Man, who fucking cares. Trying to police what other do at their own personal tables, fucking hell. This isn't flame war worthy and it's not a fucking culture war
And at last we come to the final form of the argument when all else has exhausted itself, "who cares what other people do at their tables!". Which might potentially be considered true, if
other people weren't so damned concerned with what I do at
my table. But since they are, it's actually about as true as conservative Christians' "we don't care what you do in the privacy of your own bedroom", but only so long as what you do in the privacy of your own bedroom is exclusively heterosexual, monogamist, patriarchally-framed, and without the freeing influence of birth control, STI protection, or proper education on consent, boundaries, safety, or even the capacity to experience pleasure.
No, instead, these people insist on entire rulesets and settings rewritten to their preferences, precluding the possibility of play any way but theirs. Despite that people like me have been running inclusive and progressive-minded games for
decades, already within the remit of the rules which already existed. Simply because they lack the reading comprehension to understand the ways in which
their preferences are already baked in, lack the imagination to include those preferences with a sense of verisimilitude or (ironically) fantasy, or are so insistent upon projecting their real-life political baggage or social hang-ups into a fictitious universe which exists for the sole purpose of escapism.
That's why and how you end up with a "new and socially improved!" Forgotten Realms setting with
fewer powerful women, or women in leadership roles. Simbul took a misogynist fantasy trope to the face. Storm's misogynist fantasy troping herself for Mordenkainen. Sylune got fridged, and Dove's nowhere to be seen. Alustriel abdicated leadership of Silverymoon to her simp, "advises" the Lords' Alliance, and almost all her diplomatic work was systemically undone to progress
men characters' stories. Qilue's been dead for a while. The only one of the Seven Sisters whose lot improved was Laeral, and that's thanks to political connections from being married to
Khelben.
That's
just the Seven Sisters, by the way. This is the
default campaign setting, which for all its "stunning and brave" sensibility and advertisement has quite easily proven itself the most low-key misogynistic iteration of Forgotten Realms to date judging from the way major women characters have been treated in it.
That's why and how you end up with Dark Sun, minus its delightfully subversive Brom artwork as discussed earlier, because neo-puritans are pathologically, patriarchally, obsessed with the notion provocative dress equals disempowerment and objectification.
That's why and how you end up with a(n Age of Despair) Dragonlance setting that leaves its critique of organized religion, theocracy, and clergy by the wayside, and completely forsakes its brutality, for "accessibility" for wont of intellectual fortitude to limit player choice in service of its themes.
That's why and how players are approaching the upcoming Planescape guide not with eager anticipation, but dread. Because
god only knows what a writing team more interested in political posturing and too fearful of offense, but lacks the skill to politically posture without inadvertently undermining their own politics, will do with a deeply postmodern setting populated by philosophical factions that are
all straw men by design, and the chief conflict is in how those factions vie with each other for influence in a city where widescale or organized violence is prohibited by an iron-fisted quasi-divine despot and
her regime.
What do you understand "high magic" to mean? Because it D&D terms, it tends to refer to the overall prevalence of magic in society. The occasional intervention of deities and a handful of superpowerful NPC wizards does not tell us anything about the overall prevalence of magic.
You're right, it doesn't. So let's check these statements for veracity, shall we?
For instance, one uber-mage might be able to make a volcano erupt,
That's a 10th level spell. And in Forgotten Realms...so many people were capable of doing this, so often, it was fucking up the environment so badly that, in addition to a whole bunch of other epic magic fuckery that was
even worse, it had to be banned by divine mandate to prevent Forgotten Realms from turning into Dark Sun.
but it doesn't mean they operate as a magical artefact factory churning out magic lamps and +1 swords for the mass market
Tell me you don't know what happens in Halruaa, Thay, and Lantan without saying you don't know what happens in Halruaa, Thay, and Lantan. This is
exactly what happens in Halruaa, Thay, and Lantan. Mass creation, export, and sale of scrolls, reagents, and magical items through its enclaves, expedited by teleportation, is a staple of the Thayan economy for god's sake.
and indeed, such a mage would probably see that sort of task as well beneath them and a huge distraction from the important stuff.
That's why they have apprentices, understudies, and (in Thay's case) slaves.
You don't tend to fight a random bunch of brigands or orc raiding party and find a ring of protection and magic sword in the loot.
+1 magic weapons as uncommon items are literally on the loot table for tier 1 encounters. Rings of Protection have always been on the same loot table for past editions, but were only upgraded to rare in 5e*.
Cloaks of Protection are still uncommon, and therefore on the same tier 1 loot table.
(* Bounded accuracy, comparative value of item as a function of equipment slot, and the comparative utility of items which grant attack, skill check, or saving throw modifiers fucked with a lot of things in 5e. A +1 modifier is a hell of a lot more powerful in 5e than in any past edition, and items had to be rebalanced accordingly. Magic items of equal or greater adventuring utility, or encounter applicability, are comparatively weighed less than equivalent items.
For instance, see how Bags of Holding were downgraded to uncommon while Heward's Handy Haversacks were upgraded to rare, making Bags of Holding available on those same tier 1 loot tables.)
You go into dungeons and otherwise take on "special" NPCs to find this stuff because it isn't readily available from general stores or stealable from half the houses in every village in the land.
You act like those and other equally iconic or powerful items, are the only magic items to exist in the game. Interesting we're talking about those instead of, say, Heward's Handy Spice Pouch or an Everbright Lantern. It's almost as if someone here doesn't actually know as much as they think they do, or is trying to not-so-subtly reframe the discussion around terms to their benefit.
