after the release of magp 19 my friend thought it was odd to include such a prolific historical figure. I reminded him that Robert Smirke was a pivotal character in the magnus archives and arguably more important to history as he had been in charge of the construction most famous buildings in London built during the early 19th century, including the renovation of the royal mint Isaac Newton had been the warden of. Who do you think is more famous/more important to history?

I would argue Newton is more important to actual history.

Interestingly there was a quite a bit of back-and-forth about referencing Newton in Protocol.

On the one hand he is a prolific figure in Alchemy and slots into the lore very nicely. On the other hand though, he has been portrayed a lot and is very much a “go-to” choice for the time period. (See Rusty Quill Gaming as an example!)

We went for it in the end because practicality won out but it was still a proper discussion.