I am again indebted to Damon Courtney. I have just finished reading his "rough" draft of the sequel to "Baptism of Blood and Fire" (link on the right). I've really enjoyed it, and it has given me an excuse to talk about something that I've had on my 'bloggables' list for a while:
In roleplaying games, magic items are
coveted objects of artifice or divine origins which enable the possessor to
wield great of various types. Players will go on quests to obtain them, or be
rewarded with them.
As such, in gaming, balancing MIs is all
about ensuring that players do not get granted fabulous Godlike powers, but
rather are given a small advantage over enemies who would otherwise be on par
with them. The Gamesmaster has to judge quite carefully what MIs players will
obtain and when.
Players will note that a really crafty
Gamesmaster will sometimes throw in a MI that has a downside. It could be as
simple as a curse, as annoying as a geas, or maybe even that the MI, while
powerful is not especially useful, or while useful is not quite powerful
enough.
In a story, the situation is different from
in an RPG. In an RPG, the players have to use their imagination, ingenuity,
knowledge of the game and luck to come up with solutions to tricky situations.
In a novel, the reader is following or discovering the line of a story, and the
author's duty is to provide reader satisfaction.
In a story a powerful MI is useful as a McGuffin
(everyone is chasing after it, but noone actually uses it), or as a Doomesday Device
(the Big Bad has it and is fixing to use it). If a protagonist has it, however,
reader satisfaction rapidly wanes.
A magic ring that makes you invisible but
not silent is great as long as both of those features are worked into the story
together. If such a ring later turns out slowly to enslave its user... I guess
you know what I'm thinking of.
A magic ring that makes you completely
undetectable and invulnerable to harm, however, soon becomes annoying. The
reason is that it destroys Drama.
Drama can be hard to pin down, which is a
good thing. When it is pinned down it often becomes banal and even irritating.
This is what soap-operas (and long running US "drama" series) do.
They create Drama using the simplest known formula: the characters do things
that the audience knows that the characters should not do.
But suppose even in this debased and
degraded drama, you give the main character a Ring of Absolute Blamelessness.
All he has to do is slip it on, and the Universe reorganizes itself such that
whatever happened was none of his doing. The Drama evaporates without so much
as a puff of smoke.
Supposing your main character is a Thief
who gets his hands on the aforementioned Ring of Undetectability and
Invulnerability. Thievery is rather going to lose its excitement, not merely
for the reader but also for the author and for the character!
All this can go awry in another way
entirely; the way that leads to madness rather than boredom.
Supposing my Holy Warrior obtains the Sword
of Ultimate Cleaving, that can cut through even the bonds of death itself.
Unfortunately his enemy obtains the Shield of All Defense which is the only
thing that can resist the Sword of Ultimate Cleaving, so our hero has to obtain
the Amulet of Irresistible Piercing which enables him to get through any magical
defense but his enemy gets his hands on the Helm of Amulet Immunity which blah
blah blah yadda yadda yadda the thing the thing the thing etcetera.
Walk away quietly.
In a story you have a fine line to walk. An
MI must be essential, but at the same time it mustn't do more than give the
character the smallest extra edge, and he must have his own skills and strength
of character to back it up. Think of the spell imagined by PTerry which keeps
you alive only as long as you don't think you're invulnerable. Think of he
superpower of being able to turn invisible only if you are completely naked and
everyone is looking the other way.
In a story, you see, magic is always a symbol.
Usually it is a symbol for power and how it is obtained, but it can be many
other things. As soon as an MI transforms mild mannered Will the Goatherd into
Super Billiam, it has become a cheap device for wish fulfillment and will do the
worst thing that any device can do: make it too easy for the author.
When
it is too easy for you, you will write crap.
That's probably the most categorical you'll
ever hear me be, because so far it is
the only sure rule that I have found for good writing.
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