Yrth technology

[griffin]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

No, but I'm not looking for some bizarre explanation as to why magic hasn't changed the world. I'm not really comfortable with magic that doesn't change the world.

Than accept the many reasons given. Of course as GM you can make whatever changes you want in your game.

I saved the bit about the Banestorm as an example of a crit fail that is proportional to the intent and effort of the spell that failed. The Dark elves were trying to cast every orc off Yrth. So when it went bad it brought a lot more beings they didn't want.

It also obliterated miles of land and wiped large parts of the elven civilization.

Taking the 4 energy necessary to change a rock into a pot and turning it into the 20 energy (minimum) needed to summon a Demon is disproportionate and having someone roll 2 18s in a row doesn't justify it.

Even taking the energy that would turn 1 rock into 1 pot and using it to break every pot in the shop is disproportionate. You usually don't get results that favorable for rolling a crit success.

A crit fail should not be more bad than a crit success is good.

Of course it should. Why? Because you already get a usual GOOD result that's far better than the mundane equivalent. People revere wizards for the powerful capabilities they possess. But they also fear them for the mishaps they can bring about through failure and malice.

Most of the time in your pot example the mere 4 points of energy yields results that are disproportionate to the effort put into it if measured against mundane creation of pots. But magic is tricky. There are dangers in spell casting. The spell table shows any number of areas where things go wrong and on a result of 18 (and this is after already rolling a critical failure to get here in the first place), it states a demon or some such creature appears and attacks the spell caster.

Personally, I'd go with something less than attacking the spell caster immediately. I'd usually just have the creature rampage through the shop breaking things. Sometimes it would be a demon, other times an earth elemental. On really rare occassions it would attack the spell caster. Most of the time it would just cause damage unless the spell caster or others attack it.

The magical pot maker can typically create pots faster and cheaper than his mundane counterparts. But there are those days when life gets far more interesting than with the mundane potter. "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" and "great rewards come with the cost of greater risks".

You can't simply ignore the rules and then criticize the setting.

Wizards are far rarer than mundane workers. They have magic, but that entails specific innate talent, taking on specialized training, and accepting the risks inherint in using magic.

I recall reading a Zelazny story about "Delivish the Damned" where the mage talks about "charming a lock" being a difficult spell. Typically we think of magically lock picking as being a routine and easy task.