Engagement Challenge: 100 Clever Ways to Die (Patreon)

(See 5/25 update at the bottom.)

You guys may find it interesting that some of the ideas featured in 100 Clever Ways Thaumaturges have Committed Suicide: How to Avoid Offing Yourself Through Sheer, Reckless Stupidity came from reader comments and questions. (Either directly, or which I thought of after being inspired by the comment.)

Clever readers have come up with a lot of ideas for ways someone in the Practical Guide to Sorcery universe might achieve ultimate power, break the rules of the world over their knee, and generally munchkin their way out of problems.

Some of these ideas are obviously reckless, but some are deceptively reasonable, even...clever.

But one of my rules for the worldbuilding is to avoid "hacks" that everyone who lives within the world just aren't clever enough to have come up with yet. (And which, of course, the ingenious main character discovers easily and uses to wow all the plebeians with her genius and impossible skill.)

If it seems like a cheat, either it's unachievable for the average person, or it'll probably result in great destruction and death for the clever person and possibly those around them, as well.

I have a list of these ideas to break the world and apotheosize to godhood, or just to cleverly kill an enemy in a way that they'll never realize!

So here's the challenge:

Give me your own clever ideas.

They can be sneaky or ultra-powerful attacks, ways to achieve godhood or ultimate power, possibilities that seem to break the previously stated rules of magic or physics, or just general munchkinry.

There's no need for these ideas to be ridiculous or obviously dangerous, though that is also welcome. Feel free to submit ideas that might actually work, too. After all, just because Siobhan/Sebastien doesn't know about some avenue to (moderate) power, doesn't mean it doesn't exist, and that others in the world haven't already discovered it.

There are some examples in Chapter 151 - One Hundred Ways to Die. Others have been sprinkled throughout the story.

Here are some more, of various levels of plausibility:

Regenerative magics that constantly drain vitality from a number of plants or animals, thus allowing the recipient of all of this vitality to live forever.

Safely cast through your own body, without need for an external Conduit, by subjecting the subject to a curse that completely negates all pleasure, and thus does away with the extremely addictive nature of channeling magic through one's own flesh.

Sacrifice a Conduit to enhance the channeling ability of another Conduit, or the channeling ability of your own body.

Transplant a beast core into a human to enhance their channeling ability.

Sacrifice more, bigger, better! Draw a Circle around an entire building, town, or mountain.

What counts as "inside the Circle?" Make a Circle with your forefinger and thumb and put it over your eye, thus bounding everything you see "inside the Circle."

Use light illusions to draw a Circle and spell array, for either the caster of the illusion or someone else to use to cast a separate spell.

Sacrifice an animal to learn what it saw.

Sacrifice a person to gain their skill in magic.

Rewards, also known as "Why should I participate?":

I will feature some of the most interesting options in the story, as a selection of entries in 100 Clever Ways Thaumaturges have Committed Suicide.

In addition to that, if the community is able to come up at least 25 distinct, novel ideas by then, I will post an additional chapter on Tuesday, June 6th.

This challenge is available to everyone, and the reward will be for everyone. Feel free to drag your friends into it! Post your ideas in the comments below.

Rules/Restrictions:

The challenge ends Monday, June 5. You can still submit ideas after that point, but they will not count toward the contest.

Check the list of already posted ideas. You can post a duplicate, but you won't get credit for it.

Nothing that I've already mentioned in the book, such as transmuting enough gold to become the most wealthy person on the planet. Again, you won't get credit for ideas already covered.

No ideas that require knowledge from the modern world, which you can consider anything that was discovered after 1905-1910 or so. Synthesizing plutonium might be a great way to painfully kill someone without getting caught, but it's not a viable option for people who live in the PGTS world, because they haven't discovered plutonium.

I will be judge, jury, and metaphorical executioner on whether submitted ideas meet the criteria or not. I'll be active in the comments and update the post with the reader community's progress.

5/25: Important Updates!

1. I just learned that you can't comment on this post unless you're a patron, despite it being viewable to the public. That was not intentional on my part. If you're not a patron and want to participate in this challenge, post your response in the comments of the latest chapter on my website, RoyalRoad, or wherever else you're reading this.

2. You guys have blown me away with the outpouring of responses to this challenge. We have definitely hit 25 admissible ideas, and by my count, gone well over. You guys are getting a bonus chapter on the 6th.

Some submissions are clever and insightful, and the magic actually does or would work in the way you've deduced, but hasn't been mentioned in the story because it's temporarily beyond Siobhan's scope. Some of you have even almost directly outlined magical innovations the story is already planned to explore. 

Some are really reasonable, funny ideas for ways some uncautious person could have a bad accident while trying to do something clever.

Some are so incautious it seems like anyone in the PGTS world who didn't realize they would have consequences deserves to win a Darwin Award. But then again I think that about people on Earth, too, so it doesn't make them necessarily implausible.

And a small minority wouldn't actually work, because they contradict the structure of the PGTS world's magic system's mechanics.

Another small minority have already been mentioned in one of the books so far, and so while valid, don't count for the purposes of this challenge.

Thank you to everyone who's given their ideas so far. The Challenge is still open until Monday, June 5th, so if you have more, feel free to submit them for fun.