Mundane Solutions
'A miniaturized assassination robot small enough to slip through the bloodstream would cost how much? Millions? And it is delivered by dart? How's this for an idea: use a poison dart, and spend the surplus on school lunches.'--Roger Ebert
One of the traps in writing speculative fiction is that of getting entirely fixated on the fantastic at the expense of the ordinary bits of the world. This is particularly prominent in urban fantasy, where the characters explicitly have access to the tools of the ordinary world (unless there's an in-universe reason for it to be otherwise). We assume the characters must solve the problem through magical means when completely convenient alternatives abound-- they're just not magical.
I get particularly annoyed when this occurs in a world where supernatural creatures are trying to keep their existence a secret. If magic users or superpowered non-humans are 'out', I can see a plausible reason why ordinary methods might not work-- for example, a security guard might flat-out refuse to frisk a were-tiger for fear of having his head bitten off. But if your supernatural characters want to maintain a facade of normalcy, they have every reason to be cooperative, at least as much as the typical non-magic citizen. Personally, I'd love to see characters clever enough to really make use of their environment, and that includes using totally ordinary means to scupper each other's schemes. (Of particular note: our modern world is obsessed with security, and yet I have seen precisely zero urban fantasy characters mess up a someone's day by simply calling the cops/airport security/the local transit authority/customs to report suspiscious activity.)
Also, I find it jarring when a scheme totally includes obvious mundane hurdles (for example, the characters must get a bottle of healing potion or a pair of magical nailclippers past airport security) and then bypasses them with zero explanation. One solution is to have the obvious issue pop up and cause unexpected snags* for the characters to deal with on the fly. Another is to have them anticipate the problems and plan accordingly (or at least have an in-universe reason it's a non-issue).
*Given that I was stopped and searched by the TSA for carrying a bag of stick candy (which apparently looked like potential weapons on the scanner?), I can only imagine the fuss they'd throw over, say, a magic wand. Or what a sniffer dog would make of a werewolf...
One of the traps in writing speculative fiction is that of getting entirely fixated on the fantastic at the expense of the ordinary bits of the world. This is particularly prominent in urban fantasy, where the characters explicitly have access to the tools of the ordinary world (unless there's an in-universe reason for it to be otherwise). We assume the characters must solve the problem through magical means when completely convenient alternatives abound-- they're just not magical. I get particularly annoyed when this occurs in a world where supernatural creatures are trying to keep their existence a secret. If magic users or superpowered non-humans are 'out', I can see a plausible reason why ordinary methods might not work-- for example, a security guard might flat-out refuse to frisk a were-tiger for fear of having his head bitten off. But if your supernatural characters want to maintain a facade of normalcy, they have every reason to be cooperative, at least as much as the typical non-magic citizen. Personally, I'd love to see characters clever enough to really make use of their environment, and that includes using totally ordinary means to scupper each other's schemes. (Of particular note: our modern world is obsessed with security, and yet I have seen precisely zero urban fantasy characters mess up a someone's day by simply calling the cops/airport security/the local transit authority/customs to report suspiscious activity.)
Also, I find it jarring when a scheme totally includes obvious mundane hurdles (for example, the characters must get a bottle of healing potion or a pair of magical nailclippers past airport security) and then bypasses them with zero explanation. One solution is to have the obvious issue pop up and cause unexpected snags* for the characters to deal with on the fly. Another is to have them anticipate the problems and plan accordingly (or at least have an in-universe reason it's a non-issue).
*Given that I was stopped and searched by the TSA for carrying a bag of stick candy (which apparently looked like potential weapons on the scanner?), I can only imagine the fuss they'd throw over, say, a magic wand. Or what a sniffer dog would make of a werewolf...
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