Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Preatori0us]

I had to go with "Other" I really enjoy The Warmachine/Ebberon type setting where magic is used to create technology. Kind of like a mirror world to Girl Genius (which is freakin' awesome).
_________________
When the stars themselves burn out three things will continue kicking a**: Faith, Hope and Love.
The greatest of these is Love, but Faith WILL jack you up mano y mano.

[Golan2072]

My preferred level of magic is a mixture of Middle Earth-style with Lovecraft-style: the world is a magical place with wondrous beings, situations and places, but true spell-casters are rare and so are permanent and/or powerful magical items; and high-level magic is VERY dangerous and very, very rare.

[nonefornic]

[Sitting Duck]

[razorwise]

It truly depends on the setting. *shrugs*

The amount, power, and cost (spiritual and otherwise) of magic can truly shape the setting as much as the amount (or absence) of technology present.

From the settings I've worked on, it seems I tend towards a goodly amount of magic--Iron Dynasty and RunePunk have high magic, whereas its more restricted in Agents of Oblivion (at least from the world view perspective) and it's (naturally) nasty as all get out in Realms of Cthulhu. Shaintar is definitely on the higher end of the spectrum, while Ravaged Earth has less of a focus on magic.

This is a rather interesting, thought-provoking thread.

Regards,

Sean
_________________
Reality Blurs
Reality Blurs Tweets!
The Razorwise Report
The Blur is Now on G+

[skylion]

I choose Other.

It depends on how I want to tell a story, or how the story shapes up; very organic in that nature. Another factor is the current game setting I am enamored of.

But for horror, you can't beat Deadlands. Where the forces beyond the material world are out to get you; and every hex is an invitation to corruption, every device a way to destruction.
In that vein I also like the Gothic Horror of Ravenloft, where some areas of magic become forbidden lore, yet still maintains a fairly fantasy feel to it. Necromancy becomes an even bigger force to deal with, and divination is kept mysterious.

As far as high fantasy goes, I like where the current level of steampunk and arcane technology is at. I kinda like it that the lines between science and magic are being blurred, as it allows for speculation, but it keeps to the dependable meta-rules for magic stuffs.
_________________

[HawaiianBrian]

[newForumNewName]

My preference for magic is Mage: The Awakening style.

If we are talking traditional elf/dwarf/et al. fantasy, I think Conan is fun as well as Star Wars style.
_________________
"I had a whole bunch of advice for you but got ninja'd by newForumNewName. I'd just do what he says." -- 77IM

"While nFNN could be less of a jerk about how he says what he says, what he says is essentially correct." -- ValhallaGH

[Lord Inar]

[Enpeze]

Warhammer only.

[Thunderforge]

I chose "Middle Earth style" because it most closely fit, although I think I'm mostly in favor of the "Camelot" style fantasy. Most people don't use magic, but there are a few, like Merlin, who can and although they aren't necessarily evil, they are those who fear them.

Moreover, I like my magic items to only be able to be made except from the most powerful of the (rare) sorcerers. Basically, they should be rare, they should be special, and they should be much more valuable than "a +1 Magic Longsword" which you ditch as soon as you find a "+2 Magic Longsword".

[Takeda]

Middle Earthy for me ... but in an organic style too. I'll explain.

In one game I was playing a Norse warrior, a Huscarl who was caught up in some nasty business. We were using Harnmaster which uses Hit Location ... it hit the Neck a lot ... My character Olaf started calling out what was to become his sword's name 'Neck-Biter' loudly. If he had the advantage he'd do a called shot for the neck. Eventually his sword had a reputation and Olaf became Olaf the wielder of Neck-Biter or Olaf Neck-Biter for short. Where it gets organic is I talked to my GM about it and he agreed to lower the penalty to target the neck by 5% but raise it by 5% anywhere else. The rationale was that it was slowly gaining it's own sort of magic based on it's use and it's legend.

Magic is rare and few people ever see any. Nobody doubts in the existence of magic however and everyone believes that it was all around them but in a more organic and natural way. Fairy Rings, 'lucky' objects, Ulf the Lucky or Vigfis the Cursed, etc. Objects can be inherintly magical by design or by accident or circumstances as it was with Olaf's sword. True magic is enigmatic and anyone who can call magic into existence and command it to do a certain thing reliably is very powerful indeed. Magic is something that anyone can add to their toolbox but some are simply far more talented at it.

Having someone go down to the local shop and come back with a Mark IV Continuous Wand of Illumination just isn't my thing.
_________________
Dean: "Ya' know she could be faking."
Sam: "Yeah, what do you wanna do, poke her with a stick?"
[Dean nods]
Sam: "Dude, you're not gonna poke her with a stick?"
Supernatural Quotes

[samuraicrab]

I favor Middle earth style.

[Orangataur]

My high fantasy settings tends to fall into a Terry-Pratchett-esque magic system, where magic tends to spoof common technology, especially if it helps me incorporate a new style into the game. If an adventure calls for a prison break, part of the experience is getting your mug shot taken via crystal ball.

For example, when I was hosting a D&D Encounters session, when a drow managed to land a particularly nasty crit on one of my PCs, he also pulled out his smartphone and tagged a picture of it. Two rounds later, everyone feels a buzzing in their pocket, is stunned to find a smartphone there that wasn't before, and that *someone* uploaded a picture on LolthBook of Regdar taking a spear in the gut.

That being said, I've been pretty lucky of having my PCs recognizing these as gags to encourage roleplaying as opposed to new toys to use and abuse, and keeping these as one-shot items helps to ensure that they don't stick around to permanently change a setting.

[ogbendog]

My preference is logical.

There was a pretty good book written called "A magical medieval society" where they basically put dnd in the middle ages and figured out how it would work. For example, in DnD, PC classes are literate. Everyone speaks common.

they talked about how spells would help with running a manor house.

In GURPS for example they say about 1% or so can cast a few spell; that means each village has a caster. But it doesn't take that many spells to radically improve harvest. and even the 1/500 can make, for example, mining for metal an obsolete profession

[warrenss2]

I like the low end, but still there... Conan/Middle Earth/Lovecraft types.
_________________

[fanchergw]

As a GM, I focus on what level seems to make sense for the setting I'm envisioning and what I think will appeal to the players.

As a Player, I tend to prefer Middle-Earth to Conan levels of magic. I think this particularly works well with "historical fantasy" games, which I enjoy.

Gordon

[ogbendog]

The problem with magic very rare, is if it's rare with PCs, that can be frustrating to players. If it's not rare with PCs, then the players have a huge advantage over their mostly mundane foes, or they somehow run into the only evil wizard in an area, which is unlikely.

It is pretty important to make sure the players and GM agree on how common it is

[The Dead Ranger]

IMHO, Earthdawn hit the balance just right. One could buy low powered magic items, potions and such at markets but the good stuff was rare and one had to invest time (usually including adventures) and xp to bond the items and make them work for you.
_________________
John W. Thompson

"If everyone's having fun, then you're doing it right."