I sent a slightly edited version of this to MJ, I've since added and removed certain details to it. Anyone who has read Verse Three Chapter One should know what I am talking about here. It's something that is kind of bothering me about the book, now that I have been thinking about it. Having had a similar experience to this in my game, it's something that I think should be addressed and discussed.
In the novel Verse Three Chapter One, Robert Slade lands on that spaceship, right after the medieval world. The first thing he does is cast a "Create Darkness" spell, to confuse the ship's crew. I happen to know that the Create Darkness is an @1 spell, so it would work in a flatline world. Robert Slade, on the other hand, doesn't know that. I'm willing to bet that the spaceship he was on had a flatline magic bias. MJ gave me the impression there that magic would have worked on the spaceship when I read it. I would bet that anyone else not familiar with the game would have thought that as well. I do not recall any kind of thing happening to Slade regarding that. There was no confrontation where he tried to use magic to get himself out of a jam, and got into trouble. At the very least, he should have been trying magic at different times, and not quite understanding why it wasn't working. Robert Slade discovers a flatline world. I think that should have been part of the story. Those versers have no way of knowing anything about biases. That was Slade's (Second? Third?) verse. He was still a neophyte, and he had just learned the magic spell in the previous world. No one ever gave him even the slightest hint about how biases worked. From his point of view, magic works, when in reality, he just got lucky and cast something that would still work where he was. From Slade's point of view, magic worked on that spaceship, when in reality, I'd bet that it was flatline. That was very confusing to me, and I bet to anyone else that read it. I'm not quite sure what I'm trying to say here, but I thought it should be addressed. I'd love to have thoughts from anyone who has read Verse Three Chapter One. I read the novel with almost no knowledge of the game mechanics, certainly not any understanding of biases. Now that I understand things a bit better, it's kind of bothering me. Perhaps a bit of unintentional misdirection on MJ's part. Any thoughts?
To some degree, Slade used that spell in that situation for the same reason you used the TK pulse in Pearl Harbor: he needed to do something and didn't know it wouldn't work. Remember, though, that Slade only dabbles in magic. The number of skills he has in that area are low, and he does not rely on them. He sees himself as a fighter with some adjunct skills, and more of those in the thieving end than the world of wizardry. More than once the point is made that Slade sees his magic skills as the ability to do "a few tricks", in contrast to Omigger and Shella, who are both serious about their magic. For Slade, magic is something that is there to help in an emergency, to give a boost to his "real" skills, and not something reliable.
Also, we should be mindful that the reason Slade is here is that he botched on an attempt to do something magical and immolated himself. I know from experience that when you've botched on something you are less eager to experiment for a while.
Finally, most of the versers I've known make the mistake of balancing technology against magic. That is, if the tech bias is high they assume the mag bias is low, and if the tech bias is low they assume the mag bias is high. This is not strictly true (it is in some other game systems, but not in Multiverser), but it is often the case. Versers will, by and large, do what seems to work for the indigs before doing too much that they don't see. If people in this world are doing magic, I'll do magic; if they're not, I'm going to be extremely careful about what I attempt, and only turn to it if my first efforts are remarkably successful or if I'm pretty desperate. Note that Slade called darkness to the bridge of the ship, but it didn't last very long. He had some reason to think that the magic he used wasn't that strong.
Probably I should have thought to have Slade experiment a bit more with the mag bias; but as it turned out, I never really had opportunity to do so. I think he may have used his smite spell at some point (I'm not going to look through the combats of that book), but since that's above the curve he wouldn't have known whether or not it had any effect.
--M. J. Young
No, Slade never tried any other magic that I recall. It just really bugged me there. You had a perfect opportunity to give some insights into the biases with that chapter, and you missed it completely. I guess this was more of a suggestion of what not to do in future books. It was rather misleading, unintentional I'm sure, but still misleading.
Also, a note to anyone who has not read Verse Three Chapter One. It is an amazing book. Unlike anything I have ever read before or since. I wrote a review of the novel, which can be seen here. http://www.hometown.aol.com/a11nut/
Something I was wondering about. The @1 skills work, but are more difficult. Would the verser realize that? Would it feel different to the verser? Suppose you were in a 15@10 psi world, and died after botching on a TK pulse. The 15@ bias gives you an extra 30% chance of success. If you then landed in a flatline psi world, wouldn't you know that the TK pulse wasn't working as well? Wouldn't you feel it? I would think that an experienced verser would be able to get a feel for the bias level just by how well things were working for him. I am in a 6@ tech world doing blacksmithing. If I landed in a 15@ tech world, and tried to do blacksmithing, wouldn't I feel, or know somehow that it was easier? I mean that's an 18% bonus.
Well, sort of; and you do, really. It's part of why we have the "Behind the Screens" thread here.
See, in a live game if you told me that you wanted to do the TK pulse I would tell you to roll. (I say, "I would hand you the dice", but really, you would probably already have dice in front of you.) You would then see the dice hit the table, and know what number came up. You also know your own bias, BRA, and SAL, so you have a number--BRA+SAL+2xbias. If you roll higher than that, you know already that you've failed unless there is something really unusual at work here. However, if you roll lower than that and fail, then you know that the world area bias is lower than your own bias. In play, you don't necessarily know whether the skill is possible but difficult or simply not possible--but if you were to try, for example, 1@3 telepathy to your wife with whom you have a +30 familiarity bonus, roll 5, and fail, you'd know automatically that the bias curve was low or that someone or something very powerful was blocking the use of psionics where you are.
If you use your blacksmithing skill in a world with a higher bias, you do have a better chance of success (although it's not based on the world bias but on the lower of that and your own, so you, personally, are probably not looking at as much as you suggest because you don't have a 15@ tech bias). You would realize it because more of your rolls would be successful and fewer of them would be botches, and because you can see what number is rolled that is a success, a failure, or a botch. Your character would realize it because the work is "easier", as evidenced by the fact that he succeeds more and botches less.
--M. J. Young