Epsilon, I already agreed with you wholeheartedly.
We are talking at odds. You are quite correct. The raw mechanics of D&D set no limit on magic use save for an arbitrary stat restriction. Any player who
meets that stat requirement can choose to use magic. It is a system designed to accomodate what the players would like to do. Anyone can become a cleric too,
if their wisdom meets the minimum; you could wake up and decide that a particular god has taken a like (or dislike to you) make a note on the sheet and it is
time to unleash your inner Benny Hinn. So faith, like magic can be picked up as easily as technology, or musical talent, or martial arts skills making you
capable of knocking down trees with a single powerful thrust of your pelvis.
D&D is a game, not a genre. Again I agree; provided that you are just taking the book off the shelf, opening it up and playing it. Any time you modify
the rules, which is every single game of D&D I have ever run or played in, the rules are changed. You as the god-behind-the-screen create the world and
any arbitrary rules govening magic, ecology, economy, breast size, and heft and allotment of wedding tackle (especially important if your RPG features Japanese
schoolgirls on subways).
Played off the shelf, D&D cannot work as a world, for the reasons you state, and the reasons I was poking fun at earlier in this thread.
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).
I am not sure where this particular bit of rant materialized. I tend to use D&D for fantasy gaming as the system works well for it, but I hand out a
campaign sheet right at the beginning that details up front changes to rules and setting. The same way that any game is modified out-of-box to fit the
setting and campaign the GM is trying to run.
Cheers,
Shayne
We are talking at odds. You are quite correct. The raw mechanics of D&D set no limit on magic use save for an arbitrary stat restriction. Any player who
meets that stat requirement can choose to use magic. It is a system designed to accomodate what the players would like to do. Anyone can become a cleric too,
if their wisdom meets the minimum; you could wake up and decide that a particular god has taken a like (or dislike to you) make a note on the sheet and it is
time to unleash your inner Benny Hinn. So faith, like magic can be picked up as easily as technology, or musical talent, or martial arts skills making you
capable of knocking down trees with a single powerful thrust of your pelvis.
D&D is a game, not a genre. Again I agree; provided that you are just taking the book off the shelf, opening it up and playing it. Any time you modify
the rules, which is every single game of D&D I have ever run or played in, the rules are changed. You as the god-behind-the-screen create the world and
any arbitrary rules govening magic, ecology, economy, breast size, and heft and allotment of wedding tackle (especially important if your RPG features Japanese
schoolgirls on subways).
Played off the shelf, D&D cannot work as a world, for the reasons you state, and the reasons I was poking fun at earlier in this thread.
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).
I am not sure where this particular bit of rant materialized. I tend to use D&D for fantasy gaming as the system works well for it, but I hand out a
campaign sheet right at the beginning that details up front changes to rules and setting. The same way that any game is modified out-of-box to fit the
setting and campaign the GM is trying to run.
Cheers,
Shayne