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waxing philosophical on "low magic" versus "high fantasy"
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<blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 1921032" data-attributes="member: 26473"><p>And that's exactly what I try to avoid in my campaign settings.</p><p></p><p>Every village doesn't have a cleric who can cast healing spells - people die from accidents and illnesses.</p><p></p><p>Every town doesn't have a wizard who pens magic scrolls - all magic items are rare, with the possible exception of potions, which are merely uncommon.</p><p></p><p>Every ship doesn't have a weather-working elementalist. Every forest isn't protected by druids. Every minstrel cannot inspire feats of bravery.</p><p></p><p>People in my campaign know magic is out there, and they may witness it in action anywhere from a handful of times to quite often in their lives, but for the majority of the characters dwelling in my campaign settings it is not a part of the daily fabric of their existence.</p><p></p><p>I stopped thinking of it as "high" or "low" magic, and started calling it "rare" magic. Magic-users are rare, magic items much rarer still.</p><p></p><p>So what about fantastic landscapes? In my setting you will find a forest that is temperate year round in a valley above the arctic circle - it was planted by the goddess of nature herself. There is a mountain that was raised by the god of the earth and is said to contain his tomb. Seafarers are on the lookout for a magical storm (think of an advanced tempest elemental that creates a wild magic zone) that wanders the oceans. A huge sentient seaweed raft can be found on that same ocean. Trees that defy the normal laws of gravity, moons guided by a divine hand rather than the laws of physics, a magical desert of shifting dunes and drifting oases - the fact that magic is rare doesn't mean that these landscapes don't exist in my setting.</p><p></p><p>These landscapes can be of divine origin, the effect of magics lost to the understanding of the present age, or simply anomalies that no one can adequately explain. To be sure all of them have their share of legends and myths, some true, some anything but.</p><p></p><p>That's how I approach it. Personally I think magic is more fantastic when it's not commonplace and mundane, and that's how I build my settings.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Shaman, post: 1921032, member: 26473"] And that's exactly what I try to avoid in my campaign settings. Every village doesn't have a cleric who can cast healing spells - people die from accidents and illnesses. Every town doesn't have a wizard who pens magic scrolls - all magic items are rare, with the possible exception of potions, which are merely uncommon. Every ship doesn't have a weather-working elementalist. Every forest isn't protected by druids. Every minstrel cannot inspire feats of bravery. People in my campaign know magic is out there, and they may witness it in action anywhere from a handful of times to quite often in their lives, but for the majority of the characters dwelling in my campaign settings it is not a part of the daily fabric of their existence. I stopped thinking of it as "high" or "low" magic, and started calling it "rare" magic. Magic-users are rare, magic items much rarer still. So what about fantastic landscapes? In my setting you will find a forest that is temperate year round in a valley above the arctic circle - it was planted by the goddess of nature herself. There is a mountain that was raised by the god of the earth and is said to contain his tomb. Seafarers are on the lookout for a magical storm (think of an advanced tempest elemental that creates a wild magic zone) that wanders the oceans. A huge sentient seaweed raft can be found on that same ocean. Trees that defy the normal laws of gravity, moons guided by a divine hand rather than the laws of physics, a magical desert of shifting dunes and drifting oases - the fact that magic is rare doesn't mean that these landscapes don't exist in my setting. These landscapes can be of divine origin, the effect of magics lost to the understanding of the present age, or simply anomalies that no one can adequately explain. To be sure all of them have their share of legends and myths, some true, some anything but. That's how I approach it. Personally I think magic is more fantastic when it's not commonplace and mundane, and that's how I build my settings. [/QUOTE]
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