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Gygax on Realism in Game Design
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<blockquote data-quote="GreyICE" data-source="post: 6010176" data-attributes="member: 6684526"><p>Because magic, quite simply, breaks the rules. That's what it does. Were magic to follow rules, it would just be reflavored technology. Spells can veer dangerously close to that, but the fact of the matter is that in a magical setting, logic is not only a burden, but something that snaps you OUT of the setting. Try it some time. Take a party member who is trying to figure out HOW the magic works, or WHY a demon chose to answer one person and not any of thousands of others or WHAT causes dragons to love hording so much and WHERE do the gods live all the time and what makes a god anyway, how does that even work and see how quickly you get irritated. </p><p></p><p>Gods exist. Wizards exist. Magic exists. Demons and Devils exist. Wishes can be granted, and can backfire in amazing ways. You might find the Deck of Many Things. And none of this follows any sort of overall rules of realism. It's not like a Warp Drive, which someday we might invent, or an Alien Species, which someday we might meet, or nanotechnology, which someday we might have. It's MAGIC. And it doesn't have to follow your logic.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GreyICE, post: 6010176, member: 6684526"] Because magic, quite simply, breaks the rules. That's what it does. Were magic to follow rules, it would just be reflavored technology. Spells can veer dangerously close to that, but the fact of the matter is that in a magical setting, logic is not only a burden, but something that snaps you OUT of the setting. Try it some time. Take a party member who is trying to figure out HOW the magic works, or WHY a demon chose to answer one person and not any of thousands of others or WHAT causes dragons to love hording so much and WHERE do the gods live all the time and what makes a god anyway, how does that even work and see how quickly you get irritated. Gods exist. Wizards exist. Magic exists. Demons and Devils exist. Wishes can be granted, and can backfire in amazing ways. You might find the Deck of Many Things. And none of this follows any sort of overall rules of realism. It's not like a Warp Drive, which someday we might invent, or an Alien Species, which someday we might meet, or nanotechnology, which someday we might have. It's MAGIC. And it doesn't have to follow your logic. [/QUOTE]
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