Technology and Magic

Technology and magic are like chocolate and peanut butter to me. Mixing the two only makes them better. (Hello, Reese's!) Nonetheless, this is one of those topics that people have strong opinions about. It's like politics or religion in the real world, or vi versus Emacs in the UNIX world. You likely have an opinion already. Personally, I don't see a problem arming robots with +1 magic swords. Likewise, I don't have any issue with a sorcerer taking out said robots with a scroll of heap overflow.

Fairy Child: Where's Daddy? What's he doing?
Fairy: He is guarding our home, son.
Fairy: There has been a war, and this land is lost.
Fairy Child: Why can't we fight and win, Mommy?
Fairy: Because they have weapons and technology. We just have love.

Ralph Bakshi's Wizards has been a major influence when it comes to mixing technology and magic. More recently, I have rediscovered Richard Corben's planetary romance, Den. If Wizards set the stage, Den crystallized everything for me. I had to do something in a similar vein.

The science fantasy World of Yezmyr (not to be confused with its strictly sword & sorcery predecessor) is my latest experiment. It involves integrating D&D with Classic Traveller in a unified setting. Rejiggering magic and psionics so that they work together seamlessly across systems was a primary motivation. The solution turned out to be a lot easier than I had originally imagined. I'm going to take a cue from M.A.R. Barker and keep the details under wraps. It's enigmas like these that keep campaign settings interesting.