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General Tabletop Discussion
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waxing philosophical on "low magic" versus "high fantasy"
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<blockquote data-quote="GuardianLurker" data-source="post: 1920882" data-attributes="member: 786"><p><strong>"Free" vs. "Bound"</strong></p><p></p><p>Actually, I think a better distinction is that between "Free" magic - magic available/usable by PCs, and "Bound" magic - environmental magic.</p><p></p><p>If the "Free" magic is low-powered and/or rare, the setting will likely feel like low-magic to your players, no matter how many flying skyscraper trees you put in.</p><p></p><p>Contrariwise, when "Free" magic is high-powered or very common, the setting will feel like high-magic, no matter how mundane the environment.</p><p></p><p>All of the WotC official settings are high-magic; by default D&D is high-magic, since it assumes there will be mages casting <em>Wish</em> and knights with +5 Holy Vorpal Swords of God-bane.</p><p></p><p>Of course, if you have a lot of high-powered environmental magic, you will have to explain it. You'll also have to resist the temptation to have a race (especially a player race) able to manipulate it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GuardianLurker, post: 1920882, member: 786"] [b]"Free" vs. "Bound"[/b] Actually, I think a better distinction is that between "Free" magic - magic available/usable by PCs, and "Bound" magic - environmental magic. If the "Free" magic is low-powered and/or rare, the setting will likely feel like low-magic to your players, no matter how many flying skyscraper trees you put in. Contrariwise, when "Free" magic is high-powered or very common, the setting will feel like high-magic, no matter how mundane the environment. All of the WotC official settings are high-magic; by default D&D is high-magic, since it assumes there will be mages casting [i]Wish[/i] and knights with +5 Holy Vorpal Swords of God-bane. Of course, if you have a lot of high-powered environmental magic, you will have to explain it. You'll also have to resist the temptation to have a race (especially a player race) able to manipulate it. [/QUOTE]
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