From the article archive
Magic Framework - an example
Everything should have a reason in your game setting. Even magic.
For me, one of the most important things to decide when using magic in a game world is to define how it works and why it works - providing a framework to understand magic in. That framework can be strange or mundane, but everything has to have a reason.
If magic is chaos and hard to control in your world, I’ll ask "Why?" I’m not trying to take away the mystical feeling of magic or to turn magic into a boring physics class, but in order to understand the setting, to fully appreciate your creation as a player, I need to know why.
The best way for me to demonstrate is to use my dark fantasy world of Avalon. While my ideas and design are not perfect, they form the framework for how magic works in my world.
THE ROLE OF MAGIC
The first thing I did was determine the role I wanted magic to play, and what kind of magic I wanted. I knew that I wanted both magic and the supernatural to be important to Avalon, but I wanted them to be rare and powerful things which are understood only by a few, and that delving too deeply into it a magic user would risk their sanity. I had already determined that I would have mages and alchemists as the major magic using types, so I wanted to make sure my framework kept them in mind
As Avalon is a dark fantasy world, magic needed to be strange and filled with dark images, but I didn’t want my mages and alchemists to live out their lives without ever knowing what is behind things. So I needed a framework that showed there was a limit to the amount of mystical information that the mind can handle before it breaks, yet they still explain some of the hidden secrets as to how and why things work the way they do.
I felt I had enough at this point to move forward. I knew the feeling I wanted for magic in Avalon and I knew the two major magic using groups. I looked at this project as starting on the outer layer and working inward, defining more and coming up with the whole idea when I got to the center. This part was the outermost layer.
THE PLANES
I decided to first define the Planes of Existence. If magic had the ability to deal with things outside the normal world – I needed to define what the “normal world” was, what the other places were and how they connected to each other. My list contained the Prime, Ethereal, Astral and some Outer planes.
The Prime Material Plane
This is most commonly known as the Prime Plane. This is the plane in which the characters exist, and most of the actions in Avalon occur. This is earth as your character knows it.
The Ethereal Plane
This is the plane that the Alchemist reach into. It is not so much an actual “plane” that can be traveled, but is simply referred to as a plane being that is the most conventional way to discuss it.
The Astral Plane
This is the place that contains all of the various deities of Avalon. The Astral plane is made up of various levels, with each deity struggling to move upwards in position and power.
Hell and the Outer Planes
All other planes fall into this category. There are different names for the various planes and beings that dwell within them with Hell being the only one that has a name which is commonly known in Avalon.
The Outer Planes are places that mages gain their spells, insights and powers. The Outer Planes are also home to demons, who trade their “gifts” for the souls of the mage who seeks their aid.
That was rather simple, just a list and some basic notes. While this didn't answer my questions on the how and why of magic yet, it did provide me with another layer so now I could move into the next part.
-----
MAGES & THE OUTER PLANES
Mages perform magic by manipulating the raw power of the various planes. The power is called mana and is controlled by the mage through spells and rituals – the more powerful the desired affect, the more complex the spell.
The Prime plane itself contains mana, but it does not contain enough for anything but the most basic forms of spell crafting. Thus, as the mage seeks more power, they need more mana – and that can only be obtained by delving further into the outer planes through spell and ritual. To make things a bit more dangerous, the more mana that the mage wishes to tap into the greater the chance of the mage attracting the attention of one of the many beings that exist in the outer planes. Some of these beings are benevolent, and some vile.
Demons are the lowest ranking members of the outer planes, and they are usually the first to contact a mage who seeks greater powers. But there are other, more powerful beigns that occasionally take note of mages and their actions.
ALCHEMY & THE ETHEREAL PLANE
Alchemy is the art of being able to combine the correct chemical substances on the Prime plane to control ether. This is done through study and hours and hours of experimentation in the lab. Ether is a very fickle thing, but there are various “tried and true” formulae that work (e.g. Gunpowder, Greek Fire and Flesh Mending) allowing for the progress of the art.
Alchemist believe that the world has four basic elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. As all things are made up of various amount of these four elements it is simply a matter of deciphering the proper way in which to control/harness the particular element(s) necessary in order to produce the desired effects.
Certain chemicals are thought to be pure examples of a single specific element or a group of elements. Once it is understood which chemicals and which amounts are needed for a specific desired result, it is possible to create the necessary effect through a careful mixture and distillation of the chemicals.
Ok, so that wasn’t that exciting either, but I have solidified things a bit more. We understand that mages use spells and rituals to get mana to do what they want it to and may have to bargain with demons or worse, and alchemists use chemicals to get the ether to do what they want it to – but how do those things fit together? What exactly is mana anyway? And we need a clear definition of ether as well before we can understand alchemy.
-----
MANA AND ETHER
Mana is the stuff that makes up everything. It is the base element that all things are created from, all things are infused with mana. The mage deals directly with the manipulation of unformed mana to achieve their desired results (spells), while the Alchemist deals with the process of manipulating the change of already formed mana for their distillations.
Until mana is formed into something (be it rock, gold, human or goblin) it remains malleable to those who know how to manipulate the various currents and flows of mana in the world.
It is also known that all things contain unformed mana within them. Just as we grow older and our appearance changes, so does the mana within us change and reform. Mana is an ever evolving and changing substance that creates change in all things.
Once mana has reached a stable state it is no longer mana. It has now become Ether, and an item is said to have Etherealness. Ether is a semi permanent state that mana undergoes prior to it’s next metamorphosis. This semi permanent state may last for fractions of a second, or years.
The pattern of the evolution of mana can be illustrated as:
(1)Free flowing/unformed Mana
then
(2)Mana formed into Ether
then
(3)Portions of the Ether reformed into Mana
This example is the simplest way to view the creation of all things from “nothing” (i.e. raw mana). This is also, basically, how a spell takes affect. Raw, unformed mana is taken by a mage via a spell, formed into the effect of the spell (thus becoming Ether for the duration of the spell) and finally returning to an state of unformed mana (once the duration of the spell is over). For spells that have permanent affects, this is simply using unformed mana to change the Etherealness of a specific target and reform it to the desired affect for a longer period of time.
The exact instance when an Ethereal element, or composition of elements such as a tree, undergoes mana induced changes varies greatly from composition to composition. Certain compositions are very stable, while others are much more volatile. Gold remains in the stable state of “gold” for quite sometime while a human’s life is in a constant state of change.
So the basic principles of the Alchemists and the Mage can be seen as such: The Alchemist seeks to control and affect the more solid forms of Ether, and the Mage searches for power gained from the controlling and manipulation of unformed mana.
-----
FAR ENOUGH
Now we are at the center of the framework, the inner layer. For my players and I, this was enough us to understand the how and why of magic. We didn't need to go any further. We knew that some things may need more complete explanations later on, but this was something we could build on and work with, using it as the point of reference for all things magic in Avalon.
Some folks may find that there isn't enough detail here, others may think I needed a lot more. I believe that reaction should be your guide for building your own framework for magic. Simply add or subtract the amount of detail and layers that you need. Maintaining a consistent idea throughout is the only rule to follow.
Let me know what you think about my idea, and if anyone has other ways to go about this same process I'll see you in the forums.
Brett J. B.
(Time)
For me, one of the most important things to decide when using magic in a game world is to define how it works and why it works - providing a framework to understand magic in. That framework can be strange or mundane, but everything has to have a reason.
If magic is chaos and hard to control in your world, I’ll ask "Why?" I’m not trying to take away the mystical feeling of magic or to turn magic into a boring physics class, but in order to understand the setting, to fully appreciate your creation as a player, I need to know why.
The best way for me to demonstrate is to use my dark fantasy world of Avalon. While my ideas and design are not perfect, they form the framework for how magic works in my world.
THE ROLE OF MAGIC
The first thing I did was determine the role I wanted magic to play, and what kind of magic I wanted. I knew that I wanted both magic and the supernatural to be important to Avalon, but I wanted them to be rare and powerful things which are understood only by a few, and that delving too deeply into it a magic user would risk their sanity. I had already determined that I would have mages and alchemists as the major magic using types, so I wanted to make sure my framework kept them in mind
As Avalon is a dark fantasy world, magic needed to be strange and filled with dark images, but I didn’t want my mages and alchemists to live out their lives without ever knowing what is behind things. So I needed a framework that showed there was a limit to the amount of mystical information that the mind can handle before it breaks, yet they still explain some of the hidden secrets as to how and why things work the way they do.
I felt I had enough at this point to move forward. I knew the feeling I wanted for magic in Avalon and I knew the two major magic using groups. I looked at this project as starting on the outer layer and working inward, defining more and coming up with the whole idea when I got to the center. This part was the outermost layer.
THE PLANES
I decided to first define the Planes of Existence. If magic had the ability to deal with things outside the normal world – I needed to define what the “normal world” was, what the other places were and how they connected to each other. My list contained the Prime, Ethereal, Astral and some Outer planes.
The Prime Material Plane
This is most commonly known as the Prime Plane. This is the plane in which the characters exist, and most of the actions in Avalon occur. This is earth as your character knows it.
The Ethereal Plane
This is the plane that the Alchemist reach into. It is not so much an actual “plane” that can be traveled, but is simply referred to as a plane being that is the most conventional way to discuss it.
The Astral Plane
This is the place that contains all of the various deities of Avalon. The Astral plane is made up of various levels, with each deity struggling to move upwards in position and power.
Hell and the Outer Planes
All other planes fall into this category. There are different names for the various planes and beings that dwell within them with Hell being the only one that has a name which is commonly known in Avalon.
The Outer Planes are places that mages gain their spells, insights and powers. The Outer Planes are also home to demons, who trade their “gifts” for the souls of the mage who seeks their aid.
That was rather simple, just a list and some basic notes. While this didn't answer my questions on the how and why of magic yet, it did provide me with another layer so now I could move into the next part.
-----
MAGES & THE OUTER PLANES
Mages perform magic by manipulating the raw power of the various planes. The power is called mana and is controlled by the mage through spells and rituals – the more powerful the desired affect, the more complex the spell.
The Prime plane itself contains mana, but it does not contain enough for anything but the most basic forms of spell crafting. Thus, as the mage seeks more power, they need more mana – and that can only be obtained by delving further into the outer planes through spell and ritual. To make things a bit more dangerous, the more mana that the mage wishes to tap into the greater the chance of the mage attracting the attention of one of the many beings that exist in the outer planes. Some of these beings are benevolent, and some vile.
Demons are the lowest ranking members of the outer planes, and they are usually the first to contact a mage who seeks greater powers. But there are other, more powerful beigns that occasionally take note of mages and their actions.
ALCHEMY & THE ETHEREAL PLANE
Alchemy is the art of being able to combine the correct chemical substances on the Prime plane to control ether. This is done through study and hours and hours of experimentation in the lab. Ether is a very fickle thing, but there are various “tried and true” formulae that work (e.g. Gunpowder, Greek Fire and Flesh Mending) allowing for the progress of the art.
Alchemist believe that the world has four basic elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. As all things are made up of various amount of these four elements it is simply a matter of deciphering the proper way in which to control/harness the particular element(s) necessary in order to produce the desired effects.
Certain chemicals are thought to be pure examples of a single specific element or a group of elements. Once it is understood which chemicals and which amounts are needed for a specific desired result, it is possible to create the necessary effect through a careful mixture and distillation of the chemicals.
Ok, so that wasn’t that exciting either, but I have solidified things a bit more. We understand that mages use spells and rituals to get mana to do what they want it to and may have to bargain with demons or worse, and alchemists use chemicals to get the ether to do what they want it to – but how do those things fit together? What exactly is mana anyway? And we need a clear definition of ether as well before we can understand alchemy.
-----
MANA AND ETHER
Mana is the stuff that makes up everything. It is the base element that all things are created from, all things are infused with mana. The mage deals directly with the manipulation of unformed mana to achieve their desired results (spells), while the Alchemist deals with the process of manipulating the change of already formed mana for their distillations.
Until mana is formed into something (be it rock, gold, human or goblin) it remains malleable to those who know how to manipulate the various currents and flows of mana in the world.
It is also known that all things contain unformed mana within them. Just as we grow older and our appearance changes, so does the mana within us change and reform. Mana is an ever evolving and changing substance that creates change in all things.
Once mana has reached a stable state it is no longer mana. It has now become Ether, and an item is said to have Etherealness. Ether is a semi permanent state that mana undergoes prior to it’s next metamorphosis. This semi permanent state may last for fractions of a second, or years.
The pattern of the evolution of mana can be illustrated as:
(1)Free flowing/unformed Mana
then
(2)Mana formed into Ether
then
(3)Portions of the Ether reformed into Mana
This example is the simplest way to view the creation of all things from “nothing” (i.e. raw mana). This is also, basically, how a spell takes affect. Raw, unformed mana is taken by a mage via a spell, formed into the effect of the spell (thus becoming Ether for the duration of the spell) and finally returning to an state of unformed mana (once the duration of the spell is over). For spells that have permanent affects, this is simply using unformed mana to change the Etherealness of a specific target and reform it to the desired affect for a longer period of time.
The exact instance when an Ethereal element, or composition of elements such as a tree, undergoes mana induced changes varies greatly from composition to composition. Certain compositions are very stable, while others are much more volatile. Gold remains in the stable state of “gold” for quite sometime while a human’s life is in a constant state of change.
So the basic principles of the Alchemists and the Mage can be seen as such: The Alchemist seeks to control and affect the more solid forms of Ether, and the Mage searches for power gained from the controlling and manipulation of unformed mana.
-----
FAR ENOUGH
Now we are at the center of the framework, the inner layer. For my players and I, this was enough us to understand the how and why of magic. We didn't need to go any further. We knew that some things may need more complete explanations later on, but this was something we could build on and work with, using it as the point of reference for all things magic in Avalon.
Some folks may find that there isn't enough detail here, others may think I needed a lot more. I believe that reaction should be your guide for building your own framework for magic. Simply add or subtract the amount of detail and layers that you need. Maintaining a consistent idea throughout is the only rule to follow.
Let me know what you think about my idea, and if anyone has other ways to go about this same process I'll see you in the forums.
Brett J. B.
(Time)
Recovered from the Gaming Outpost database backup. Original wording is preserved; damaged punctuation and presentation markup have been repaired. Historical links without a local match point to the Internet Archive.