I’m trying and failing to sleep off a sinus infection so my dumb, suffering brain says “lets look at ENW for a moment.”
I see this thread. Oofta, que?
…
This is some pretty serious insight I think.
In all my B/X games, all my RC games, my looooooong 3.x FR game continued from late 2e (/killme), my Shadow of Yesterday game, my multiple 4e games, the 5e game I co-GMed through level 18, my multiple Dungeon World/Stonetop games, my multiple Torchbearer games, my one-off Burning Wheel/Cortex Fantasy Heroic/13th Age/Beyond the Wall games…
Not a one of them featured prolific healing potions that could be “bought by the pallete.” Never a “magic-mart” was there.
And if there ever was either of those things (forget both…either), I wouldn’t for a moment conceive of my game as “low magic.”
This could be revelatory in the same way that “oh..6-8, resource-draining, combat encounters a day is totally legit…not awkward as hell to resolve with any consistency nor crippling to pacing (table time pacing specifically or pacing of unfolding fiction generally)” is. Is this a thing out there in D&D meatspace? Healing potions by the pallet + magic-marts? And then the calculation yielding = low magic?
If this is common feature/conception of games out in the wild, then man does it explain a lot about various divides (both in outcomes and in the process that derives those divergent outcomes).
I totally understand the phenomena of GMs extrapolating fictional backstory to executing blocks on powerful spellcasters (well of course my BBEGs enclave and every antagonist ever would have the full suite of Anti-Wizard9000 measures! Of course they would…no security measures are ever foiled, breached, or faulty in the real world! And medieval cultures were cleverer-er!). I obviously don’t agree with it, but I know how it works, and I know that it happens, and I know the role it plays in the discussion.
But I had no idea about the above. I’d love to hear more and I’d love and love to hear other testimonials on the subject.