There's a lot of hidden costs and infrastructure needed for magical flying beasts. Not to mention limited capacity. Little can compete with the horse drawn cart when it comes to capacity for price though.
Boats beat out horse drawn carts by an insane amount.
It’s why trade hubs and major cities were practically always on a major river and/or in a favourable location for a port.
Yep, not having a bunch of your trade going to feeding and caring for your horses makes a huge difference.
All magic comes with a price.
What can I get for tree-fiddy?
Well, it was about that time when I noticed that Rumpelstiltskin was about 8 stories tall and Crustacean from the Protozoic era...
I have giant hummingbird mounts in my game, but guess what? They need nectar from giant flowers, or just barrels full of sugar water, and/or they sometimes pick fights with giant insects in order to try and eat them. (Fun fact, hummingbirds eat small insects IRL) They're dead useful and loads of fun, but it exacts its price.
setting has lemmy
still using 4chan
There are positives and negatives to both platforms. Lemmy has an abundance of information about Linux and memes about Star Trek but misses out on literature discussion and completely lacks the ability to recognize sarcasm. 4chan is a concentrated discussion hub where every interaction is seen and evaluated, but occasionally it hosts a slight hint of bigotry.
You would just not believe the regulatory burden of maintaining magical creature flying safety regime too.
You drop a simple glove off directing and 30min later, boom. You've got a gnome commission setting up barriers around it and paperwork for weeks to come..
Setting has electric cars
Car enthusiasts of the setting are fanatical about petrol cars instead
They are now because you can still get petrol reasonably cheaply. When the price rises because everyone else has gone over to electric I think they'll be less interested. Part of the problem is that there's a whole generation of people who've grown up with loud noise equals cool car.
Pretty soon though there'll be a whole generation for whom the vast majority of cars were electric their whole lives and I suspect they'll be less interested in petrol cars. It'll become a much more niche hobby.
I bought my 30 year old car 15 years ago for $2000 and it still runs well and hasn't needed too much in the way of repair. Find me an electric that can do the same and I'll make the jump in a second.
> Setting has public transport
> Setting is still full of carbrained petrolheads
A more accurate analogy would be along the lines of having jets and helicopters in the world but still using cars or trains as the main form of transportation.
Not sure how it applies, when trains are the superior form of transportation
Fall off a horse -> dust yourself off and get back on. There's a whole idiom about how falling off horses is a frustrating but ultimately minor inconvenience.
Fall off a gryphon -> you are dead.
Superman was paralyzed from falling off a horse. It can be way more than an inconvenience.
There’s a whole idiom about how falling off horses is a frustrating but ultimately minor inconvenience.
There's also a whole list of people who have died falling off of horses. So there's that.
It is possible to die falling off a horse. It is nearly impossible to live falling off a flying mount.
Most fantasy settings that allow for gryphon / dragon / other winged mode of transport, also have saddles for such beasts that tether the user to the saddle/ animal. If you fall off, you unclipped your harness and deserved it.
Makes me wanna link the thread where people were making the argument that wheelchair users and deaf people wouldn't exist in fantasy settings.
Just because there is magic doesn’t mean everyone can afford it.
Also interesting to think about, if a deaf person has a magic amulet that grants different hearing, are they no longer a deaf person or are they a deaf person with a magical aid?
I remember seeing the same for trans people, but in granblue fantasy some people still weaponized how Cagliostro was a born a man to make her mad, doesn't matter how she looks or what she has down there, bigots will exist even in fantasy.
A horse costs way less than a scroll of Teleport, or seven Fly. Like how it's cheaper to drive than take a plane. You also don't take a plane when an hour long drive will do, and you don't cast Teleport to go from your room at the inn to the nearby village to clear out some goblins.
you don't cast Teleport to go from your room at the inn to the nearby village to clear out some goblins.
Me who casts teleport to go from the inn, or my house, to the centre of town in games.
Dystopian Fantasy; only the rich and powerful have access to magic.
Edit: Bright would actually be that, now that I think about it. 🤔
only the rich and powerful have access to magic
You need lots of free time, rare books, expensive materials... I can totally see the random farmer getting into it.
Discworld really handled the overlap of magic and technology the best.
Coal 675 billion kwh
Nuclear 775 billion kwh
Renewables 894 billion kwh
Natural Gas 1802 billion kwh
This meme is dumb and wrong. Funny tho.
Setting has Nuclear energy
Still using Natural Gas as main energy source
Natural gas is not really an improvement 😭
I think Natural Gas is something like a 20% improvement over coal. So it is an improvement, but yeah it's still 80% bad and it's gotta go.
"We need to subsidize the horse industry to protect jobs!"
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