2/ I think that Tolkien sort of defines it. Hard fantasy SHOULDN'T, in my opinion, be hard about physics or math. Analytical ways of approaching things are antithetical to faerie tales. The kind of hardness that is appropriate for fantasy is >>>https://twitter.com/simplic10/status/1251571013613019136 …
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3/ distinct from the kind of hardness that is appropriate for science fiction. "Hard fantasy" should be rigorous in the things that fantasy is ABOUT, not in the things that it is not about. Fantasy is about tradition, lore, hidden things, malevolent forces, etc.
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4/ So Tolkien obsessing about millenia of history, slowly evolving languages, ruins of once great nations, etc. is hard fantasy. But to be analytical about the magic system, for example, would be to sperg in the wrong direction. Faerie stories are not about analytical magic.
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5/ Wife has been telling about some F & SF author youtube videos she's watching, and a sub-sub-sub genre is people talking about how to design "magic systems". And ... oh no think this very bad idea / corruption / nonsense springs from being deeply unaware of roots of fantasy
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6/ faerie stories -> Tolkien -> D&D / tabletop RPGs -> 1990s fantasy -> vidya RPGs and M:TG CTGC -> some modern fantasy so "magic systems" are about balancing white mana against black mana it's game mechanics crap, which is ENTIRELY anthetical to the core of fantasy
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Replying to @MorlockP
Agree with overall point, but I think the "magic systems" concept predates gaming, and is rooted in deeper questions of how a given world works, i.e. which laws of nature does it obey, or rather what IS its nature. Trad fantasy neither asks nor cares about such questions.
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Replying to @MorlockP
Some classic examples: The Dying Earth (Jack Vance, 1950) is probably the prototype of a scientific approach to magic (and was cited by Gygax as the basis for how magic works in D&D)
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Replying to @MellotronsCube @MorlockP
Operation Chaos (Poul Anderson, 1971): presents an alternate modernity based on magic and the supernatural
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Replying to @MellotronsCube @MorlockP
Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories (1939+): feature a recurring plot of white magic vs. black magic (both of which are hazardous to mere mortals in different ways)
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white and black just mean good and evil in F&GM; it's not an intricate nerdy _SYSTEM_
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