Speaking in Deep Geek

The metaphysics of magic in Dungeons and Dragons comes from the fields of war. *Miniature war*. D&D hails from a heritage of tabletop wargames, and summing it up, the magic concept was an adaptation of the early days of firearms flavored by the mythos of J.R.R. Tolkien. At that point, there was little thought to magic beyond what it did as an analogue of an arquebus +1.

*Take the shot, make the display of fire and fury, then get out of the way of the knights and footmen*.

Obviously, they've put a little more thought into it since then, but they're still balancing the system based on the idea that every class of combatant *should be* equal. It's a wonderful, egalitarian concept... *that has been proven profoundly wrong in the annals of history*.

## Why is this important?

Simply because it helps to know why "canon" is what it is. There are now five (5) versions of the rules, and countless campaign products that were written based on the physics of what was possible in that moment. The RetCons can only take the current version so far, yet to dismiss the old content risks invalidating the very depth and texture that makes a world like Faerûn what it is. That's to say nothing of peripheral canon that flagrantly ignores the rules anyway (see: R.A. Salvatore). For the Wizards of the Coast, that's a very careful balance to walk.

One thing the fantasy genre has done well, and D&D has been a part of that, is explore the consequences of magic on the world. It's been uneven at best, if only because there is no standard definition of what magic is, where it comes from, or what its limits are. Still, the hacker culture adapts spells to novel or "off-label" applications in ways that begin to throw back the veil: even small amounts of magic would have a massive impact on the world.

To a campaign setting like Faerûn, which is packaged for sale as a staple of the D&D universe, it's critical that the product keep the formula that made it a success: in this case, the snapshot of alternate earth, late medieval period, with pockets of magically-accelerated renaissance. To upset the formula is to risk what has made it a reliable product.

The closest thing to real-life magic is applied science: the rise of technology... and few things will unbalance the game faster than a dwarf with a minigun. Lantan was wiped off the map, then brought back again – but without much detail beyond what the DM was left to infer and build upon... *if that was a direction they wanted to go*.

### **To Boldly Go (Where Wizards of the Coast Can't)**

The stock game, and its associated campaigns, *needs* to promote elements like class balance. We get it, we love it. The stock game *needs* to create an atmosphere friendly to first-time DMs and players. Again, we love it. It's how we all got started. Yet in their growing wisdom, they leave just a little wiggle room open to the players who have played through "stock" countless times already.

This is why the Primal Magic Campaign gives credit where it's due, then leaves all pretense of balance behind. This is about following the data, making the inferences, and seeing how magic evolves a world where the narrative gods haven't forsaken it to the early 14th century...

## **Flipping the Table**

So, in the theater of the mind, D&D allowed itself to grow the arcane just a bit beyond a magical replacement for a musket. They started to look at systems of magic and retrofit those to the Guy-in-Robes +1 that were on the table.

Naturally, they "leaned on" a system that was closest to what they already had (which had to be very similar to loading a magical musket and firing it off). Enter ***the Jack Vance Rules*** of memorizing and forgetting spells. The wizards memorize the patterns, only to have them ripped from their head when they're fired off. This helps keeps the footmen relevant.

*And yet*...

For D&D, they operate on the principle that the exceptions prove the rule. No place is that more apparent than the "cantrips," which is perhaps their closest to an unfettered magic system. Close behind are the monsters that have "spell-like abilities," able to cast spells without memorizing the patterns in ways that break their own metaphysics of magic.

It is the exceptions *and the rules* that drive the Primal exploration. It is *starting* with the metaphysics and translating that into player-level rules that the Primal Magic Campaign seeks to accomplish.