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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 1298160" data-attributes="member: 151">Correct or not, the perception that FR is 'high magic' exists for several reasons. 1) The lack of the perception of the fantastic: the realms is stuffed full of odd occurences, heavily magical anomalies and the imposition of the fantastic upon the everyday.  Contrast the entries from the Living Greyhawk Journal versus the monthly FR updates in Dragon over the last few years.  In the LGJ, I see a write up on a location of a deserted town where a mysterious figure and his golem guard a portal, hidden far away the eyes of men.  Very little actual informaiton is given, and it's left mysterious.  Compare this with the any of the two-page spreads of recent Dragon issues, where any single item on the page would be interesting write-up...but there's something like 10 separate items usually present.  The FR entries feel like they're turned up to 11. 2) Implied Setting levels:  Lots of FR details imply a hgher magic feel.  Darkness mentioned the increased number and level of mages above.  Further, there are so many everyday occurences of magic in the printed materials, that FR appears (whether true or not) to have a stronger magic presence.  Compare the one isle of the elves in FR with the one in Greyhawk.  In Greyhawk, the elves forced all the humans to leave.  No one knows why.  In the Realms, they established their home, and have a legion of elven dragon-riders in suspended animation living under the island, ready to defend the island at a moment's notice.   Pick up a copy of any Volo's guide...Greyhawk just doesn't have giant spectral hands appearing in the middle of every other street, like Waterdeep does.  Greyhawk doesn't have two super-dungeon settings like Myth Drannor (a dungeon city) AND the thing under Waterdeep (undermountain?).  While there are powerful NPCs in both settings, Mordankanien is just the head of a group dedicated to keeping things as the status quo in Greyhawk...he's a mcguffin to get an adventure started.  Elminster is an avatar of the goddess of magic.  He's not just a powerful character, he's an apsect of the Realms and a part of their setting.  Mordankanien can be easily migrated to another setting with little effort, Elminster can't.  3) The novels.  The novels, the novels, the novels.  There are quite a few of them, and the lens of detail they shine increases the perception of the widespread availability of magic.  Greyhawk's biggest campaign spanning event was the Greyhawk Wars and possibly the Flight of Fiends.  Compare and contrast with the Time of Troubles.  Then consider that the ToT occured, what, fifteen years ago?  The presence of the novels contributes to the volume of the setting.  I don't know any of the warriors that were mentioned above, and I've never read any of the novels.  But I know about Elminster's widespread exposure and I know who Manshoon is. 4) Unique magical mechanics.  Greyhawk, as the generic setting, lacks some of the magical add-ons of other settings.  FR is hardly unique in this respect, but it's the most popular setting, so it becomes the most popular target.  I don't know what wild magic, spellfire and the shadow weave are, exactly, (even though I have the FRCS, it proved too dense for me) but they are very famous features of the setting, and contribute to it's reputation. None of which is to say that, for an individual game, FR has any more or less magic than Greyhawk or the standard D&D setting.  For every Manshoon in FR, there's a Drax or Iuz in Greyhawk.  For every fallen Netheril empire, there was the Ur-Flan or Suel Empire.  Stylistically, they are quite similar. The difference is that it appears (and I won't claim that I know for sure either way, being no FR expert) that FR is super-saturated with magic occurences, items, equipment and characters far in excess of Greyhawk and some other settings.  That isn't a problem, but some folks find it unappealing.</blockquote>

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