Geoff Watson said:Mystery and chaotic magic may work fine in a novel or story, but in a game the players have to understand the rules, which either removes the mystery, or the mystery makes it unplayable.
I agree. The game where my players were most awed by magic was Pendragon, which had no spellcasting classes and magic was in the GM's bailywick alone.
Heck, I have seen how this happens to "villian" races all the time in several rpgs.
The Drow used to be scary, now they are cool! Hmmm. And White Wolf has done it time and time again, introduced a scary villian and then a year later lets you play the villian as another "misunderstood" race and then *poof* the awe factor is gone, which sucks for a horror game.
Exalted is probably the only game where they have done this practice and it actualy worked. Then again, Exalted is not horror.