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<blockquote data-quote="Blue Orange" data-source="post: 8946526" data-attributes="member: 7025997"><p>OK, I was looking for this Gygax quote, because it's relevant, and while I posted this elsewhere I'd say it's even more relevant here. From an older ENworld thread:</p><p></p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.enworld.org/threads/jack-vances-forgotten-contributions-to-d-d.666965/[/URL]</p><p><em>The Dungeons & Dragons wizard is actually inspired by the wizards of Jack Vance's Dying Earth series. Gygax explained the four cardinal types of magic in literature: those systems which require long conjuration with much paraphernalia as visualized by Shakespeare in Macbeth and Robert E. Howard in Conan, those which require short spoken spells (like Jack Vance's Dying Earth series), ultra-powerful magic typical of DeCamp and Pratt in the "Harold Shea" stories, and "generally weak and relatively ineffectual magic (as found in J.R.R. Tolkien's work)." Taking into account the need for speed and balance, Gygax chose the most expedient form of spell casting, Vancian magic.</em></p><p></p><p>So Gygax was actually picking from (what he saw as four) options. Basically, Elizabethan was too slow, DeCamp/Pratt too powerful, and Tolkien too weak. The Vancian system was fast and intermediate in terms of power.</p><p></p><p>So if he'd picked one of the other options we might have a slow, coincidental-type system (a la <em>Liber Ka </em>and I genuinely can't think of any others), a more powerful system (<em>Mage: the Ascension</em> might actually fit here, or its predecessor <em>Ars Magica</em>), or a weaker system (a la some low magic games--some of the Conan games might fit here; <em>MERP</em> actually made magic more powerful as I recall).</p><p></p><p>Interestingly, he doesn't bring up Moorcock, Howard, or Leiber, which are listed as Appendix N inspirations. Which has all kinds of possibilities open.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Blue Orange, post: 8946526, member: 7025997"] OK, I was looking for this Gygax quote, because it's relevant, and while I posted this elsewhere I'd say it's even more relevant here. From an older ENworld thread: [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.enworld.org/threads/jack-vances-forgotten-contributions-to-d-d.666965/[/URL] [I]The Dungeons & Dragons wizard is actually inspired by the wizards of Jack Vance's Dying Earth series. Gygax explained the four cardinal types of magic in literature: those systems which require long conjuration with much paraphernalia as visualized by Shakespeare in Macbeth and Robert E. Howard in Conan, those which require short spoken spells (like Jack Vance's Dying Earth series), ultra-powerful magic typical of DeCamp and Pratt in the "Harold Shea" stories, and "generally weak and relatively ineffectual magic (as found in J.R.R. Tolkien's work)." Taking into account the need for speed and balance, Gygax chose the most expedient form of spell casting, Vancian magic.[/I] So Gygax was actually picking from (what he saw as four) options. Basically, Elizabethan was too slow, DeCamp/Pratt too powerful, and Tolkien too weak. The Vancian system was fast and intermediate in terms of power. So if he'd picked one of the other options we might have a slow, coincidental-type system (a la [I]Liber Ka [/I]and I genuinely can't think of any others), a more powerful system ([I]Mage: the Ascension[/I] might actually fit here, or its predecessor [I]Ars Magica[/I]), or a weaker system (a la some low magic games--some of the Conan games might fit here; [I]MERP[/I] actually made magic more powerful as I recall). Interestingly, he doesn't bring up Moorcock, Howard, or Leiber, which are listed as Appendix N inspirations. Which has all kinds of possibilities open. [/QUOTE]
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