Asymmetric gaming worlds

[The Shaman]

My solution? *waves hands furiously*

I have much more entertaining things to contemplate than explaining why every house isn't lit by continual light.

 

[kitsune9]

Marcq,

I have found myself in the same boat at times where I need to think about these things in order to have some kind of "realism".

For me, I think a magic revolution could exist if 1) creators of such magic are numerous in number, 2) if the end-users of magic don't need to have magical ability, and 3) the economics of creating such magic is cheaper than most alternatives. Actually, as I think about it, we can add a fourth aspect--reliability of magic to be consistent.

If we seriously hamper any of those four things, then we can curtail our magical revolution or completely prevent it from occuring.

Maybe some other posters can come up with some other limitations as to why there wouldn't be magical revolution or indicate that most campaigns should have had their magical revolutions and then some?

 

[kitsune9]

Another idea I have had is just use time to explain it. One thing I have hated is level 18 characters who are barely in their 20s. Played purely by the rules a character could go from level 1 to level 20 in less than a year of character time. So break it up.

In my next campaign I am going to use a chapter method. The overal arc will be broken into chapters and offscreen there will be periods of months and years where very little happened to the characters and they lived fairly normal lives enjoying the wealth and prosperity their adventures gave them.

[MENTION=35877]Doc[/MENTION]

Interesting that you mentioned this. I too ran into this challenge and took a page from the RPGA when I use to play. Pretty much my modules last one to two months of game time regardless of what actual time the PC's spend in the game. On top of that, I allow the players to take 50% of the module time to do off-game things like crafting, shopping, outfitting, and performance checks, so a module's total time will run from a month and a half to up to three months of game time.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Marcq,

I have found myself in the same boat at times where I need to think about these things in order to have some kind of "realism".

For me, I think a magic revolution could exist if 1) creators of such magic are numerous in number, 2) if the end-users of magic don't need to have magical ability, and 3) the economics of creating such magic is cheaper than most alternatives. Actually, as I think about it, we can add a fourth aspect--reliability of magic to be consistent.

If we seriously hamper any of those four things, then we can curtail our magical revolution or completely prevent it from occuring.

Maybe some other posters can come up with some other limitations as to why there wouldn't be magical revolution or indicate that most campaigns should have had their magical revolutions and then some?

Add a 5th option, fear.

"Mages are them damned people who blow things up or have a habit of summoning rampaging demons that cause their towers to explode! Why would I want one of their thrice damned creations lighting my house when a nice lamp can do the same?"

This can go a long way in explaing why there is lots of magic without there being lots of magic.

 

[pemerton]

Maybe some other posters can come up with some other limitations as to why there wouldn't be magical revolution

My preferred explanation - if it comes up - is cultural conservatism. If the gameworld is an ancient one, with lots of legendary empires and their artefacts hanging around (both literally and in the popular imagination) then it is at least hand-wavingly plausible that the outlook of the society, and its dominant powers, is one of conservatism/reaction rather than progress (ie all the great things were done in the past, the contemporary era is a mere pale shadow of the greatness that once was, etc) - think Tokien's Middle Earth, or stereotpyed conceptions of pre-Enlightenment Europe and pre-20th century China.

Given this assumption, the notion that things might be done differently simply won't arise. And if we then accept the Weberian idea that ideas are a necessary precursor of technical innovation, there won't be the intellectual impetus essential to any magical revolution.

 

[fanboy2000]

I've never gamed in a world that bothered me on some kind of technical level.

Part of the reason is that I'm not convinced that the existence of magic would do all the weird things I've seen claimed. For example, I'm not sure that magic would be ubiquitous for NPCs. Even today, in the real world, there are many places where technology isn't ubiquitous it's surprisingly rare. Also, simply because the PCs have easy access doesn't mean others would. Again, there are lots of people in the real world who commonly have access to superior equipment for the needs that other people.

And, on top of all of that, magic is such a game changer that I don't think anyone can predict what world with magic would look like. Our own history provides some insight, but frankly, there are so many factors in history that I think it can be surprisingly hard to figure out what exactly caused what. Add to the fact that many civilizations have different levels of technology and different cultural norms.

I don't think of it as hand waving, the D&D world has it's own cultural norms that people from outside cultures don't always understand. That's the way it is here.

 

[Dilvias]

To the average commoner, magic items are expensive. Very, very expensive. A competent commoner earns 5-10 gold a week. A simple +1 sword would cost 4 to 5 years the salary of even a skilled commoner. It's like asking why everyone in modern times doesn't own their own private jet. Most of the population couldn't afford it, and would really have no use for it even if they did own one.

Well-to-do commoners might save up and purhcase a potion of cure light wounds, although even that would be a huge chunk of their discretionary spending for the year. PCs operate at such a high wealth level compared to everyday citizens that even mid level PCs may carry more value in magic items than the wealth of an entire village combined.

 

[kitsune9]

Add a 5th option, fear.

Quite true. Fear is a great tool that can be used to hinder progress or curtail technology from moving forward from our own history. I can definitely see how it can be used to curtail a magical revolution, particularly if the fear mongerers have considerable political or cultural power.

 

[kitsune9]

My preferred explanation - if it comes up - is cultural conservatism.

Good point!

 

[The Shaman]

My preferred explanation - if it comes up - is cultural conservatism.

I use the same explanation with respect to the Third Imperium in Traveller, particularly for high-population, low-technology worlds - it's the Vilani and their "If it was good enough for my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, it's good enough for me!" influence.