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<blockquote data-quote="Misanthrope Prime" data-source="post: 9414331" data-attributes="member: 6776166">Take a shot every time I swing into a thread and say &quot;Eberron did it best&quot;.Eberron did it best. The &quot;basic&quot; D&amp;D assumption is that magic is a pretty common phenomenon that anyone with aptitude can use and it works in reliable, codifiable ways. That means it's basically just an extra set of the laws of physics on top of what laws of physics D&amp;D implicitly inherits from real life.If so, the peoples of the world would simply integrate magic into their understanding of &quot;science&quot; and the practical application thereof (AKA &quot;technology&quot;). A &quot;realistic&quot; D&amp;D world should look like Eberron if the following assumptions hold true:1) Magic is not a new phenomenon in your setting (contrast with Shadowrun or Deadlands)2) Civilization itself is neither new nor threatened (contrast with &quot;Sword and Sandal&quot; ancient adventures like Conan the Barbarian or King Kull or post apocalyptic fantasy like Dark Sun or Dying Earth)3) The use of magic is not restricted to a small group (contrast with Dragon Age or Harry Potter)In my personal setting, which deliberately set out to treat the modern era (15th-20th centuries) the way most D&amp;D treats the medieval era (9th-14th centuries), the world is undergoing a its equivalent of the scientific revolution and it is heavily inspired by Neil Stephenson's &quot;Baroque Cycle&quot;. Though the characters in the world don't know it, &quot;magic&quot; is also known as &quot;the anthropic principle&quot; and &quot;the suspension of disbelief&quot;; it is the &quot;force&quot; that changes random happenstance into stories, myths and legends. Magic &quot;happens&quot; in the gulf between expectation and reality, and magicians excel at planting those expectations into peoples' heads.If magic is an art, and all art is propaganda, magic in my setting is simply the application of propaganda on the physical world instead of the mind.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Misanthrope Prime, post: 9414331, member: 6776166"] Take a shot every time I swing into a thread and say "Eberron did it best". Eberron did it best. The "basic" D&D assumption is that magic is a pretty common phenomenon that anyone with aptitude can use and it works in reliable, codifiable ways. That means it's basically just an extra set of the laws of physics on top of what laws of physics D&D implicitly inherits from real life. If so, the peoples of the world would simply integrate magic into their understanding of "science" and the practical application thereof (AKA "technology"). A "realistic" D&D world should look like Eberron if the following assumptions hold true: 1) Magic is not a new phenomenon in your setting (contrast with Shadowrun or Deadlands) 2) Civilization itself is neither new nor threatened (contrast with "Sword and Sandal" ancient adventures like Conan the Barbarian or King Kull or post apocalyptic fantasy like Dark Sun or Dying Earth) 3) The use of magic is not restricted to a small group (contrast with Dragon Age or Harry Potter) In my personal setting, which deliberately set out to treat the modern era (15th-20th centuries) the way most D&D treats the medieval era (9th-14th centuries), the world is undergoing a its equivalent of the scientific revolution and it is heavily inspired by Neil Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle". Though the characters in the world don't know it, "magic" is also known as "the anthropic principle" and "the suspension of disbelief"; it is the "force" that changes random happenstance into stories, myths and legends. Magic "happens" in the gulf between expectation and reality, and magicians excel at planting those expectations into peoples' heads. If magic is an art, and all art is propaganda, magic in my setting is simply the application of propaganda on the physical world instead of the mind. [/QUOTE]

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