WRITING a magic system.

[thatoneguywho-]

I have a full magic system, I just can't put it in writing.(help

anyways, I'm wondering how to write a magic system lol

INFO: soft magic system, spells don't exist. you can use magic or you cant use magic. magic will take on and replicate the environment, which created the elemental magics known today. you can have someone who has so little control over their magic that it is powerful, someone who has so MUCH control over their magic that its powerful, and in a single case, so much control that she doesn't have control at all. to have magic, you must be flooded in it enough for you body to recognize it as part of you, but the elemental tribes area is so flooded in magic that people there are born with it, so people simply think that only Elementals can have magic. magic at its height could easily decimate the world.

 

[pmmg]

Looks like you just did put it to writing. Put it to the test. Write a story with it.

 

[thatoneguywho-]

Looks like you just did put it to writing. Put it to the test. Write a story with it.

i was explaining, it. i meant put the magic system into my story and for it to be used and make sense

 

[pmmg]

You dont have to explain it. Just have ppl use it.

 

[SamazonE]

Slap magic to a milk carton and let it be found.

 

[pmmg]

Well. Like everything else with world building, let it trickle in. But—you know your story, i dont. Give it what it needs. If it needs something more direct than do that.

 

[skip.knox]

i was explaining, it. i meant put the magic system into my story and for it to be used and make sense

Have you tried using magic in a scene? Not in the whole story; don't worry about that yet, and don't worry about the whole magic system yet.

Just pick something fairly low-key. A situation your character needs to face or get through, and magic is the only way, or the best way, or heck is just the easiest way. Write that one scene. Remember, you aren't writing a magic system--that's for the DM Handbook.

All you want is to have a fireball, or a cutting windstorm, or even just illuminating a cavern.

Who does the magic? What do they do, outwardly? What happens to them inwardly? Write it all out. Write what actually happens, and write how the character's companions (or enemies, or both) react to the magic.

Give that a try.

 

[minta]

Well, your system already sounds solid.

 

[xena]

Well, your system already sounds solid.

well, well ,well

 

[Remedian]

Imma go ahead and assume that the writing that you mean is the writing as a novel and creating a story around that power system. I think if you're not ready yet to write that story, then keep writing the magic system until you think its solid. just write it down until you know how it works, how it won't work, the rules, the cost, the origin and the end or cycle of that power system until you cant add in anymore. this forces you to finally write the novel as youve hit the maximum of writing about the power system. that way you can use it as a guidebook youll have a context you can create a plot for the story to progress for example: assuming magic is not a constant in your system and it runs out in certain areas, would the elemental tribe which already recognizes it as a part of their body have a reaction to it? would they lose their life if that happens or just lose the ability to use magic and so on from there just keep adding on the story what will this character which lost his power will do to regain it back and so on. Just keep on adding and adding on it.

 

[Prince of Spires]

i was explaining, it. i meant put the magic system into my story and for it to be used and make sense

The same way you write everything else. Just describe what happens.

Imagine your magic like any other technology in your story. How would you describe someone turning on the lights? You simply write cause and effect. Jack walked over to the door and hit the lightswitch. Pale, dead light flooded the room as the overhead lights flickered to life.

Done. You don't have to go deeper than this. The reader doesn't need to understand how that electricity works on a physics level. Or that half a billion years ago a bunch of dinosaurs died and were transformed into a coal deposit, which was dug up by a giant corporation and then burned in a plant to generate steam which powered a dynamo which ended up as electricity. All the reader needs to know and see is "lightswitch = lights going on".

So, if someone can use their elemental magic to light a fire, just tell me that. Jack stared at the fire for a second. Flames sprang up between the dry twigs and a few moments later a merry fire burned in the firepit.

Doesn't have to be more complicated that this. The reader doesn't need to know anything beyond this, just like he doesn't need to know anything about physics to understand the lightswitch. Just be consistent and don't have things randomly appear and work at the climax of the story.

 

[skip.knox]

The comments above are useful and you should heed them. I'll add another comment that I hope will prove useful. You could write a scene in which magic is used without it needing to be in the story.

You could write it as exploratory. To take an obvious example, the mage can use fire. Could be a fireball or just lighting a campfire, as you wish. Writing out a sample use case could be helpful in simply understanding your own system better. For example, Mage 1 casts a small fire spell and the torches in a room light. But another mage wishes to extinguish them. For laughs, they use water. For drama, a big wind. For novelty, they cast even more fire and the torches themselves are consumed.

Now, does casting the counter-spell cost the same in terms of time and energy and mastery? Does one mage run out of resources more quickly than the other? Can a fire mage extinguish his own fire? All sorts of questions start popping up that might not in the design phase. It's sort of like designing a car. It can look good on paper but when you actually build it you discover limitations and complications.

Writing use-case scenarios have another potential advantage; namely, you might create one that has potential for use in an actual story.

 

[Kassandra]

So, all of your magic is elemental magic. I have a few questions about it.
When you say "elemental magic," do you mean fire-earth-water-air?
You said that the environment affects (decides?) what magic is mostly used (do I understand this correctly)?

Can you give a specific example? I can figure that water magic can work near oceans, lakes, rivers, but what about air magic? Or fire magic? Does Earth magic (manipulating the ground and gravity? maybe?) work best in a forest setting?

This is one of my questions.
Another question is whether these could be combined, and if someone can use water elemental magic while being in an air elemental setting.

 

[thatoneguywho-]

So, all of your magic is elemental magic. I have a few questions about it.
When you say "elemental magic," do you mean fire-earth-water-air?
You said that the environment affects (decides?) what magic is mostly used (do I understand this correctly)?

Can you give a specific example? I can figure that water magic can work near oceans, lakes, rivers, but what about air magic? Or fire magic? Does Earth magic (manipulating the ground and gravity? maybe?) work best in a forest setting?

This is one of my questions.
Another question is whether these could be combined, and if someone can use water elemental magic while being in an air elemental setting.

the magic basically copies the conditions around it if enough magic is in the area. this means that, if the right conditions are met, something like 'carpet magic' could exist lol. sadly, there is only one region where that condition is met, which is also where humans are born with magic.

for example: water magic came from a marsh, air magic came from a Moor, sun magic came from a desert, flame magic from a volcano, earth magic came from a mountain, and shadow magic is (CURRENTLY A SECRET).

yup! they are already imbued with a certain type of magic that will not change.

 

[jhmcmullen]

If in your heart you feel like you need to explain it, then explain why it doesn't work in this particular scene, and do it relatively early in the story. If the wizard can throw lightning bolts, maybe the dialogue goes:

"Zap him," Jaster said. "I'll ride up and grab Erelda before anyone else can get near, and I haven't seen bows here."

"Can't," said Losset. "They're in the same puddle; I hit one, the other gets fried as well."

Even if you don't do more than that exchange, it's clear that magic has rules, and your characters can't pull it out whenever it would be convenient. Things have to be right, or at least not-wrong.

 

[DanGreen]

The same way you write everything else. Just describe what happens.

Imagine your magic like any other technology in your story. How would you describe someone turning on the lights? You simply write cause and effect. Jack walked over to the door and hit the lightswitch. Pale, dead light flooded the room as the overhead lights flickered to life.

Done. You don't have to go deeper than this. The reader doesn't need to understand how that electricity works on a physics level. Or that half a billion years ago a bunch of dinosaurs died and were transformed into a coal deposit, which was dug up by a giant corporation and then burned in a plant to generate steam which powered a dynamo which ended up as electricity. All the reader needs to know and see is "lightswitch = lights going on".

So, if someone can use their elemental magic to light a fire, just tell me that. Jack stared at the fire for a second. Flames sprang up between the dry twigs and a few moments later a merry fire burned in the firepit.

Doesn't have to be more complicated that this. The reader doesn't need to know anything beyond this, just like he doesn't need to know anything about physics to understand the lightswitch. Just be consistent and don't have things randomly appear and work at the climax of the story.

This is solid advice. If you start of like Prince of Spires suggests the system itself will formalize better in you own mind making it simpler to explain if you get to a point in your story where you want to explain it in more detail.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I spent an entire chapter building up to a scene that explains the barest basics of my magic system, and the difference between flawed and skilled execution of it.

The actual part explaining the magic system isn't written (yet, as it's at the tail end of the chapter) but it's also the fundamentals of swordsmanship in my story.

The whole chapter is dedicated to some uses and just how powerful mages can tend to be, or how subtle one can be with powerful magic spells (in particular, mana draining magic is to be feared, as all it takes is a gentle touch to sap a victim entirely at least for a few minutes) or how simply wild power does it's user more harm than good.

I'm sure if you sit down and give it a think while writing, you can actually use your magic system. It's your story, so you have full control over what works and what doesn't.