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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 9649649" data-attributes="member: 6799660">It wasn't ever (to my recollection) stated outright, but the inference I got from TSR-era A/D&D was that answer to all questions about the fantastical reshaping the gameworld were answered significantly by rarity. Magical light did not replace torches and lamps because magic users were rare, took a lot of training, and didn't get better at magic use by casting continual light everywhere the local movers&shakers would want them to. Castles were still open-air affairs* in a world full of dragons and griffons because such creatures were incredibly rare  -- sufficient that it was more efficient to call in adventurers when they did pop up than to completely rebuild castle design. And so on. *perhaps more ballista on towers than IRL. There certainly are advantages to the model. Despite all the posts in the thread saying (in effect) 'I don't care how fantastic things are, I just want the world to make sense from whatever premise it starts with,' I think there is a large subset of gamers that want 'the middle-ages*, but with the supernatural being real, but not the complete reshaping of the world that that would imply.' Scarce and non-productionalizable gives you that (mostly). *or some varyingly-accurate depiction of themSo far as I can tell, Greek Fire is an AD&D 2nd edition invention. oD&D had (officially) just the line that "Burning oil will deter many monsters from continuing pursuit," but quickly had weaponized oil as unofficial behavior*. AD&D had one type of oil, and rules (DMG, p64-65) for both burning oil as a barrier and as a missile weapon, and considered it enough a part of the game that it, alongside poison, was part of the charts about which classes would use which items/tactics. The basic/classic line undoubtedly varies by version, but checking Mentzer I see it too has oil as both barrier and missile weapon, with only one type of oil as an option. *such that Supplement I had as part of a suggestion about mixing up monsters to address player knowledge: "Fire-resistant mummies. Many players will get used to frying these monsters with oil. but watch the fun when they run into one of these critters!"</blockquote>

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