Recent content by Saigonnus

I have gone through a few years of not reading much, but recently started rereading L.E. Moddessit's Magic of Recluse books; and it's been going well. I just haven't been as diligent as I once was since the pandemic.

I personally think that if a modern person/group of people were somehow transported back in time, or to a fantasy world, aside from the obviously steep learning curve of adapting to an unfamiliar system (if there is magic, artificers, etc.) and figuring out the various important people/factions...

I really don't dislike elves, per se. I find the trope of them being forest-dwelling, vegan, self-righteous fae jerks who live so long that their machinations can take centuries to resolve, as somewhat "MEH". In my writing I don't use them; or fae in general, as there is enough diversity among...

Government by sortition. Senators are chosen randomly from among the people and closely matches the demographics of society at large. Presidential candidate are also selected at random, and each given the same "platform" from which to run their campaign, so the people still have a say in who...

Picked up Space Engineers a while back. Been stuck on that since.

Perhaps like the ancient Athenians, they use sortition; random selection for their governmental positions. That would allow for basically any sort of person (with the exception of criminals) to be in control and have experts in the various fields be "on tap" rather than "on top". It relies on...

As to the former question: I think if hypothetically magic had been dormant for centuries, then reappeared, then it would stand to reason that those that decended from the last generation of mages could suddenly be able to sense it and maybe in some minor ways even manipulate it. This ability...

I actually believe that they exist (even to this day), but are rare enough that they never had and probably will never really have suficient population to set off and start their own civilization. I think they were just part of the Human civilization; because technically, they are Humans not...

If they are just as smart, then there is no reason they can't make up for their lack of strength some other way. All three of those peoples have severe geographic limitations; (the Taron live in the mountains; the African pygmys in the desert, and the Negritos are island dwellers; i.e. rocky...

Actually, there were a couple of strains of ancient Humans that were literally of a height with halflings; mainly due to what was available for food in the region; so they were somewhat localized to parts of Asia? I believe. As for your other point, I think that if they have the same intellect...

My one attempt at this did have humans, but they were tertiary characters, didn’t really affect the story except in one instance. The main characters were cats ; knights who use magic on top of their built-in melee weapons. The secondary characters were other cats. As expressed above, they...

Depends on the culture; as any fantasy world should be. Prisons in the real world have developed basically the same wherever you go in the world because they all came from the same concept centuries ago; perhaps even further back than the ancient Egyptians, and really the only things that vary...

Maybe the ability to do magic neutralizes the ability to even get drunk in the first place? The more powerful the mage is, the less they are affected by drugs and alcohol. Like the magic burns away any toxins that enter their blood. No drunk mages, no drunken brawls; and no destroyed towns.

Make these portal appear randomly across the world. Then you'd have Asian people, African People, South and Central American People... people of all genders, colors and cultures. It could help explain the affinity some cultures have with certain animals. The "Jaguaros" of central Mexico in...

I can imagine a few situations in which technology simply won't work, or might be less efficient than magic. Why use an ordinary (technological) bullet when you could make it much more effective with magic (exploding rounds, fireball rounds or even teleporting rounds)? I would think in any...