subtler & more insidious enemy ... mind-control & shape-changing would mean we'd probably have devils secretly ruling the world within a decade or so.
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Starting tomorrow, people have the capacity to learn magic, religious leaders are able to perform objective miracles, some people gain sorcerous power, and monsters of all kinds show themselves in places that sort of make sense, like yetis in the Himalayas and mummies in Egyptian tombs. Some dungeon-like locations might be discovered too, like the Darklands, the ruins of Azlant deep within the Atlantic Ocean, the Pit of Gormuz in the Middle East, and let's say the Worldwound in Antarctica.
What will the world look like in a week? In a year, decade, century or millenium? What nations and elements of society would drastically change? What would the average person's life be like? What or who would you be?
Arcane casters would be hunted back to extinction, as would most monsters that appeared anywhere near a military power. Religion would enter a golden age and many who didn't believe would be faced with 'real' miracles. Monsters that appeared in remote areas would quickly dominate those areas. If those monsters tried to spread past remote areas however they would be eradicated.
In a week? Lots of new tabloid stories.
In a year? Panic over witches with real magic / awe over religious miracles.
In a decade? Military action against monster locations near power centers would have eliminated the most obvious threats.
In a century? The wars fought over monsters pouring out of remote locations are matters of history now. While arcane magic becomes a thing of the shadows with no real mage daring to reveal themselves. And many of the biggest questions are being answered by high level clerics. Magical protections/enhancements are now part of the military black ops.
In a millennium? Techno mages using a blend of magic as technology. Monster spawn points under careful watch by the ruling powers. Religion as the major driving force behind governments. Magic devices in public use.
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Shadowrun, RIFTS, the 'Acts of Caine' novels ...
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Remember Guns target Touch AC. We'd be fine from a military standpoint (Seiously, Even high level magic lacks the raw destructive power that we have now).
And a few (incorporeal) Shadow Demons possessing the guys with the launch keys in nuke silos would be pretty much game, set, and match.
That Antarctic Worldwound is a real pain in the keister.
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Greenpeace quickly becomes a force to be reckoned with...
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EH....watch the anime GATE and you'll probably get a better idea of how it plays out.GATE has several problems, such as the fact that the fantasy side are very slow learners on How To Deal With Firearms, and they don't use magic to fight.
History shows you "deal" with firearms by having firearms of your own or you get plowed over by people who have them.
Plus firearm use doesn't require years of training or an innate connection to the arcane, every mage machinegunned out of the sky is like a decade + of training or a rare bloodline lost.
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In The Salvation Wars, heaven and hell show up on Earth to kick off the final war over mortal souls. It turns out that being impervious to bronze swords can make you pretty godlike in ancient times, but isn't worth much against modern firepower.
Heaven gets nuked. Hell ends up conquered and mined for its vast mineral wealth.
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Personally I look forward to being able to teleport to the places I want to go do we get to choose classes or do we randomly gain class levels if we can choose I choose wizard if we get random classes I would probably end up a human expert with at least 3 ranks in, drive, knowledge geography, and survival with a skill focus feat in at least one of these skills given my history
Instead of choosing a class, you would probably need to learn how to be a wizard, a cleric, a fighter, etc.
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{. . .}
I think the real danger would a much subtler & more insidious enemy ... mind-control & shape-changing would mean we'd probably have devils secretly ruling the world within a decade or so.
This may have already happened . . . .
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This may have already happened . . . .{. . .}
I think the real danger would a much subtler & more insidious enemy ... mind-control & shape-changing would mean we'd probably have devils secretly ruling the world within a decade or so.
Heh, you may be right.
Man, the devils have taken over and we don't even get the GOOD MAGIC? (Seriuosly I think that spell would be the single most beneficial thing in this scenario)
This may have already happened . . . .{. . .}
I think the real danger would a much subtler & more insidious enemy ... mind-control & shape-changing would mean we'd probably have devils secretly ruling the world within a decade or so.Heh, you may be right.
Man, the devils have taken over and we don't even get the GOOD MAGIC? (Seriuosly I think that spell would be the single most beneficial thing in this scenario)
Create Water and Prestidigitation (and I would strongly emphasize the need for both) would, frankly, revolutionize our world so radically, if freely available, that the change would be incalculable.
Technically, from a strictly "useful" standpoint, create water is superior (infinite "free" power, elimination of death by thirst), but prestidigitation would have such an incredible impact on the lives of all who experienced it that it would quickly become the most default position of humanity - it would be considered a basic right and inhumane to deny others its benefits and uses.
That said, to revolutionize the world: ring of sustenance with continuous keep watch and prestidigitation (preferably along with an occasional atonement toward some good alignment). Generate these and grant to others liberally. Instant world change.
Make them sentient with the special purpose of helping humanity for extra amazings.
But really, anyone who has access to unlimited cantrips is going to alter the world.
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Devils secretly running things seems like it would be less widespread than rakshasas secretly running things. The former need to be called up with spells, while the latter are native outsiders. Throw on a combination of at-will mind-reading, at-will shapeshifting, being bulletproof to non-blessed weapons to prevent simple assassinations (DR 15 sounds pretty near bulletproof), and a sizable number of enchantments per day, and I think they've got a solid lead. On the other hand, I suppose devils have more drive, and if mages are common enough, bargains for power will provide more inroads.
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Be very careful with your wording of "helping humanity."
There is a story in which a magic sword was given a will of its own and a single purpose: Destroy evil.
Being a sword, it doesn't really know what evil means but it is learning through trial and error. Hideous, life-draining error.
And it has discovered it really enjoys doing exactly what a sword is meant for: KILLING
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Any hope of revolutionizing the world through magic items is shot if gp conversion rates carry over, though. We don't have nearly as much gold, so something with a cost of 1,000 gp of crafting material would be a little shy of $400,000.
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Secretary: sir, there's someone here to see you about that global warming initiative.
Diplomat: tell them i don't have time for that nonse...*chitter chitterchitter*
secretary: I'll get you some peanuts sir. Try not to chew on the furniture.