I've been writing my novel, The Goblin Nation, for two months now, and I am experimenting in different forms of magic systems in my notes and drafts. I have yet to find a suitable magic system to incorporate in my story seamlessly, so I wanted my fellow authors how they write their magic systems?
Do you prefer hard magic systems?
Are you an author that relies solely on soft magic systems?
Maybe you write magic systems to resemble RPG games?
Or the magic system relies heavily on realism?
I want to know what others write in the hopes of concluding my magic system. Feel free to write your novels down so I can read and examine its magic systems. (proceeds to insert another self-promotion) And feel free to check out my story too.

    The illustrious RowPin "way too fucking long" post is here:

    I had to look up what hard/soft magic is (I thought it was a sexual term), but I basically just use Stands from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - superpowers that are mostly odd or specific, usually combined with an external "presence" such as Star Platinum's punch-ghostiness. Usually, the explanation is as simple as "He has the power to place zippers anywhere" or "he can stop time for 8 seconds" or "he has the power to 'steal' properties of things'." There's some worldbuilding behind it, but it's never the focus and you just kinda go along with it. He conveniently has it that no one can see Stands but Stand Users, so that's why the world is exactly the same.

    Looking at Wikipedia, superpowers like this apparently count as a "hard" magic system.

    I have a magic system in my story, but I approach it the same as I approach plot now; it's all emotional manipulation to make the reader turn the page, stretching the rules enough that the reader is excited but not breaking them so frequently that they feel betrayed. This is, of course, subjective, but a reasonable reader will accept stretches of the system more from a story that's clearly "enjoy the ride, don't think too hard" more than one trying to construct deep lore & history around it.

    For a metaphor: no one questions how Godzilla exists in a Godzilla film - his biology is physically impossible IRL. A serious story where a society is built around breeding Godzillas that they have relied on since the beginning of history, with no explanation how they feed them enough calories or restructuring, and no wink to the reader that "I know this doesn't make sense!" - would be harder. However, there will also be readers never satisfied with any explanation of your magic system because they'll always be able to poke holes in it - to which you can tell them that if they're so smart, how come they ain't casting lightning bolts in real life?

    So at least for me, I wouldn't worry about plugging up every single hole; think of why you're putting magic in to a story. Do you want exciting fights? Are you using it to make some political point? Are you using it to show how these characters' lives are affected by growing up in a world with this, or are you trying to build a world all on your own like Tolkien? I know it probably sounds a little obvious, but I want to make sure you're thinking through why you're doing it - because then, what you should do will become clearer.

    I skimmed your novel and you appear to be writing some action, so I'll assume that it's partially the 1st point and give an overview of my "magic system" in hopes it'll elucidate your own process, as you also mentioned wanting to examine others' systems. You also had an author's note asking if the action you wrote was well choreographed, so I will add in a bit of my tips on action. These are my personal preferences, however.

    My "magic system" is "Revenants". These are bacterial colonies on people's hearts that give them superpowers; it makes no sense, but it sounds cool and I like biology. This also allows them to be swapped between people, gifted, or removed via surgery - an easy plot device. They are very rare and relatively recent, explaining why the world is mostly the same except for the law-enforcing academy that allows the story to exist. There is one Revenant per host, except when there isn't - out of 26ish major villains, this is done 3 times and always explained: one is due to an invention, one is experimental, and one is a birth defect.

    This is breaking the rules so the reader goes "oh shit they're really strong", but you cannot establish "rule broken" as a baseline, because then they lose interest. It's like DBZ where everyone Goku fights is the strongest villain ever. I don't find superpowered fights interesting unless there's some strategy, which is why I read through most of JoJo's featuring characters using their Stands cleverly, yet almost fell asleep watching Kill la Kill, where the MC usually just pulled out the perfect counter they needed to win, thus making any preceding action utterly superfluous.

    For fights to remain entertaining, the power/system should be broad enough that the reader won't know how they'll counter this next attack, yet not so broad that "well, they can do anything, so why do I care?". In an RPG system, this may be resolved by only having certain spells "equipped" at a time and having to use them together cleverly - so long as the reader understands "alright, this is what they can do right now, these are the rules". In a soft system, it may be that magic is very weak.

    In a "harder" (?) system like mine, I have a character who controls "a fog that fills things". This is the extent of the explanation she gives, so, if accepted, few readers would have issue when she fills enemies' throats with knives, her wounds with new flesh, and empty cups with milk. Yet at one point she fills a cup with the sound of her footsteps to distract an enemy - to me, that's a bend, but the cost is that it expends all of her "fog's supply" anyway. (It also doesn't matter much - it simply stalls, it doesn't win her the fight.) But I wouldn't allow her to "fill" her bed with another character to teleport them out of danger.

    However, in serious literature, the scene where she overfills a foe's stomach with milk & they explode in a cloud of white gore would be childish, even though her power does let her do that. In a dystopian novel, Revenants may be parasitic & so the establishment of "law-enforcing hosts" is actually a terrible thing that workers are enslaved in to by the upper-classes. A world where starvation is a constant threat would not allow her to fill a bag with food. In a purer comedy, I might allow that bed teleportation, playing looser with the rules to allow comedy. An allegorical novel may have a "magic system" with very few rules to create a utopia and explore how character's lives are changed when they have no unfulfilled needs or wants.

    What you want to do is going to be based on the toneof your story & what you're trying to create - if JoJo's threw out all established rules & let characters do anything, the fights would go to shit, yet The Chronicles of Narnia has (apparently) a "soft" magic system and are great children's books.

    Lastly, think also of how your magic system propagates - this directly affects the average user's knowledge of it, and thus how much you might need to explain. Is it something you're born knowing how to use? Is it a consumer item you buy? Do you take classes for it, or do you train for decades in hopes of accessing one spark of it?

    For example, let's assume it's a "consumer item". I built my PC and know that the more RAM I have, the more programs I can run at once. A computer programmer would be able to explain this deeper, but if you ask them "how does RAM work, physically?" they might say "It's probably magic." Ask a computer engineer and they'll tell you why RAM allows more programs to be run at once. Ask my parents and they'll say "It makes the computer faster."

    I'm not sure if this helps, but I hope it does.

      RowPin

      That is one long post right there, but it is a good and detailed one nonetheless.

          RowPin Thank you. This in-depth analysis is quite helpful. I didn't take into consideration the tone of my story when it came to developing my magic system. Since I'm trying to go for a darker route, examining works like Berserk or Lotr could be a good start. Also, your 'Revenants' magic system is quite interesting. I'll definitely give your novel 'Urasaria Academy' a read. Maybe it can give me some inspiration too.

            In addition to soft or hard magic, you should also consider whether you want high magic or low magic, and cheap magic or costly magic.

            In high magic, magic is incredibly powerful and generally common. A adequately skilled or empowered individual can teleport vast distances, summon firestorms, command hurricanes, sunder the very earth itself, or raise the dead. Not all users will come close to this powerful, but the only limit to the magic that can be invoked is the user's own limitations. There will be many users who can easily access lesser powers with relative ease.

            By contrast, in a low magic system, magic is either very limited, very rare, or both. Most users do not have access to magic at all and may not believe it is even real. Some users accidentally or knowingly cast simple spells that affect the world in subtle ways, such as calming an angry dog, or instinctively sensing another's thoughts, but can do no more. The most powerful can perform "actual" magic, but only to the level of an average caster in a high magic system. The Great Works of yore may be spoken of in hushed whispers by those who still know the arcane arts, but knowledge of how to access them has long since faded from memory.

            In a cheap magic system, magic is cheap to perform and easy to use. A spell only needs a few words and gestures, and maybe a button or toothpick, and poof, magic. Performing it is just as commonplace and difficult as solving an algebra problem or lifting a sack of flour. Even the costliest spells could be afforded by an average person of means.

            Costly magic is the opposite. Even the simplest works require a high investment of resources, effort, or time. Perhaps the cost for magic is time off the caster's lifespan. Perhaps the cost is one's own flesh, with small spells costing fingertips while a truly powerful act would quite literally cost an arm and a leg. Perhaps the cost of magic is the sacrifice of life itself, with killing a bug allowing you to light a candle, while killing a child would allow you to raise the dead.

            Or perhaps magic is just very time-consuming, complex, and dangerous. In the Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, or other grimoires such as The Key of Solomon, magic requires MONTHS of strenuous self-preparation, a complex and costly collection of herbs and consecrated tools, a number of helpers who have undergone the same rituals as the caster, a specially consecrated area that can be untouched by another living thing for the months in question, a litany of memorized incantations recited perfectly in an exact order with no deviations or omissions, all spoken while performing complex physical actions. All of this resulting in the ability to try and summon a spirit and convince it to not immediately kill, possess, or lobotomize you.

            Ultimately, I have found most readers just want something that makes sense, and feels internally consistent. This can be achieved through either hard or soft systems.

            ...Also, I've added your book to my library. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

              5 days later

              I fictionalize real-world occult systems, particularly Hermetics. I don't like using ceremonial magic in stories, though because they don't work so well in fictional combat, so all the Golden Dawn-ish ritual juju is out. I do like Franz Bardon's book, Initiation into Hermetics, though, and most of the stuff about the four elements there is easy to adapt to fiction, so that's where I get my systems from.

              From there, though, I try to extrapolate to other magic applications, like shape shifting or summoning magic etc (w/c I guess goes back to ritual magic, but as long as it serves the story...).

              Since I base my systems off of real-world occultism, i guess mine falls under the 'hard magic' category.

              And that's about it, at least for me, as far as magic systems go.

              Clowniac I liked the idea of price based magic system you thought of. I could definitely incorporate cheap magic in my novels. I already have one spell category fleshed out. Illusion spells come in three types. The first type has the ability to changes one's perception with regard to a particular object/idea. I could make this a type of magic used by local governments for espionage or to copyright/protect blueprints and such.

                  I based my magic system on imagination. In my world, the people are limited by the Mana that they can draw upon, in which they focus into spells based on their imagination. So common people can expend Mana but they aren't able to form spells due to lack of practice. Rich people are able to get training so that limits the number of 'magicians'. Commoners are still able to use magic tools which are imbued with spells that simply suck up a person's Mana, thereby bypassing training, but tools are pricey.

                  Write a Reply...
                  Web Novel Novel Ask