Now this is where the practicality of beings that shun magic and gods fails, in my opinion. I would think that an utterly practical being would make an exception in the case of magical or divine healing.
Provided, of course, that the “price” – whatever it might be – was either 1) negligible, 2) acceptable, or 3) paid by another party (willingly).
Heck no, Tek! A little rock is causing this mess. Who knkows what a little ‘healing’ might do!
Besides, it’s a slippery slope. Accept a little godly healing and before you know it the divine death panels are deciding your fate!
In Digger’s eyes, anything magic is dangerous. Remember the unstable Dwarven tunnels? For all she knows, the new magic in her shoulder might react with the thread, and the cloth would come down and bite her head off.
Hehe, I was thinking exactly the same thing Tek was when I finished reading this page. The Wombats’ unusually hardcore anti-magic policies seem to be a little unreasonable.
Whether using magic for things like this depends not only on costs but also on reliability and side effects. As magic in their world sometimes has strange side effects (remember Herne from later), and I suppose they don’t yet have clinical medical studies, it is not that unreasonable to be worried about side effects.
Especially if it is something that will almost certainly heal without the aid of something risky. It would be comparable to how you might use an experimental procedure to heal a life-threatening illness but not for a broken arm bone.
Using magic to heal wounds SOUNDS like a good idea, untill it turns out that you need to have the excess magic ‘drained’ from your body regularly or suffer from cancerous growths, additional appendages, and other deformities.
My friends and I actually ran a D&D campain like that, and boy howdy did it change the way we did things! Our plans went from somewhat in depth but still fairly vauge, to rediculously over-the-top convoluted ways to avoid getting hurt, mainly because even the PRIESTS were getting a bit leery about subjecting the human body to uncontrolled magical energies.
The final act in the session was to essentially ‘reboot the computer’ that was controlling magic, after the Demons and evil Godlings had mucked about with it; everyone in the temple died from massive magical backlash/overpressure, and most of the high-level magic users ended up… being removed from existence in a spectaularly messy fashion, leaving the low-level users to rediscover how things are SUPPOSED to work on their own.
Why? just carry a flash of water and a face mask fitted to it. Drowning resets your HP to zero, so by the letter of law if you have negative hp you can reset it to zero by having a friend drown you/drowning yourself and then recover from the drowning by the usual D&D methods.
This is why I DM: no one wants me as a player character any more. Fortunately I am as rule-bendingly mad as a DM so it keeps things fun. Once A player summoned a fairy to aid them in some magic in a “Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel” themed GURPS game I was running and asked to be saved from the landslide approaching them. So I removed his character permanently to Lost Hope in the land of fairy, ending his role in the party. I then dropped the character into the middle of a GURPS Bunnies and Barrows campaign the next month by way of a brick-joke and a way to make amends to the same friend who was playing the magician and who just lost their PC to a fox. So the questing party now consisted of four rabbits, three bucks and a doe, and an all powerful early 1800’s human magician with a pair of flintlock duelling pistols who thought he was a rabbit and had an irrational hatred of moth foxes and fairies.
BunnyRock, I want you as my DM. *kitty eyes*
Although I’m only half a player. (The half that reads – no, devours – WoD rulebooks and the occasional obscure other rulebook. Not the half that actually plays the game. Mostly because I don’t have a mad enough DM. Or a group, for that matter. *shifty eyes*)
I’m woefully unsuited to GMing, and pretty unfamiliar with the GURPS system, but I’d still be willing to play if anyone is still interested it starting up an online Digger gaming group.
There’s a comment later on from the Hag that she can reattach missing limbs, but they have a roughly 1 in 10 chance of becoming homicidal afterwards, which is why they only use that procedure for small things, like ears and toes.
So, given the possible side effects of such medical magic, Digger’s objections to it here seem as sensible as the rest of her.
Now this is where the practicality of beings that shun magic and gods fails, in my opinion. I would think that an utterly practical being would make an exception in the case of magical or divine healing.
Provided, of course, that the “price” – whatever it might be – was either 1) negligible, 2) acceptable, or 3) paid by another party (willingly).
🙂
“I am half a god, burrower, not half a geologist…”
…snerk…
Best. Line. Evar.
Heck no, Tek! A little rock is causing this mess. Who knkows what a little ‘healing’ might do!
Besides, it’s a slippery slope. Accept a little godly healing and before you know it the divine death panels are deciding your fate!
In Digger’s eyes, anything magic is dangerous. Remember the unstable Dwarven tunnels? For all she knows, the new magic in her shoulder might react with the thread, and the cloth would come down and bite her head off.
Awwww… my first complaint about missing the old comments: we lost all the “Dammit, Jim!” comments…
Dammit, Digger, I’m a statue, not a spelunker!
@Tindi- I had already decided to do this before I saw your post, but since you mentioned it, I dedicate this meme to you.
Hehe, I was thinking exactly the same thing Tek was when I finished reading this page. The Wombats’ unusually hardcore anti-magic policies seem to be a little unreasonable.
Why thank you, Tarnish. 😀
Whether using magic for things like this depends not only on costs but also on reliability and side effects. As magic in their world sometimes has strange side effects (remember Herne from later), and I suppose they don’t yet have clinical medical studies, it is not that unreasonable to be worried about side effects.
Especially if it is something that will almost certainly heal without the aid of something risky. It would be comparable to how you might use an experimental procedure to heal a life-threatening illness but not for a broken arm bone.
Using magic to heal wounds SOUNDS like a good idea, untill it turns out that you need to have the excess magic ‘drained’ from your body regularly or suffer from cancerous growths, additional appendages, and other deformities.
My friends and I actually ran a D&D campain like that, and boy howdy did it change the way we did things! Our plans went from somewhat in depth but still fairly vauge, to rediculously over-the-top convoluted ways to avoid getting hurt, mainly because even the PRIESTS were getting a bit leery about subjecting the human body to uncontrolled magical energies.
The final act in the session was to essentially ‘reboot the computer’ that was controlling magic, after the Demons and evil Godlings had mucked about with it; everyone in the temple died from massive magical backlash/overpressure, and most of the high-level magic users ended up… being removed from existence in a spectaularly messy fashion, leaving the low-level users to rediscover how things are SUPPOSED to work on their own.
Why? just carry a flash of water and a face mask fitted to it. Drowning resets your HP to zero, so by the letter of law if you have negative hp you can reset it to zero by having a friend drown you/drowning yourself and then recover from the drowning by the usual D&D methods.
This is why I DM: no one wants me as a player character any more. Fortunately I am as rule-bendingly mad as a DM so it keeps things fun. Once A player summoned a fairy to aid them in some magic in a “Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel” themed GURPS game I was running and asked to be saved from the landslide approaching them. So I removed his character permanently to Lost Hope in the land of fairy, ending his role in the party. I then dropped the character into the middle of a GURPS Bunnies and Barrows campaign the next month by way of a brick-joke and a way to make amends to the same friend who was playing the magician and who just lost their PC to a fox. So the questing party now consisted of four rabbits, three bucks and a doe, and an all powerful early 1800’s human magician with a pair of flintlock duelling pistols who thought he was a rabbit and had an irrational hatred of moth foxes and fairies.
Dammit Jim, I’m a god, not a geologist!
BunnyRock, I want you as my DM. *kitty eyes*
Although I’m only half a player. (The half that reads – no, devours – WoD rulebooks and the occasional obscure other rulebook. Not the half that actually plays the game. Mostly because I don’t have a mad enough DM. Or a group, for that matter. *shifty eyes*)
@Ellemerr we should try and get an online Digger themed GURPS game going. TekServer would probably be up for it…
I bet we could get Crocula Sapiens to help … maybe even hosting it on the Digger Comic Fanfiction Page.
😉
Too bad that game never got started.
I’m woefully unsuited to GMing, and pretty unfamiliar with the GURPS system, but I’d still be willing to play if anyone is still interested it starting up an online Digger gaming group.
I wish I could get in contact with BunnyRock again.
@Squeegy: I suspect BR still monitors these comments, as I do. If you’re impatient, he also has a website: http://www.bunnyrock.com/
It hasn’t been updated in awhile, but there is a contact link at the bottom.
😉
There’s a comment later on from the Hag that she can reattach missing limbs, but they have a roughly 1 in 10 chance of becoming homicidal afterwards, which is why they only use that procedure for small things, like ears and toes.
So, given the possible side effects of such medical magic, Digger’s objections to it here seem as sensible as the rest of her.