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What is "grim and gritty" and "low magic" anyway?
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<blockquote data-quote="Bendris Noulg" data-source="post: 1426218" data-attributes="member: 6398"><p>But this arguement, once again, rolls around to yet another misconception that low magic vs high magic debates keep turning back to: is it proper to compare a d20 fantasy game (home brew or professionally published) to D&D itself?</p><p> </p><p>Every time someone says, "D&D is supposed to be [high magic/super heroics/any other description]", I can't help but wonder, "so friggin' what?" If anything, the <em>mistake</em> of viewing every fantasy-genre RPG by how it relates to D&D does little more than present a rather poor basis of measurement and comparison; It's using <em>one</em> example of how d20 can be set up and balanced to judge the worth of any other manner of set up and balance (and is, in fact, something I warned against when 3E was first released and everyone jumped on the balance wagon).</p><p> </p><p>I mean, my game is dark and grim; insanity is common; ignorance and superstition are common; etc. Why not, instead of comparing it to D&D, compare it instead to Call of Cthulu d20? Now, here's yet <em>another</em> example of d20 set up and balance, and using it as a basis, my game is super-duper uber powered. Or we can compare it to Midnight. Similar dark mood, similar evil-has-the-upperhand themes at work. Yet, compared to that settig, my world isn't that grim; the good guys <em>do</em> have a shred of hope for victory and entire continents remain under the banner of Good.</p><p> </p><p><em>D&D <strong>is</strong> just another d20 game</em>, regardless of the fact that WotC holds most of the marketing cards; it would be a shame to see the <em>possibilities</em> the engine offers limited by the expectations of D&D rather than moving beyond it in <em>every</em> direction to include different facets of the genre instead of excluding them.</p><p> </p><p>But every time someone chimes in with, "But D&D is supposed to be...", they are doing just that: limiting the possibilities due to a false assumption that d20 Fantasy <em>must</em> equal D&D when such isn't the case at all.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bendris Noulg, post: 1426218, member: 6398"] But this arguement, once again, rolls around to yet another misconception that low magic vs high magic debates keep turning back to: is it proper to compare a d20 fantasy game (home brew or professionally published) to D&D itself? Every time someone says, "D&D is supposed to be [high magic/super heroics/any other description]", I can't help but wonder, "so friggin' what?" If anything, the [i]mistake[/i] of viewing every fantasy-genre RPG by how it relates to D&D does little more than present a rather poor basis of measurement and comparison; It's using [i]one[/i] example of how d20 can be set up and balanced to judge the worth of any other manner of set up and balance (and is, in fact, something I warned against when 3E was first released and everyone jumped on the balance wagon). I mean, my game is dark and grim; insanity is common; ignorance and superstition are common; etc. Why not, instead of comparing it to D&D, compare it instead to Call of Cthulu d20? Now, here's yet [i]another[/i] example of d20 set up and balance, and using it as a basis, my game is super-duper uber powered. Or we can compare it to Midnight. Similar dark mood, similar evil-has-the-upperhand themes at work. Yet, compared to that settig, my world isn't that grim; the good guys [i]do[/i] have a shred of hope for victory and entire continents remain under the banner of Good. [i]D&D [b]is[/b] just another d20 game[/i], regardless of the fact that WotC holds most of the marketing cards; it would be a shame to see the [i]possibilities[/i] the engine offers limited by the expectations of D&D rather than moving beyond it in [i]every[/i] direction to include different facets of the genre instead of excluding them. But every time someone chimes in with, "But D&D is supposed to be...", they are doing just that: limiting the possibilities due to a false assumption that d20 Fantasy [i]must[/i] equal D&D when such isn't the case at all. [/QUOTE]
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