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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nightwyrm" data-source="post: 4599121" data-attributes="member: 75542">May I suggest that what people calls "magic" is simply stuff that they can't explain. To ancient people, lightning is magic and a power wield by the gods because they can't understand its cause. Curses were thought to work because people didn't understand germ theory and how people got sick. Once you can clearly provide a mechanistic explanation of cause and effect, "magic" becomes tech. That is not to say that tech is not mysterious to the layperson. I don't know very well how my computer works and I doubt very much if anyone on this board completely understands quantum theory, but we wouldn't call them magical. I go to the tech support when my computer breaks down, but if I had completely no understanding of modern technology, I might as well call them witch doctors. Magic is tech in D&D and many other RPGs is because the books provides the rules for magic. They have to, in order to make the game work. You mix bat guano and a few words and you get a fireball. Completely mechanistic with clear cause and effect. Even if the magic rules include a chance of failure everytime someone casts a spell, the player knows why the spell failed (you rolled poorly). In a "magical" world, the world is whimsical. An inhabitant don't know or understand why the world works the way it does. He cannot establish mechanistic cause and effect. He may not even believe that you can understand the cause and effect in that world. In a "tech" world, the world is orderly. A person may not know or understand exactly the rules by which the world works, but he knows that there are rules. If something happens that he can't explain, he knows that it's because of his lack of knowledge of the rules of the world, not because the world doesn't have any rules.</blockquote>

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