Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)
Bruce Grubb <bgrubb@zianet.com> wrote:
>
> But the problem is you are dumping magic in this world which throws the
> *effective* Technology level off. GURPS uses TLx+y to show this.
> Technomancer (called Merlin in Infinate Worlds) is at TL7+1 or higher than
> our own TL7 but that is due to magic. The average D&D world seems to range
> from TL2+2 (Age of Sail, 1450+) to TL 3+2 (Industrial Revolution, 1730+)
> which throws any assumption on the 'historic' Middle Ages out the window.
.... and now the branched thread. (And yes, I know I changed the subject
line on my previous message.)
We could posit the existence of magic and try to determine what effect
that would have on the situation. It may be that between magic and the
gods taking a direct hand medicine could be considered roughly
equivalent to our own in terms of effectiveness.
Me, I suspect not. Where you've got some making things better, those
who want to make things worse have comparable tools. RAW, magic is too
expensive to be used for 'mundane' purposes. Yes, /remove disease/
could cure someone with the Black Plague, but once it started to spread
you'd only be able to save certain individuals. This could of course
'affect history' -- save the important people who bend the path of
history, and things will be different than if they'd died. Probably.
I'm not going into that right now.
However, you'd still be greatly limited as to what exactly you could do.
You couldn't save *everyone*. You might be able to identify when and
where it'll start, quarantine that city, and prevent it from spreading
and wiping out the continent. Or not -- it could be magically hidden or
surpressed until it was too late to contain, or a number of areas of
contagion started to make it too difficult to stop. This'd have to be
organized, of course, which means the possibility of finding out and
stopping *that* from happening exists.
Basically, while magic allows for great results in some cases, they're
still less than you'd see in modern times, in the *common* case. Yes,
you might be able to use /remove disease/ to cure AIDS, but there'll
still be a lot of people dying of pneumonia or dysentery... especially
if they still have the open sewers in the streets.
Overall I treat magic as making things a little better on average than
it was; much of the 'counter' to the benefits of magic require active
application (i.e. evil), which reduces the likelihood. It makes things
a little smoother if I assume magic makes life a little better overall,
without greatly influencing most of the rest of society. It's a source
of power, but very tightly focused.
Make it cheap and fairly common, *then* you've got something that'll
change the society. That a few people gain benefits from it will make
*some* difference, but not nearly as much as many people think.
Keith
--
Keith Davies "Trying to sway him from his current kook-
keith.davies@kjdavies.org rant with facts is like trying to create
keith.davies@gmail.com a vacuum in a room by pushing the air
http://www.kjdavies.org/ out with your hands." -- Matt Frisch
Bruce Grubb <bgrubb@zianet.com> wrote:
>
> But the problem is you are dumping magic in this world which throws the
> *effective* Technology level off. GURPS uses TLx+y to show this.
> Technomancer (called Merlin in Infinate Worlds) is at TL7+1 or higher than
> our own TL7 but that is due to magic. The average D&D world seems to range
> from TL2+2 (Age of Sail, 1450+) to TL 3+2 (Industrial Revolution, 1730+)
> which throws any assumption on the 'historic' Middle Ages out the window.
.... and now the branched thread. (And yes, I know I changed the subject
line on my previous message.)
We could posit the existence of magic and try to determine what effect
that would have on the situation. It may be that between magic and the
gods taking a direct hand medicine could be considered roughly
equivalent to our own in terms of effectiveness.
Me, I suspect not. Where you've got some making things better, those
who want to make things worse have comparable tools. RAW, magic is too
expensive to be used for 'mundane' purposes. Yes, /remove disease/
could cure someone with the Black Plague, but once it started to spread
you'd only be able to save certain individuals. This could of course
'affect history' -- save the important people who bend the path of
history, and things will be different than if they'd died. Probably.
I'm not going into that right now.
However, you'd still be greatly limited as to what exactly you could do.
You couldn't save *everyone*. You might be able to identify when and
where it'll start, quarantine that city, and prevent it from spreading
and wiping out the continent. Or not -- it could be magically hidden or
surpressed until it was too late to contain, or a number of areas of
contagion started to make it too difficult to stop. This'd have to be
organized, of course, which means the possibility of finding out and
stopping *that* from happening exists.
Basically, while magic allows for great results in some cases, they're
still less than you'd see in modern times, in the *common* case. Yes,
you might be able to use /remove disease/ to cure AIDS, but there'll
still be a lot of people dying of pneumonia or dysentery... especially
if they still have the open sewers in the streets.
Overall I treat magic as making things a little better on average than
it was; much of the 'counter' to the benefits of magic require active
application (i.e. evil), which reduces the likelihood. It makes things
a little smoother if I assume magic makes life a little better overall,
without greatly influencing most of the rest of society. It's a source
of power, but very tightly focused.
Make it cheap and fairly common, *then* you've got something that'll
change the society. That a few people gain benefits from it will make
*some* difference, but not nearly as much as many people think.
Keith
--
Keith Davies "Trying to sway him from his current kook-
keith.davies@kjdavies.org rant with facts is like trying to create
keith.davies@gmail.com a vacuum in a room by pushing the air
http://www.kjdavies.org/ out with your hands." -- Matt Frisch
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