Quote: Rev Dark wrote:
There is a breakdown in your analogy Epsilon, one that really isn't addressed in the D&D canon.
Technology works. It doesn't matter who you are. Anyone with access to the appropriate materials and information can make gunpowder. Or light a fire.
Magic, in the fantasy genre, does not tend to follow this rule.
Those that can actually 'do' magic are a very small percentage of the population; those that are actually trained in the use of magic are an even
smaller percentage of the population.
If you are using a game world in which all that is required to accomplish magic is to read a few books and practice like you would any other skill
(Blacksmithing, coopering, etc.) ; then the technology analogy is well placed and well argued. It just isn't usually part of the genre (one or two
examples from literature spring to mind, but they feature worlds not actually running amok, but sprinting amok.)
Shayne
Accept there is no evidence or support for your position at all. Perhaps if you were playing Lord of the Rings, where magicians actually are like one in a
million (and very likely to be extraplanar beings on top of that) this would hold.
The requirements for being a Magic-User are Intelligence 10. In previous editions it was Intelligence 12 or 13 or whatever. Not nearly rare enough to justify
"magic user live in abandoned towers and don't interact with human beings just because" as a setting trope.
Any person in the game can multi-class into Magic User (ie Wizard) class at any time they want to, provided they have enough Intelligence. Entire races (such
as Elves) are pointed out to be magical or have innate magical potential. The only requirements to weidl a +1 Sword is opposable thumbs. In the real world, the
number of people that can "get" quantum physics is small, and the number of people that are trained in it are vanishingly small. This hasn't kept
us from developing loads of new technologies based on the work of these small select group of people.
I mean, think about it. With D&D magic you can create a fountain of water that never runs out. That changes the entire nature of the world. Even
if there were a half-dozen mages who could make like one a year they coudl revolutionize society over night. Limitless, clean, safe drinking water for
everyone. Not to mention all the possibilities for water engineering (everything from irrigation, to watermills to hydroelectric power). No other magic
required and with just one simple magic item I can revolutionize the world!
Your problem is that you are veiwing D&D as a "fantasy genre". It's not, its genre is "D&D".
If you want to complain that D&D doesn't emulate Lord of the Rings, go nuts. They made a LotR roleplaying game, go play that instead. Complaining that,
in a setting where magic is common (look at the DMs guide for a breakdown of communities by profession) that it is common strikes me as disingenuous. Go play
Ars Magica, or LotR or Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade or any of the other settings out there where magic is "special" (an probably spelled with a k
for extra special pretentiousness).
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Epsilon