I think magic rules are used excellently in The Black Adam: The Dark Age miniseries by Peter Tomasi. Black Adam is a character who uses magic to transform himself into a being with powers on Superman's level. Now, however, he is an outlaw, his powers have been removed, and his wife has been killed. To find a way to resurrect her, he needs to temporary regain his powers, and to do that, he needs to draw on the magic of her remains. The catch is that this can only be done a limited number of times, and every time the chance to resurrect her becomes slimer and slimmer. I think this premise works perfectly. Every time Black Adam fails, and is forced to use magic to give himself superpowers, we feel his dread, sorrow and urgency. This premise is a kind of magic rule, but I wouldn't call it a rules system. The writer doesn't try to explain why magic works that way, or formulate general rules for when someone can be resurrected. The writer only tells us what we need to know to understand the premise of the story.
I disagree with this. If the antagonist can just suddenly do practically "anything," with no explanation and no consistency in terms of their use of magic, then I'd probably throw the book in the trash. It sounds like lazy writing to me, where the author is just waving his hand to do whatever he likes without any concern for whether it makes sense within the context of the fantast world. As an aside, I also disagree that magic in Conan is weak. It's extremely powerful, but it is also so dangerous that not many people are able to utilize it at those high levels of power. I like the magic level in those stories, personally, and it was translated fairly well in the RPG
Which would be a great analogy if mages or wizards did the equivalent of bleeding patients with leeches on occasion. In fact, that would make a pretty cool story premise. But they generally don't. They're magic almot always works as planned. Here's something I posted in the other magic thread: "Magic needs to be governed by some form of consistency. Most systems employ more than one of these forms, and they even sometimes contradict each other. There can be narrative consistency, where no rules are given but the reader never feels cheated by magic creating an easy solution. LOTR has narrative consistency. Very few rules are explained, though rules are explained occasionally. There can be explicit consistency in the form of a magic "system" with the hypothesis and theories and models explained to the reader when necessarry, but rigorously adhered to by the author and the characters. Mercedes Lackey's Velgarth books, or Harry Potter, or A Wizard of Earthsea have explicit consistency, though this form of consistency is often broken in the course of bad writing by writers who can't follow their own rules. Finally, there can be thematic consistency. It is much closer to narrative consistency, but the readers' acceptance of thematically consistent magic is based on established themes. All of these forms make use of rules: In a thematically consistent concept of magic, sacrifice might have power, although it's often not explained why. A narrative "rule" might be: magic can solve problems, but it will always cause trouble. An explicit rule might be that the further one is from a leyline, the harder it is to draw power from it."
In some example magic just dosen't fill the role of tool, and rather some other role in the story hence the argument of logical limitations so that you do not use it as a dues ex machina falls. In Alice in Wonderland for example, or in Charlie and the chocolate factory to take very clear and children oriented example. But this is also tru in loads of adult fantasy. The Sandman comics, in Mirrormask, the Kushiel series etc etc.
Yes, and I don't like that. The more predictable magic is, the more boring it becomes, for me. In fact, most fictional magic users seem to get results more predictable than most _modern_ professions (including modern doctors, to continue that analogy), and I find that boring. I don't disagree about consistency. And I don't have a problem with the book's author knowing how magic works in his world. And I don't have a problem with obvious things being, well, obvious (like the distance from the leyline example). But for me - and, yes, I'm just one reader - clear, clean, rule-based magic where I as the reader know the rules, is just boring. ChickenFreak
I reckon if you want to give magic rules you go ahead and do it. Once its well written it should be no problem. The amount of discussion on this thread shows that it isn't a a 100% good or bad idea. Its how you write it.
Designing a specific magical system Hi, I'm new to this forum, and somewhat to writing. I've spent a fair portion of my life putting words to paper, but this is the first time I've actually set out to write a novel; the chief factor is curtailing my ego to write something passable and doable, rather than something brilliant and impossible. Anyway, so the basic plot is this: players of an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game; like World of Warcraft) are transported into the real version of that world while they sleep, and must figure out why. Add a big bad, ect., simple enough plot. The hang-up is that I want the magic system (and there must be magic, obviously) to make sense- unlike Harry Potter, where magic is a plot device and little else, I want the reader to think about what They'd Do with that magic, the same way I do when I read a book with rules of magic. I want the magic system to make sense in the MMORPG, that it would make sense to have in an online-game meant to be played evenings and weekends... involving the pressing of a button, and waiting for it to cool down after use. But when they step into the fantasy world, I want the magic to be deep, complex and powerful, with a mythology and history akin to the world itself- something other than 'recite pre-recorded phrase, be rewarded with a lightening bolt shattering an orc's skull.' I'd really appreciate thoughts and ideas, as I'm a little hung up on this concept, and my own thoughts aren't providing any illumination. Thanks.
My magic is really just a plot device, my characters turn into birds, have an affinity with animals, some people can live for ever as long as they don't reproduce, buildings and whole lakes can be hidden from view etc. Rules have come about but it happened because it was needed to tell the story. What do your characters need to do and why do they need to do it in order to progress?
At first, I want the characters to simply be confused about what happened, and go about exploring the world as they would in the game, the nurse the experience of living out a fantasy. To discover the magic, and the power they now possess. I also want them to experience fear when they discover they can die there, and confusion as they try to figure out how their spells work... that the fantasy world is not exactly the same as the MMORPG. Eventually, I want them to discover that the creator of the MMORPG has entered the game world- indeed, created the game so that he could- and is using his control over the game to manipulate himself into a position of great power. The characters choose to stop him. Exactly what his motivations are I have yet to decide, and could strongly effect the tone of the story. And I want the rules of magic to make sense... Like Naruto, or Full Metal Alchemist, or Avatar: The Last Airbender, for lack of my ability to make more literary references... where there are rules, they make sense within their own context, and it's fun to think about what you'd do with that power. I want to create a consistent, imaginative and intriguing fantasy world for my readers to enjoy, and ponder further adventures in...
i can understand that my world came out of the story, as it was easier to move my story to another planet. Out of that came the magic. Is the game the source of the magic for you? Would you be better using game rules for it, so it feels more like a computer game? Something that helps me for inspiration is creating a scrapbook of images that form a feel of what my world is like. Digital Blasphemy is great for backdrops and I mercilously use google images, anything I can't find I do my very poor best to draw. It just gives my book a more solid feel to it I guess. It does even help with the magic, I started out with one scene that removed a baddie from a circle of ancients, my husband first described it as a Care Bear Stare lol I have since been influenced by some pictures to turn it into a bird fight I found that by being able to see my world, I could place the magic and the story in it more effectively
