Post-Modern Magik: Difference between revisions

'''Judge:''' [[Famous Last Words|What's that do?]]|''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''}}

 

 

 

This is [[Post-Modern Magik]]. It's what you get when you decide that magic shotguns make as much sense as magic swords, and vampires that don't show up in mirrors also don't show up on camera.

Common in [[Urban Fantasy]] settings, and often seen where [[Our Monsters Are Different]] (especially [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampires]]). Now to figure out where this fits in [[Harmony Versus Discipline]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has this in spades, involving things like robots using magic, a massive hacking battle between a robot and a magical girl, the (mage) protagonist using a cell phone, a magic internet that's somehow compatible with the mundane internet, guns that fire magic bullets, etc.

* ''[[Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou]]'', aka "Easy to Understand Modern Magic" ...it's in the title. Misa is the "Modern Day Mage" who uses the electronic patterns in computers and technology instead of "classic" magic that uses the earth's electromagnetic field and brain signals.

** Pencil and Paper? Drawing in the dirt with a stick? Hand signs?

* ''[[Fate/Zero]]'' has Gilgamesh in an ancient Babylonian spaceship [[High Altitude Battle|dogfighting]] {{spoiler|Lancelot}} in a magically enhanced F-15, and King Arthur riding a motorcycle {{spoiler|to battle Alexander the Great in his divine chariot.}} [[Rule of Cool|Yeah, it's that kind of story.]]

** Dewdrop fairies can still be bribed with milk and honey -- but they'll do ''anything'' for pizza.

** Garlic powder is just as effective against [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampires]] as the cloves are.

** Another time he used a paintball gun that had ammo loaded with holy water and garlic powder.

** There's a rule that strong magic [[Walking Techbane|causes technology to fail]]. This means that the hero is forced to drive around in [[The Alleged Car|a Volkswagen Beetle]], because any car made after the Sixties will die on him, and he can cause computers and closed-circuit TV cameras to short just by thinking at them.

** Need to kill a powerful vampire duke in the middle of his well-defended estate in a hostile country while he's calling all of his minions to him with intent to return and kill everyone? Well, said duke's defenses are impressive, but he didn't design them to prevent you from using magic and {{spoiler|[[Colony Drop|yanking a Soviet communications satellite from orbit and dropping it on his head]].}}

* [[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]] takes this in an interesting way. The gods of Olympus are the heart of Western civilization, which means that they naturally change and adapt with the times, because they embody aspects of civilization. It blends surprisingly well with their ancient roots.

** For example: Dionysus loves Pac Man, Atlas hires mercenaries, Hephaestus is more of a mechanic than a smith, Zeus wears tailored suits, Ares drives a motorcycle and has a temple on a BATTLESHIP, Poseidon disguises his trident as a fishing rod, Aphrodite rides around in a limo, King Minos teaches someone how to summon the dead using cheeseburgers and coke, Apollo rides a sun Ferrari instead of a chariot, and don't even get me started on Daedalus...

** This trope is also applied to the [[The Fair Folk|Elves]] weakness to iron, in that Elves seem to have some sort of sixth sense based on magnetism and contact with iron (especially magnetic iron) basically amounts to sensory deprivation.

* Robert Louis Stevenson's story "The Bottle Imp" might be one of the earliest versions of this. The hero has purchased the title [[Artifact of Doom]] which grants wishes, but results in an eternity in hell if not sold for a price less than that which it was purchased. He is despondent after having to buy it back for a penny, but his wife astutely notes that due to exchange rates, coins do exist which are worth less than a cent.

** One of his favorite weapons was the Electric Pentagram, a star formed out of early electric light tubes. Granted, this was a time when electricity was a pretty new idea and many people considered it pretty damn magical...

* [[China Mieville]] ''loves'' this trope. His recent novel ''Kraken'' has several examples, such as a prop phaser from Star Trek that's been enchanted so that it actually works.

** Also, apparently vampires and vampaneze aren't allowed to use guns. So, the vampaneze use ordinary people as gun-wielding foot soldiers. And then the vampires decide to use homeless people as a [[Badass]] army of [[Grindhouse|hobos with guns]].

* In Richard Matheson's ''[[I Am Legend]]'', the main character spends a long time trying to find out [[Our Vampires Are Different|which vampire-slaying myths are true]]. One he proves is that a vampire who was Jewish will be repelled by a star of David.

** It's a plot point in the fourth book that vampires appear in mirrors and on camera {{spoiler|if they want to or appear blurry or not at all if they don't; "it's all tricks of the light"}}. Vampires tend to seem technophobic just because they're old-fashioned, but several have been seen using laptops and other modern technology. One vampire is perfectly willing to feed on someone with her fangs, but also uses a needle and syringe when she wants to be considerate to a wary, reluctant donor. And in the first book, a police detective brings Kitty to a murder scene so she can get the scent of the killer, and tries to treat her as evidence or witness to the crime just based on that scent even though she was nowhere near there when it happened.

* In ''[[Grunts!]]'' by Mary Gentle, a dragon collected modern weaponry from different realities. Orcs seized the hoard and were cursed to become cigar-chewing Marines. Pegasi don't last long against a Bell HU-1 helicopter armed with Sidewinder missiles, but guns are vulnerable to misfire spells usually used on bows. Luckily, there are magical countermeasures for misfire spells, and so on. And then the aliens came. The reverse later comes to apply; pegasi armed with Hellfire anti-tank missiles and a dragon with a technological cloaking device.

** The novel ''Final Watch'' also includes things like submachinegun bullets enchanted to be able to kill an [[Differently-Powered Individual|Other]] up to the second Twilight (a magical dimension existing in parallel with ours) level. There is also a remote-controlled turret with enchanted rounds which will kill most Others because an inanimate object has no thoughts or malice and is very difficult to detect before you're filled with enchanted lead.

** Modern weapons also mean the Others must be ten times more careful about breaching [[The Masquerade]]. A nuke leaves an Other nowhere to hide, as the blast penetrates into every Twilight level, except teleport, which is a difficult and time-consuming process for most.

** It's mentioned several times that dropping [[The Masquerade]] will be disastrous for the Others, as modern technology has pretty much surpassed magic in terms of deadliness. Yes, a tri-blade will kill you with a simple flick of a wrist, but so will a punk kid from the block with a 9mm. One of the threats in ''Day Watch'' is the possible resurrection of a crazy and powerful Dark Other from the days before the Grand Treaty and the Masquerade, who likes to take the form of a dragon. The characters pretty quickly agree that the humans would be able to, if not kill, then at least seriously hurt the dragon, but it would still result in devastation and loss of life. Helicopter gunships vs a mad dragon? Bet on the gunships.

* Kate Griffin's ''A Madness of Angels'' heavily features this trope, as sorcerers in this series draw power from the environment around them and are strongest in urban settings. Sorcerers can do things such as cast protection spells by using subway passes as symbolic objects of power(because the writing on the back states that only customers who have paid for tickets can enter certain areas) and throw lightning bolts by siphoning off power from nearby electric lights. Cities tend to be full of guardian spirits such as the spirit representing the homeless population and the spirit of neon lights.

** The demon who would possess anyone who read a particular book possessing a computer after the book was scanned.

** The demon who [[Prophecy Twist|could not be killed by any weapon forged]] seems unstoppable, until the Scoobies realize that the trait is descriptive, not prescriptive, and weapon technology has come on a bit since that was written... leading to the page quote.

** The Hell God who was fooled by a very realistic [[Robot Girl|sex robot]].

** The ''Buffy'' rpg ruled that the comicbook style superscience displayed by Warren and Maggie Walsh was actually down to unconscious use of magic - in other words the technological 'inventors' were savants who unwittingly created [[Magitek]], that could not have been built anywhere else other than on a Hellmouth.

* Pretty much the entire [[New World of Darkness|NWoD]] operates like this. [[Werewolf: The Forsaken|Werewolves]] (and mages) can have dealings with technology-spirits. ''[[Hunter: The Vigil]]'' has the Cheiron Group, whose MO is to butcher supernatural creatures and [[Body Horror|stitch the remains to their operatives]]. ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters|Geist]]'' has Mementos, supernatural artifacts charged with the power of death, which can be literally anything, from an animal's skull or Vlad Tepes' sword, to a '68 WV Beetle or the jacket Elvis died in.

** [[Mage: The Awakening|In Mage: the Awakening]], the Free Council are the [[Spiritual Successor|Spiritual Successors]] to the Adepts. Incidentally, in the fan-made ''[[Genius: The Transgression]]'', this means that the Free Council are the few mages that can get along with [[Mad Scientist|Geniuses]], and perform hasty swaps whenever one is mistaken for the other.

* Nearly any ''[[Munchkin (game)|Munchkin]]'' game, no matter what the setting is, will include anachronistic weaponry. Such as a [[BFG]] in ''Munchkin Cthulhu'', or the ever-popular Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment in the original ''Munchkin''.

* In ''[[Scion]]'', you play the modern children of the gods and have relics that are tied to you and either have a unique property or let you channel your own power. The player is expected to craft a legend around his relics.

** Also, a Gorgon's stare doesn't work if you look at it through a sniper scope and a stinger missle can take out a phoenix before it does the whole "ashes" thing.

* In ''[[Order of the Stick]]'', Belkar uses a sheet of lead to block a paladin's "Detect Evil" ability, explicitly comparing it to [[Superman]]'s [[X-Ray Vision]]. In ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', which OOTS parodies, the detect spells can be blocked by a thin sheet of lead, 2 inches of wood, or a foot of dirt.

{{quote|'''Redclock:''' It's not my fault everyone else limits themselves to four elementals. Some of us got passing grades in chem. I mean, fire shouldn't even count. It's a chemical reaction. They aren't called "reactionals," you know.

'''Demon Cockroach:''' He besieged me with science! }}

** A character uses a Remington 870 shotgun that fires bolts of green fire (no unlimited ammo though).

** Another character wields an enchanted switchblade.

* In ''[[Trinton Chronicles]]'' nearly everything runs on a blend of scientific principles and mystical energies. Robots can use pre-stored spells, magical items can double as personal protective shields, and even whole rooms can be enchanted to move objects around according to sorting needs.

* [[Mr. Welch]] attempted to use a roll of [[wikipedia:Silver halide|photographic film]] to strangle a werewolf. The GM didn't let him.

** And again, when Demona casts a spell to freeze the entire city of Manhattan in stone all night, every night, until the sky burns (using a TV broadcast!). The solution? Disperse a hyper-flammable gas throughout the sky above Manhattan and light it on fire.

** The system here was basically written so this trope could be had fun with; magic in the setting ''must'' have a loophole of some kind to work at all, so wizards from ye olden times dealt with their requirment of a weakness by making their loopholes seemingly impossible...but modern technology can do quite a bit of things that were considered impossible centuries ago.

* In one episode of ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]'', Uncle gets a fax machine, but doesn't understand it and tries to exorcise it. But, we find out at the end, he can cast spells over the phone just fine, despite his catchphrase that "magic must defeat magic" (apparently technology can still assist).

* In ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes|Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes]]'', while battling the Enchantress and the Executioner, Iron Man's suit is damaged, Giant Man is out, and Wasp is caught by the Enchantress. When Hulk arrives and breaks the Enchantress' concentration. Thor powers up Mjolnir's thunder magic.