magic system i guess

[Jason Joseph Bernard]

Okay well In my world my hero's are godless as well as a race of men...whom are a small group of people but the most powerful magic users on my world

they cant speak magic words, or scribe magic, except for the runes of which they tattoo themselves with...in which they draw their magic from mentally.

The rest of the world uses magic words and scrolls and books, which are much less powerful.

What I want is a few people to just throw some ideas at me on this. What would be way better is if i found 1or2 two people to collaborate with and write this whole story with...but if i cant have that then I will go this way.

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

Sounds like one of the two powerful races in the Death Gate Cycle...they had tattoos all over their body and they did magic by forming connections across them.

So, it is a viable system, but you might want to think about figuring out the rules to it as well. Even though magic isn't a science, it should be something that has rules, costs, and something you understand well. This way it remains consistent and not made up on the fly.

 

[Hans]

How exactly does this work?
Do the runes specify a certain effect and the rune tattoo bearer can call that effect? Or do these Runes modify the Body and their environment as "Always on" magic things? Something else?
Does the rune tattoo bearer have to know his specific runes? Not just how they look, but all their mystic effects? Can someone be tattooed against his will with certain effects?
Are these magic tattoos detectable by outsiders, even if covered? Do they attract/repel magical beings?
Can one get rid of a rune tattoo? Can the (accidently) tattoos be destroyed?
Which rituals are needet to tattoo a rune? Can someone do this to himself?

You asked for thoughts. Mine take the form of questions in this case.

 

[Johnny Cosmo]

To draw a conclusion from the above posts: get the rules down! Defining the magic system in every way you can will deny anyone the right to criticise it. At the end of the day, it's your story so you have a lot of freedom in what you make possible. I guess a start would be, where does the magic come from? That will help dictate the way people can use it.

 

[pskelding]

I agree with J Cosmo. You need to define what your magic can do and can't and what the limitations are on it. If you listen to the excellent podcast Writing Excuses by Brandon Sanderson and his sidekicks he will state it as "great magic has great limitations" and I think with Mistborn Brandon created one of the most unique magic systems in recent memory. I recommend listening to many of them where he discusses this. Google - writing excuses podcast.