🔮 MAGIC done right | Everything you NEED to prep your magic system in 2023

When I say “magic” I mean ANYTHING SUPERNATURAL, so it might include — depending on the campaign’s scenario — divine powers, element bending, jutsus, transmutation, hemomancy, ghosts, poltergeist, ...

Establish the Core

Before your campaign starts, you should establish how the core of the magic in your world works. You should not take the magic rules for granted. If you take it for granted, you will lose many opportunities for using your and your player’s imagination.

When I say “magic” I mean anything supernatural, so it might include — depending on the campaign’s scenario — divine powers, element bending, jutsus, transmutation, hemomancy, ghosts, poltergeist, constructs, super-AI, etc. Your world might have one or many types of magic. I firmly suggest that you design your world as if it has only one type, but allow multiple ways of using it. Treat it like a law of physics.

In this step, your idea can be as complex as: “I want experienced people to be able to turn their body heat into different types of light”; mystic as: “Trained children are able to hear the invisible demons”; or simple as: “Who wields a staff is able to conjure fireballs”.

Most importantly: don’t think about numbers, recharge timers nor meta-resources like mana.

If you just do what this chapter told you, your games will already enhance in quality. The following chapters lean towards perfecting and predicting the development of the magic, but you can leave it to improvisation if you want. I personally don’t suggest you repeat every single step when coming up with your world’s magic, because there are quicker ways of doing that, presented at the end of the article.

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Start asking questions

Now that you have an idea for your Magic Core, ask questions for every single thing, and you should have an simple, impartial and concrete answer for them. Let’s pick the latter idea from the previous chapter:

“Who wields a staff is able to conjure fireballs”

What is a staff? A wooden stick. What constitutes a staff as something valid to cast these fireballs? The shape and dimensions? If so, is geometry an important factor to consider? Suddenly you will stumble upon something bizarre, almost original and quite imaginative, that your players can interact in awesome ways.

“Its because it’s a sacred staff”. Ok, sacred. Then WHY is it sacred? Because they worshiped someone? If so, why did they worship them? What is the divine truth? Not even the player’s may fully understand the reason behind this magic, but you, the referee, must understand if you are going in that route.

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Finding the broader meaning

For magic that comes from inside the caster’s soul, from their “mana” or knowledge, you could determine which parts of the body are the center of this power. An interesting thing to ask is: how is it related with the seven chacras? That could also answer what color is the magic, and what physical and mental conditions the conjurer need to pursue/avoid in order to properly harness the power.

So if the magic requires the “caster” to speak in a particular tone, maybe the throat chakra is the center of his/her power. So, if they keep an important secret for too long, avoiding having conversations, etc, later they might have problems with the magic.

It’s kinda like Spider-Man 2!

Your world might call chakras differently, but if we are dealing with humans, the idea remains the same. Even if we are dealing with highly advanced technological “magic”, there must be some basis behind it if the power comes from within the caster. This also happens to reveal what is the magic’s cost.

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Materials and Rituals