Tell me, gents, how do runes work in your setting? What is your

>>52043110
It's a dwarven religious practise
It only works because dwarven ancestors depart some of their own energy or strength into the runes of power.
Rune weapons that are not used by dwarves will slowly decay over time.

I like this system.

I dislike any system where runes is just another form of magic without really being different from regular magic.

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>>52043142
>without really being different from regular magic

Being different in the way that the spell is cast and the types of spells runes are capable of casting isn't interesting enough?

>>52043110

Lore wise for my setting joining them in certain ways creates "magic circuits" that can certain spells indefinetly as well as produce energy like electricity and heat.

This forms the basis on how most magic items works and leads towards industrialization of magitek.

>>52043110
In my setting, they were the first way to use magic developed by mortal races. Originally created by giants who later taught the ancient dwarves, runes can channel a lot more power than other types of magic practices, but are limited in what they can do. The re-discovery of a new rune is a momentous occasion in dwarven society, enough to catapult the lowest commoner to nobility.

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>>52043320
This is very close to how I do things

Magical runes work like a circuit by imbuing magic into the rune you get a specific effect
If you combine runes you get a more complex effect of multiple effects
Runes can also be made to absorb magic from the environment to power them
For truly impressive feats of enchantment you need magic circles made of a lot of individual runes

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>>52043142
99% how I'm doing it too
Dwarves use magic as an honor and ritual practice, deeply steeped in ancestor worship
They gain strength of their legions of warrior fathers, guile of their heritage, insight into the past experiences of life. The use of their ancient immutable runes is directly passed down as practical practice. Human words or elven ones would carry no weight of mana.

Demonic script, however...

>>52043110
They don't.

Never been something appealing to me. I'm actually replying to see if something cool appears here.

It's magic expressed in written form. If you want to enchant an object you have to write the enchantment on it. And you can't just write the fire rune word on a sword and call it a day, you need to write something more descriptive or things can go wrong. And gods help you if you mess up the description, then things can go really wrong. The side effect is that really powerful items look like someone inscribed an entire book on to them.

They're an alphabet. That's it.

>>52043110
In my setting ,magic comes from a tear in the void. The void is the space inbetween the various planes of existence. 1 in 100 people are born with the ability to harness the energies which spill out of this void, giving them magical powers.
Runes are an ancient Dwarven craft which was invented long before the Human Conquest. They were able to use symbols of power and arcane energy to fundamentally 'capture' small portions of void energy in runes. It's no where near as powerful as actual void harnessing, but it is accessible to anyone, even non-mages, and it is much less dangerous. When a magic user attempts to harness the void they run the risk of attracting the attention of some being who lives beyond the void (specifically, devils, daemons and djinns)
Runes, on the other hand, are captured void energy, and no harnessing is required, so they can be used free of this risk.

Its the magical language of Giants, later inherited by Dwarves, and bastardized by Orcs.

True runes are shards of an elven god, each one of them grants a very specific power. There are hundreds of runes, and their effects vary from controlling lightning to turning water into beer. Being practically minded, the dwarves, of course, found some use for even the weirdest runes. True runes are made of god matter and are more hazardous to work with than enriched uranium. They're kept in the runic temples, which are guarded heavier than even the royal palace.

Mundane runes are essentially bound spells that are made by leaving an imprint of a true rune on some object, most commonly a stone. Naturally, they can only be produced in the runic temples. A mundane rune can be used up, which releases the spell bound within it and erases the rune, or transferred onto another object. This is how magical objects are made, but it requires great skill as a runesmith to transfer a rune.

The dwarves who thought that transferring a rune onto their own bodies was a good idea were warped by magic and turned into skeleton-sucking vampires.

>>52043320
>>52043675
I like this idea, but it's not really much different from more standard magic types. The wizard is still using his arcane knowledge, just writing the spell down on an object to work a different way than usual.

>>52045018
>skeleton-sucking vampires
They suck the skeleton out of you?
Jesus...

>>52044940
That's pretty cool.

>>52043110
Runes are one of the first types of writing. You can write spells down with runes, but they are not inherently magic.

>>52043110
>Tell me, gents, how do runes work in your setting?

They're glyphs of warding, and the like. Things to interact with magic with

There's a sudokesque puzzle in my tablet, which I allow a player to try to crack in turn of an Arcana check to deface the glyph of manipulate it in some way

>>52046055
>I like this idea, but it's not really much different from more standard magic types. The wizard is still using his arcane knowledge, just writing the spell down on an object to work a different way than usual.

Until the wizard is put out of work when golems can be used to automate the process because they are more precise with the rune scribing. Then agin once it becomes advanced enoug they can be used in personal electronics