神河当時 - 忍者とファンタジー

One of the interesting things about the threads is that certain voices are heard again and again. My next post comes from last week’s column “Ninja & Pirates & Myrs… Oh My!” And once again, we have our friend, Boris the Dwarf:

I am so tired of hearing this argument. It’s a freakin fantasy game! It doesn’t have to make sense. If it did, then a Cinder Wall could never hold a Bonesplitter or wear Lightning Greaves. But no one ever questions that when it happens.

But if you’re looking for some justification, there’s plenty of canon out there about how Merfolk can take human form and walk on land. Look no further than the classic movie "Splash."

More to the point of what I really wanted to say, I laughed out loud when I saw Maro’s theme: "Do Ninjas Belong in Magic?"

Not because it was a bad topic, but because it is so out of character for him to pull such an obvious PR "Love Magic, Love Ninjas" stunt.

What the heck did you think his answer was going to be?

"So, at the end of this hypothetical argument played out through the non-sensical visualization, we can conclude Ninjas don’t really belong in Magic after all."

That would never have happened.

C’mon Mark, resist Randy Buehler’s call for you to turn to the dark side and stay honest with your readers. You’ve written some great pieces, and a handful of bad ones, but this one is the most dismal article yet. Please don’t do it again. It’s okay to say why you think Ninjas belong in Magic, but please don’t ask what is nothing more than a rhetorical question with an answer that doesn’t play out one way or the other toward that response.

- Boris the Dwarf

Boris,

While the dark side does have pretty things like anger and hatred, I’ve made a conscious effort to stay on the jedi side of Magic writing. It was never my intent to present the “Do Ninjas Belong In Magic?” as anything more than a rhetorical question. (It was Ninja Week after all.) It was supposed to represent a larger issue, which is Magic’s ongoing struggle to maintain an identity while ever increasing the types of creatures it represents. I felt that it was an interesting conflict that most of my readers might not have been aware of. My answer wasn’t so much about explaining why we do it as it was to explain the ramifications on the Creative Team for deciding to do it. If the game needs Ninjas, how does the Creative Team make them Magic Ninjas?

As far as the Cinder Wall holding the Bonesplitter, the Creative Team has long ago abandoned the idea that every single thing in the game makes creative sense. Most equipment, for instance, creatively speaking is designed for humanoids, but Magic doesn’t mechanically make separations between creature types when spelling out what a creature can do. I believe this is the right call, that this is a place where mechanics needs to trump flavor because the game is more interesting if the elephant can wear greaves. That said, there are places where flavor should trump mechanics. Just because the designers can think it up, doesn’t mean that it’s the best thing for Magic to have. There are numerous things that kill designs: rules, layout issues, templating concerns, general confusion. I consider creative concerns to be on that list.
引用元
THREAD ROVER Posted in Making Magic on February 7, 2005
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/thread-rover-2005-02-07

以前の記事、忍者はマジックなのか？（※１）に対する反応を紹介しています。曰く、「《燃えがらの壁/Cinder Wall》が《骨断ちの矛槍/Bonesplitter》や《稲妻のすね当て/Lightning Greaves》をつけてるファンタジーなんだから、こういう議論はうんざり」とのことです。

それはその通りであり、フレイバー的整合性よりもメカニズムによる面白さが優先されます。ただし、それは常に、というわけではありません。また、あの記事は、フレイバー的な理由づけをするとしたら？といった考えがクリエイティブチームに与えた影響の話である、とのことです。

忍者の持つ忍術がフレイバー面から作られたメカニズムである一方で、忍者の存在自体はフレイバー的な議論を引き起こすのは面白い対比だと思います。

※１
神河当時 - 忍者はマジックなのか？
https://researchofkamigawa.diarynote.jp/202103232136079349/