Magic Systems: How do they REALLY work? This Month's Topic (January) 2013/12/23(Mon)09:11 No. 25769 ID: 1ce34b
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Referring to mystical or 'practical' magic used in games, fiction and 'in real life', not the mundane illusions of the stage or street performers' profession.
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Topic of the month prompts set a theme, not a hard and fast rule, so don't feel limited to it.

my favourite use of magick in a setting is the Discworld series, in wich its actual function is to simply move things about, wether that be a acttual item or energy or a metaphysical concept.
stripped of all its glitter and fancy words its actualy boringly complex mathematics and therums, being compared alot to nuclear physics in that its useful for lighting your home, but only a madman would use it to catch fish

So what kinda magic we talking about here? There's like, a bazillion different kinds for the categories you've given. You might as well ask "Who is a Wizard?" And try to hold down which practitioner's name belongs to which tradition like pinning the right tails to several different donkeys while blindfolded.

I guess you could break it down by gridding with written source/region/author on one axis and method/medium/implements/power source on another.

For methods there's the spoken word, simulacrum manipulation, writing or inscribing blessings/curses/instructions, miracles in response to supplication yadda dada da and the beat goes on. Can't tell you how many traditions there are; gives me almost as much a headache as heraldic terminology.

>>25769
> How
wait, do you mean how do they work inside the context of the game (ie discussing the nature of 'manna'), or how do they work as game rules (ie matching the power of an effect with the stats of pre-set encounters)

>>25771
There's a hell of a lot more applications of magic in the Discworld series than telekinesis. Afaik the only thing that was nailed down about it was that you need to spend a lot of personal effort to get any powerful magic effects. Memorizing a spell to cast later requires a similar amount of effort as what the spell does. It's sortof like conservation of energy except not really.

Rituals and magic devices seem to be mostly exempt from this rule, which implies they draw their energy from some other source. Rituals are pretty much just about pleasing the spirit involved, I think, so it's not so much a summoning as dialing a telephone number.

>>25785
i didnt mean it like telekinesis, i meant like throwing a fireball looks really impressive but all it is in reality is moving heat from one place to another, and refilling a glass with brandy is the same.

this is due to the sheer amount of power needed to conjure a glass of brandy into being, you basically have to expend the amount of energy that would have been used in all stages of the brandy's existence until it reached your glass, its far easier to simply act as a fulcrum to moving brandy from decanter to glass.

The same with the fireball, generating heat takes a lot out of you, but the actual throwing is simple movement, thats why wizards or witches seeking to heat or cool things will often simply use a local heat source, say a fire or (in one memorable case) the sun.

Fucking love discworld mang.