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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr. Strangemonkey" data-source="post: 426166" data-attributes="member: 6533">yea, points takenI do have to give props to the teleportation circles thread.  That was an interesting bit of exploration right there.I think the personal point is probably the biggest distinction between magic and tech.Even at the point where you are creating the permanent teleport circles that make the limitations of personal power stretch out a great deal, you do suddenly create a liquid demand for experience.  Something we deal with only in a very static basis.Experienced scientists retire and must be replaced by younger scientists gaining experience, but a high level wizard basically empties himself of a good chunk of experience and then has to go get more.  I find the implications of that startling from a human resources perspective at the very least.So that's one general distinction, and I would argue for another.Technology tends to make resources easier to use.  Magic in DnD tends to make using resources better.  These are gross generalities, but...Tech:  tractors: make it easier for one guy to farm more land.Magic:  plant growth: doesn't make it any easier to farm the same plot of land, but makes it more effective to do so.Tech: flintlocks: make it easier to train more men for battle effectivelyMagic: longbow +2, arrow of seeking: makes the one guy you've trained just as long as the other bowmen more effectiveMind you, each way of doing things often violates this distinction, but I think as a general tendency it holds and I think it has an important influence on the way society develops as a result of either becoming more prominent.I mean the magical agricultural revolution still means that fewer farmers are necessary, but there is more of a product surplus than a labor surplus, retraining isn't an issue for the individual farmer, the individual farm remains small, there is less pressure to rapidly develop the surrounding land, and a class of professional agricultural magicians becomes a powerful component of rural society.The magical military revolution probably means that commando and strategic units begin to dominate the field of war in the way they do today at a much earlier period in society's development.  In both cases you are basically heading straight to the agricultural and military revolutions of the modern era without hitting the complicating intervening history of rapid urbanization, land development, rural and governmental, and huge military and industrial complexes.  Same issues, but in a very different context.</blockquote>

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