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<blockquote data-quote="Ydars" data-source="post: 4598785" data-attributes="member: 62992">The problem with D&amp;D magic is that is an entirely separate and distinct entity that is not connected to any belief system or any natural force or event. It is never used as a way to displace our scientific assumptions about the world, so of course we fall back on what we know. If the game world told us the world actually was flat, then we, as players, would be forced to accept that this was true of the game world. Similarly, if we are told how magic works and how it functions (even if this is not always logical or predictable) then we would be able to use it and interact with it in a meaningful way. Yet D&amp;D completely sidesteps what magic is and how it works, except to allude to Vance, whose views on magic were fairly obscure and not completely explicit.&nbsp;So of course magic gets used as a flavourless tool. It was designed to be used that way, though some might say this was a mistake.&nbsp;Magic originally arose as a way of explaining the world and how it functioned. It was tied to how ancient peoples percieved their world and their own place in it.&nbsp;There were obviously many magical traditions that became associated with various belief systems and all could be mined for ideas; Cabalism, the philsophers stones, the doctrine of signatures, the law of arcane connections, etc. The problem is, what results would be closer to Ars Magica than D&amp;D and it is probably too late to do more than nudge D&amp;D towards this now.&nbsp;The irony is, that Gygax's original decision on magic allowed lots of different worlds to evolve because of the lack of this kind of fluff. Now we have a unified cosmology for all the D&amp;D worlds with 4E, it actually would be more feasible to create a unified theory of magic than at any time in the past.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ydars, post: 4598785, member: 62992"] The problem with D&D magic is that is an entirely separate and distinct entity that is not connected to any belief system or any natural force or event. It is never used as a way to displace our scientific assumptions about the world, so of course we fall back on what we know. If the game world told us the world actually was flat, then we, as players, would be forced to accept that this was true of the game world. Similarly, if we are told how magic works and how it functions (even if this is not always logical or predictable) then we would be able to use it and interact with it in a meaningful way. Yet D&D completely sidesteps what magic is and how it works, except to allude to Vance, whose views on magic were fairly obscure and not completely explicit. So of course magic gets used as a flavourless tool. It was designed to be used that way, though some might say this was a mistake. Magic originally arose as a way of explaining the world and how it functioned. It was tied to how ancient peoples percieved their world and their own place in it. There were obviously many magical traditions that became associated with various belief systems and all could be mined for ideas; Cabalism, the philsophers stones, the doctrine of signatures, the law of arcane connections, etc. The problem is, what results would be closer to Ars Magica than D&D and it is probably too late to do more than nudge D&D towards this now. The irony is, that Gygax's original decision on magic allowed lots of different worlds to evolve because of the lack of this kind of fluff. Now we have a unified cosmology for all the D&D worlds with 4E, it actually would be more feasible to create a unified theory of magic than at any time in the past. [/QUOTE]

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