Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 4594050" data-attributes="member: 19675">Magic is the "tech" of FRPGs.  Its not integral to the definition of "hero" to use tech to achieve his goals- indeed, heroic achievements without using tech seem more heroic than those achieved with it.However, sometimes, tech is necessary.  Knights have their armor.  Modern Action Heroes usually carry some kind of firearm, possibly explosives.  MacGyver carried nothing, but improvised a lot of tech.In a fantasy world, Dutch (the Governator's character from Predator) would trade his machine gun for a magic staff or weapon.  (When that failed, of course, he'd still be setting up his primitive traps- another form of tech).To me, Magic is both a subset of treasure that may be found or won and something that can be created by one's self or allies.Not IME.For one thing, its removable.  And because its removable, it can be used against its former possessors or even completely destroyed.The old Arthur C. Clark adage comes into play here: Any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.  Some would argue that the reverse is also true.However, one thing that magic does that (real) technology doesn't is break the laws of physics.Like Weapons, Magic is a tool.   As such, it can be bent to any task that a creative mind can come up with.  Sometimes, though, the use of magic is impractical, as it is with RW tech as well.One wouldn't create a 5 hour ritual to sharpen your pencil, after all- that would be the magical equivalent of a Rube Goldberg device.That depends upon the setting and the kind of magic.Clerics channel divine energies granted to them by their god or philosophy.  Their power is not inherent, but rather, is on loan.Again, that depends upon the setting and kind of magic.</blockquote>

Verification