The situation you found with banking infected blood to make larger portals reminds me of the doping scandal that hit the cycling world several years back. One of the main things that a lot of them we’re doing was called blood doping, where in the weeks preceding a race, they’d pull a bunch of blood out of themselves, spin it down to concentrate the red blood cells, then inject those right before the race. It was a nightmare to detect b/c it’s just the person’s natural blood, no other chemicals involved, so something like what you described absolutely would happen in a world where that was possible.
@@themagicengineer5314 I had a boss years ago who was really into cycling. Lance Armstrong was incredible at organizing the doping. Their favorite method involved a team dog. They had a false bottom in the dog crate, where they stored the blood bags. Inspectors never bothered checking the crate b/c it’s just a dog crate. Unethical as hell, but also fascinating.
Just as a fun pastime, I had loosely designed a elemental magic system where you start to gain negative personality traits associated with an element the better you got at using it, but when I finished the loose overview I made of the system it seemed oddly familiar. And then I realized I accidentally fleshed out the very vague magic system I created with my brother when I used to play pretend with him as kid, I even assigned the same negative traits to the respective elements our characters used to have.
@@themagicengineer5314 For example, the trait associated with light (the element my character had) is Arrogance. You metaphorically get blinded by your own light, and become self-absorbed and convinced of your invicibility. Wind (my brother's character's element) makes people spacey. Your thoughts get carried to unusual places and as such people have problems understanding your thought processes. Generally every element can be separated into Physical and Mental Effects, and Nature. Each category can be further separated into Active effects and Passive effects, but the passive Nature is always a negative character trait.
I've spent the past 5 months creating random story ideas, and now I've finally decided I want to get serious about them and create a magic system. The thing is, I've spent so much time creating the stories that I've basically given myself all the ideas I need to a magic system that ties in nicely with most of them!
Outstanding! It sounds like your approach vector here was from the Plot, which can be a great way to go. Be sure to let me know if you have any questions or get stuck anywhere in the process. I'm happy to see what I can do to help
In what way? Can you elaborate what you mean by seed crystals (as opposed to the term as used in the video I mean) when they are used in a magic system?
@@pashahlis7941 crystal magic is already part of the zeitgeist so when I heard seed crystals described as the tiny crystal bits that scientists grow crystals around I was primed to think adding control over a fast crystal growth to that process and also maybe some new age mysticism if I can make it fit VIBRATIONS
@@themagicengineer5314 Portalen (julkalendar on SVT) While not a magic system, it was based on a race to get a time crystal before time stopped for good, and return it to its rightful place. It's in Swedish though, disclaimer.
Keeping it simple makes it, simple. From my experience having a simple core consept, then go deeper is a good method. When making a big magic system with a lot of stuff, it could end up feeling very unconected and random. When building on that core consept things usualy feel more conected and a progression of what's established. Having a broad system of course can work but I find it harder to do.
It's rare to stumble across something this interesting, then to scroll down and see under 1k subs. I can safely say you've earned more and that this creative topic is surely something I would wanna play around with myself down the line. I can already imagine some kind of reality-warping magic system powered and harnessed by the very desire to escape from reality. Keep up the good work dude, and I'll keep tabs, this is hella cool and inspiring
Thanks for the questions@caitlyncarvalho7637 . Unfortunately, this isn't something I'm comfortable discussing here. All of my videos relate to magic systems in fiction stories
I am currently making a card game based on a magic system and this is actually helpful in creating the lore of the game. I have 3 types of spells in this game: a sign - a fast simple spell that is very limited and is mostly used for small effects and interfering with Runes. a rune - a slower spell that takes up a bit more time to use and has more utility and the final one a channeled spell - an extremely slow spell that takes WAY longer to cast and has a ton of room for interference but yields significantly more power than possible using the other types of spells. the power is harvested from spirits that can be converted into familiars that assist or augment your spells with different effects. and I would probably add potions or artifacts to give the game a bit more flexibility in the next test run. I used Magic: The Gathering as inspiration for the game mechanics but reimagined the game in a sorcerer vs sorcerer fight like in Slay the Spire rather than planeswalkers summoning creatures or shifting the lands.
@@themagicengineer5314 it's something I currently make for fun(I like creating games, and this is not the first one I've made). I might actually make it for real if it comes out decent, but I'm not really sure I can or even should croudfund a game that have 0 art and not even a full set of cards to play. maybe after the first set of cards is finalized I'll go for croudfunding to hire a graphic designer to do the art and pay some printing facility in my area to create the finished cards. for the most part I just printed out the demo cards in my home printer and tested them out like that. for board games I carved wood or 3d printed the parts I needed. additional game update: Channeled spells are called rituals now and they will be set face down till they are activated using their cost at the appropriate time or till someone interfere with them. it requires a spirit to hold the ritual till it's activated(meaning you don't get energy from it) so you can't just play them willy-nilly.
I love what you said about harvesting the blood of someone infected to, almost industrially, create huge portals because that's actually the first thing I thought of when you mentioned this part of your magic system. Personally I love leaving these kinds of things in on purpose because I am very convinced humans will abuse whichever advantages they can find and this can make for such interesting worldbuilding... or an interesting villain's motivation. Or an interesting class system.
@@themagicengineer5314what?! No way! Why intentionally make your story generic when the very worldbuilding you’ve worked so hard on provides fascinating and original implications? I’m defs on the side of taking the implications and following them to their logical conclusions and then using that in your story.
I already have a solid magic system, but I never stop coming up with new ideas for it. My stuff constantly evolves. Also, there are things that I've moved away from, but returned to after a while and finding better ways to utilize those ideas. Always good to revisit old ideas.
I struggle with testing my system. I try to think through the pros/cons/problems of my system and then one day weeks into the project realize a new angle that undermines what I've created. Any advice on how to test my system? Questions to ask myself?
The factors mentioned in the video are the best place to start. I call them "The Paths to Godhood". Examining how a magic-user can generate infinite power, knowledge, accessibility, or wealth are all potential issues. Also, consider how easy it is for a magic-user to kill or incapacitate other characters. In general, put yourself in front of a challenge and see how you could use the magic to bypass it. See how far you can take the solution and how trivial you can make the challenge become. If you'd like some examples, I have a couple blog posts where I go through the process with my Viral Magic System. crrowenson.com/walkthroughs/magic-building-walkthroughs/broke-my-viral-magic-system/ crrowenson.com/walkthroughs/magic-building-walkthroughs/fixed-viral-magic/ And please ask more questions if you have them :)
I have also found that writing out scenes or just scene descriptions with one or two aspects of the magic system that I am testing in mind works a treat. Once I get those aspects to a point where they don't break too much anymore, I give those passages to friends because the fresh eyes find issues better than mine (that have stared at these problems forEVER) do. Hope that helps too. :)
I am writing a number of stories to flesh out the world of my main series. One of them, of course, is for the magic system. These are stories that might or might not get published, but are there to put the concept I am exploring through its paces and try to poke holes in it that I can then fix.
This is a great video! I didn't realize it wasn't about d&d until I was about a third of the way through but the advice completely applies whether you're writing a novel or a campaign!
I once created my own magic system for fun. The idea was that you took raw mana and "shape" it with certain "qualities" that belong to certain "catagories". There were a few ways to go about it each with their own limitations. You could shape th magic yourself, but every person poseses a quality for each catagory and how compatible you are with a certain magic is determined by how well the qualities match. Alternatively one could use a catalyst to shape the magic for you, but this was more diifficult and carried the risk of catastrophic backfire if you made a mistake. Finally their were spirits who inherently are very strong with a specific form of mana, some of them being unique to spirits, but could only exist in the world under certain conditions, one could form a pact with them to borrow their strength and allowing the spirit to exist in the world, the catch being the bond was permanent and you it's not possible to form more than one.
@@themagicengineer5314 Well one of the catagories is "form" and has the qualities "solid, liquid, formless" so magics that are "substantive" (e.g. ice, fire) have one of these qualities while magics that aren't (e.g. force) don't have one. One other aspect was not all the catagories were quite so literal, one catagory was colour for example and the best colour was not always so obvious. Another aspect I came up with is that some creatures naturally have catalyst body parts (e.g. harpy bones and feathers being catalysts was what allowed them to fly) and it was through observing these animals that the second method was discovered.
I'm working on a science fiction series, but fundamentally I'm building a magic system. There is technology/magic that follows rules and affects the characters, so I found your video very useful. Thank you!
Excellent! The next video that I'm working on now is all about the true difference between magic and technology, so I think you'll find that one especially interesting
Thanks for this; I love your focus on storytelling. As a writer, it's helpful to be reminded to consider the story implications of a magic system, especially since my magic system will probably exist across many different stories, each with its own needs. This was supremely helpful for getting my brain exited, again, and reminding me that I can explore the implications of what I already have rather than needing to add more to it.
Glad you enjoyed it! There is a lot of value to be found in deeper explorations of our content before we start sprawling outward... of course that doesn't ever stop me from sprawling lol
Thank you for your amazing and very educational videos on magic systems! I hope you keep on uploading. Your enthusiasm, clear, and engaging delivery made it easy to watch the video from start to finish! ☺
Thanks so much for the kind words! I truly appreciate it. I'm doing my best to keep the content flowing. At the moment, that's mostly in the form of the livestreams that I reupload a few weeks later. I'm really hoping to get back to my normal form of content in the next year or so, but we'll see
Thank you so much! I really appreciate the vote of confidence. I'm already floored by how much this video has taken off. I'm hoping that with time, and more videos of course, we can build a positive community of magic-builders!
This video is so pleasant. You are such a calming and grounding presence. Everything was really helpful and gave me lots of inspiration for creating my first magic system. Thanks for the lovely work!
My favourite part was that he didn’t remove the loophole entirely so it could still happen in universe but is impractical for the story. I want it to be possible to gain omnipresence but with the draw back of your concentration being so segmented you practically don’t exist
@@themagicengineer5314 basically omnipotence is a thing to avoid. But maybe some people might be mistaken and strive for it but if they succeed they’ll just vanish.
@@ProjectEchoshadow WIth the viral magic, it's easier to limit those problems. Any such strain could just be extremely deadly. So you're all-powerful... until you die
@@themagicengineer5314 While watching I came up with a system based on the human senses. Example: Sight magic allows one to affect any thing they can physically see. It gos deeper if you know about the senses that are not normally talked about, like the sense of balance, or the sense of self orientation. That last one is cool because it allows the user to affect their own orientation in relation to their surroundings without having to be subjected to a normal body's limitations. The exception is it might kill them if they over use it. Think of it like a hyper flexible contortionist. What is your opinion on this idea?
@@tristanmitchell1242 YES! That! Thank you. My text library does not include that word, so I couldn't spell it right. (On tablet). Anyways, This is what think tanks are for. You just made my idea even better. Just think of the cool uses a magic system based on senses could produce.
Found this video after starting my own project and trying to make my magic system work and be different enough. Crazy thing is, it just so happens to also be a viral-based magic system!
That’s cool. My story is literally based off a Roblox Maple Hospital Roleplay I did with a player a few times lol I even added extra characters. I’m still trying to add more restrictions though
Definitely let me know how that goes! Adding extra people can make such a huge difference in the end result. If you find you're all meandering too much, try setting time limits on your brainstorming. That can really shake things up
I know this is like 3 years old, so doubtful anyone will see it, but who knows. I've been building a rather complex magic system and world (for the better part of 2 decades) for a story that has died in the water. Basic premise of the inspiration was the idea of Leylines and the 7 chakras (Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Sound, Light, and Thought), which I extrapolated into 7 unique races. I used the basic fundamental elements and emotions of each Chakra (that I termed 'soulgates') to construct a framework for it. The classical elemental structure has more subtlety than just Fire make Fireball, Earth make rock fly; it instead focuses on the spiritual aspects of each Chakra, like the Earth Chakra is all about Fear vs Survival, Water is about Pleasure vs Guilt, etc. It all came from watching the Guru episode of Last Airbender. Ive since built so much of the world and history, but the magic sort of fizzled apart under practical application and inworld study. I wish I had someone to help reforge it, cuz I know I have something big here that I haven't seen done before basically anywhere. But usually by the time I get to explaining where the hangups are, no one i know has any real ideas or critiques, just a shrug and a backpat "that I'll get it some day".
Well, I do offer coaching services to help people with their magic systems and stories. You can schedule a free consultation session here (calendly.com/crrowenson/30min). I'd also suggest joining my newsletter for additional discounts on coaching and extra exclusive articles on writing, magic systems, and more (subscribepage.io/wrFjNQ). In the meantime, you might consider spending some time on the idea generation phase. Just focus on brainstorming as many ideas as possible, don't worry about them being "good" or anything like that. If that's not working, you might need to spend some time coming up with a new story to latch it onto, if only to perform some alignment exercises. I hope this helps.
@themagicengineer5314 Oh I have Olympic swimming pools of ideas, too many might be the problem. It's finding the practical application in world that can create feasible throttles. It's Sando's 2nd Law that made me seriously reconsider how I built the system, especially limitations. There is also the matter of making it fit into a world whose lore proliferated from the old system that was essentially broken (and a tad too impractical). It is certainly a lot to try n break down simply in a comment. I'd definitely consider a consultation, but your calendly link sends me to a page that doesn't exist 😕
@@Atamastra that's weird. Try this one calendly.com/crrowenson/30min If that doesn't work, then Calendly is up to shenannegans and I'll have to start troubleshooting. As for your problems, it sounds like you need to speend some time with Alignment so you can figure out exactly what your system needs to be for the story. I doubt you need to rebuild your system from scratch. Even if the SYSTEM is complex and comprehensive, you can focus in and narrow down within the context of a specific STORY. and you can keep the lore about the old system, because we are never 100% accurate with our information anyway. So interestingly enough, some of your restrictions might just come from people having inocorrect and outdated info
I like how your brain thinks. Because the moment you mentioned the blood portal thingy, I immediately thought of how you can essentially harvest someone for portal magic juice and you also mentioned it after. Probably because I had a similar idea.. Y'know, now that my own work leads to *a* similar conclusion to someone who has honed their craft, I'm very much happy with my magic system.
I feel like in every video on magic system advice that I watch, the author introduces their own, inexplicably always blood-based magic system as an example :D Though yours is probably my favourite one I've heard so far, it sounds really interesting. The advice was useful as well, I had indeed skipped over step 2 too quickly and was getting stuck because of a plain lack of ideas to work with. So taking more time to brainstorm helped, thanks.
Whenever I have my thoughts about something like a "Magic System", and have that core idea, my next step is mostly after Idea-Generating to do something, which I assume is similar to that Alignment Step: to ask Questions! In your example: Where did the Virus come from? How fast and how impactful did the public, communities or just anybody received that phenomenon? I could imagine, that the source was found decades ago on an expedition to a very remote place, maybe subterranean, which had been since then secured by military. They found something very old or from another world (classic). They took it to their Labs for highly classified stuff to analyze its properties and the cause for them (SCP/Area 51 Vibes again). It had a lot of useful abilities, which could be utilized for strategic pourpose, if someone could just produce the neccesary amount. It was found, that these attributes of that thing is being naturally inherent in their tissue, and if you could find the genetic sequence for these "metaproteins" to be build in living cells, you eventually could genetically engineer it into any lifeform. So they decided to use a virus as a vector for implementation on human subjects after experimenting on Goats, Chimps and what not. [insert many wild ideas here about many failed and several successful side-projects]. With that background, it is possible to have some hidden antagonist, who already does some crazy shit with it. Someone who found out all the stuff before the protagonist or the public got aware of that and already made Portals and had build up a network. But with increasing reach and logistical effort, it became harder to "contain" from the public. It went out of control, spread among the global sphere, lead to disruption in the social and political fabric... and if that would not be enough, it lured the attention of something else, tingeling with portals...sending stuff through and all the infected begin to have disturbing dreams and act strange! From creeping Terrors, eldritch Horror, Hellish Doomsday Invasion, Terrible Mutations with Zombieapocalypse Vibe, or just having less friendly looking misunderstood, benevolent Entities welcoming Earth to the Pancosmic Portal Network. Hmm... I think I should really considering to get at writing again.
Oooo, definitely feeling the SCP and Resident Evil vibes coming off of that concept! Those broader questions can definitely be part of alignment, but I find myself exploring them more and more when mapping out Blueprints of the magic system. I don't have many videos on the topic yet, but you can learn more about the Magic System Blueprint here (th-cam.com/video/IievN6OXQP4/w-d-xo.html). Open-ended questions are tricky. They can be terrific for driving thought experiments, but I've found they trip up a lot of people. In the end, it's about figuring out what works for you
@@themagicengineer5314 yea...you are right, I might be too much influenced by Warhammer40k Lore or Lovecraftian Horror and tend to love stories, where humans are playing with things they should not and encounter things, which put you in place. A well established Themepark of very related Tropes to explore. But using blood to make portals is inviting a lot of Ideas and maybe Visitors! I love that Idea and hope to hear more from that! ;)
I had a silly little idea of a simple enough system, it's the typical elemental with healing magic in it's own category, but you can create variations/ subtypes of elements, like, water can become= snow and ice, acid, etc. But the catch is that you slowly change physically and emotionally, like someone who uses fire magic starts breathing out smoke and becomes irritable easily, i think that's a good reason as to why not everybody would learn Magic, since that could worsen your life and potencially distance others fron you
@@themagicengineer5314And It is! Im currently working on a way to make magic more limited, also a way to create sub elements and maybe custom spells for the user, i'm thinking of something like- a glyph that the person creates, places their magic item and they can now use it, and all spells have an amount of uses until they need to be recharged back at the glyph, or maybe some form of Magic battery
A big point is that every power system still requires balance on the fly, every use of magic requires a mini revision to make sure its not an unbalanced exploit as compared with other abilities
That is ESPECIALLY true when you're dealing with superheroes or any kind of high-powered magic. The bigger the impact the magic has and the stronger it makes the characters, the easier it is to skew the balance and the more importance it is to test regularly
what i rly like and find cool is, how detailed, interconnected and deep thought of the magic system of your´s is!! - this is mopre than cool, i kind of love that!!! rly rllyyy coool!!!!
I created a magic system based on colors, where you get the power based in wich color you use(but you have to "activate" them before). After I ran out of colors, I started to use the materials(like different types of metal, gemstones and some others); I also created creatures and even lore around the powers. Your videos will help me a lot to organize it all
For me, iteration was the 2nd step. I had this seed crystal of a Cultivation-like affinity system, but the actual affinities as well as possible other magical system were what I wanted to refine. I took basic Elements, like Fire Water Air, split them up into components, like Light and Heat for Fire and recombined them in new ways. Adding and removing small parts helped refine the system to a point where i had a reasonable system, however then, the story inspiration is what allowed me to finalize these affinities and build the rest of rhe magic system as well as other things around this core.
And that is GREAT example of adapting the process and stages to fit your needs. Ever person, system, and story is a little different and some times require more scrambling of the 7 stages than others
Been working on a story for a while and I've basically made science/nature the same thing as magic. From the point of the Big Bang till the end of the story magic was natural but misunderstood due to it's use by intelligent beings. Light and Dark were the first entities known to exist and when they met all was created starting with Chaos. It was through Chaos that Life was born, through Light that Life grew and prospered, and through Dark that Life struggled to be better when given Choice. Light is seen as Divine, Chaos is Elemental on a cosmic level, and Dark is all that breaks Natural Order and Corruption. The Alpha Trinity is the magic system formed and mastering all three is near impossible due to the necessary steps to use them being rather different and at times conflicting. Light thrives off of Will, positivity, and purity. Chaos thrives off of Intelligence, Instinct, and focus. Dark thrives off of Negativity, Blood, and Sacrifices. Some specific spells for each even have chants needed in Light and Dark where Light usually requires biblical verses and positive phrases Dark is not only opposite but some actually require the spell to be said backwards for Dark is parallel to Light in all aspects and thus stronger the more it differs.
Towards the end i was expecting you to say that you had characters whose blood was transfused into other people, thus allowing the characters to teleport into the other peoples bodies 🤣 diabolical . Great video and channel. Very excited to watch more. Thank you for your work
*Happy Gasp* That. Is. An. AMAZING IDEA!!!! I assumed they did blood transfusions to infect people but I didn't think of litereally portaling things INTO people's bodies!
13:00 I would probably just go the blood needs to be liquid and it needs to be more or less sterile. Which would mean you need the infrastructure to properly store it, so that while it is possible, it raises alot of logistical problems for anyone who wants to actually do that. And if you made a huge portal, it would only last so long before it dried and became unusable, and you needed to get even more blood to reactivate it.
I've been working on stage 1 of a magic system inspired by programming in Ruby and Basic. And programming in general. In it, magicians use wands, which are similar to interpreters, and scrolls, tablets, books, and metal plates, which are similar to programs. The most powerful magicians have mastered the universes equivalent to Assembly language, taking months to write the most efficient spells to do simple things. The main problem I have is limitations. The control side is extremely limited, as everything needs to be specified, as humans have no inherent control over magic. Using magic creates heat in the wand and a bit in the program, but I don't know what it's initial source of energy is, or if it should be relevant at all. The heat would already encourage making wands out of metal, and giving them cooling fins like an RTG or machine gun, and means that powerful spells need large, underwater wands.
How you've explained it, it seems to be working alright. The limitations come in managing the energy, programing, and materials just like when dealing with energy and power systems in reality. As for the true source, it doesn't sound like that's essential at the moment. The most important thing is understanding whether it's external to the users and if it's finite, infinite, or renewable. From what you're saying, it sounds like an external renewable source of power for the magic artifacts/channels
your video is definitely helpful. i can now define where my problemes with my magic systems started. i had two that got ages to get right, or at least without major inconsistences. the first being a mostly standard fantasy world magic system with elemental attributes, well technically its four similar magic systems but those details are irrelevant here. the hard limits i imposed where no time travel, no travel to other worlds, no permanent brainwashing/mindcontrol and no messing with souls on a fundamental level. souls could be reshaped, temporarily captured and even put into artificial bodies but not permanently since that would interfere with the reincarnation system i needed to be in place for a main plot mechanic. the problem was that i planned to have the MC be a dungeon core for a good part of the story and they needed to have the ability to save the souls of their monsters to get bossmonsters to grow and not loose interesting characters whenever a strong adventurer sweeps through. but that ability directly interferes with my soul hard limits. after thinking for a long time i figured out that i had to put extra restrictions on when the reincarnation system is activated and define more detailed how dungeons bind those souls to them. the second magic system i call the constellation rune system. if you look long enough into the nightsky at certain times a year while being in certain geografic areas and if your look through certain crystal lenses, then you can learn a spell rune. and the lenses also decide whether you learn a minor or major spell rune or an attribute rune that can add a certain effect to your spells. and certain constellations are only active once every few centuries and bring chaos into the existing power balance. the problem i ran into for this system was mostly on the story/world building side. i wanted to give the MC a slight advantage by having him have an unheard of attribute rune early in the story and had to think how the world would react to that, as the magic system was controlled by a religion and they hunted down any troublesome figures before they could pose a problem. and i had planned to later on make the MC figure out that lenses could be stacked which opens up a whole new layer ontop and how to not get him hunted down after the first use. now that i think about it, i also had a different rune system in the works. in that system everyone could make their own runes by filling shapes with intentions and rules. it would take at least a week of deep concentration to empower a new rune to the point where it stabilises and gains permanence. it is possible to learn other peoples runes easier than it is to make your own. and because of that, the world i had in mind would stick to three different rune systems that have different rules and are only somewhat compatable. as a hard rule i impose that runes become vastly most efficient if you base them on actual physical processes but with enough magic power and sufficiently empowered runes you could do pretty much anything. as a result, the first system focusses on simple spells that create things from nothing and are therefore inefficient, the second focusses on more complex spell effects based on physics which brings greater power but has the drawback of being harder to control unless you are very familiar with the underlaying process, and the third system is a pretty incomplete symbolic programming language system. all three systems work well enough on their own but when combined, there are lots of problems and the world struggles with it. for example system one has things like 'create water' and 'telekinesis' as spell runes, the second system has 'flame tornado' and 'repair weapon' as spell runes, while the third has 'create'+'fire'+'ball shape'+'from hand'+'projectile' runes to create a fireball spell. if anyone wants to use these ideas, go ahead, i don't mind at all. just tell me when and where you post a story with them, so i can read it too. thanks in advance~
Sounds interesting. Is this all for a story or are you working on a game system? Or maybe, just maybe, a combination of both in the form of a LitRPG story?! Also, I'm so glad this video was helpful :)
No worries. I'm always here to answer questions and I've got regular Q&As if you want to walk through anything. Also, here's some stuff that might help: www.brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law/ th-cam.com/video/YvyffF35V2I/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/iMLT8QQHEyM/w-d-xo.html
Am I the only one who's thoughts instantly turned to magic crystals and how something like that would affect the world the moment he started talking about crystals(I mean talk about inspiration coming from anywhere I literally got this inspiration from you talking about how to start with something specific and small for inspiration)
I had a problem with a magic system that I wanted to be extremely logical and understandable, requiring only the right knowledge and enough power, akin to something like computer programming- it simply wasn't usable for more abstract magical things that can inject more interesting aspects and twists into a story, unless I were to just include a bunch of new extremely specific rules to the system every time I wanted to do something it wouldn't easily cover, which would just come off as random asspulls that would only damage the stories I could tell with it, not to mention the universe that would have to operate on this system The solution ended up being relatively straightforward, I just kept fleshing out how it worked, where it came from, and what you could use it for, until I had other usable systems that would exist as a consequence of the first one, a universe full of gods, demons, and other such things that could do wackier and more arbitrary stuff while still being on some level understandable and having built-in limitations
Very Nice Work! It's super cool how, if we know how to do it, we can build magic systems on top of one another. Each of them ends up incredibly different, but they're still connected. Again, good job! Not everybody stumbles on what you just did.
I once made up a magic system when i was bored based on the 4 elements and these magic Crystals that could hold elemental energy. The crystals could be found over the entire world in their respective environment (so like fire Crystals in hot places, water crystals in seas, air crystals in the high mountains, and earth deep in the caves) People could use the crystals and become able to control the element of the crystal. If someone were to stab themselves with a crystal and allow it to stay in, they could gain the magic, but at a risk. The crystal would drip its energy into your veins, and could travel with the blood to places it shouldn't, causing a high chance of death. If you were strong enough to survive, you would be able to control your new power. At first, in Early stages of humanity, before technology even existed, the crystals were seen as artifacts, and those who had their power were like gods, ordering those who did not have it to do whatever they wished, forming a religion that traveled all the way to present day. I feel like i might add more lore to this, but idk yet
Weirdly enough, I actually came up with the restrictions for my magic system before anything else, even idea generation. The world that uses it is a post-post-apocalyptic future that essentially reverted back to medieval days because all forms of technology were outlawed. Thematically, the magic is meant to represent the status quo we’re made to just accept, while technology represents rebellion and justice for those who can’t live in that status quo (like the protagonist, who’s literally disabled and can’t use magic). With all that in mind, the first thing I had to figure out was “how do I make magic equal to, or even *worse* than technology?”. The answer was pretty simple when I realized how similar magic and technology actually are. They can do a lot of the same things, and we often see stories about primitive civilizations coming across technology and calling it magic. They only really have one difference, and that’s where the energy comes from. Magic is always fueled by the users themselves or the gods who created it, while technology is fueled by external resources. So basically, the main restriction for magic is that it’s impractical to use it to replace technology, because you would get tired very quickly (and if you pushed yourself too hard, you could even black out or die). And even if there’s no limits to the human imagination, there is a limit to every human’s energy, so some things are just flat out impossible even if you could theoretically craft a spell for it. Like creating entire pocket dimensions, for example. You could achieve a similar result by making a video game though. Technology on the other hand is only limited by having to actually follow the laws of science and physics.
Very interesting and a helpful start at creating my 1st idea of a magic system. So to give you some background info I'm currently brainstorming my own sci-fi story idea. Since i was very young (Currently 20) I've been interested in Science, especially in Astronomy. I'm thinking about implementing a lot of Astronomy concepts, like gravity, dark matter & dark energy, the fundamental forces of our universe in my parallel setting, and the particles that make up the universe. I.E the building blocks of atoms to life itself. However I'm thinking or trying to sorta spicing things up by maybe trying to do it where my Emperor character, for example, through his high-tech technostaff can manipulate space-time itself through the help of his master The Singularly, a being made out of dark energy and is a cosmic parasite to my cosmic mythical gods that are out of some sort of horror movie or smth. Basically I really enjoyed this video and wondered if you had a vid about sci-fi and fantasy with magic concepts?
I'm so glad you found the vidoe interesting and helpful. Can you help narrow down what you're looking for in terms of magic concepts? Are you just looking for a bunch of system ideas, a more detailed discussion about Sci-Fi vs Fantasy, the nuances of building tech-magic, or something else entirely?
I enjoyed the video and it did bring some things to my attention.... or, more so it gave me a different perspective on things I'd already thought that I had considered. Greatly appreciate the content. If I could build upon this... I feel like the Alignment stage should actually be the first stage. More accurately, combined with the Inspiration stage as they really feel like the same thing. Know the goal of the magic system extends both to what is actually possible and the emotions you mean to provoke from the reader. The Alignment section was really the section that I think got my brain working the most. There is a huge difference in what Gandalf's magic evokes compared to Nen from Hunter x Hunter, or comparing your generic anime magic system to something like the super limited and mysterious unnatural happenings in, say, A Song of Ice and Fire. Do you want your audience to be struck with youthful wonder at the amazing potential your magic system might bring? Or do you want them to feel the existential nightmare of what it actually means for one individual who is just as flawed as any other human being to be able to not only withstand a nuclear warhead to face but punch with the force of one? This, I feel, is the most important step. Not to say that it is the most difficult or time consuming, if you know that you want honest to goodness super heroes who each have individualized powers then great, move on to the next step. But you have to consider this in the earliest stages and keep it in mind the whole way through, I think.
Alignment very well could be the first step you need to take. I've found many people start in different places when building a magic system. It's all about figuring out what works for you
"Anything can be a seed crystal, a picture, a character concept, your plot, anything." Me: "I'll just take the word 'seed crystal,' thank you." Seriously though, the idea of a seed crystal might actually help my system. Just needs some mulling over. Great video.
In the end I'm still not entirely sure😅 I kinda want a soft magic system, but keep trying to figure out its rules, making it hard(er). I've been thinking something along the lines of; magic is particles in the air. Magic users can use these directly to do magic. Natural high concentrations of particles over time form crystals. These can be used directly to perform magic or to create magical artefacts. If the crystals are left alone and they reach a certain age and/or size, the magic in them will become twisted and cause problems (I.e. exploding spells and whatnot). The magic of the world needs to be purified or "in constant motion" so to speak. Humans used to have the ability to use magic, but because of history very few can anymore, leading crystals to grow rampant and release their twisted magic as a miasmic fog that over time twists the minds of those who enter it. As such, humans currently live in settlements shielded by barriers powered by refined crystals. These are artefacts from the bygone age and won't last forever. The story is set at a time when the fog covers all the land and the barriers are losing power. That's the gist of it, anyway. Writing the actual story would probably help me specify what it is I really need the magic to do and what I need to know about it.
@@writerducky2589 Remember that you can build a hard-rational system for yourself but then weave it into the story in such a fashion that it feels like a soft-irrational system to your readers. Do the development you need to do for yourself and then craft it into the experience you want for your readers
Awesome little videos here, dude. I gotta say, though, I’m using this info to flesh out a video game… Have you ever tried applying these to a game(tabletop, virtual, etc) setting?
Yes! I regularly use these stages when worldbuilding and developing magic for any tabletop RPG games I run. I haven't had the pleasure to work on a video game with anyone, but the principles and process are applicable everywhere
I’m here because I’m stuck in making a side project to prepare myself for the project I really want to do xD. I’ve spent so long world building for my old project and fleshing out plot idea but I want some practice drawing by making a different interesting simple comic of the same genre, before I get started on drawing out my original project. The problem is I keep circling back and unconsciously making too similar concepts to my original project. It’s so annoying T^T)
Hmmm. That can be frustrating. Maybe spend some extra time in the Idea Generation stage until you have a lot of ideas that are different enough from the original. Then you can focus in on what's NEW and build a system from that. Hope this helps!
12:06 I set up a minor antagonist to becomes a god after their complex plan finally comes together. The last remnants of the old generation almost get the most improbable of wins, but due to infighting and old grudges they essentially allow the new villain to kill them all. Now I have my protagonists with no old gen help and against the most difficult foe possible... and I've written myself into a corner. Really sucks to suck. :/
@@themagicengineer5314 Thematically the old generation was full of hubris (in different forms) and insane egos. These flaws essentially came full circle and thematically closed the loop on their arcs by having their failures manifest itself into an unkillable god that they accidentally created. They had lived their lives as superior in almost every aspect to everyone else, so having the new antagonist kill them (and only by them fighting each other instead of the obvious threat) was long-deserved comeuppance. The best of them did hint in his final words that final hope still exists via the protagonists. So thematically, avoiding that scenario is difficult but doable. However, I want to leave it mostly untouched since it's such a great ending for everyone who died and such a great ascension for this new antagonist. However, now he has reality-warping powers (who's only limit is his mind - this could possibly be exploited but I can't figure out how) and the protagonists (powerful as they are) are hopeless against such a threat... except some of the old gen have hope in the protagonists. Why? I'm trying to figure that out. And I'm stuck. How do you access the mind of someone who has powers over seemingly everything else? This is final boss sort of stuff so thankfully I don't have to worry much about story-breaking after-effects. The antagonist should (hopefully) be put down or at least meaningfully-threatened.
@@hyronvalkinson1749 Well you have a couple of options you can explore. - Maybe the god's power isn't as overwhelming as they THINK it is. There might be nuances and limitations they can discover and exploit as the story progresses - maybe the god's power CHANGES over time, developing flaws and weaknesses - Maybe the protagonists ultimate goal is to become a rival got that is equally powerful. Not necessarily defeating the antagonist, but balancing it out - they could defeat the god through non-magical means by tricking it, taking advantage of vices, or otherwise acting outside the magic system. A lot of times when we end up in a "corner" it's because we've become too focused on using a specific type of solution. We have LOTS of tools at our disposal as writers, so if you can't find a solution with one tool, spend some time considering what other tools you have and how THEY might do the job. I hope this helps. Good luck defeating the unstoppable god!
Im working on a magic system based on runes. But rather than the runes themselves causing magic itself, they're a means to communicate with a force of existence that everything living has a connection to. Runes are magic's language, and magic types are merely expressions of the fundimental force's influence over other things. Though Sorcerers have a VERY limited influence on said force when compared what it can do, which grows slowly as they become more experienced. I'd detail everything but its a huge W.I.P and currently VERY LARGE
Nice! I have something very similar where it's all about the conversation and relationship with the greater entities so they will perform how you want and when you need them to. Sounds like you're having a good time with it. Is this for a novel then?
@themagicengineer5314 so far ya, mostly just a passion project. It's kinda core thing is divergence, like how insatiably people try to pursue the "perfect" version of something and end up hard-focusing to the point of tunnelvision (aka most 3rd gen or younger magic types tend to be more gimmicky, such as acid or glass manipulation)
First time on your channel and i just have to say that other than amazing content, your face expressions are very... expressive. Caught myself staring at you like i myself was under the spell just watching your face move and mold after every thought. Its kinda cool bro Sorry for intruding
Nice video. Really struggleing to get my magic to do what I want it to. It mostly works, it's just my brain wants to turn it into a science that fits like it was real. Like why does this stuff work this way if that dosn't work. I don't know how to explain it. I like the way final fantasy does their's, never really "got" dnd's, liked the charm of battleon's. Just not getting mine done.
look at your core concept and see if you can identify some underlying theory or patterns. That's where it all needs to start. If you're really stuck, feel free to email me or set up a consultation and we'll see if we can get you sorted out
Just started the series, and your videos are incredibly helpful and well done. Subscribed with notifications. Totally agree that testing is the most fun stage. A magic system can potentially lead to plot holes when it has been revealed to the reader/player and then it's underutilized in the narrative, but also I think it can lead to a sense of deus ex machina when it hasn't been sufficiently introduced or explained, yet it comes, apparently, out of nowhere to get characters out of a sticky situation.
Glad you like them! And you're absolutely right about the plot holes. There's also another aspect to integrating your magic system into the story I'm trying to work out. It's related to engaging your reader, connecting the magic to parts of your story, and balancing the magic's presence throughout the arc. I'm still missing some important pieces so that's all I've got at the moment, but I'm working on it.
one of the ideas I've been playing with for a few of my game ideas it to have the source of magic be a finite resource, so that over the course of this world's history, gaining magic transforms from a tool to make people's lives easier as a way of interacting with or manipulating natural aspects of the world in area around you, to more of a power bargaining chip in wars and political issues. I think it would be cool to use this and the in universe religion to loosely tie all of my games together. could probably do with more iterating though
Thank you for this. This really helped me design the magic system for the main character of a book I'm writing. She lives in a world where technology and magic are both present. Her specific type of magic is genetic and allows her to control and manipulate technology but is tied to her emotions specifically anger. With the magic she can transform one piece of technology into any other piece of technology of the same tech level, aka she can transform a sniper rifle into a machine gun, but she can't transform a pogo stick into a machine gun. Her magic pretty much allows her to control the atoms that make up the technology. But any byproduct energy created by the moving of the atoms is absorb by the mage acting like a drug effect, causing a release of dopamine. So extremely powerful technomancers are rare because they tend to blow themselves up chasing that high. Yes, she can cause technology to explode by "setting the atoms free", but she can only do this when extremely pissed off which is limited due to the drug effects.
I think a suggestion for you is something from just normal physics. Setting atoms free releases HUGE amounts of energy. So I think you could use that as like a massive risk factor when using magic. So you kinda have to always keep your emotions in check.
@@jksupergamer Yeah, that is pretty much one of the risk factors that I have her dealing with. I do have the magic enabling a little more control than what normally would happen though. But I've got it that due to the dopamine hit that they get from each explosion the more often they use it the more addicted to using it they become, and the less control over it they have. Thus eventually the lose all control of the explosion. Makes it so it's not just a control on the magics power, but also explains why there's so few extremely powerful technomancers.
Those who go out to harvest the portal strain infected blood could be call Floaters or maybe Poppers, playing off that phrase "Once they pop (start harvesting) they don't stop!"
LOL. The way you wrote that though gave me a new idea. Something like Left 4 Dead, where the viruses create various forms of monsters and people go out and harvest the infected fluids to perform magic
Interesting little fact: I actually created a homebrewed D&D enemy A warforged Wizard that looks like that bacteria picture on the thumbnail (without eyes) It’s called: S.C.U (Synthetic Caster Unit)“Casters” The mostly specialize in utility spells, and worst of all if they’re used in ambush scenarios they’ll have the Leomund’s tiny hut prepared, so while enemy units just start walking out of protective bubbles that weren’t there a moment ago they can stay in and cast all they need since they don’t fight directly they just work at keeping concentration type spells going. And they have Featherfall for drop troops.
Thanks for the process, I will definitely apply this. But have a question. In my world I want variety, for instance a medium who connects with the dead via life force, a martial artists that uses life force to enhance their fighting and a spirtualist who learned to shape life force into constructs. How can I still have that variety while implementing your and others advice concerning these niche magic systems. My niche isn’t blood, or seed crystals, or bones, but “mentalism” and the accessing and manipulating of this ubiquitous life force.
I talk about that a bit in another video (th-cam.com/video/W4Czzz7NX7E/w-d-xo.html), but I can see how that would be helpful at the start of a conversation like this. Would a playlist of the videos help with that kind of information flow?
I like to use mindmaps and time-boxing. Identify the 2-3 core concepts you want to brainstorm around (I call them brainstorming pillars) and then give your self a limited amount of time and write down everything you can think of related to the pillars. I usually start with Effects, Themes and Mediums, and Really Cool Hats as my pillars. You might find this podcast episode helpful: exolore.captivate.fm/episode/building-magic-systems-part-2
lol I hope so too! Things have been going well so far and everyone has been extremely supportive. In fact, the channel has grown by over 100 subscribers in the past 30 days! Thanks again for your support and I hope you enjoy my other videos as they come out.
Feel free to drop or morph whatever you need to so the process works for you. All of this is about finding the best approach for you, not trying to identify a best approach for *everyone*
I just subscribed based on the video titles alone. I'm getting ready to write my first novel so I'm hoping some of the advice here is going to be useful. That said it's 4 in the morning and I need to sleep ha I'll watch the videos tomorrow, or later today I guess
This video is great help, I'm currently trying to define my magic system the inspiration was nen from hunter x hunter. I plan to explain the magic system as a manifestation of the users will and currently have 3 expressions of this that people can use with those being your will manifesting as a result of your personality forexample one character has an ability called T.A.G (touch and go) and it basically allows the user to switch places with things hes touched as well all teleport back to places hes already marked and summom items that are marked. Another character has a wind based ability that comes as a manifestation of his own will but he also has a hereditary ability passed on by his father that was with him at his birth essentially giving him two expressions of will his will. I have plans for other characts to have abilities that have similar mechanics to lycanism but I'm not sure if that should be an expression of an hereditary will power or something on its own. The third form happens when you inherit somome else's will, kind of like a teacher passing a mission or philosophy to a student, right now the only cases of those I've considered was the main character who has the wind ability learning how to cretate artificial voids to mimic the ability of one of his mentors who had a void based will power, he does this by removing the air in an area to pull opponents into his attacks by making a vaccum. Another idea I had for inherited will powers were for certain nations to have warriors who can have shared inherited abilities as well the skilled combatants or higher ranked soilders to have their own unique will power as well as using some inherited skills from their culture.
@@themagicengineer5314 hunter x hunter is definitely in my top 3 anime just because how well defined and thought out the nen system is having 5 types of aura feilds as well as a handful of basic applications that must be mastered before creating a signature attack or unique hatsu as they call it in universe, the only issue I had with the series was that 2 or 3 arcs happen before the main characters are introduced to the system but a lot of workd building happens within that time frame. One of my favorite parts of the series is how they highlight both master level nen users as well incompetent ones who were unable to fully grasp the magic system and made a lack luster ability because of their lack of knowledge.
My mermaid world is figured betwen magical and non-magical merfolk, but even within the magical society, there is division between each subdivision. Im currently trying to think of a way to build a magical system
I hope the video helped. If your stuck for ideas, I do have videos talking more about seed crystals and even more articles on the topic on my website crrowenson.com
A great question. I talk about that quite a bit in these two videos, if you haven't already seen them th-cam.com/video/YvyffF35V2I/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/5JSFlWsR4Uk/w-d-xo.html
I have many characters anad story ideas. I am trying to think of a unififed magic system and world where they can all coexist. Istead of coming up with like 5 different worlds and magic systems.
I'd recommend writing down everything you've decided so far and then start looking for underlying patterns and themes you can apply to all of them. That can make it feel cohesive and connected
The situation you found with banking infected blood to make larger portals reminds me of the doping scandal that hit the cycling world several years back. One of the main things that a lot of them we’re doing was called blood doping, where in the weeks preceding a race, they’d pull a bunch of blood out of themselves, spin it down to concentrate the red blood cells, then inject those right before the race. It was a nightmare to detect b/c it’s just the person’s natural blood, no other chemicals involved, so something like what you described absolutely would happen in a world where that was possible.
Very interesting! I didn't know about that. I could definitely see something like that coming into play with the viral-based magic
@@themagicengineer5314 I had a boss years ago who was really into cycling. Lance Armstrong was incredible at organizing the doping. Their favorite method involved a team dog. They had a false bottom in the dog crate, where they stored the blood bags. Inspectors never bothered checking the crate b/c it’s just a dog crate. Unethical as hell, but also fascinating.
@@VestigialLung WOW! No kidding?! That's crazy and definitely going into a story somewhere
Reminds me of the vampires in blade 2
lol. kind of, yeah@@Alakrit
Just as a fun pastime, I had loosely designed a elemental magic system where you start to gain negative personality traits associated with an element the better you got at using it, but when I finished the loose overview I made of the system it seemed oddly familiar. And then I realized I accidentally fleshed out the very vague magic system I created with my brother when I used to play pretend with him as kid, I even assigned the same negative traits to the respective elements our characters used to have.
That's sounds like fun. What are some of the trait/element pairings, if you don't mind me asking
@@themagicengineer5314 For example, the trait associated with light (the element my character had) is Arrogance. You metaphorically get blinded by your own light, and become self-absorbed and convinced of your invicibility. Wind (my brother's character's element) makes people spacey. Your thoughts get carried to unusual places and as such people have problems understanding your thought processes. Generally every element can be separated into Physical and Mental Effects, and Nature. Each category can be further separated into Active effects and Passive effects, but the passive Nature is always a negative character trait.
@@SolDMars sounds sick
@@SolDMars Definitely sounds interesting!
I've spent the past 5 months creating random story ideas, and now I've finally decided I want to get serious about them and create a magic system. The thing is, I've spent so much time creating the stories that I've basically given myself all the ideas I need to a magic system that ties in nicely with most of them!
Outstanding! It sounds like your approach vector here was from the Plot, which can be a great way to go.
Be sure to let me know if you have any questions or get stuck anywhere in the process. I'm happy to see what I can do to help
Seed crystals seem like a cool idea to base a magic system around
wow... so obvious and yet I never actually considered that. Sounds like you've got your next magic system ;)
In what way? Can you elaborate what you mean by seed crystals (as opposed to the term as used in the video I mean) when they are used in a magic system?
@@pashahlis7941 crystal magic is already part of the zeitgeist so when I heard seed crystals described as the tiny crystal bits that scientists grow crystals around I was primed to think adding control over a fast crystal growth to that process and also maybe some new age mysticism if I can make it fit
VIBRATIONS
Seed crystals, while not what the system is based around, do play a part in the later books of Brent Weeks' Lightbringer series.
@@themagicengineer5314 Portalen (julkalendar on SVT)
While not a magic system, it was based on a race to get a time crystal before time stopped for good, and return it to its rightful place. It's in Swedish though, disclaimer.
This was good. I’ll try applying this to my preexisting system.
how is it going?
How did it go, 2 years later?
@@mikeyfreeman5776 Now 3 years!
Keeping it simple makes it, simple. From my experience having a simple core consept, then go deeper is a good method.
When making a big magic system with a lot of stuff, it could end up feeling very unconected and random.
When building on that core consept things usualy feel more conected and a progression of what's established.
Having a broad system of course can work but I find it harder to do.
Agreed. Some of the systems I've been most frustrated with were crammed full of things that didn't seem to fit together
It's rare to stumble across something this interesting, then to scroll down and see under 1k subs. I can safely say you've earned more and that this creative topic is surely something I would wanna play around with myself down the line. I can already imagine some kind of reality-warping magic system powered and harnessed by the very desire to escape from reality. Keep up the good work dude, and I'll keep tabs, this is hella cool and inspiring
thank you so much; it means a lot. It was a nerve-wracking experience taking the step onto TH-cam. Who am I kidding, it's STILL nerve-wracking ;)
Thanks for the questions@caitlyncarvalho7637 . Unfortunately, this isn't something I'm comfortable discussing here. All of my videos relate to magic systems in fiction stories
I am currently making a card game based on a magic system and this is actually helpful in creating the lore of the game.
I have 3 types of spells in this game:
a sign - a fast simple spell that is very limited and is mostly used for small effects and interfering with Runes.
a rune - a slower spell that takes up a bit more time to use and has more utility
and the final one
a channeled spell - an extremely slow spell that takes WAY longer to cast and has a ton of room for interference but yields significantly more power than possible using the other types of spells.
the power is harvested from spirits that can be converted into familiars that assist or augment your spells with different effects.
and I would probably add potions or artifacts to give the game a bit more flexibility in the next test run.
I used Magic: The Gathering as inspiration for the game mechanics but reimagined the game in a sorcerer vs sorcerer fight like in Slay the Spire rather than planeswalkers summoning creatures or shifting the lands.
Sounds interesting. Are you planning on crowdfunding, or is the game just something you're making for fun?
@@themagicengineer5314 it's something I currently make for fun(I like creating games, and this is not the first one I've made).
I might actually make it for real if it comes out decent, but I'm not really sure I can or even should croudfund a game that have 0 art and not even a full set of cards to play.
maybe after the first set of cards is finalized I'll go for croudfunding to hire a graphic designer to do the art and pay some printing facility in my area to create the finished cards.
for the most part I just printed out the demo cards in my home printer and tested them out like that.
for board games I carved wood or 3d printed the parts I needed.
additional game update: Channeled spells are called rituals now and they will be set face down till they are activated using their cost at the appropriate time or till someone interfere with them.
it requires a spirit to hold the ritual till it's activated(meaning you don't get energy from it) so you can't just play them willy-nilly.
I love what you said about harvesting the blood of someone infected to, almost industrially, create huge portals because that's actually the first thing I thought of when you mentioned this part of your magic system. Personally I love leaving these kinds of things in on purpose because I am very convinced humans will abuse whichever advantages they can find and this can make for such interesting worldbuilding... or an interesting villain's motivation. Or an interesting class system.
100% and I'm SO glad to hear me and my friend are the only ones to think this way!
@@themagicengineer5314what?! No way! Why intentionally make your story generic when the very worldbuilding you’ve worked so hard on provides fascinating and original implications? I’m defs on the side of taking the implications and following them to their logical conclusions and then using that in your story.
I already have a solid magic system, but I never stop coming up with new ideas for it. My stuff constantly evolves. Also, there are things that I've moved away from, but returned to after a while and finding better ways to utilize those ideas. Always good to revisit old ideas.
agreed
I struggle with testing my system. I try to think through the pros/cons/problems of my system and then one day weeks into the project realize a new angle that undermines what I've created. Any advice on how to test my system? Questions to ask myself?
The factors mentioned in the video are the best place to start. I call them "The Paths to Godhood". Examining how a magic-user can generate infinite power, knowledge, accessibility, or wealth are all potential issues. Also, consider how easy it is for a magic-user to kill or incapacitate other characters.
In general, put yourself in front of a challenge and see how you could use the magic to bypass it. See how far you can take the solution and how trivial you can make the challenge become.
If you'd like some examples, I have a couple blog posts where I go through the process with my Viral Magic System.
crrowenson.com/walkthroughs/magic-building-walkthroughs/broke-my-viral-magic-system/
crrowenson.com/walkthroughs/magic-building-walkthroughs/fixed-viral-magic/
And please ask more questions if you have them :)
I'll also add this topic to my list of future video ideas
I have also found that writing out scenes or just scene descriptions with one or two aspects of the magic system that I am testing in mind works a treat. Once I get those aspects to a point where they don't break too much anymore, I give those passages to friends because the fresh eyes find issues better than mine (that have stared at these problems forEVER) do. Hope that helps too. :)
@@themagicengineer5314 Excited to see this. :D
I am writing a number of stories to flesh out the world of my main series. One of them, of course, is for the magic system. These are stories that might or might not get published, but are there to put the concept I am exploring through its paces and try to poke holes in it that I can then fix.
Thank you Algorithm, I was looking for a video about magic systems
Horray! The system works! ...sometimes :)
This is a great video! I didn't realize it wasn't about d&d until I was about a third of the way through but the advice completely applies whether you're writing a novel or a campaign!
I'm so glad! I work hard to make these useful to storytellers of all kinds
I once created my own magic system for fun. The idea was that you took raw mana and "shape" it with certain "qualities" that belong to certain "catagories". There were a few ways to go about it each with their own limitations. You could shape th magic yourself, but every person poseses a quality for each catagory and how compatible you are with a certain magic is determined by how well the qualities match. Alternatively one could use a catalyst to shape the magic for you, but this was more diifficult and carried the risk of catastrophic backfire if you made a mistake. Finally their were spirits who inherently are very strong with a specific form of mana, some of them being unique to spirits, but could only exist in the world under certain conditions, one could form a pact with them to borrow their strength and allowing the spirit to exist in the world, the catch being the bond was permanent and you it's not possible to form more than one.
what were some of the qualities and categories?
@@themagicengineer5314 Well one of the catagories is "form" and has the qualities "solid, liquid, formless" so magics that are "substantive" (e.g. ice, fire) have one of these qualities while magics that aren't (e.g. force) don't have one. One other aspect was not all the catagories were quite so literal, one catagory was colour for example and the best colour was not always so obvious.
Another aspect I came up with is that some creatures naturally have catalyst body parts (e.g. harpy bones and feathers being catalysts was what allowed them to fly) and it was through observing these animals that the second method was discovered.
I'm working on a science fiction series, but fundamentally I'm building a magic system. There is technology/magic that follows rules and affects the characters, so I found your video very useful. Thank you!
Excellent! The next video that I'm working on now is all about the true difference between magic and technology, so I think you'll find that one especially interesting
@@themagicengineer5314 seems like I found your channel at the perfect time. I look forward to it!
Thanks for this; I love your focus on storytelling. As a writer, it's helpful to be reminded to consider the story implications of a magic system, especially since my magic system will probably exist across many different stories, each with its own needs. This was supremely helpful for getting my brain exited, again, and reminding me that I can explore the implications of what I already have rather than needing to add more to it.
Glad you enjoyed it! There is a lot of value to be found in deeper explorations of our content before we start sprawling outward... of course that doesn't ever stop me from sprawling lol
Thank you for your amazing and very educational videos on magic systems! I hope you keep on uploading. Your enthusiasm, clear, and engaging delivery made it easy to watch the video from start to finish! ☺
Thanks so much for the kind words! I truly appreciate it. I'm doing my best to keep the content flowing. At the moment, that's mostly in the form of the livestreams that I reupload a few weeks later. I'm really hoping to get back to my normal form of content in the next year or so, but we'll see
I wish this was more popular, you really know your stuff. This will be incredibly useful if I ever make a story involving a magic system.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate the vote of confidence. I'm already floored by how much this video has taken off. I'm hoping that with time, and more videos of course, we can build a positive community of magic-builders!
This video is so pleasant. You are such a calming and grounding presence. Everything was really helpful and gave me lots of inspiration for creating my first magic system. Thanks for the lovely work!
You're so welcome!
Been binging your videos and I've always felt like it's only a matter of time before you mention Sanderson
It takes active restraint NOT to mention Sanderson all the time. Lol
My favourite part was that he didn’t remove the loophole entirely so it could still happen in universe but is impractical for the story. I want it to be possible to gain omnipresence but with the draw back of your concentration being so segmented you practically don’t exist
That would definitely be interesting. I'll have to think about how that could play out in the system
@@themagicengineer5314 basically omnipotence is a thing to avoid. But maybe some people might be mistaken and strive for it but if they succeed they’ll just vanish.
@@ProjectEchoshadow WIth the viral magic, it's easier to limit those problems. Any such strain could just be extremely deadly. So you're all-powerful... until you die
@@themagicengineer5314 While watching I came up with a system based on the human senses. Example: Sight magic allows one to affect any thing they can physically see. It gos deeper if you know about the senses that are not normally talked about, like the sense of balance, or the sense of self orientation. That last one is cool because it allows the user to affect their own orientation in relation to their surroundings without having to be subjected to a normal body's limitations. The exception is it might kill them if they over use it. Think of it like a hyper flexible contortionist. What is your opinion on this idea?
@@tristanmitchell1242 YES! That! Thank you. My text library does not include that word, so I couldn't spell it right. (On tablet). Anyways, This is what think tanks are for. You just made my idea even better. Just think of the cool uses a magic system based on senses could produce.
This video is great help, but it’s too underappreciated, keep up the great work!
Glad it was helpful!
Found this video after starting my own project and trying to make my magic system work and be different enough. Crazy thing is, it just so happens to also be a viral-based magic system!
That’s cool. My story is literally based off a Roblox Maple Hospital Roleplay I did with a player a few times lol I even added extra characters. I’m still trying to add more restrictions though
That's so cool! I hope the video has been helpful
I love this process for creating magic systems. I'll definately be using it.
So glad to hear it! Thanks for the comment and be sure to let me know if you have any questions
I'll try doing this myself and see how it goes, the 2nd iteration will be with more people involved!!
Best of luck!!
Definitely let me know how that goes! Adding extra people can make such a huge difference in the end result. If you find you're all meandering too much, try setting time limits on your brainstorming. That can really shake things up
I know this is like 3 years old, so doubtful anyone will see it, but who knows. I've been building a rather complex magic system and world (for the better part of 2 decades) for a story that has died in the water.
Basic premise of the inspiration was the idea of Leylines and the 7 chakras (Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Sound, Light, and Thought), which I extrapolated into 7 unique races. I used the basic fundamental elements and emotions of each Chakra (that I termed 'soulgates') to construct a framework for it. The classical elemental structure has more subtlety than just Fire make Fireball, Earth make rock fly; it instead focuses on the spiritual aspects of each Chakra, like the Earth Chakra is all about Fear vs Survival, Water is about Pleasure vs Guilt, etc. It all came from watching the Guru episode of Last Airbender.
Ive since built so much of the world and history, but the magic sort of fizzled apart under practical application and inworld study. I wish I had someone to help reforge it, cuz I know I have something big here that I haven't seen done before basically anywhere. But usually by the time I get to explaining where the hangups are, no one i know has any real ideas or critiques, just a shrug and a backpat "that I'll get it some day".
Well, I do offer coaching services to help people with their magic systems and stories. You can schedule a free consultation session here (calendly.com/crrowenson/30min). I'd also suggest joining my newsletter for additional discounts on coaching and extra exclusive articles on writing, magic systems, and more (subscribepage.io/wrFjNQ).
In the meantime, you might consider spending some time on the idea generation phase. Just focus on brainstorming as many ideas as possible, don't worry about them being "good" or anything like that. If that's not working, you might need to spend some time coming up with a new story to latch it onto, if only to perform some alignment exercises.
I hope this helps.
@themagicengineer5314 Oh I have Olympic swimming pools of ideas, too many might be the problem. It's finding the practical application in world that can create feasible throttles. It's Sando's 2nd Law that made me seriously reconsider how I built the system, especially limitations. There is also the matter of making it fit into a world whose lore proliferated from the old system that was essentially broken (and a tad too impractical). It is certainly a lot to try n break down simply in a comment.
I'd definitely consider a consultation, but your calendly link sends me to a page that doesn't exist 😕
@@Atamastra that's weird. Try this one calendly.com/crrowenson/30min
If that doesn't work, then Calendly is up to shenannegans and I'll have to start troubleshooting.
As for your problems, it sounds like you need to speend some time with Alignment so you can figure out exactly what your system needs to be for the story. I doubt you need to rebuild your system from scratch. Even if the SYSTEM is complex and comprehensive, you can focus in and narrow down within the context of a specific STORY. and you can keep the lore about the old system, because we are never 100% accurate with our information anyway. So interestingly enough, some of your restrictions might just come from people having inocorrect and outdated info
I like how your brain thinks. Because the moment you mentioned the blood portal thingy, I immediately thought of how you can essentially harvest someone for portal magic juice and you also mentioned it after.
Probably because I had a similar idea.. Y'know, now that my own work leads to *a* similar conclusion to someone who has honed their craft, I'm very much happy with my magic system.
hello fellow terrible person! So glad you enjoyed the video
My god, I love your setup behind you! Thanks for the video!!
Thanks!
I feel like in every video on magic system advice that I watch, the author introduces their own, inexplicably always blood-based magic system as an example :D Though yours is probably my favourite one I've heard so far, it sounds really interesting.
The advice was useful as well, I had indeed skipped over step 2 too quickly and was getting stuck because of a plain lack of ideas to work with. So taking more time to brainstorm helped, thanks.
Lol. you may be right about the blood magic popularity, but imo, not enough of them actually make it into print (mine included)
Whenever I have my thoughts about something like a "Magic System", and have that core idea, my next step is mostly after Idea-Generating to do something, which I assume is similar to that Alignment Step: to ask Questions!
In your example: Where did the Virus come from? How fast and how impactful did the public, communities or just anybody received that phenomenon?
I could imagine, that the source was found decades ago on an expedition to a very remote place, maybe subterranean, which had been since then secured by military. They found something very old or from another world (classic). They took it to their Labs for highly classified stuff to analyze its properties and the cause for them (SCP/Area 51 Vibes again). It had a lot of useful abilities, which could be utilized for strategic pourpose, if someone could just produce the neccesary amount. It was found, that these attributes of that thing is being naturally inherent in their tissue, and if you could find the genetic sequence for these "metaproteins" to be build in living cells, you eventually could genetically engineer it into any lifeform.
So they decided to use a virus as a vector for implementation on human subjects after experimenting on Goats, Chimps and what not. [insert many wild ideas here about many failed and several successful side-projects].
With that background, it is possible to have some hidden antagonist, who already does some crazy shit with it. Someone who found out all the stuff before the protagonist or the public got aware of that and already made Portals and had build up a network. But with increasing reach and logistical effort, it became harder to "contain" from the public. It went out of control, spread among the global sphere, lead to disruption in the social and political fabric... and if that would not be enough, it lured the attention of something else, tingeling with portals...sending stuff through and all the infected begin to have disturbing dreams and act strange!
From creeping Terrors, eldritch Horror, Hellish Doomsday Invasion, Terrible Mutations with Zombieapocalypse Vibe, or just having less friendly looking misunderstood, benevolent Entities welcoming Earth to the Pancosmic Portal Network.
Hmm... I think I should really considering to get at writing again.
Oooo, definitely feeling the SCP and Resident Evil vibes coming off of that concept!
Those broader questions can definitely be part of alignment, but I find myself exploring them more and more when mapping out Blueprints of the magic system. I don't have many videos on the topic yet, but you can learn more about the Magic System Blueprint here (th-cam.com/video/IievN6OXQP4/w-d-xo.html).
Open-ended questions are tricky. They can be terrific for driving thought experiments, but I've found they trip up a lot of people. In the end, it's about figuring out what works for you
@@themagicengineer5314 yea...you are right, I might be too much influenced by Warhammer40k Lore or Lovecraftian Horror and tend to love stories, where humans are playing with things they should not and encounter things, which put you in place.
A well established Themepark of very related Tropes to explore.
But using blood to make portals is inviting a lot of Ideas and maybe Visitors!
I love that Idea and hope to hear more from that! ;)
I had a silly little idea of a simple enough system, it's the typical elemental with healing magic in it's own category, but you can create variations/ subtypes of elements, like, water can become= snow and ice, acid, etc.
But the catch is that you slowly change physically and emotionally, like someone who uses fire magic starts breathing out smoke and becomes irritable easily, i think that's a good reason as to why not everybody would learn Magic, since that could worsen your life and potencially distance others fron you
That sounds like fun for sure!
@@themagicengineer5314And It is! Im currently working on a way to make magic more limited, also a way to create sub elements and maybe custom spells for the user, i'm thinking of something like- a glyph that the person creates, places their magic item and they can now use it, and all spells have an amount of uses until they need to be recharged back at the glyph, or maybe some form of Magic battery
A big point is that every power system still requires balance on the fly, every use of magic requires a mini revision to make sure its not an unbalanced exploit as compared with other abilities
That is ESPECIALLY true when you're dealing with superheroes or any kind of high-powered magic. The bigger the impact the magic has and the stronger it makes the characters, the easier it is to skew the balance and the more importance it is to test regularly
I want to read that book with that blood magic system!
On my long list of things to do 😅
what i rly like and find cool is, how detailed, interconnected and deep thought of the magic system of your´s is!! - this is mopre than cool, i kind of love that!!! rly rllyyy coool!!!!
Thanks! I really appreciate that :) Thanks for watching and commenting!
I created a magic system based on colors, where you get the power based in wich color you use(but you have to "activate" them before). After I ran out of colors, I started to use the materials(like different types of metal, gemstones and some others); I also created creatures and even lore around the powers. Your videos will help me a lot to organize it all
You could also dig into the attributes of color instead of just the color itself. Saturation, Contrast, pigment density, reflection index, and so on.
@@themagicengineer5314 that's a cool idea, thanks!
For me, iteration was the 2nd step. I had this seed crystal of a Cultivation-like affinity system, but the actual affinities as well as possible other magical system were what I wanted to refine. I took basic Elements, like Fire Water Air, split them up into components, like Light and Heat for Fire and recombined them in new ways. Adding and removing small parts helped refine the system to a point where i had a reasonable system, however then, the story inspiration is what allowed me to finalize these affinities and build the rest of rhe magic system as well as other things around this core.
And that is GREAT example of adapting the process and stages to fit your needs. Ever person, system, and story is a little different and some times require more scrambling of the 7 stages than others
This is amazingly well done and is going to help me a lot organizing the development of magic systems I’ve been working on for years thank youuu!
Great to hear! If you get stuck or have questions, don't hesitate to contact me through my website
Been working on a story for a while and I've basically made science/nature the same thing as magic. From the point of the Big Bang till the end of the story magic was natural but misunderstood due to it's use by intelligent beings. Light and Dark were the first entities known to exist and when they met all was created starting with Chaos. It was through Chaos that Life was born, through Light that Life grew and prospered, and through Dark that Life struggled to be better when given Choice. Light is seen as Divine, Chaos is Elemental on a cosmic level, and Dark is all that breaks Natural Order and Corruption. The Alpha Trinity is the magic system formed and mastering all three is near impossible due to the necessary steps to use them being rather different and at times conflicting. Light thrives off of Will, positivity, and purity. Chaos thrives off of Intelligence, Instinct, and focus. Dark thrives off of Negativity, Blood, and Sacrifices. Some specific spells for each even have chants needed in Light and Dark where Light usually requires biblical verses and positive phrases Dark is not only opposite but some actually require the spell to be said backwards for Dark is parallel to Light in all aspects and thus stronger the more it differs.
Towards the end i was expecting you to say that you had characters whose blood was transfused into other people, thus allowing the characters to teleport into the other peoples bodies 🤣 diabolical .
Great video and channel. Very excited to watch more. Thank you for your work
*Happy Gasp* That. Is. An. AMAZING IDEA!!!!
I assumed they did blood transfusions to infect people but I didn't think of litereally portaling things INTO people's bodies!
13:00
I would probably just go the blood needs to be liquid and it needs to be more or less sterile. Which would mean you need the infrastructure to properly store it, so that while it is possible, it raises alot of logistical problems for anyone who wants to actually do that. And if you made a huge portal, it would only last so long before it dried and became unusable, and you needed to get even more blood to reactivate it.
That's pretty much exactly what I settled on eventually. I wasn't necessarily thinking in those terms, but that's what it equates to more or less
Thank you, this was very informative!
So glad to hear it! Let me know if you have questions or content you'd like me to address in one of my videos.
I have finally stumbled upon the answers I seek. Thank you Algorithm.
Happy to help
I've been working on stage 1 of a magic system inspired by programming in Ruby and Basic. And programming in general. In it, magicians use wands, which are similar to interpreters, and scrolls, tablets, books, and metal plates, which are similar to programs. The most powerful magicians have mastered the universes equivalent to Assembly language, taking months to write the most efficient spells to do simple things.
The main problem I have is limitations. The control side is extremely limited, as everything needs to be specified, as humans have no inherent control over magic. Using magic creates heat in the wand and a bit in the program, but I don't know what it's initial source of energy is, or if it should be relevant at all. The heat would already encourage making wands out of metal, and giving them cooling fins like an RTG or machine gun, and means that powerful spells need large, underwater wands.
How you've explained it, it seems to be working alright. The limitations come in managing the energy, programing, and materials just like when dealing with energy and power systems in reality.
As for the true source, it doesn't sound like that's essential at the moment. The most important thing is understanding whether it's external to the users and if it's finite, infinite, or renewable. From what you're saying, it sounds like an external renewable source of power for the magic artifacts/channels
Man You are underrated this stuff is so much better than other videos I've seen.
Edit: a few spelling mistakes.
your video is definitely helpful.
i can now define where my problemes with my magic systems started.
i had two that got ages to get right, or at least without major inconsistences.
the first being a mostly standard fantasy world magic system with elemental attributes, well technically its four similar magic systems but those details are irrelevant here. the hard limits i imposed where no time travel, no travel to other worlds, no permanent brainwashing/mindcontrol and no messing with souls on a fundamental level. souls could be reshaped, temporarily captured and even put into artificial bodies but not permanently since that would interfere with the reincarnation system i needed to be in place for a main plot mechanic. the problem was that i planned to have the MC be a dungeon core for a good part of the story and they needed to have the ability to save the souls of their monsters to get bossmonsters to grow and not loose interesting characters whenever a strong adventurer sweeps through. but that ability directly interferes with my soul hard limits. after thinking for a long time i figured out that i had to put extra restrictions on when the reincarnation system is activated and define more detailed how dungeons bind those souls to them.
the second magic system i call the constellation rune system. if you look long enough into the nightsky at certain times a year while being in certain geografic areas and if your look through certain crystal lenses, then you can learn a spell rune. and the lenses also decide whether you learn a minor or major spell rune or an attribute rune that can add a certain effect to your spells. and certain constellations are only active once every few centuries and bring chaos into the existing power balance. the problem i ran into for this system was mostly on the story/world building side. i wanted to give the MC a slight advantage by having him have an unheard of attribute rune early in the story and had to think how the world would react to that, as the magic system was controlled by a religion and they hunted down any troublesome figures before they could pose a problem. and i had planned to later on make the MC figure out that lenses could be stacked which opens up a whole new layer ontop and how to not get him hunted down after the first use.
now that i think about it, i also had a different rune system in the works.
in that system everyone could make their own runes by filling shapes with intentions and rules. it would take at least a week of deep concentration to empower a new rune to the point where it stabilises and gains permanence. it is possible to learn other peoples runes easier than it is to make your own. and because of that, the world i had in mind would stick to three different rune systems that have different rules and are only somewhat compatable. as a hard rule i impose that runes become vastly most efficient if you base them on actual physical processes but with enough magic power and sufficiently empowered runes you could do pretty much anything.
as a result, the first system focusses on simple spells that create things from nothing and are therefore inefficient, the second focusses on more complex spell effects based on physics which brings greater power but has the drawback of being harder to control unless you are very familiar with the underlaying process, and the third system is a pretty incomplete symbolic programming language system. all three systems work well enough on their own but when combined, there are lots of problems and the world struggles with it.
for example system one has things like 'create water' and 'telekinesis' as spell runes, the second system has 'flame tornado' and 'repair weapon' as spell runes, while the third has 'create'+'fire'+'ball shape'+'from hand'+'projectile' runes to create a fireball spell.
if anyone wants to use these ideas, go ahead, i don't mind at all. just tell me when and where you post a story with them, so i can read it too. thanks in advance~
Sounds interesting. Is this all for a story or are you working on a game system? Or maybe, just maybe, a combination of both in the form of a LitRPG story?!
Also, I'm so glad this video was helpful :)
A Soft-Rational Magic System? I'm now lost 😵💫. I'll probably be looking at Sanderson's laws.
No worries. I'm always here to answer questions and I've got regular Q&As if you want to walk through anything. Also, here's some stuff that might help:
www.brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law/
th-cam.com/video/YvyffF35V2I/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/iMLT8QQHEyM/w-d-xo.html
Thank you!
Am I the only one who's thoughts instantly turned to magic crystals and how something like that would affect the world the moment he started talking about crystals(I mean talk about inspiration coming from anywhere I literally got this inspiration from you talking about how to start with something specific and small for inspiration)
I'd love to hear what you come up with :)
Wuxia Super Origin Ephemeral Grandmaster: "Dont worry child, I too can build a magic system."
*Proceeds to change the word Magic to Qi*
I also build fantasy races
*Changes "orcs" to "oracs"*
Thanks for the video
I had a problem with a magic system that I wanted to be extremely logical and understandable, requiring only the right knowledge and enough power, akin to something like computer programming- it simply wasn't usable for more abstract magical things that can inject more interesting aspects and twists into a story, unless I were to just include a bunch of new extremely specific rules to the system every time I wanted to do something it wouldn't easily cover, which would just come off as random asspulls that would only damage the stories I could tell with it, not to mention the universe that would have to operate on this system
The solution ended up being relatively straightforward, I just kept fleshing out how it worked, where it came from, and what you could use it for, until I had other usable systems that would exist as a consequence of the first one, a universe full of gods, demons, and other such things that could do wackier and more arbitrary stuff while still being on some level understandable and having built-in limitations
Very Nice Work!
It's super cool how, if we know how to do it, we can build magic systems on top of one another. Each of them ends up incredibly different, but they're still connected.
Again, good job! Not everybody stumbles on what you just did.
Cool background! I love the finely worked wood with these cravings. :0
I once made up a magic system when i was bored based on the 4 elements and these magic Crystals that could hold elemental energy.
The crystals could be found over the entire world in their respective environment (so like fire Crystals in hot places, water crystals in seas, air crystals in the high mountains, and earth deep in the caves)
People could use the crystals and become able to control the element of the crystal. If someone were to stab themselves with a crystal and allow it to stay in, they could gain the magic, but at a risk.
The crystal would drip its energy into your veins, and could travel with the blood to places it shouldn't, causing a high chance of death.
If you were strong enough to survive, you would be able to control your new power.
At first, in Early stages of humanity, before technology even existed, the crystals were seen as artifacts, and those who had their power were like gods, ordering those who did not have it to do whatever they wished, forming a religion that traveled all the way to present day.
I feel like i might add more lore to this, but idk yet
I love that! A nice risk/reward setup with some terrible body-horror potential. Also seems like an excellent foundation for a video game magic system
Weirdly enough, I actually came up with the restrictions for my magic system before anything else, even idea generation.
The world that uses it is a post-post-apocalyptic future that essentially reverted back to medieval days because all forms of technology were outlawed. Thematically, the magic is meant to represent the status quo we’re made to just accept, while technology represents rebellion and justice for those who can’t live in that status quo (like the protagonist, who’s literally disabled and can’t use magic).
With all that in mind, the first thing I had to figure out was “how do I make magic equal to, or even *worse* than technology?”. The answer was pretty simple when I realized how similar magic and technology actually are. They can do a lot of the same things, and we often see stories about primitive civilizations coming across technology and calling it magic. They only really have one difference, and that’s where the energy comes from. Magic is always fueled by the users themselves or the gods who created it, while technology is fueled by external resources.
So basically, the main restriction for magic is that it’s impractical to use it to replace technology, because you would get tired very quickly (and if you pushed yourself too hard, you could even black out or die). And even if there’s no limits to the human imagination, there is a limit to every human’s energy, so some things are just flat out impossible even if you could theoretically craft a spell for it. Like creating entire pocket dimensions, for example. You could achieve a similar result by making a video game though.
Technology on the other hand is only limited by having to actually follow the laws of science and physics.
Very interesting! I always find it fascinating to see the different approach vectors people have into their stories
Very interesting and a helpful start at creating my 1st idea of a magic system.
So to give you some background info I'm currently brainstorming my own sci-fi story idea. Since i was very young (Currently 20) I've been interested in Science, especially in Astronomy. I'm thinking about implementing a lot of Astronomy concepts, like gravity, dark matter & dark energy, the fundamental forces of our universe in my parallel setting, and the particles that make up the universe. I.E the building blocks of atoms to life itself. However I'm thinking or trying to sorta spicing things up by maybe trying to do it where my Emperor character, for example, through his high-tech technostaff can manipulate space-time itself through the help of his master The Singularly, a being made out of dark energy and is a cosmic parasite to my cosmic mythical gods that are out of some sort of horror movie or smth. Basically I really enjoyed this video and wondered if you had a vid about sci-fi and fantasy with magic concepts?
I'm so glad you found the vidoe interesting and helpful.
Can you help narrow down what you're looking for in terms of magic concepts? Are you just looking for a bunch of system ideas, a more detailed discussion about Sci-Fi vs Fantasy, the nuances of building tech-magic, or something else entirely?
I enjoyed the video and it did bring some things to my attention.... or, more so it gave me a different perspective on things I'd already thought that I had considered. Greatly appreciate the content.
If I could build upon this...
I feel like the Alignment stage should actually be the first stage. More accurately, combined with the Inspiration stage as they really feel like the same thing. Know the goal of the magic system extends both to what is actually possible and the emotions you mean to provoke from the reader. The Alignment section was really the section that I think got my brain working the most. There is a huge difference in what Gandalf's magic evokes compared to Nen from Hunter x Hunter, or comparing your generic anime magic system to something like the super limited and mysterious unnatural happenings in, say, A Song of Ice and Fire. Do you want your audience to be struck with youthful wonder at the amazing potential your magic system might bring? Or do you want them to feel the existential nightmare of what it actually means for one individual who is just as flawed as any other human being to be able to not only withstand a nuclear warhead to face but punch with the force of one?
This, I feel, is the most important step. Not to say that it is the most difficult or time consuming, if you know that you want honest to goodness super heroes who each have individualized powers then great, move on to the next step. But you have to consider this in the earliest stages and keep it in mind the whole way through, I think.
Alignment very well could be the first step you need to take. I've found many people start in different places when building a magic system. It's all about figuring out what works for you
I discover your channel and i think you will realy help me with my current project. Thank you!
Man just created a magic system that creates magic systems
I only wish renown Magickians was willing to have this dialogue.
"Anything can be a seed crystal, a picture, a character concept, your plot, anything."
Me: "I'll just take the word 'seed crystal,' thank you."
Seriously though, the idea of a seed crystal might actually help my system. Just needs some mulling over.
Great video.
lol Sounds great! Be sure to let me know what your final seed crystal is... if you're comfortable sharing it
In the end I'm still not entirely sure😅 I kinda want a soft magic system, but keep trying to figure out its rules, making it hard(er).
I've been thinking something along the lines of; magic is particles in the air. Magic users can use these directly to do magic.
Natural high concentrations of particles over time form crystals. These can be used directly to perform magic or to create magical artefacts.
If the crystals are left alone and they reach a certain age and/or size, the magic in them will become twisted and cause problems (I.e. exploding spells and whatnot). The magic of the world needs to be purified or "in constant motion" so to speak.
Humans used to have the ability to use magic, but because of history very few can anymore, leading crystals to grow rampant and release their twisted magic as a miasmic fog that over time twists the minds of those who enter it.
As such, humans currently live in settlements shielded by barriers powered by refined crystals. These are artefacts from the bygone age and won't last forever.
The story is set at a time when the fog covers all the land and the barriers are losing power.
That's the gist of it, anyway. Writing the actual story would probably help me specify what it is I really need the magic to do and what I need to know about it.
@@writerducky2589 Remember that you can build a hard-rational system for yourself but then weave it into the story in such a fashion that it feels like a soft-irrational system to your readers.
Do the development you need to do for yourself and then craft it into the experience you want for your readers
I feel like I've stumbled onto a gem
Thank you :) that means a lot to me. I plan on releasing a lot more videos in the future. I'm just slow at it
Awesome little videos here, dude. I gotta say, though, I’m using this info to flesh out a video game…
Have you ever tried applying these to a game(tabletop, virtual, etc) setting?
Yes! I regularly use these stages when worldbuilding and developing magic for any tabletop RPG games I run.
I haven't had the pleasure to work on a video game with anyone, but the principles and process are applicable everywhere
Im gonna need direction to whatever book/game/show this viral blood magic thing was used for :D
Nothing yet... emphasis on YET. I'll definitely let you know when that changes :)
I’m here because I’m stuck in making a side project to prepare myself for the project I really want to do xD.
I’ve spent so long world building for my old project and fleshing out plot idea but I want some practice drawing by making a different interesting simple comic of the same genre, before I get started on drawing out my original project. The problem is I keep circling back and unconsciously making too similar concepts to my original project. It’s so annoying T^T)
Hmmm. That can be frustrating. Maybe spend some extra time in the Idea Generation stage until you have a lot of ideas that are different enough from the original. Then you can focus in on what's NEW and build a system from that.
Hope this helps!
It's so useful and inspiring, just what I needed! I'm your new subscriber btw❤
So glad to hear it! I hope the rest of the videos prove helpful as well. And thank you for subscribing!
You look like Thor and Jesus at the same time.
Thosus
Jor
This guy doesnt look semetic at all but definitely thor
Jesus was black
@@Yashua720Jesus was brown. He was middle eastern, he has no roots to Africa
12:06
I set up a minor antagonist to becomes a god after their complex plan finally comes together. The last remnants of the old generation almost get the most improbable of wins, but due to infighting and old grudges they essentially allow the new villain to kill them all.
Now I have my protagonists with no old gen help and against the most difficult foe possible... and I've written myself into a corner. Really sucks to suck. :/
Tell me more about this corner you've written yourself into
@@themagicengineer5314 Thematically the old generation was full of hubris (in different forms) and insane egos. These flaws essentially came full circle and thematically closed the loop on their arcs by having their failures manifest itself into an unkillable god that they accidentally created. They had lived their lives as superior in almost every aspect to everyone else, so having the new antagonist kill them (and only by them fighting each other instead of the obvious threat) was long-deserved comeuppance. The best of them did hint in his final words that final hope still exists via the protagonists.
So thematically, avoiding that scenario is difficult but doable. However, I want to leave it mostly untouched since it's such a great ending for everyone who died and such a great ascension for this new antagonist. However, now he has reality-warping powers (who's only limit is his mind - this could possibly be exploited but I can't figure out how) and the protagonists (powerful as they are) are hopeless against such a threat... except some of the old gen have hope in the protagonists. Why? I'm trying to figure that out. And I'm stuck.
How do you access the mind of someone who has powers over seemingly everything else? This is final boss sort of stuff so thankfully I don't have to worry much about story-breaking after-effects. The antagonist should (hopefully) be put down or at least meaningfully-threatened.
@@hyronvalkinson1749 Well you have a couple of options you can explore.
- Maybe the god's power isn't as overwhelming as they THINK it is. There might be nuances and limitations they can discover and exploit as the story progresses
- maybe the god's power CHANGES over time, developing flaws and weaknesses
- Maybe the protagonists ultimate goal is to become a rival got that is equally powerful. Not necessarily defeating the antagonist, but balancing it out
- they could defeat the god through non-magical means by tricking it, taking advantage of vices, or otherwise acting outside the magic system.
A lot of times when we end up in a "corner" it's because we've become too focused on using a specific type of solution. We have LOTS of tools at our disposal as writers, so if you can't find a solution with one tool, spend some time considering what other tools you have and how THEY might do the job.
I hope this helps. Good luck defeating the unstoppable god!
This is going to help my worldbuilding skills too I think
Glad to hear it! I've adopted this approach many components of storytelling. But I'm a sucker for structure
Im working on a magic system based on runes. But rather than the runes themselves causing magic itself, they're a means to communicate with a force of existence that everything living has a connection to. Runes are magic's language, and magic types are merely expressions of the fundimental force's influence over other things. Though Sorcerers have a VERY limited influence on said force when compared what it can do, which grows slowly as they become more experienced. I'd detail everything but its a huge W.I.P and currently VERY LARGE
Nice! I have something very similar where it's all about the conversation and relationship with the greater entities so they will perform how you want and when you need them to.
Sounds like you're having a good time with it. Is this for a novel then?
@themagicengineer5314 so far ya, mostly just a passion project.
It's kinda core thing is divergence, like how insatiably people try to pursue the "perfect" version of something and end up hard-focusing to the point of tunnelvision (aka most 3rd gen or younger magic types tend to be more gimmicky, such as acid or glass manipulation)
The magic virus reminded me of the Pokérus.
First time on your channel and i just have to say that other than amazing content, your face expressions are very... expressive. Caught myself staring at you like i myself was under the spell just watching your face move and mold after every thought. Its kinda cool bro
Sorry for intruding
*blush* Thanks so much! I do get pretty animated when talking about this stuff. I'm glad that you found the video interesting and helpful!
Nice video.
Really struggleing to get my magic to do what I want it to. It mostly works, it's just my brain wants to turn it into a science that fits like it was real. Like why does this stuff work this way if that dosn't work. I don't know how to explain it.
I like the way final fantasy does their's, never really "got" dnd's, liked the charm of battleon's. Just not getting mine done.
look at your core concept and see if you can identify some underlying theory or patterns. That's where it all needs to start. If you're really stuck, feel free to email me or set up a consultation and we'll see if we can get you sorted out
Thank You Very Much Sir.
Happy to help. Thanks for listening to me rant
Just started the series, and your videos are incredibly helpful and well done. Subscribed with notifications.
Totally agree that testing is the most fun stage. A magic system can potentially lead to plot holes when it has been revealed to the reader/player and then it's underutilized in the narrative, but also I think it can lead to a sense of deus ex machina when it hasn't been sufficiently introduced or explained, yet it comes, apparently, out of nowhere to get characters out of a sticky situation.
Glad you like them!
And you're absolutely right about the plot holes. There's also another aspect to integrating your magic system into the story I'm trying to work out. It's related to engaging your reader, connecting the magic to parts of your story, and balancing the magic's presence throughout the arc.
I'm still missing some important pieces so that's all I've got at the moment, but I'm working on it.
one of the ideas I've been playing with for a few of my game ideas it to have the source of magic be a finite resource, so that over the course of this world's history, gaining magic transforms from a tool to make people's lives easier as a way of interacting with or manipulating natural aspects of the world in area around you, to more of a power bargaining chip in wars and political issues. I think it would be cool to use this and the in universe religion to loosely tie all of my games together. could probably do with more iterating though
That would be really interesting to see as a player over the course of multiple campaigns or story arcs!
Very helpful. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Seed crystal huh I like 👍
first couple minutes in and im actually entertained and getting ideas
glad to hear it!
Thank you for this. This really helped me design the magic system for the main character of a book I'm writing. She lives in a world where technology and magic are both present. Her specific type of magic is genetic and allows her to control and manipulate technology but is tied to her emotions specifically anger. With the magic she can transform one piece of technology into any other piece of technology of the same tech level, aka she can transform a sniper rifle into a machine gun, but she can't transform a pogo stick into a machine gun. Her magic pretty much allows her to control the atoms that make up the technology. But any byproduct energy created by the moving of the atoms is absorb by the mage acting like a drug effect, causing a release of dopamine. So extremely powerful technomancers are rare because they tend to blow themselves up chasing that high. Yes, she can cause technology to explode by "setting the atoms free", but she can only do this when extremely pissed off which is limited due to the drug effects.
I think a suggestion for you is something from just normal physics. Setting atoms free releases HUGE amounts of energy. So I think you could use that as like a massive risk factor when using magic. So you kinda have to always keep your emotions in check.
@@jksupergamer Yeah, that is pretty much one of the risk factors that I have her dealing with. I do have the magic enabling a little more control than what normally would happen though. But I've got it that due to the dopamine hit that they get from each explosion the more often they use it the more addicted to using it they become, and the less control over it they have. Thus eventually the lose all control of the explosion. Makes it so it's not just a control on the magics power, but also explains why there's so few extremely powerful technomancers.
@@jormungaurd already one step ahead i see
Those who go out to harvest the portal strain infected blood could be call Floaters or maybe Poppers, playing off that phrase "Once they pop (start harvesting) they don't stop!"
LOL. The way you wrote that though gave me a new idea. Something like Left 4 Dead, where the viruses create various forms of monsters and people go out and harvest the infected fluids to perform magic
Interesting little fact:
I actually created a homebrewed D&D enemy A warforged Wizard that looks like that bacteria picture on the thumbnail (without eyes)
It’s called: S.C.U (Synthetic Caster Unit)“Casters”
The mostly specialize in utility spells, and worst of all if they’re used in ambush scenarios they’ll have the Leomund’s tiny hut prepared, so while enemy units just start walking out of protective bubbles that weren’t there a moment ago they can stay in and cast all they need since they don’t fight directly they just work at keeping concentration type spells going.
And they have Featherfall for drop troops.
Interesting. Sounds like fun :)
Thanks for the process, I will definitely apply this. But have a question. In my world I want variety, for instance a medium who connects with the dead via life force, a martial artists that uses life force to enhance their fighting and a spirtualist who learned to shape life force into constructs. How can I still have that variety while implementing your and others advice concerning these niche magic systems. My niche isn’t blood, or seed crystals, or bones, but “mentalism” and the accessing and manipulating of this ubiquitous life force.
what is magic system and why do I need it would be a good way to start this video
I talk about that a bit in another video (th-cam.com/video/W4Czzz7NX7E/w-d-xo.html), but I can see how that would be helpful at the start of a conversation like this.
Would a playlist of the videos help with that kind of information flow?
How do you go with Idea generation? Any techniques to recommend?
I like to use mindmaps and time-boxing. Identify the 2-3 core concepts you want to brainstorm around (I call them brainstorming pillars) and then give your self a limited amount of time and write down everything you can think of related to the pillars. I usually start with Effects, Themes and Mediums, and Really Cool Hats as my pillars.
You might find this podcast episode helpful: exolore.captivate.fm/episode/building-magic-systems-part-2
@@themagicengineer5314 Thanks for the quick reply!
I want to play this game!
Great vid, thanks!
Glad you liked it!
Hey this is helpful thanks
and you look like thor and the science guy kyle hill
I will absolutely take those comparisons :)
Super cool video
thanks :D
Very cool. Hope you take off. I will drink extra dairy for this.
lol I hope so too! Things have been going well so far and everyone has been extremely supportive. In fact, the channel has grown by over 100 subscribers in the past 30 days!
Thanks again for your support and I hope you enjoy my other videos as they come out.
This has some interesting points, though I disagree with stage 3 since it forcefully defines story elements instead of being an aid to the story.
Feel free to drop or morph whatever you need to so the process works for you. All of this is about finding the best approach for you, not trying to identify a best approach for *everyone*
god this was so useful for my power system addiction
Awesome! Glad to hear it. I mean... um... sorry about your addiction. You may need help ;)
I just subscribed based on the video titles alone. I'm getting ready to write my first novel so I'm hoping some of the advice here is going to be useful. That said it's 4 in the morning and I need to sleep ha I'll watch the videos tomorrow, or later today I guess
Thank you for the kind words. I hope you find them helpful. Oh, and let me know if you have specific questions or would like videos on certain topics
This video is great help, I'm currently trying to define my magic system the inspiration was nen from hunter x hunter. I plan to explain the magic system as a manifestation of the users will and currently have 3 expressions of this that people can use with those being your will manifesting as a result of your personality forexample one character has an ability called T.A.G (touch and go) and it basically allows the user to switch places with things hes touched as well all teleport back to places hes already marked and summom items that are marked. Another character has a wind based ability that comes as a manifestation of his own will but he also has a hereditary ability passed on by his father that was with him at his birth essentially giving him two expressions of will his will. I have plans for other characts to have abilities that have similar mechanics to lycanism but I'm not sure if that should be an expression of an hereditary will power or something on its own. The third form happens when you inherit somome else's will, kind of like a teacher passing a mission or philosophy to a student, right now the only cases of those I've considered was the main character who has the wind ability learning how to cretate artificial voids to mimic the ability of one of his mentors who had a void based will power, he does this by removing the air in an area to pull opponents into his attacks by making a vaccum. Another idea I had for inherited will powers were for certain nations to have warriors who can have shared inherited abilities as well the skilled combatants or higher ranked soilders to have their own unique will power as well as using some inherited skills from their culture.
I'll have to check out Hunter X Hunter. If it's as interesting as the system you're proposing, I think I'm going to like it
@@themagicengineer5314 hunter x hunter is definitely in my top 3 anime just because how well defined and thought out the nen system is having 5 types of aura feilds as well as a handful of basic applications that must be mastered before creating a signature attack or unique hatsu as they call it in universe, the only issue I had with the series was that 2 or 3 arcs happen before the main characters are introduced to the system but a lot of workd building happens within that time frame. One of my favorite parts of the series is how they highlight both master level nen users as well incompetent ones who were unable to fully grasp the magic system and made a lack luster ability because of their lack of knowledge.
My mermaid world is figured betwen magical and non-magical merfolk, but even within the magical society, there is division between each subdivision.
Im currently trying to think of a way to build a magical system
I hope the video helped. If your stuck for ideas, I do have videos talking more about seed crystals and even more articles on the topic on my website crrowenson.com
How would you define the difference between a hard-irrational system and a soft-rational system?
A great question. I talk about that quite a bit in these two videos, if you haven't already seen them
th-cam.com/video/YvyffF35V2I/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/5JSFlWsR4Uk/w-d-xo.html
GREAT WORK
Thanks!
i like this. subbed
10:25 Sooo, with some engeniering, could you make a blood flueled portal gun?
XD Oh my god, yes! That is horrifying and I love it!
What's the magic system you used to get rid of your pupils.
That would be a side-effect of being a lizard-person. Sometimes the contact lenses get stuck and don't properly track my eye movements
I have many characters anad story ideas. I am trying to think of a unififed magic system and world where they can all coexist. Istead of coming up with like 5 different worlds and magic systems.
I'd recommend writing down everything you've decided so far and then start looking for underlying patterns and themes you can apply to all of them. That can make it feel cohesive and connected
@@themagicengineer5314 thank :)