Tales of MU

In Which Mackenzie Just About Manages

It was only after we settled around a table with a handful of figurines to get to work that I had a twinge of doubt about my decision to put myself on a team with both Andreas and Wisdom.

It wasn’t the old stereotype about dwarves and elves not getting along that worried me. While their cultures valued different things, the same was true of humans and elves or humans and dwarves. People who lived underneath mountains rarely had a reason to go to war against people who lived in forests.

No, it was the realization that while I knew the other two… kind of, in the case of Wisdom… they didn’t know each other at all. I felt like I’d volunteered myself to be the middleman. Given the general state of my social skills, this seemed like a recipe for disaster.

Wisdom thought otherwise.

“This should work out pretty well, I think,” she said. “We’ve got one person who knows the game, one person who can do illusion, and one person who knows design… the only way this could work out better is if we were all the same person, but at least we have covered all the bases among the three of us?”

“I think you’re either giving me a bit too much credit in design skills or way too much credit somewhere else,” I said.

“Oh? Isn’t that how you know the queen’s sister’s girlfriend?” she asked.

“We’re in a design class together,” I said. “But it’s not what I’m actually studying. It’s not exactly the most relevant thing in the world to this… more like form and function type stuff, I guess.”

“Oh,” she said. “Well… I guess not every contribution to a group has to fit neatly into a clearly delineated diagram without any overlap. Anyway, I would consider it a favor if we could win this competition.”

“I don’t think anyone was planning to give it less than their best,” Andreas said. He sounded slightly insulted, but it was just possible he was trying to figure out if she’d meant it as an insult.

“The thing is, I could really use a ring like that,” she said. “The basic functionality is… well, basic… but Sternbauer? That’s the sort of thing that gets you noticed around Treehome.”

“I never realized the middlings had such an appreciation for dwarven craft,” Andreas said.

“Sternbauer is practically elven,” she said. ” Sparkly stones? Shiny silver? Armor that doesn’t weigh anything?”

“Clan Sternbauer doesn’t make armor,” Andreas said, sounding horrified at the idea. “They make jewelry and… and… fripperies, and things.”

“Are you even being serious right now?” Wisdom said. She reached into the neckline of her gauzy, multilayered gown and pulled up an undergarment of shiny metal links so small that it looked like satin fabric. “What do you call that?”

“A slip,” Andreas said, looking down and to the side and blushing.

“It’s mail,” she said.

“Armor is for catching weapons, not keeping you decent under your skirts,” he said.

“This thing has stopped seven arrows,” she said.

“Oh, arrows,” he said. “Well, if we’re going to count arrows as weapons, I guess we can count that as armor. It wouldn’t do nothing against a good hammer.”

“You don’t think an arrow could take you out just as easily as a hammer, and from a longer distance?” she asked.

“Not if I’ve got my longjohns on.”

“Maybe we should be focused on the task at hand?” I said.

“Yes, please,” Wisdom said. “See? You’re contributing already. Managerial skills are very valuable in a teamwork-based environment. ”

“So, how is this going to work?” Andreas asked, picking up one of the rough figures. “I can’t see playing dress-up by committee getting us anywhere, I have to say, but I’m not sure what else to do.”

“Maybe we should ignore the actual figures and come up with a concept,” I said. “I mean, if we were doing a whole design process, we’d start with sketches… there’s no reason you can’t do a larger that’s not tied to the figure, right?”

“No, that’s even easier,” Wisdom said. She waggled her fingers in the air and a tiny… though several times larger than the one-inch figure… mannequin-like figure shimmered into the air. “How’s this for a canvas?”

“Perfect,” I said.

“Okay, before we do anything, just give me three seconds to sustain it… you know, this is the kind of thing that ring would be really handy for,” she said. She put her hands on the tabletop beneath the image. “Actual wood… I was afraid I’d be working with some pressboard abomination. There. I’ve put a loose enchantment in the table that will keep the figure there until we’re done with it. Not only will that make it easier on me, but with our underlying figure being self-sustaining, we can add or remove other elements more easily without affecting it.”

“Which is more like the way it would be with the actual figure,” I said.

“Right, but it’s the same basic problem,” Andreas said. “I mean, am I going to design the boots while you do the head? It’ll be three people trying to paint one picture, and only one of us can hold the brush.”

“Well, I didn’t want to just grab the reins,” Wisdom said. “But you have a point. Whoever’s navigating, I have to drive. I’m comfortable taking command, but I’m not sure it’s my strong suit.”

“Okay, well, instead of all three of us trying to figure out where to start from a blank slate, why don’t you start us off with something off the top of your head,” I said. “Then we can suggest refinements.”

“What if we just start with something like this?” she said. She twirled her finger around the tiny figure, and a swirl of color surrounded it. The shapeless swirling image seemed to adhere to the stone as she spun it, like cotton candy sticking to a paper cone. When all the energy had left her finger to cling to the piece, the blank stone figure had become a detailed… if androgynous… figure in bright silver armor with an eagle motif including a beaked helmet, wielding a pair of long swords.

“That was cool… but how much of the transition was strictly necessary?” I asked.

“It was all helpful. There’s always an element of show business to illusion,” she said. “It’s actually more energy intensive to create an illusion when people are watching because you have to overcome the background belief levels, but if you can engage the audience so you’re not just making them think something is there when it clearly wasn’t, the relationship inverts.”

“So, the more impressive an illusion is, the easier it is to do?” I asked. “I’d think it would be the other way around.”

“Not quite exactly,” she said. “Because many of the things that make an illusion impressive are difficult and draining… but the more people are impressed by what I do with the things I do, the easier they are. When people like what they see, they want it to be real. Anyway, what do you think?”

“It’s pretty cool,” I said. “Not what I would have done, but I kind of like the overall aesthetic… I think it might be a bit more modern than what most people go for in the game. I mean, I don’t think it’s meant to represent a specific historical period exactly, but the armor I’ve seen seems more old timey and simpler.”

“But is that because people want that, or because that’s easier?” she asked. We both looked at Andreas.

“Oh, there’s plenty of modern and even fantasy touches among the pieces of them that can afford to customize. The thing is that most pieces aren’t as flashy as this,” Andres said. “The whole point is that it’s an army. You’ve got your officers and your heroes, of course, and your beasts, and they all need to stand out… and if everyone on the field stands out like that, then no one will, if you catch my meaning. I’d start simpler. ”

“Well, there’s a question in there, isn’t there?” Wisdom said. “Are we making heroes, or soldiers? If the game has both, would there be an advantage to focusing on one over the other?”

“Business wise?” Andreas said. “People will need to buy more rank-and-file soldiers to field an army, but there could still be more money overall in the specialized figures.”

“What’s the actual breakdown between soldiers and more unique figures?” I asked.

“Well, different people prefer different mixes,” he said. “For instance, Hazel’s started collecting as many heroes and monsters as she can as part of her new strategy… well, she calls it a strategy. Anyway, the more typical rule of thumb is for there to be one special for every two units you field, and about ten pieces in each of those units.”

“Ten soldiers in a unit?” Wisdom said. “That doesn’t sound like a very large army, unless there are a multitude of units on the field. I’d think that would bog down play, compared to fewer units with more people.”

“It’s to keep things simple… and space efficient,” Andreas said. “Remember that this is a game that was born underground and is growing up in dorm room floors and lounge tables. Armies that would have thousands of individual fighters in real life are going to be represented by a few hundred pieces, and those that would have hundreds will have even less.”

“So it’s scaled down warfare on more than one level,” Wisdom said.

“Aye, you could look at it like that,” he said. “It’s commonly thought that each individual ordinary soldier piece might be taken to stand in for a group of seven or eight or ten actual soldiers…”

“Which is it?” Wisdom asked.

“Well, Shiel says eight,” he said. “But seven seems more natural, and most humans seem to default to ten. It doesn’t really matter, see, though, because the unit sizes relative to each other depends on how many soldier pieces are there. If you’ve got ten pieces in a unit, then it could be seventy men, or eighty, or a hundred… but whatever it is, it’s the same strength as an identical unit on the other side with ten pieces in it. The rules don’t really get into this. It’s just a way of thinking about it, to explain why units tend to stay at a manageable size.”

“So, to get back to the point,” I said. “It might be worth it to focus on the special figures, if they go for more than twenty times the price of the others.”

“They really don’t,” he said. “They have about twenty times the point value, maybe, but they don’t take that much extra work, and since you can’t field a whole army of them, there’s a limit to the demand.”

“Okay, that’s worth thinking about,” Wisdom said. “But I really meant more in terms of impressing our peers and winning the contest.”

“Well, I don’t think we’re limited to coming up with a single figure,” I said. “What if we create a range of them? To start with, let’s try scaling back the specialized elements. I mean, if that’s a ranger we’re looking at, then let’s try to figure out what a foot soldier in the same company or whatever would look like.”

“Okay,” Wisdom said. She raised her hand.

“Wait… is there some way you can preserve the armor pieces we already have, for future comparisons?” I asked.

“You want me to just make a separate figure?” she asked.

“That could work, for side-by-side comparisons,” I said. “What I was actually thinking was if you could just sort of put them aside… kind of like what Andreas said about playing dress-up, I guess. This way we can see what we’re working with, in terms of pieces rather than whole outfits.”

“I could see that being useful,” she said. “Hang on, let me adjust my enchantment and then add some more pseudo-solid properties to the images, so they till make sense independent of the figure.”

It took her a minute to be satisfied with the functionality of her revised spellwork, but once she had separated the figure from its illusory equipment it took her no time at all to whip up a more modest version.

“Still not quite what I would do,” Andreas said. “But I think it’s a bit closer to the mark, generally.”

“Well, what would you do?” she said.

“I wouldn’t have gone with eagles to begin with, personally,” he said. “But staying with that, what about of we armored things up a little? I mean, heavier armor.”

“Okay,” Wisdom said. She copied the armor pieces and moved the copies aside, and then started adding overlapping plates to the originals.

“That’s more like it,” he said. “But you know, now that I’m looking at it… the original helmet looked a bit like a ceremonial headdress by itself, but if you put it it back with the heavy armor…”

He pointed at the helmet that he meant, his stubby finger actually going through the image.

“Oh, hold on!” Wisdom said. “You just gave me an idea.”

“Well, can we see the crested helm and the armor together first?” he said.

“Yeah, I think we should probably do one thing at a time,” I said.

“Trust me, this will save time in the long run,” she said. “I’ve been picking apart the illusionary music box before the meetings and I think I now how to… aha… yes. Do that again, Andreas.”

“Do what?”

“Put your finger on the helmet you want,” she said.

“Like thi… whoa!” he said, as this time the image sort of moved with his fingertip instead of ethereally passing it through. When he pulled his finger back reflexively, it moved with him… until his hand was clear of the tabletop, at which point it vanished.

“Oh, whoops, it’s outside the field now. Let me refine this a little,” Wisdom said. “I need to add some boundaries.”

She concentrated, and the tiny helmet slid back into view over the edge of the table

“That’s… really kind of neat,” I said.

“So, I can just drag that onto his head?” Andreas said.

“Yeah, it should snap to when it gets close enough,” she said, and it did.

“That’s smooth,” Andreas said.

“Isn’t that complicated?” I asked.

“Pseudo properties,” she said. “It’s defined as a helmet so it wants to be a helmet. It’s why you can put on an illusionary jacket and the arms will move with yours. But Andreas, you were saying you didn’t like the eagles?”

“Well, I said I wouldn’t have done them,” he said. “In fact, I wouldn’t have thought of birds at all… but if I were to make a bird armor, I would’ve gone with something like rooks.”

“Rooks are like ravens?” Wisdom asked.

“Yeah, but there’s no sense in switching shafts before it’s sunk,” he said.

“I don’t understand that metaphor,” she said.

“Well, you don’t know if a mine will pay out before…”

“Oh, mining,” she said. “I thought you were talking about archery.”

“Why would I be talking about archery?” he asked.

“I think I have to agree with Andreas,” I said, trying to head off any further cultural misunderstandings. “I mean, some corvids would be cool, but I think we should we focus on…”

“It’s no problem, though,” she said. “Everything we create is an array inside of an array. That’s how I copied it so quickly before. Look, I can copy it again, then just adjust…”

She waved a hand and then ghostly copies of all the eagle armor pieces… both on and off the figure… slid three inches diagonally away from where they hung in the air, then shimmered and the avian elements turned black.

“Okay, that’s more of a black eagle than a rook, but you get the idea,” she said. “It would take a little fine-tuning.”

“It’s really as easy as that?” Andreas asked, sounding impressed. I was, too.

“It really is,” she said. “Watch, I’ll make a golden eagle armor.”

She did.

“Could you do a phoenix?” I suggested. The idea popped into my head unbidden… I’d been thinking about adding elemental effects or other enhancements to the figures’ weapons, and the whole bird theme was giving me inspiration. “With like a subtle flame aura?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” she said, and she did that, too. The air above the tabletop was getting a little crowded, so she moved the sets around and got them sorted into their own little areas.

“Hang on,” Andreas said. “Could you make it so that we could do that?”

“What, copy, manipulate the groupings, or make adjustments?” she asked.

“Both,” he said. “I mean, all of the above.”

“It would take some doing?” Wisdom said. “But it’s something that could be done.”

“Guys, I think we’re getting a bit far afield here,” I said, but without much enthusiasm… this was turning out to be more interesting than any individual armor set by itself.

“Oh, by all means, please continue,” Acantha said, and the three of us looked up with a guilty start to find that all eyes were on our table. “I really think you’re onto something.”

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Characters: Acantha, Andreas, Mackenzie, Wisdom