How do you typically describe magic?
I'm really not a fan of 'cheat codes to the universe', even if that is an apt description.
What other methods do you use to describe it? Energy? Warping? What?
The 5th force carrier of the standard model.
As matter interacts with the Higgs field, conciousness interacts with the Magellen field.
Think Pullman's Dust meets original trilogy Force.
Personally I'm working on a setting where I need to answer this as well.
To keep a long story short; magic that humans can use comes from sleeping/medtiating giants. By living, sleeping, praying and meditating nearby these giants snippets of arcane information leaked into human minds. Using what little they gained; the people were able to forge magical spells and enchantments.
The question then is; what should this meditational energy shit actually BE? The math and knowledge of a universal scale? The delusional magical dreams of forgotten giant Gods? The languages of the giants communication in dream speech, which humans mimicked to try and cast spells but most be careful else the giants figure out they are only pretended to be a divine wordsmith?
I actually kind of like that last one, but I simply need to know what to do!
>>43721162
You know how there's stuff we can't explain?
Imagine that's everything, and magic is how it works.
>>43721325
That's a very lazy and bullshit explanation.
>>43721325
If wizards are able to use magic, they must have some sort of understanding on how it works, right?
Quantum mechanics.
Casimir effect (virtual particles that affect real particles) + "observer" (observer affects the result of quantum effect)
>>43721462
You think the first alchemist to perform the phsphorus sun experiment knew "how it worked"?
Just because you know how to make something happen, doesn't mean you know "how it works"
If you gave me the materials to build an ax, I could make one and swing it, but I don't know how it's working in that it's a class three lever attached to a wedge, multiplying the force of my swing, as represented by f=ma, blah blah blah, etc.
>>43721162
A field that permeates all living things.
Passion and imagination given Form.
The language of gods, in which there is no difference between words used to describe a thing and the thing itself.
>>43721162
the ladies call me a wizard because my cock is magic
I prefer my magic to be just that; cheat codes to life. You do a certain thing, and are rewarded with its specific unlock. And like all good cheat codes (at least from the early days of 80/90's) it's all hear/say, passed on knowledge, etc. Most is bullshit, and it's only through trial and error those who do use magic are able to figure out what ones work and what don't.
Eg. Door-to-Door: grasp a coin in your right hand, and the door knob in the other. Turn the door knob counterclockwise whilst doing the opposite with your other hand. As you push the door open, imagine the exit you want to be. Those two doors are now connected whilst the door remains open.
>>43721162
I usually go with "the imposition of a person´s will over reality". That capability (whether channeled by arcane ritual, prayer, sheer desire or any other means) must be paired with a certain mystical substance or energy (aether, quintessence, call it what you will) in large enough quantities to produce the desired effect.
In a way, you have the "mystical muscle" to bend the world to your will, but you have to supply it with enough energy to do so.
>>43721162
1st setting
Manipulating the elemental essences that make up all matter. Some carry them in chemically reactive forms, others exert limited control over the essence within or without as ki, a couple others entreat divine wills to merge with them and as gestalt beings gain the power to command elements within their domain.
2nd setting
Execute premade programs that take and shape physical data into destructive phenomena.
Magic is divided in several categories.
Invocation. Using the True Name of something to will it into existence. Derived from the language of creation. Much time and effort is dedicated to learning true names, and discovering new ones is a rare and momentous occasion.
Enchantment, which is re-appropriating the soul energy from thing into another. Usually a living creature, like yourself, into an inanimate object. Soul energy regenerates slowly over time, so within a creatures lifetime, there is a finite amount of enchantment that they could do.
Natural abilities. such as shape shifting, which uses a creatures soul energy destabilize and reconstruct their body.
Alchemy, the combination of substances which can cause them to release their stored natural energies, or change them into other forms.
Bonus points, all magic is actually ancient and forgotten technology.
Invocation is learning the pass codes to a network of satellites which can reconstruct matter at an atomic level.
Enchantment is learning to control nano-bots which self replicate and live symbiotically in most creatures.
Natural abilities are mutagenic, a byproduct of highly advanced viruses that can rewrite genetic code and are enhanced by subconscious control of nano-bots.
Alchemy is just chemistry, but ancient tampering in biology has made many fantastic molecules available in nature.
I'm mostly with >>43721580 in the setting I work at. It's basically willing an effect and pulling on the strings attaching you to other planes of existence® to make it real.
Kinda like Mage, but was actually more inspired by Tribe 8
Usually I go with >>43721580 or >>43721325, or the one described below.
Right now in my current campaign, magic is the effects of different planes leaking into our world. Each plane has different laws of reality, and a being from that plane (with enough effort) can temporarily impose those laws on non-native planes. We don't have wizards, only shamans and other people who made deals with extra-planar creatures. You can't throw a fireball, but you can hire Greg the Fire Elemental to show up and do it for you.
>>43721162
Magic is science as imagined by English majors.
No, no, no, I'm serious. Magic is all about feelings and metaphors and intent and dramatic convention and nuance. That's the whole idea.
Magic should never be predictable or quantifiable the way a science is. It should never be detached or emotionless. It should be saturated with meaning, and deeply capricious in the way that only a tenured literary critic can be.
Once you have that down, the rest is just window dressing and fluff. You can even do actual physical sciences this way and have them be more magical than the fixed, dispassionate formulae in most RPGs. The inversion of Arthur C Clarke's quote, that a sufficiently well-elaborated system of magic is indistinguishable from science, is loaded down with a long list of unstated assumptions about how the world works. If it's sufficiently concerned with intent and feelings, and sufficiently capricious, then it's still magic regardless of how well you write it up.
>>43721162
As above, so below. By performing actions with substances that symbolically resonate with the platonic ideal, you can create effects through that ressonance.
For instance, the symbol of Zeus includes control over the weather, especially lightning, justice, eagles, and sexual promiscuity. By taking the role of Zeus in a ritual, you can create effects based on those concepts.
Or, the moon is associated with silver, insanity, women, transformation, and the ocean. By using a thrice-blessed silver staff with the proper invocation, you can curse someone with insanity, lycanthorpy, or whatever.
>>43723428
sorry, forgot to take my trip off.
I'm a fan of the Dresden Files thaumaturgy take on it. Magic is about using the metaphysical links between two (or more) things/ideas to create a desired effect. Like calls to like. The best example of this is the Voodoo doll: I have a a representation of you (the doll) with a piece of you (lock of hair). With some will, effort and belief, I can use the symbolic link between the doll and hair in my hand to effect you in any number of ways.
Of course, the stronger the connection between the "doll' and the target, the better. If I have an old photograph from 10 years ago, that's probably not going to have a strong connection because you're not the same person. However, if I have a photograph from today, a few drops of your blood, a member of your immediate family, and that keychain you always carry with you, I can establish a very strong connection.
There's also a measure of belief involved with Dresden Files magic. You have to believe that the magic will work (or at least has a decent chance of working). This kinda links it to Mage: the Ascension, which is all about the nature of collective belief on magic and reality.
>>43721322
The world itself is one massive giant, who dreams all the things that lie on the surface. Each giant, in turn, sleeps and dreams into being that which surrounds them.
By meditating, you learn the lullabies of that giant, by hearing the notes and tones they sing in their slumber. By singing songs of joyful dreams, the giant dreams happy things into being. By singing songs of cruel nightmares, the giant dreams into being calamities, catastrophes, and peril.
A wizard who learns too much magic for their head to hold begins to take on fits of slumber, and slowly wends down, to dream their own reality into being.
>>43721514
This is exactly the point most authors/setting writers need to understand.
"It's magic, I ain't gotta explain shit." is a valid response.
