Magic and real world equivalents

[Hairfoot]

Forked from: What is so special about Greyhawk?

[T]he setting as it's generally established _in canon_ doesn't employ the idea of "magic as a utility" such that every big city has continual light lanterns, that every sergent of the watch wields a magical weapon, and that you can casually run into archmages masquerading as beggars while strolling down the streets of Greyhawk City. ... magic is still not common in the daily lives of non-adventurers---it's still uncommon, perhaps even rare. The demographics of magic's availability don't put it into the hands of most of the setting's population.

I generally regard myself as a fan of low-magic settings, but I'm still not sure exactly what that means. The definition low- or high-magic seems to be a largely subjective thing.

So, for illustration, what do think would be the real world, technological equivalents of magic in low/mid/high magic worlds, and how available and familiar would they be?

For example, would a healing potion be as common as a band-aid in high-magic, and as rare and expensive as an MRI machine in low? Would a basic magic sword cost as much as a new car, or as much as a power drill?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I think you're on the right track, though you have to distinguish between high/low magic in terms of power and in terms of commonality.

You could have a world in which the ability to use magic is linked to a genetic condition as rare as a left-handed, naturally red-headed, black hermaphrodite- IOW, extremely low incidence of magic- but the mages who exist are tremendously powerful.

Or you could have a world in which magic is as common as dandelions in the Summer, but very powerful magic is rare to the point of being virtually unheard of. The powerful mages of legend are just that- legends- capable of changing reality with a gesture. Nobody in living memory is known to have magic of that kind of power.

And so forth.

And the thing is, every mix of common/rare powerful/weak can be found in some kind of FRPG.

By and large, the core D&D books (of all editions), seem to me to represent the average, medium-powerful fantasy realm and the associated costs. As rarity increases or decreases, alter your price structure accordingly.