Systems of Magic

Who doesn’t love a story with some kind of magic in it? Magic in stories goes far beyond Harry Potter witches and wizards spell casting. The Force in Star Wars is a system of magic, and so is the advanced technology in Star Trek Discovery.

Magic systems define and describe any transformative force that can be employed by characters or elements in a story where that force creates changes in our reality beyond what our present knowledge and technology can explain.

There was a time that medicine was considered magic, as was predicting the seasons or the movement of the stars. Magic is a way for humans to explain something that otherwise is presently unexplainable. It can also be a form of mysticism, full of possibilities that we wish were true.

In storytelling, magic takes on a much larger role. It frees us to create power systems that give us inventive tools to explore whatever themes or ideas we wish to highlight in our tale.

Magic systems are not a license to freely add a power to solve a story problem, nor are they an easy toolbox for convenient Deus Ex Machina. No, magic systems have some general rules and important considerations to take into account when crafting one into your story or IP. All that being said, breaking those rules for good reasons can be a lot of fun.

A magic system can be technological in its origin or mystical. Much of the considerations for creating a magic system are valid for both, but it is fair to say that, usually, tech systems of magic tend to have very clear definition and fictional reasoning, while mystical systems can be far more inscrutable, mysterious, and unpredictable. For the latter, part of the fun of developing a mystical magic system lies in developing that sense of wonder and mystery. There are more things in heaven and earth than we can know...

I wanted to share my short checklist of considerations for developing any magic system. Keep in mind that there are many ways to work outside of these considerations, so please don’t see these as a straight jacket. ?I’ve broken the list down into the basics, followed by a few additive considerations if you want your story/IP to also become a powerful commercial franchise where the magic drives agency and other categories.

1.)??? The nature of the magic system is best when it give back to the meaning of your story.

In Star Wars, the meaning of the story is free will vs one will. The magic system, the Force, is a powerful expression of will, either dark or light. The use of the Force throughout the story reinforces the central meaning and builds the actions of the characters to a crescendo all about the battle between these two ideals. In good storytelling you put all the wood behind a single arrowhead and your magic system is no exception.

2.)??? Consider developing clear limitations for your magic system

There are few things I find undermine tension, stakes, and heroic character journeys as surely as magic-by-caveat that seems limitless or unclear. Your audience needs to gain an early understanding of how your magic system works and they need to see its limitations (both for the antagonist and the protagonist). This is what drives the stakes and the build of tension and emotional investment. This is true even for mystical magic systems where much of the magic is a mystery, but some of the practitioners have mastered some part of it.

In most magical heroic stories, the protagonist is massively magically outgunned by superior skill or superior magical powers. Even then, superior magic must have limitations, or the audience will feel betrayed when the powers suddenly accelerate after they have been investing in the tension and understanding they have built up. The audience must always understand and agree with a win or a loss in a magical struggle based on the understandings you have given them. They have witnessed a true defeat vs an unmotivated reversal. To be clear, something unexpected can happen, but once released, we must come to understand what it was and why it surprised the hero and the audience.

It is possible to break this rule, but doing it well is hard. One example of this is the anime JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. The entire structure of the episodes is built around the audience not knowing about secret magical abilities of the antagonist, and being surprised how the hero’s known abilities were bizarrely, often ridiculously, woven into place to win. These stories are about grit and adaptation, so keeping everyone watching madly off balance is the effect the creators desired. It works and stands alone as a unique way to break a magical rule well.

3.)??? Magic is a stronger concept when there is a cost to exercising it.

Ah, now here is one of my personal bugaboos when it comes to seeing magical IP. Magic is a currency of power, full stop. Human storytelling truth is that power is never free. It always has a cost. That cost can be vast amounts of money, your soul, isolation from your life, draining of your life force, fill in your idea here... Whatever the cost, paying it defines the hero’s journey and describes the choices and posture of your antagonist forces. Simply creating a vast and/or powerful agent of magic that has no backstory involving the cost paid to achieve this power makes for a one-dimensional antagonist that functions as a plot device, not a component of the meaning of the story. The same is true, especially so, for magical heroes.

As an example, I’ve long felt that the reason for Rey’s lower popularity as a Star Wars central hero is because the cost to her to achieve the use of the Force did not involve training or an impossible journey. It was inborn power catalyzed by anger. By definition, this is a lower cost and a less strenuous journey. Even if the audience can’t describe that truth, they can certainly leave the theater feeling like they didn’t relate to how she achieved the power of the Force as much as they did with Luke. To be clear, I still love her character and the stories, but fandom tells us this did not work as well.

4.)??? Most magic should involve a road to mastery for the characters wielding it.

This point is related to point #3. Magic needs to be mastered. Even if you are born with it, you must master how to use it, when to use it, and why. As stated, magic is a power, and stories about the use of power always require something monumental from the rising hero that changes something significant about who they are.

Here’s a few addition things to consider if you wish your story or IP to be a commercial franchise:

5.)??? Make the expression of your magic into something tangible that the audience can own.

Compare the magic in Harry Potter and the Force in Star Wars. The gestalt for exercising that power in each story is represented by a wand and a lightsaber. I love wands. They are such a romantic idea, and Harry Potter made each one unique. We own a few of them here at my house. Wands are iconic and have existed in magical literature and myth for a very long time. All that being said, wands can’t compare to the total sales of lightsabers from Star Wars. A lightsaber was not only a super cool new idea when it launched, but it is a perfect blend of iconic (a sword) and tech/magic (a blade of light). Of even greater importance was how the lightsaber brought the use of the mystical Force into the realm of reproducible and playable for all the fans of the IP. You aren’t casting invisible spells across a room to make some effect you can’t reproduce. You are swinging one of the galaxy’s coolest weapons, and its effect (sound, light, mano-a-mano battle) are something you can bring home to do yourself.?

Achieving a reproducible, ownable, and actionable expression of a new kind of magic is quite a challenge, but one worth engaging on if it is a commercial franchise you desire.

6.)??? Create an organizing principle in your magic that gives your audience a way to define themselves.

Magic can easily have flavors or lanes. One of the powerful benefits of creating different kinds of magic is that it gives your audience choices for exploring and expressing who they are. This is powerful and makes the IP very personally useful and intimate. The magical houses in Harry Potter, each with strong propensities in certain magical abilities, did this marvelously.

Interestingly, the system of magic in Pokemon may be one of the very best examples of the commercial power that differentiating magical lanes or abilities in your IP can have. Selecting and training a magical stable of Pokemon has become a kind of language between players and fans for describing their own, and others, personal qualities. It also incentivizes collecting in a big way.

7.)??? Mix systems of magic carefully

Today, we live in media awash in superheroes and each has their own system of magic. It is one of the great challenges in creating a multiverse with characters who were all created separately. Bringing those systems of magic together is a herculean task that often has broken logic throughout that cannot be fixed, only ignored.

One of the issues with mixing systems of magic is as simple as power levels. All you need is one multiverse character with massive power from their system of magic, and all the other superheroes who are now in the same multiverse, must rise in power or risk irrelevance. Power inflation occurs and character intimacy and narrative relevance can be strained.

There are properties that have done a stellar job of crafting a universe with multiple systems of magic that all require mastery. Magic: The Gathering is one that comes to mind with its five colors/kinds of magic. This works so well because it was conceived from its inception as an interrelated and balanced magical concept where one could mix and match different magical types based on their strengths and weaknesses.

?

I hope you enjoyed this fly over of systems of magic. I know that there are limitless new systems and ideas just waiting to be created out there.

?

Cheers, Kevin