What if Magic and Fantasy was real? For Better and Worse...

[ThaBenMan]

If you had the choice, would you want magic and fantasy things and creatures to be real? Not just the good stuff, either - everything. So all the bad stuff as well as the good.

So, instead of driving your boring car to work, you get to ride a unicorn! Sweet!... but you also get chased by a dragon that wants to eat you.

You can major in Sorcery at college! Awesome! But in the course of your studies, you might accidentally conjure a demon that drags you back with it to the Nether Planes.

When you go camping, you can hang out with dryads and elves! But you also have to watch out for giant spiders and roving bands of orcs.

And so on. So, would you risk running afoul of fantastic monsters and dark magic if it meant living a life of enchantment and wonder?

Myself - I would probably say no. I'm no fantasy hero - I would get fucked up by the first goblin I came across. I would opt for a safe and mundane life.

 

[Marter]

I wouldn't like it. We'd have even more problems in the world, and everyone would be far more dangerous than they are now.

 

[eatenbyagrue]

I'd like it.

Hell, I'd study it from a completely scientific point of view, and combine magic and technology to create really weird and cool stuff.

 

[Aerodynamic]

No, I hate magic and swords, give me my guns and cheetos and leave me be.

 

[TheFacelessOne]

I screamed at spiders.

If there wasn't any giant insects or related organisms, I'd be cool with it.

But yeah...giant bees won't fly with me.

Heh. Heh. Horrible not obvious pun.

 

[Roxas1359]

I probably wouldn't like it as much. Mainly because there will always be those who try and use it for their own personal gain and end up screwing it up for everyone else. While I would find it cool though, until I remember that I'm a pacifist and realize that there are now new things in the world that will attack me because I won't fight back. Damn my nonviolent ways!

 

[The Red Spy]

When you say everything, are we also talking about magical spells created by some random civilization X amount of thousands of years ago which could destroy the world or summon a benevolent God? There are many, many, many different sources with different kinds of magic, any particular world you mean?

 

[Baron Von Evil Satan]

Hell, if I could still have me a mini-gun, but make it enchanted with something bad ass, or make me fly or some such? Hellz to the yes pl0x.

 

[Chamale]

Orcs and giant spiders are creatures of myth based on real animals. Just as we hunted down bears in North America to less-dangerous levels, we'd kill off most of the giant spiders so they can't threaten us anymore.

Of course, if al-Qaeda can have Avada Kedavra, the world is pretty fucked. We can fight back, but a world with dark magic is a world where every disgruntled office worker has a gun.

 

[TheFacelessOne]

I'd like it.

Hell, I'd study it from a completely scientific point of view, and combine magic and technology to create really weird and cool stuff.

Hey! That's what my first RP was about!

You probin' my mind...? Stealing my ideas...?

 

[eatenbyagrue]

I'd like it.

Hell, I'd study it from a completely scientific point of view, and combine magic and technology to create really weird and cool stuff.

Hey! That's what my first RP was about!

You probin' my mind...? Stealing my ideas...?

Good sir, if I could read minds, I'd be at the bank, making several large withdrawals.

 

[Death on Trapezoids]

Assuming that this rampant magic flowing over the planet causes me to grow muscles, then yes, I think it would be pretty interesting.
Also, the message boards that survive would be a whole lot more fun:

"where were you the last 2 hours?"
"I was killing orcs that had been gnawing on my internet connection"

 

[Yureina]

I'd turn myself into someone else and live a life that i'd rather be living than the present one. If I could do that, then I think I would like it alot, despite all the potential dangers.

 

[Butterworm]

Assuming that this rampant magic flowing over the planet causes me to grow muscles, then yes, I think it would be pretty interesting.
Also, the message boards that survive would be a whole lot more fun:

"where were you the last 2 hours?"
"I was killing orcs that had been gnawing on my internet connection"

you know what the worst part of that would be?

"orcs are people too! stop all this senseless killing! equal rights for non-humans!"

 

[The Mick]

I would like a mixture of magic and technology like if magic was suddenly to become real right now and instead of putting everything behind technology we were to start backing magic as well. Something along those lines would be awesome a lot of care free studying of magic at first then monsters start to become real and the world has to fight them off.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

I really don't think things would be that different. Magic would be developed and mastered so things like instant comunication, streaming of media, and other normal things we expect in life now a day's proboly be made. Science and magic, when one comes down to it, are pretty much the same. Rascism would be replaced with speciesism between Elves, Dwarfs, Humans, etc. Cars would be replaced by brooms, TV's would be special crystal balls, so on so forth. Indeed, I think they might find some kind of "internet" possible, and we would be asking if science was real or something like that. If science and magic were developed side by side however, I have no idea how the world would end up.

 

[Billion Backs]

Considering that at core, they have rather faulty ideas... I don't see how it would work.

It would probably suck balls, considering how most fantasy generally involves gods. And how badly thought out magic tends to be.

If we're talking "fantasy world" as in a world with simply a different set of physical laws and ability to manipulate some of them, aka magic, but then it would be pretty much exactly like our world...

And wizards in fantasy suck at actually using their powers. If you can create fire, or telekinetically move something, or freeze stuff out of nowhere, why oh why bother with fireballs or frostbolts? Just do it into someone's heart or brain. Boom.

Most fantasy just goes with medieval ideas of medicine (medieval as in "dark ages", because the Greek and Romans were a lot more modern when it came to medicine compared to good ol' dark ages.) and spirituality, which are frankly absolutely retarded in my opinion, and it makes me cringe when people still rely on them today. And it happens pretty often, too.

 

[ThaBenMan]

When you say everything, are we also talking about magical spells created by some random civilization X amount of thousands of years ago which could destroy the world or summon a benevolent God? There are many, many, many different sources with different kinds of magic, any particular world you mean?

I guess if I have to quantify it somehow, let's say... every "real world" myth and legend. So, nothing that was made up in a book or movie or game (otherwise it would just get crazy...), but traditional things that were believed to be real at one point or other. So, maybe no orcs, necessarily...

 

[The Random One]

Hell, my favourite RPG setting is urban fantasy, so I'd be all into it. As long as it's not of the 'magic is EMP and shuts down technology!' kind. I want to be able to dowload spells from the internet and save them to my Kindle.

...then again, I'm pretty easily distracted, so I'd probably be a lousy mage.

The thing's that in a fantasy setting, while we're usually looking at the heroes who are casting fireballs and waving magical swords around, the world isn't much different for the average shit-hauling peasant. They may be using a magical horse-like creature to pull their carriages instead of a regular horse, but that just means they need to buy magical sunflower seeds instead of hay. I doubt life would be much different if magic was real.