On Tue, 6 May 1997, Dragoon wrote:

<Snip neat idea> 

Think "steampunk" (cyberpunk-like attitudes set during the 
Industrial Revolution, but where the Babbage(?) machine (a primitive
computer) actually worked) with magic added. 

I really like this idea, but as my knowledge of Japanese history &
culture isn't enough to do this without seriously messing up, I'll
have to pass for now. I know the names would have to be somewhat 
changed to reflect the 19th century. 

What do others think of this idea? 
Would this be better set in feudal Japan (around 16th century,
I guess)?
I'd really like comments on this.

This is a great idea, although i would be in accord with some of the other
people on the list in that writing tech and magic so that they work
together can be a truly daunting and difficult task. It can be done
though. You just have to figure out how far people would go with the
available technology before they reverted to the more traditional, if less
predictable, precepts of magic. Say, like building a giant suit of steam
powered armor out of paper mache, then enchanting the paper mache so that
it's as hard as steel. Still, the steampunk theme would be fun all by
itself.

One other thing that might be interesting, if not even more difficult,
would be to write sort of a BGC/ORION cross-rip. Orion already has a
really bizarre and confusing science-magic interaction...

~Eimii -professional pain magnet

Murphy's First Law, [revised]: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong,
and at the worst possible time. If something appears _not_ to go wrong,
then you're simply looking at it from the wrong point of view...