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Greyhawk and "Low Magic" : Why Low Magic is in the Eyes of Beholder
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<blockquote data-quote="Urriak Uruk" data-source="post: 8079245" data-attributes="member: 7015558"><p>Here's the definition from Wikipedia, and it is of course pretty nuanced;</p><p></p><p><strong><em>Low fantasy</em></strong><em> or <strong>intrusion fantasy</strong> is a subgenre of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_fiction" target="_blank">fantasy fiction</a> where magical events intrude on an otherwise normal world.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_fantasy#cite_note-1" target="_blank">[1]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_fantasy#cite_note-2" target="_blank">[2]</a> It thus contrasts with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fantasy" target="_blank">high fantasy</a> stories, which take place in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_world" target="_blank">fictional worlds</a> with their own sets of rules and physical laws.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Intrusion fantasy places relatively less emphasis on typical elements associated with fantasy, setting a narrative in realistic environments with elements of the fantastical. Sometimes there are just enough fantastical elements to make ambiguous the boundary between what is real and what is purely psychological or supernatural. The word "low" refers to the level of prominence of traditional fantasy elements within the work, and is not any sort of remark on the work's quality.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>An alternative definition, common in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_games" target="_blank">role-playing games</a>, rests on the story and characters being more realistic and less <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth" target="_blank">mythic</a> in scope. This can mean that some works, for example <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Howard" target="_blank">Robert E. Howard</a>'s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_the_Barbarian" target="_blank">Conan the Barbarian</a> series, can be high fantasy according to the first definition but low fantasy according to the second,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_fantasy#cite_note-3" target="_blank">[3]</a> while with other works, such as the TV series <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural_(U.S._TV_series)" target="_blank">Supernatural</a>, the opposite is true.</em></p><p></p><p>Greyhawk, IMO, is not truly low-magic under the first definition. Because even if we can argue magic is uncommon, it's still common enough for it to have certain rules and physical laws. Add that monsters like vampires and beholders are common enough that they define the world too.</p><p></p><p>I think one could argue the second definition, that the characters and story is low-magic, is potentially true depending on your PCs. If you have a few magic-users, it's not that low-magic. If you have mostly fighters and rogues (like Conan) and are focused on local problems like slavers (and many Greyhawk modules fit this mold), than it is.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Urriak Uruk, post: 8079245, member: 7015558"] Here's the definition from Wikipedia, and it is of course pretty nuanced; [B][I]Low fantasy[/I][/B][I] or [B]intrusion fantasy[/B] is a subgenre of [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_fiction']fantasy fiction[/URL] where magical events intrude on an otherwise normal world.[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_fantasy#cite_note-1'][1][/URL][URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_fantasy#cite_note-2'][2][/URL] It thus contrasts with [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fantasy']high fantasy[/URL] stories, which take place in [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_world']fictional worlds[/URL] with their own sets of rules and physical laws. Intrusion fantasy places relatively less emphasis on typical elements associated with fantasy, setting a narrative in realistic environments with elements of the fantastical. Sometimes there are just enough fantastical elements to make ambiguous the boundary between what is real and what is purely psychological or supernatural. The word "low" refers to the level of prominence of traditional fantasy elements within the work, and is not any sort of remark on the work's quality. An alternative definition, common in [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_games']role-playing games[/URL], rests on the story and characters being more realistic and less [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth']mythic[/URL] in scope. This can mean that some works, for example [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Howard']Robert E. Howard[/URL]'s [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_the_Barbarian']Conan the Barbarian[/URL] series, can be high fantasy according to the first definition but low fantasy according to the second,[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_fantasy#cite_note-3'][3][/URL] while with other works, such as the TV series [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural_(U.S._TV_series)']Supernatural[/URL], the opposite is true.[/I] Greyhawk, IMO, is not truly low-magic under the first definition. Because even if we can argue magic is uncommon, it's still common enough for it to have certain rules and physical laws. Add that monsters like vampires and beholders are common enough that they define the world too. I think one could argue the second definition, that the characters and story is low-magic, is potentially true depending on your PCs. If you have a few magic-users, it's not that low-magic. If you have mostly fighters and rogues (like Conan) and are focused on local problems like slavers (and many Greyhawk modules fit this mold), than it is. [/QUOTE]
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