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Old 07-12-2018, 08:16 AM   #31
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: What do we mean by "Realistic"?

When I am talking about social and economic realism, I am generally talking about people who have realistic social and economic responses to the events in the campaign. For an example of social realism, everyone has their own complex motivations that underlie their actions (even if they do not realize that they have those motivations), so villains should have a reason for their villainy other than just being evil and heroes should have a reason for their heroics other than just being good (and the plans of villains should logically reflect their reasons for villainy and the methods of heroes should logically reflect their reasons for heroism). For an example of economic realism, societies where wizards are capable of generating high quality light for cheap will not hunt whales for lantern oil and societies where anyone is capable of contributing to ceremonial magic should not have widespread poverty (as the availability of magical energy allows for massive gains it economic productivity and the ability of anyone to contribute to ceremonial magic should allow for a baseline Struggling income).
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