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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gus L" data-source="post: 9680980" data-attributes="member: 7045072">It doesn't matter if Tolkien's dwarves cast spells... This whole discussion reminds me of "Gandalf is a 7th level Magic-User tops" sort of claims.  Tolkien's books do not follow any D&D system and can't really be laid on top of them very well, and despite Elric or Cthulhu getting stats in the old Deities & Demigods neither do Moorcock or Lovecraft.  D&D creates its own implied fantasy setting that is far more mechanistic then any novel setting.  It demands things happen on specific time tables and in reproducible ways so that players can better plan and now the setting and that setting can remain generalized.  For example - the player facing rules for making magic items in D&D are highly abstract while in most fantasy novels or myth what matters is sourcing strange materials, gaining the favor and intervention of magical and divine beings and the special skills of superhuman craftsmen ... none of that is in D&D, because none of it allows for a generalized and reproducible system that can be easily mapped onto the level of detail in the setting...Imagine for a second if we wanted to include a general rule (as implied in the DMG I think) that +1 weapons are made from "Mitheral" or whatever.  Now this becomes a problem for the designer because none of the existing adventures have any mitheral mines or deposits and D&D doesn't really have a world map... to make this work well one would need a system for gathering mitheral. Do you dig it from special deep mines? Where are they? Do you squeeze it out of a hungover dwarf? Easier, but does this imply powerful governments trap dwarves in some kind of alcoholism factory to arm their legions?D&D - at least as the general system of fantasy its early editions envision starts to fall apart the more detail one includes, because detail is a synonym for setting. Conversely generalized and universal ways of dealing with things - like magic or the toughness of goblins don't make for very good fiction.</blockquote>

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