The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

[trappedslider]

yet another thread that will after a while be abandoned by the OP.

 

[Guest 7034872]

yet another thread that will after a while be abandoned by the OP.

Waddayagonnado? Lawyers drive everyone away.

 

[J.Quondam]

I figure someone here will appreciate this:

 

[payn]

Still going on and on about Dragons huh?

 

[RealAlHazred]

Still going on and on about Dragons huh?

Nah, everything's become about camping, suddenly.

 

[Guest 7034872]

Why do people try to make a make-believe world's magic consistent the real world's known physics? It isn't just that I don't think that can be done; it's that wanting to is already such a mistake. Magic is magical, not real.

 

[CleverNickName]

Why do people try to make a make-believe world's magic consistent the real world's known physics? It isn't just that I don't think that can be done; it's that wanting to is already such a mistake. Magic is magical, not real.

...but but but TeChNoLoGy Is MaGic...

Ugh. I'm so tired of that false equivalence. Every time someone shares that Arthur C. Clarke, I want to scream "LOOKS LIKE, people! It only LOOKS LIKE magic!!!"

 

[Ryujin]

...but but but TeChNoLoGy Is MaGic...

Ugh. I'm so tired of that false equivalence. Every time someone shares that Arthur C. Clarke, I want to scream "LOOKS LIKE, people! It only LOOKS LIKE magic!!!"

Even in the SciFi games that I occasionally run, that have no defined magic system, that "sufficiently advanced technology" that Clarke was talking about effectively is magic. Why bother with anything else?

 

[J.Quondam]

Why do people try to make a make-believe world's magic consistent the real world's known physics? It isn't just that I don't think that can be done; it's that wanting to is already such a mistake. Magic is magical, not real.

In D&D in particular, magic is quantized into levels and spell slots, and quantified into damage or healing dice. It's categorized into schools and domains, taxonomized by "source." It's justified as emanating from vibrations in "the Weave" or some other aether-like substance that permeates everything like quantum foam or magnetic fields. The practitioners of D&D magic are ordered into a hierarchy of power, tapping into this background force, like batteries of different voltages. When you recall that so many gamers are techies or come from hard science or engineering backgrounds, you see that D&D magic is practically begging them to be picked apart pseudo-scientifically.

That's just a quality of highly-structured, D&D-like magic systems, imo. If it was less "designed" and more mystical, it wouldn't lend itself quite so readily to those sorts of discussions, I don't think.

* I say this because I'm guilty, too, as one who had many "conservation of energy", etc, discussions with fellow physics nerd gamers in college 30+ years ago.

 

[prabe]

In D&D in particular, magic is quantized into levels and spell slots, and quantified into damage or healing dice. It's categorized into schools and domains, taxonomized by "source." It's justified as emanating from vibrations in "the Weave" or some other aether-like substance that permeates everything like quantum foam or magnetic fields. The practitioners of D&D magic are ordered into a hierarchy of power, tapping into this background force, like batteries of different voltages. When you recall that so many gamers are techies or come from hard science or engineering backgrounds, you see that D&D magic is practically begging them to be picked apart pseudo-scientifically.

That's just a quality of highly-structured, D&D-like magic systems, imo. If it was less "designed" and more mystical, it wouldn't lend itself quite so readily to those sorts of discussions, I don't think.

I wonder if a certain strain of Fantasy fiction that tends to focus on the idea that magic has rules, and those rules can be understood, maybe shares some of the blame with D&D-type magic.