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From: ccastkw@gitpyr.UUCP (KENNETH E. WALKER)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Social implications of magic
Message-ID: <1559@gitpyr.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 16-Mar-86 23:02:17 EST
Article-I.D.: gitpyr.1559
Posted: Sun Mar 16 23:02:17 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Mar-86 07:32:46 EST
References: <9865@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Reply-To: ccastkw@gitpyr.UUCP (KENNETH E. WALKER)
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 36

In article <9865@ucla-cs.ARPA> mccolm@ucla-cs.UUCP writes:
>   The social implications are outright staggering.  In any society wherein
>any person can become rich and powerful if only they can learn magic, rigid
>castes can continue to exist only if one of the following conditions are met:
>1) Few people can actually learn magic, given the chance;
>2) Few people are given the chance to learn magic;
>3) The guilds have a sort of caste system themselves, which cuts down on the
>   possible social progress that a magician can achieve;
>4) Entering the guild cuts a person off from their old station in life,
>   so that entering a guild is a drastic move only taken by the desperate
>   or alienated.
>1 is assumed in most games; 2 allows for "entry fees", tuition, taxes for
>working for a guild, and other dirty tricks; 3 is interesting because it
>would explain why there are all these weak, rebellious magicians running
>around (they couldn't take the discipline); 4 seems natural in any event.

I would suggest you read Barbra Hambley's (i think) Darwath Trilogy (it 
begins with "The Time of the Dark"). Although the situation in that case is
a little different from the Classic FRP one, the class implications of magic
are well thought out.
Consider a world where magic is well-known (it exists, specifics of how/why
whatever are not). There is also a church that is well respected by the 
people, that considers magicians a competitor, and agents of the devil.
For this reason, they are all excomunicant, and trafficing with them is
dangerous to one's soul. So the mage-born have no loyalty to any government
on the world, only to each other (this is because no one wants to deal with
them, and if they were to step out of line, the entire population would
rise up and toast-em). There's a lot more.... the books are well done, and
I'd recomend them to anyone anyway...


-- 
KENNETH E. WALKER
Office of Computing Services
Georgia Insitute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!ccastkw