In A World Where Magic Exists...

[Loconius]

I think in such a world you would have folks using the magic without fully understanding how it works, much like most computer use today.

Today the average person cannot afford a car with straight cash, but with financing you can get this device that moves you about. Most drivers dont know how much of the device works, but can use it and will even need it!

What I can't understand is why the middle class can't learn to finance to own magic in fantasy settings for wands of create water for plant growth...

 

[TarionzCousin]

In a world with science, there are plenty of people who think that douching with Coca-Cola can prevent pregnancy.

I regularly douche with Coca-Cola and I have never been pregnant. So there!



Yes, I'm male. Why do you ask?

 

[Achan hiArusa]

There will always be people pretending to know magic, even in a world with magic. You'll have fake potion sellers, fake magic item sellers, and people who will fake the ability to cast spells with elaborate rituals. Given that D&D spells are 10 gp a spell level (times caster level) and your basic 1st level NPC (4 ranks of profession) makes about 7 gp* a week you will have people who want to find cheaper solutions and you have several classes with Bluff as a class skill willing to pretend to give it to them.

With an income of $49,777 (2009 median U.S. income) a year that would make a 1st level spell cast by a first level caster cost almost $1,480.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What I can't understand is why the middle class can't learn to finance to own magic in fantasy settings for wands of create water for plant growth...

It's a threat to guilds and the existing temporal powers. It'd be fun to play an urban campaign where it was tried, though.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I regularly douche with Coca-Cola and I have never been pregnant. So there!

En gardé!

Yes, I'm male. Why do you ask?

Douché!

 

[triqui]

I regularly douche with Coca-Cola and I have never been pregnant. So there!



Yes, I'm male. Why do you ask?

The irony is this sarcasm is actually a valid thought process for most people that dabble into superstition. They go with ideas like "some guy had cancer, went to Lourdes, and got healed, therefore, visiting Lourdes heal". Without using their brain further, this sounds right. Using logic, it's a "post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy: two things can come one after the other, without being related. I was born, and then one week later the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was founded. So, based on this, I could claim that my birth was the reason Vietnam went commie.

Fact is: there are like 4 or 5 people that the Pope acknowledges as "miracle healed in Lourdes". Lourdes get 5 million visitors per year. Even if one of them heal each year (which is not the case), they chance to spontanously heal in Lourdes isstatistically inferior to the chance to spontanously heal in any other place (which sounds logic, as probably the share of people heavily afflicted by their disease is higher, thus slanting the statistic).

People tend to have a huge lack of reasoning skills and logic abilitiy. We, as a whole, are prone to believe anything that make us feel warm, safe, or interested. Surprisingly, it also makes us prone to believe things that make us feel smarter than everyone else: "aha, I'm the only one that notices how Japan earthquake is related to some test of new weaponry developed by the secret agency that desintegrated the Twin Towers and made a fake video about Moon Landing in the 60s!! I'm sooo cool"

Yeah, you are. Soooooo cool. You are the kind of people that thinks that buying big trousers makes you fat. I mean... every single fat man out there buy big trousers, so there must be a conection, doesn't it?

 

[triqui]

There will always be people pretending to know magic, even in a world with magic. You'll have fake potion sellers, fake magic item sellers, and people who will fake the ability to cast spells with elaborate rituals. Given that D&D spells are 10 gp a spell level (times caster level) and your basic 1st level NPC (4 ranks of profession) makes about 7 gp* a week you will have people who want to find cheaper solutions and you have several classes with Bluff as a class skill willing to pretend to give it to them.

With an income of $49,777 (2009 median U.S. income) a year that would make a 1st level spell cast by a first level caster cost almost $1,480.

While that's right about the low poor peasant, it does not make sense once you move into the higher classes and higher spells. For example: compare the cost of a few galleons, a bunch of camels, the wage of sailors, drivers, guards, food for them for a couple months, the chance to be robbed.... Add them all. Now compare it to "permanent circle of teleport". Why would a rich merchant that regularly goes to East to brink silk and other goods do it with mundane methods? It's like technology. A 1805 peasant might feel himself scared of steam power, and he might be unable to pay for it regardless. But the rich ones... why should?

That's why Eberron makes so much sense. In a setting, either magic is misterious, unknown, and dangerous (ie Call of Cthulu), or it should become pervasive.

 

[Raven Crowking]

In one old issue of Dragon, there was an article on gypsies that included a random "tarot card reading" generator. Despite the fact that the players knew it was random, there was enough coincidence inherent in the game to make them believe it might not be. Hence, superstition can play a role even for PCs.

And who is to say that a sign to ward off the evil eye is not part of the saving throw process?

When the druid uses Speak With Animals to ask the horse who the killer was, and the horse says it was the Count, why wouldn't the Count counter with the obvious "It is well known that demons may interfere with such spellcasting, possessing the minds of creatures or garbling the words they speak, to cause harm among mortals. Clearly, either some creature means me ill, or there is some other cause at work, for that is not the truth."

And, even in a world where magic is understood by some enough to cast spells, some superstitions may well be true. Some cats may indeed fly to the dark side of the moon, and dreams may well be able to take you there. Carrying an iron nail in your pocket may provide some protection from magic (and this might not be obvious in a world where, as in earlier editions, many spells had random durations or results, allowing the DM to make adjustments with effects that are not immediately obvious). Carrying a greenstone might reduce the chance of wandering monsters (or increase the chance, or perhaps you were just unlucky?).

Superstition is rife in the modern setting. It should be equally rife in any game setting -- even those that take place in the far future!


RC

 

[Jhaelen]

In a world where magic is as everyday as electricity and TV is in the modern age, can there truly be such a thing as superstition?

Of course!
Even magic will likely follow certain rules and have certain limitations. And even if it didn't - unless everyone is capable of working magic without limitations, there'd still be plenty of room for superstition from those who aren't capable of working magic (or only to a limited degree).

Heck, unless everyone has total knowledge of everything at all times, there's room for superstition!

 

[Raven Crowking]

The irony is this sarcasm is actually a valid thought process for most people that dabble into superstition. They go with ideas like "some guy had cancer, went to Lourdes, and got healed, therefore, visiting Lourdes heal". Without using their brain further, this sounds right. Using logic, it's a "post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy: two things can come one after the other, without being related. I was born, and then one week later the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was founded. So, based on this, I could claim that my birth was the reason Vietnam went commie.

The problem is, of course, that ultimately all of our models are variations on this theme. No matter how much research one does, one can never actually see causation, and there is always a chance that further investigation will disprove a currently held model.

Or, to paraphrase Hume, just because the sun rose yesterday, and rose today, and rose every morning throughout human history, there is no evidence that it will rise tomorrow.

Also to paraphrase Hume, we have some capacity to feel relatively certain in the face of uncertain knowledge, to build models that we feel comfortable relying upon. Despite the fact that we do not know that there will be a tomorrow, we feel so comfortable with our belief that it is as though we know it.

Superstition arises from the same process of comfortable belief, IMHO, and remains unquestioned for the same reason that we seldom wonder if there will be a sunrise tomorrow -- it becomes an underlying part of an individual's accepted model for navigating the world.


RC