The big overview:
- Portals to dungeons appear across the world
- Anyone who enters these portals and returns comes out with magical powers
- Yes, this includes fighter and rogues, suddenly being proficient with weapons, and self-healing and super speed no one else can do are definitely powers. Hit points just make you tougher/faster/dodgier. Criticals and death blows might leave you without a limb. Any other "hit" is a near hit that might leave a bruise or cut and fatigues you.
- Many of these people also return with precious gems, art, artifacts, gold, and even some magical items
- Survival upon entry is not guaranteed. About 25% of people who enter are presumed dead.
Alright so now I want to try to imagine peoples reactions to each of these main points.
Portals to dungeons appear across the world
- Ownership issues of people trying to get to the portals on private land
- Ownership issues of who owns what comes out of the portals
- Difficulties getting rid of/hiding portals
- Government would prefer, for safety reasons, no one finds or enters portals
- Some people will worship the portals
- Some conservative religions would see magical powers as the work of the devil
- Science would want to study those who have magical powers
- Some religions would see the powers as holy gifts
- Some people would use these powers for evil: robbing, carjacking, murder, mobs
- Some would use them for good: vigilantes, cops, military, relief workers
- A sport would likely come up around it, and many scandals about athletes using powers in other sports. This new sport is likely just up and coming, but the scandals are everywhere.
- Schools would have to look out for it in cheating on tests
- Safety laws would come up for the more obscure magics. I think most charges would cover using magic against someone as assault or battery, and necromancy would fall under rules about human remains; though non human animations would be a different matter.
- Those with powers might get employment opportunities others wouldn't
- To counteract this, there would likely be a a large public opinion that delvers were dangerous miscreants and that delving should be illegal.
- To counteract this, there would like be an Adventurer's Guild with a lobby that pushes for safe delving and tells the benefits of powers.
Delvers return with precious gems, art, artifacts, gold, and magic items.
- At first, delvers would make a lot of money
- However, after a few years, the prices would go down
- What we currently need more of in the world is not gold, but copper, so eventually copper pieces would be worth more than gold pieces. Maybe. Gold bullion is currently worth an insane $38.98 a gram. To put that in perspective, a penny weighs 2.5 grams. So a piece of gold the size of a penny would be worth $97.58 dollars. If I leave a dungeon with just 10 gold, I have made $1000 dollars. But most 3rd level dungeons, assuming one character, would roughly yield only (look up later on donjon website)
- Precious gems would follow the same thing, check the market value
- Artifacts would be different; there would likely by many collectors and scientists out there looking to study the dungeons, look for any benefits, look for any clues to their existence. I'd say probably $20 usually, maybe more depending on the quality or interest.
- Magic items. Given that most dungeons will be for level 3 characters, even using the random treasure generator there would not be many magic items, and also not many. However, I like the idea that sometimes these amazing items and artifacts fall in to the world and cause chaos. Deck of Many Things anyone? There would very likely be a good market out there for these, especially for healing potions. THERE WOULD BE NO MAGIC ITEM CREATION. In 5e, since it is unnecessary I can do this, which makes magic items so much cooler in the real world. That scroll of fireball is a deadly and rare weapon, not just like "oh cool." Especially since magic items can be used by non-delvers.
Survival is not guaranteed; there is a 25% disappearance rate for delvers.
- People should be scared to be a delver. It is definitely an alternative choice, especially at first. Eventually those who catch on to it might get a little zealous, even taking children with them to have them access their powers early. What could a five year old do with a sorcerers spells? Mayhem. Heck even a fifteen year old with even low-level powers would be scary.
- Many people, riding on the backs of "think of the children" and "drugs are bad because they are addictive and kill you, mkay," will want to limit and outlaw delvers and delving in general.
- The government probably is on their side, I mean its hard to police those with powers, and you don't to waste 1/4 of your force seeing if they can make it out of the dungeons alive. Military would do the same thing.
- Violent forces (police and military) would likely have special forces teams with delvers on them, or might spread them out over more regular teams.
To summarize:
Will have some religious orgs. for and some against
Will have some political orgs. for and some against
Will have some social groups for and against
Majority likely against because of danger and fear, and they aren't wrong
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