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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 9323656" data-attributes="member: 82106">Yeah, I agree with [USER=5142]@Aldarc[/USER], Earthsea magic is a philosophical tool, not a technical system. She does establish a few very basic rules, but it is easy to see how this is not a technical system by simply trying to imagine the construction of some magical effect and then how would Earthsea handle it? There's no answer! I mean, we might conclude that a magic of great effect would require great effort, and especially potent symbolism, and be very difficult to accomplish, but beyond that sort of general statement there's nothing much. I'd contrast that with something like 'Master of Five Magics' where actual RULES are laid down by Hardy and you can literally sort out which rules would be invoked in order to achieve certain types of effects (it is still not going to tell you the most minute details of the process though). I would say D&amp;D doesn't even rise to the level of attempting EITHER of these things. It has some fairly arbitrary 'schools' and hand waves that there are gestures and vocalizations, and once in a while a spell description hints at principles like sympathy or contagion from magical theories, but it doesn't take any of that very seriously.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 9323656, member: 82106"] Yeah, I agree with [USER=5142]@Aldarc[/USER], Earthsea magic is a philosophical tool, not a technical system. She does establish a few very basic rules, but it is easy to see how this is not a technical system by simply trying to imagine the construction of some magical effect and then how would Earthsea handle it? There's no answer! I mean, we might conclude that a magic of great effect would require great effort, and especially potent symbolism, and be very difficult to accomplish, but beyond that sort of general statement there's nothing much. I'd contrast that with something like 'Master of Five Magics' where actual RULES are laid down by Hardy and you can literally sort out which rules would be invoked in order to achieve certain types of effects (it is still not going to tell you the most minute details of the process though). I would say D&D doesn't even rise to the level of attempting EITHER of these things. It has some fairly arbitrary 'schools' and hand waves that there are gestures and vocalizations, and once in a while a spell description hints at principles like sympathy or contagion from magical theories, but it doesn't take any of that very seriously. [/QUOTE]

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