Post/Author/DateTime	Post
MysticTheurge 05-19-06, 09:26 AM	I was sitting in the audience of my sister's interminably long graduation ceremony, which just happened to take place in a beautiful opera house, and I couldn't help but start to think of all the ways that magic would replace technology for theatrical purposes in an Eberron theater. I hope that in addition to the ideas I'm going to list, people will add ideas they have for the way people might use magic in their lives. I have some experience with the theater which is what got me thinking, so I encourage everyone to work within their specialities; for example, you're a librarian? tell us the ways magic would make libraries work better. I think this is one of the great ways DMs can add texture to their Eberron campaigns, and if we can all pool our ideas to provide a source for that, it'd be very helpful. Magic in the Theater Lighting: This one's easiest and most obvious. In addition to spot lights (continual flame in a movable cylinder), theatrical lightning designers use both light/lack of light and color to focus the audience's attention and create a mood. The first step in using a spell like continual flame for this purpose would be a method of controlling the light; you need a way to turn it off and on. In a real-life theater, the stage manager runs a light board that controls particular sets of lights. An eberron theater might have something similar: a magical device (perhaps a rod) that is keyed to a number of different crystals that have a fade-able continual flame on them. These could also be in different colors. Effects: This one provides a wealth of opportunities. Where real theaters have to do rigging to get a "flying" effect, eberron theaters can actually produce one. Illusions also provide for a great variety of visual effects, while still keeping your actors safe. For instance, since you can't actually bring a Dragon into the theater for your hero to fight, just have your resident illusionist create one. Since the audience doesn't actually interact with the illusion they won't get a save to disbelieve. Ghost sound also allows for a variety of sound effects. Microphones: I was thinking there might be a device of sorts that you would attach to your actors, perhaps necklace or amulet, that would capture the sound and then replay it at a number of points near the more further parts of your audience, balconies, back rows etc. Make-up and costumes: Again, illusions benefit you greatly here. Disguise self allows an actor to take on almost any appearance. A few hats of disguise in the costume shop, and you don't need much else. Additionally, changelings must make for some fantastic character actors. Keep in mind as well, that this provides an opportunity to actually look like a specific person. So if your play is a satire of Thranish politics, you can actually look like Cardinal Krozen. You have the option here of making a number of these options available only to the houses of Shadow by making them dragon-mark related. Among other things, I imagine the artificers of those houses would study the ways they can magically enhance their performances.
Thrincold 05-19-06, 09:43 AM	Just remember everything you described would be a big theatre shop in a major city. As for magic in the mundane, I am designing a mapper and creature catalog for my character. It will use a tablet that I write on, then it is stored magically. The details can be recalled with the proper written command word. The mapper is basically a floating crystal, similar to an ioun stone that can display and illusion of where we've gone, in addition to being preloaded with other maps. Think tablet PC and a GPS tracker :) As for my line of work, I work in A/V, so you've described much of what I deal with. Illusion could be used for projectors, and amulets for sound enhancement. Recordings are performed simularly to the mapper crystal I described. It "sees" what is going on and records it. Able to play it back as a programmed illusion. I know some of my ideas are too scifi for most, but I like em, and they just add to the pervasive magic feel for me.