Quote Originally Posted by Coidzor View Post
If it were "truly random" no one would be able to use it.
...predictably, no. There are settings where magic refuses to play by formulaic rules and has a Fairy Tale-like behavior. And most such 'wild magic' settings indeed are more low-magic, portraying magic as this thing beyond the grasp of mere mortals.

It's one of the oldest fantasy tropes; one D&D and games like it infact are defying.

so occasionally a city block is just sentient and holds opinions about the people living on it?
Or something CLAIMING to be a city block. Why Does God Need A Spaceship, etc.

the dream lands are a dimension that is entered by dreams
And psychic powers are a common sci-fi trope. Your point?

yig merely wills people to turn into snakes and they do if that's not magic then what is?
The man from the future presses a button on a plastic stick and light comes out of it like a magic wand. If that's not magic, what is?

if your science fiction is so soft as to allow that then their is no difference between it and fantasy. your science is just magic by another name.
Maybe from a human perspective, sure. But Lovecraft's point is that in these universes, these are scientific phenomena. Not because science is 'soft', but because humans are just so pathetic we haven't even scratched the surface of the universe. We are literally bugs, and our failure to understand something does not make it magic.