Shouldn't the statement "Magic is indistinguishable from any sufficiently advanced technology" be true too? And if D&D has magic, why does the town smell so bad?
Why am I worried about the damage of a cross bow bolt? Shouldn't crossbows have two settings kill or stun and automatically load bolts from a replicator device embedded right above the trigger?
Why is my fighter's magical sword made out of steel while Luke's is made out of light? Potential Lukas lawsuits aside, wouldn't it make sense to have magical light swords in D&D?
Why worry about the obnoxious cleric when that little device Spock carries around is quite fit at saving anyone in the party? Oh and find diseased items. And traps. And poisonous gas, and ah so many things.
Why is full plate armor so in fashion? When full plate is less advanced than kevlar and kevlar is less advanced than Dune's personal shield?How many of you play in such high magic settings that it is, for all practical purposes, indistinguishable from sci-fi?
What sets D&D apart from science fiction if in the end science fiction and magic can become intermingled. At least according to Arthur C. Clarke.
1 comment:
Theoretically the Eberron campaign setting does tackle this. However, I too have found it rather odd that for all the power that wizards and other magic-users have, even in Eberron most magic isn't manipulated so much so that it's utilized like an every day tool, with even the most mundane peasants using magic-ized ploughs and what not.
It's partially why I like Ars Magica's approach to magic, as in that setting magic is heavily controlled and monitored by both the Order of Hermes and the Roman Catholic Church, combined with the fact that even the simplest spells take months to years before it can be utilized at all. And even then there are certain unbreakable rules regarding magic, plus until magic has been properly researched and possibly contained, it's not even 100% reliable, which makes technology and the more mundane approach the better way.
Then again, with magic being able to do stuff that would put the Hiroshima bomb and the Chernobyl disaster to shame, I think magic in itself does have its benefits even in that sort of setting.
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