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« on: January 06, 2007, 03:47:27 PM »
In my world, magic takes place in the "real world" like Harry Dresden so there's a question as to why it's not more prominent. Magic needs to be inhibited, in my opinion, because it's a deus es machine that can do whatever you want it to unless you really DETAIL out the ground rules for it.
I went for the idea in my campaign that magic is really, really, really difficult. The idea that its exhausting and mentally taxing seemed like an excellent way to handle it. The bigger the effect, the more you risked your life and sanity to do it. Plus, it also gave me the excuse for a lot of extra plots solely by this limitation. Stuff we see in other worlds like human sacrifice, ley lines, and pacts with demons are things that solely exist to provide someone more magical 'oomph' to draw upon. Magic can also be done without spells and the like, which makes some scenes easier, but they're really needed to pull off more difficult effects and make the cost for the spells less cumbersome.
I think that gave a good excuse as to why someone would just go out and buy a gun as opposed to trying to kill someone with fire from above.
How do you think it should be handled?