What's up? I'm working on a world building project

>>44097785
Magic is the biggest trope in fantasy, don't worry about your ideas being original or fresh, because there's no such thing as new ideas.

>>44097785
Magic is a finite resource, the leftover scraps from when the gods created the world. Every time you use it to change reality that bit of magic is gone for good. Some day it'll all run out.

>>44097785
You should have some consistent rules for yourself on how magic functions/interacts with the world.

That isn't to say you should be exhaustive with those rules, or that you should even really explain them to the player/reader in depth. They should be just vague enough to do what you like, and allow the player/reader to feel like they can suspend their disbelief.

>>44097785

magic is an energy available to everyone. think of it as soul energy.

how you harness and manifest that energy is depends on the person and their training or lack of.

Should make things pretty interesting as you can write different factions and different nations possessing different magics doing different things.

There is no energy system for magic.

>>44097785

Well, firstly, you don't need magic in fantasy. Not saying you shouldn't, but don't go in feeling shackled.

But you have to ask - what sort of stories do you want to tell in this world? How will magic affect this? If magic is easy you get into the problem of "why don't wizards solve everything", which is more an issue if the setting is semi serious. So then, how do you restrict magic? By blood? By complex ritual? By requiring a patron?

>>44098241

Alternative - magic power can only be found in a few areas of the world - either these areas are still "live" and the whole world used to be like these areas, or they are the domains of the gods.

Magic becomes like a valuable natural resource, like oil, and controlling magic rich territory can lead to wars.

>>44098778
>>44098740
Things like this make magic interesting, Restrict its useage or alter the source of it.

One DM I once played with had a setting where all sentient life was actually the shattered conciousness of a dead god basically animating flesh, but none of us remember actually being that god.

and that god could do magic like we could lift up boxes with our hands, it was just another sense/motor skill. But when a normal human uses magic he gains some of that super cosmic energy but he also begins to remember that hes part of a cosmic god... that died a horrific death that shjattered its mind to pieces. so prolonged magic tends to leave people a bit looney. Party magic user started to rant about being both shorter and taller than all of us

>>44097785
Don't be a hack and petition your ideas from anonymous message boards. That's my advice.

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>>44097785
you will get as much help with worldbuilding from /tg/ as you would by consulting the I Ching. In fact, the I Ching is probably a better guide. Go consult it.

Make magic powerful but rare.

Make it require a special bloodline and advanced natural talents and training.

Make the villain, hero, or the mentor have magic, but only one of the three.

>>44097785
Personal abilities. There's no rhyme or reason to them, most people don't have abilities. And they only do one thing. The magic is all in getting creative with them. You can only manifest your ability following a near death experience, with no guarantee it will be anything worthwhile. The dirty secret of mage families is they have a bunch of kids and beat them to death on their 16th to make them manifest.

>>44099944
this

>>44098341
>Magic should be available to everyone

This is something I'm pretty sure I'm going to roll with. I'm kind of tired of settings wherein only a select few people are gifted with magical ability.

One of my biggest inspirations is classic witchcraft, what with hexes and alchemy and such. Very subtle, but dangerous. Whether or not that's the only type of magic is unlikely.

Recall in ASoIaF how magic is messy, for lack of a better word. Using it requires the user to give something in return, usually in the form of a blood sacrifice. I like the idea of that, but at the same time I don't really want magic to require someone to get maimed or die whenever it's used. Now, if both types of magic were present (nature and blood), I'd wager that it'd make more sense if the latter were the more powerful because of its sacrificial nature.

Good stuff in this thread so far, guys.

>>44099828
I'm just looking for inspiration.

>>44097785

First thing you should do is know not to overthink any of this. If something feels right, then just go with that. Otherwise you'll drive yourself insane, take way longer to finish any of what you work on, and it probably won't be as good as it could have been.

Now, first ask yourself how that magic should manifest. Wizards casting fireballs? Arcane magic tomes offering spells that work like math equations? Eldritch occultism that requires sacrifice and ritual? Mystic pseudo-Tao energy fields? Something ancient and indirect, like what we see in LOTR? There's no wrong answer, just know that magic has a huge impact on a fantasy world so keep that in mind.

Now think of who should use magic. The order of dragon knights? The secret enclave of wizards? Everyone? No one? This is important, because magic solves many narrative problems and creates even more, so consistency is key. Take for example LOTR; Elves are all inherently magical. But it manifests in weird ways, like them being able to walk on top of snow.

How does magic work in to your world's history. Be very careful with this though. I see a lot of aspiring writers create extensive histories of their worlds, under the impression they'll be able to communicate all of it in their stories. People forget that even though Tolkien did this, he only barely alluded to a small portion of what he came up with throughout his story and saved the history lesson for a more suitable work. The heroes don't need to know the Knights of Knobody established the magitech empire of Whogivsafuck a thousand years ago on the other side of the world.

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I'm working on something similar myself at the moment. I'm trying to work out the 'how' and 'why' of magic to make it seem more plausible, and also so that players that really engage with is have the chance to subvert and change those laws in really interesting ways. If they use the original principles but converted to different focuses or purposes, they could come up with something new.

>>44102385
I'm really on board with this description too. Magic is more interesting when it's subtle, and if it's not subtle it's dangerous and messy. The idea that it requires something given in return is great, so players can be creative with how they structure rituals and what they use to give efficacy to their magic. It does give rise to some pretty dangerous thoughts around specifically 'what' could be used- sacrifice brings to mind blood and life force and all that stuff.

I'm fleshing out some ideas for a number of old grimoires that detail these practices, but they're fragmented and old, many copies and copies of copies having been made throughout history. With the original texts missing or destroyed, it's all about how one interprets the principles rather than following specific rituals and spell incantations to the letter. So wizards, or magi of whatever they would be called, would be scholars first and foremost. They would 'know' things, rather than blast things.

I watched a video once in which a guy tried to set up various items and shrapnel in places around a game world (I think it was mario) in order to manipulate the game code in a way that convinced the game he had already won. I think I'd quite like to develop a system like that
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The tossing fireballs kind of wizard has never appealed to me nearly as much as one who subtly manipulates the order of the world via cause and effect, delving deeply into the secrets of the universe's workings.