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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8945885" data-attributes="member: 6877472"><p>Honestly, when I actually sat down to read The Dying Earth, what struck me was that there really wasn't a detailed magic system. Just the "you forget the spell after you cast it". So I doubt that D&D could have drawn inspiration from other magic systems, because it's creators were looking for a way to <em>balance </em>magic, and making spells "bullets in a magic gun" was a simple way to do it. </p><p></p><p>The concept of "MP" (spell points) didn't appear until later, sadly. But I'm willing to bet nobody was looking for "laws" to limit magic or narrative consequences for using it; they were making a game, and they needed magic to be a resource, like food or ammunition, something they could possibly grok from board/wargames (not sure which ones, even The Campaign for North Africa didn't come out until '78).</p><p></p><p>Which is why we're still using "spell bullets" to this day. It's easier to balance than anything else; even spell points require an additional rule from spamming "firaga" every round until you're out of magic.</p><p></p><p>That having been said, I'd love to see some other magic system employed (I'm also a big fan of Earthdawn's "at will" spells that you can only have a few of ready to cast at a time, and big spells requiring more than one turn to cast, but I can't say that would be more balanced), but it's hard to argue that you should fix something that more or less works.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8945885, member: 6877472"] Honestly, when I actually sat down to read The Dying Earth, what struck me was that there really wasn't a detailed magic system. Just the "you forget the spell after you cast it". So I doubt that D&D could have drawn inspiration from other magic systems, because it's creators were looking for a way to [I]balance [/I]magic, and making spells "bullets in a magic gun" was a simple way to do it. The concept of "MP" (spell points) didn't appear until later, sadly. But I'm willing to bet nobody was looking for "laws" to limit magic or narrative consequences for using it; they were making a game, and they needed magic to be a resource, like food or ammunition, something they could possibly grok from board/wargames (not sure which ones, even The Campaign for North Africa didn't come out until '78). Which is why we're still using "spell bullets" to this day. It's easier to balance than anything else; even spell points require an additional rule from spamming "firaga" every round until you're out of magic. That having been said, I'd love to see some other magic system employed (I'm also a big fan of Earthdawn's "at will" spells that you can only have a few of ready to cast at a time, and big spells requiring more than one turn to cast, but I can't say that would be more balanced), but it's hard to argue that you should fix something that more or less works. [/QUOTE]
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