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<blockquote data-quote="VelvetViolet" data-source="post: 7632509" data-attributes="member: 6686357"><p>Not necessarily.</p><p></p><p>Adding hidden variables to magic like environmental modifiers and character traits doesn't work in D&D because you don't roll to cast spells like you do skills and attacks. If you had to roll to cast spells, then you would be able to assign modifiers based on such hidden variables.</p><p></p><p>Treating magic as part of nature is more difficult, since audiences have been trained by fantasy fiction to treat magic as a power source to cheat physics rather than a holistic part of the world. Very few settings challenge this like, say, <em>Nephilim</em>, Glorantha or <em>Exalted</em>. It requires building your magic/reality system with a holistic basis, like classical elements or something. (Nephilim has <strong>eight </strong>elements underpinning reality.)</p><p></p><p>The sword example given in the essay displays this well. We imagine, say, Excalibur as just a vague property of magic tacked onto a regular sword that can be switched off by an antimagic effect. We don't imagine a scifi Swiss army gun working the same way, because we are told it operates by the same principles as our nervous systems and the weather.</p><p></p><p>I think an animistic cosmology could help with this more, since it takes advantage of our tendency to anthropomorphize inanimate objects. Under an animistic cosmology, any blacksmith creates not just a sword but the spirit of that sword. Giving it "magical" properties is a result of enhancing the spirit.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="VelvetViolet, post: 7632509, member: 6686357"] Not necessarily. Adding hidden variables to magic like environmental modifiers and character traits doesn't work in D&D because you don't roll to cast spells like you do skills and attacks. If you had to roll to cast spells, then you would be able to assign modifiers based on such hidden variables. Treating magic as part of nature is more difficult, since audiences have been trained by fantasy fiction to treat magic as a power source to cheat physics rather than a holistic part of the world. Very few settings challenge this like, say, [I]Nephilim[/I], Glorantha or [I]Exalted[/I]. It requires building your magic/reality system with a holistic basis, like classical elements or something. (Nephilim has [B]eight [/B]elements underpinning reality.) The sword example given in the essay displays this well. We imagine, say, Excalibur as just a vague property of magic tacked onto a regular sword that can be switched off by an antimagic effect. We don't imagine a scifi Swiss army gun working the same way, because we are told it operates by the same principles as our nervous systems and the weather. I think an animistic cosmology could help with this more, since it takes advantage of our tendency to anthropomorphize inanimate objects. Under an animistic cosmology, any blacksmith creates not just a sword but the spirit of that sword. Giving it "magical" properties is a result of enhancing the spirit. [/QUOTE]
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