7 Worst Magic System Mistakes New Fantasy Writers Make

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

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[@hlebvladimir726]

I genuinely thought I was watching a big channel until I saw it only has 15k. Tale Tinkerer deserves to have 100k with such quality content, he's been a great source of inspiration for me!

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Thank you for those incredibly positive feedback. I'm just trying to share what I've learned while improving one video at a time. Who knows, maybe we'll hit those 100k eventually. I'm not going anywhere 🙂

[@KayleeDragonfly]

Yay, looks like I've already incorporated most of these things in my story ^_^ One fun thing? Magic in my story's world USED to be a simple solution to every problem, with zero consequences; a god-like power that every single person had equal ability to wield..... Until the systems governing magic began to break down. Now every spell comes at immense risk, capable of going wrong in completely random ways, even when the caster does everything right. And because magic is integral to the planet's ecosystem, its gradual failure presents a threat of mass extinction. The magic system itself functions as an antagonist that needs to be dealt with!

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

One thing to remember of course is that writing (like movies etc) will always be perceived by people differently. That's why even the - so called - best works ever still have lots of people disliking them. So as with anything in my videos, I'm just sharing what worked for me and what usually is a good way to go, unless you deliberately decide to take a different route and execute it well 🙂

[@MiaGonzalez-dy8ne]

What is the name of it?. I am hooked! So interesting!

[@KayleeDragonfly]

@MiaGonzalez-dy8ne It'll be called Skies of Silicon!

[@Dobbicus89]

1) This is quality content. 2) Coming up with interesting mana costs is difficult. 3) Trying to figure out how to involve my magic with the economy without copying Stormlight.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Thank you, I'm glad that you like my content 🙂 In regards to linking magic and economy, I'd consider looking into specific aspects of the economy. How does your world produce, regulate, or exploit magic? Could magic be taxed, smuggled, or monopolized? Maybe it's seasonal, unstable, or culturally restricted. By focusing on such questions, as well as how different social classes access (or don’t access) magic, you should be one step further to getting something fresh. I hope that helps 🙂

[@ronaldlabelle9264]

I call Overpowered Magic ( Characters ) the Goku Problem and the Power Creep Paradox. I’ve spent years studying it, as I love the drama of high power characters. Could also be related to “Good D&D over-20 Campaign”. :| You have one great solution. My alternative solution is unsurprising: ‘Make the world setting itself more complicated in its scale so that powers which break most stories are kitchen table issues in your niche creation.’ Keeping with your advice on limitations, I have had success with ‘Deity? Perhaps, but you cannot be in two places at once.’

[@intergalactic92]

12:12 this could be an interesting foundation for a mystery story, where the protagonist is this skeptic who investigates how this supposedly untrained baker's daughter was able to achieve this mastery. Is it a trick? Was she secretly trained? Does this change his fundamental understanding of magic? Is she able to replicate her success or was that a fluke? Is she a pawn in someone else's game? Does she know? Make the mystery of her powers be the central conflict.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Love it 😀Let me know in case you ever decide to write it ^^

[@anthonypeterson5565]

David Farland's Runelord series has a magic system that takes all these points into consideration and that leads to a lot of interesting world-building, plot, and character points. In that world, magic functions in terms of "endowments," in which physical, mental, and personality abilities can be transferred to a person, but the person who is the donor loses that ability. However, if they die, the power is lost, so the donors have to be kept alive with others watching over them.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Haven't read that one yet, will definitely try to check it out if I can find the time on my long reading list 😀 Thanks for the tip.

[@AnotherDuck]

I have a few things that go wrong with magic in my stories, but I'm planning to make those more common. One character has "mana sickness", meaning she grows ill if she has too much power in her body. Problem is, she's exceptionally good at generating that power, and she's misaligned with her element (she's a hydrophobic water mage), which causes her to be unable to channel magic to any greater extent. I've expanded that to not just be a one-off, but common for everyone. They all have their limits; it's just that she's predisposed to cross that limit without intervention. Another event has two characters channel power into a crystal (a huge crystal that powers the defence and offence of a castle), but one of them fails to control it properly, and ends up with a permanently lowered magic capacity. She would've died if not the other character hadn't counteracted that and used her own resilience to absorb some of that misfire. Now, this is a risk that isn't too hard to make more common in that world. One of the biggest consequences of that ability to channel magic into crystals is the basis for the currency used: magic crystals. They're a bit like Zelda rupees, but the amount of magic they contain determines their value. Precious metal coins are also used, but due to crystals being practical, they're far more wide-spread. One limitation is that you can't deliberately affect someone else with magic unless you truly, genuinely want it. Most obvious implication is that very few people can use magic to actually kill someone else; trying would cause a misfire. It's similar to how many real soldiers will miss their shots in combat just because they have an aversion to killing, like most people. It goes a bit further, in that it's very hard to hurt someone with magic if you agree with them. Use of magic requires willpower, other than the magical energy. Use too much, and you'll become "broken" until recovered, which means you have no will to do much outside pure survival, and are unable to resist the will of others (to a degree; the more something goes against your morals the easier it is to resist). Using this to create slaves is one of the highest crimes. Magic attacks that aren't converted into physical forces will also hurt your willpower, which is one way to get around killing people, since it's easier to physically kill someone after that. Hmm. Just writing this gives me some more ideas for changes, like moving some traits between characters.

[@golwenlothlindel]

7:16 in the vein of costs, I also like another trope less common in Western fantasy than Eastern: time-sensitive ingredients. This is a great storytelling device because it lets you send your protagonists on a side quest right at the point where they are ready to confront the Big Bad, without totally destroying the tension in your story. This serves as a great moment for character growth, as the protagonists journey to a faraway place or else attempt to engineer the circumstances when the ingredient will be available. Or it can let characters who for whatever reason can't participate in the final confrontation do something important to thwart the Big Bad's designs. I think it also makes magic more interesting: certain spells are not always available meaning that mages have to be aware of the time of year and what circumstances may have occurred. This makes even an otherwise very scientific system feel a bit more well... magical. And it prevents the ever annoying question of "why isn't there industrial magic?" Like, the meta reasoning is that magic is just always incompatible with industry in myths but I do think that when modern writers don't provide a reason why magic can't be industrialized it does harm the immersiveness of the world. We are not medieval people, we are generally speaking aware that industrialization is an inevitability. People are going to think about what your world would look like when it industrializes, even if you don't.

[@_Risa1992_]

I love power without a price and magic that is accessible for everyone, not just a small elite. I love magic that is accessible for everyday life and makes people lives better and a bit more fantastical. It's often (or sometimes) used for regressive stories, if only an elite can use it or magic costs a price and it's not questioned.

[@joannaholden943]

This is such a well written video. It combines so many things I've heard elsewhere in a way that makes sense and the example story helps a lot! Now to sit down and implement this in my world building and plotting

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Thank you for the kind words. It's always very reassuring to hear the work that went into such a video was worth it 🙂

[@AegixDrakan]

Part of why I never got back to that one book idea I had. XD I didn't sweat the details for my TTRPG setting, as it's supposed to be a light and fluffy casual fantasy setting, with a few dark twists. Magic is just something everyone has to some degree, as the "soul" is a conduit from the Source of all Magic (The vast majority of people have at least enough to fuel magical items), which DOES make the few exceptions pop out. Those two exceptions being: A Cursed Comet fell up in the north, and it seems to literally shred and destroy the ambient magic of the world, while also making some people born in that region have no magic at all. The other exception is that vampires, being whose souls have moved on without them, can only do magic if they've fed. Those who refuse to feed in order to stay "human" need to spend decades basically re-growing their soul before they can do even the most limited magic again.

[@claran3616]

The comet is a really cool idea

[@AegixDrakan]

@claran3616 Thanks! :D I'm excited for my party to deal more with it. Because there's a twist to it! It's actually NOT a comet. It's a crashed starship. The curse? Radiation from the leaking core, which poisons and shreds the ambient magic. The horrifying creatures called "Immortals" that spring from the comet? Machines of war that were stored on board. If they want to stop the curse from being a problem, they'll need to go there, go INSIDE and shut it down. :P When their renaissance era world has no concept of what the hells any of that is.

[@ScherrHrenner]

Yes, the idea of writing overpowered magic without downsides would sound pretty weird to me from a storytelling perspective.

[@davedsilva]

Subscribed due to your passion

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Thank you - glad to hear this comes through somehow via camera 🙂

[@ImpKraken]

Magic can also cause societal shifts much earlier by applying Clarke's Law which states that any sufficently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. For example, the advent of machine guns and better artillery turned WW1 into a trench war with appalling casualties for any side that tried to simply overwhelm defensive positions with numbers. In my steam age world, mages filled a similar role to artillery and machine guns, slaughtering thousands and causing trench warfare to become standard practice much earlier.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Some great insights that I'm sure others browsing the comments will appreciate too! 🙂

[@AkodoGarou]

I've done a few of these, the ecosystem changes, people using magic and cultures and traditions around magic in a nation and lack of magic and the restriction on magic, and few others. But the others I can naturally include these others

[@Kaizenix49]

I have magic system that only limited by creativity and faith to make it happens. So in my story there is no such spell, chant, shouting, magic circle, or what so ever. They just use their mind to use magic, but the drawback is. The magic it self could hurt the user, because user have no resistance to their own magic. Like, you could burn your hand when creating a fire that to close to your palm, lol.

[@gabriellogi6981]

That's pretty cool!

[@Sazzxdndandmtg]

with my magic system magic is Very powerful and most of the good and bad people are amazing at it so it just comes down to a "counter war" where both sides do nothing because their opponent will just block it so when characters of similar power fight it comes down to tactics and creativity in a fight and very limited magic is used

[@golwenlothlindel]

You might want to watch the show Snow Eagle Lord, because they did this scenario very well.

[@eirrenia]

_Very_ good advice!

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Thank you - glad you liked it 🙂

[@xavier84623]

Honestly I feel like if you follow all these steps you might end up with something that feels quite generic. Some of these are ok tropes for beginners, but they aren’t universally true advices. It’s like at the beggining of Troy when achelies switches his sword hand to win the fight, and his cousin is like “you said never to switch your sword hand!”, and he is like “when you know how to do it you won’t be taking advice from me.”

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

It is very difficult to share any type of writing advice and simultaneously cover how it still makes sense and can work to ignore everything you just said. So yes, as I try to say quite often, anything I share is just from personal experience, and since we're talking about creative works, everything can probably be done the opposite way and still be amazing - if done consciously and executed well 🙂

[@xavier84623]

@@TheTaleTinkerer your right! thanks for the response.

[@MikeBrennan-i5i]

Another great video! Thanks, tinkerer! The tip about power coming at a price was especially helpful. Any advice on building a magic system in a hybrid sci-fi and fantasy world? I know that mixing magic and science can be dicey

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Thank you, I'm glad to hear you liked the video 🙂 Regarding your question: I'd say the trick to mixing magic and science is to decide where they overlap and where they clash. I would consider whether magic is just another branch of physics, or if it breaks the known laws of reality. A good balance could be to make magic feel like a ‘lost science’-something ancient civilizations understood but modern ones are rediscovering. Hope that makes sense and is helpful somehow 🙂

[@MikeBrennan-i5i]

@@TheTaleTinkerer yes that makes sense! Thanks for the advice! Questioning reality and investigating how things work aligns with my character so that is probably the best route for me to take

[@MrFish1124]

My magic system I've thought about isn't particularly complex. Magic can not be learned, you're either born with power or you're not. When pregnant women become possessed by demonic influence that power merges with the unformed soul of the child, and when the child is born their soul is tainted by it. Using magic is fairly straightforward. Their bodies become conduits that channel power, taking a heavy physical toll on the body to use. Like how a trained athlete can do a lot of stuff on a regular basis but cannot push themselves to their physical limits without straining themselves or risking an injury. Magic costs a lot of calories and without proper care and nutrition mages can suffer from starvation or muscle atrophy if they push too hard. Also, magic gives mages something like an allergy to iron. Touching it can cause cause them to start developing skin irritation, rashes, or blisters and the like. Too much raw iron on their bodies can dapen any ability they have to use magic at all sometimes. There's also generally accepted to be two types of mages. Evokers and Illusionists. Evokers are especially adept and channeling raw power into world and illusionist are better adept at channeling power through other people as conduits. Either one can perform either task, but it's a matter of efficiency I suppose. Healing magic can be very painful to go through, but it's less painful through an illusionist than an evoker. An illusionist can project strong barriers or destroy a building, but their risk of, say, complete kidney failure, starts shooting way up. Nations in the world with better logistics or better agriculture or industrial capacity are able to support more mages than others that lack the resources. This is a significant plot point for a story I've had in mind. Thats mages though. Other things that happen involving demons is that animals can go through mutations, sometimes creating monsters. There's academic debate about arcane evolution influencing the development of intelligent and sentient species like Humans or Manecians but that's a very controversial theological debate and could land you in a lot of trouble for heresy.

[@heatherkline6766]

I guess this is why the old animated show Dragon Booster is so compelling, even when it is obviously geared towards a young audience. The magic is tied to this material which is somehow related to the dragons, even though what the relationship is is not fully explained. This material comes in numerous colors and sub-colors each with their own properties, strengths, and weaknesses. The mentor figure for the main character gives our protagonist a simple explanation of certain concepts first, before widening the hero's understanding. The plot is alos well worked. It follows a traditional A plot B plot structure, but both feel necessary. The character development is well written and feels natural; character change is neither linear nor immediate. I find myself preferring the story to that of Star Wars, despite their similarities: a mystical magic system, ambiguous characters, the blend of science and magic, training in further abilities being by tutoring methods, chosen ones... My liking of dragons has little to do with it.

[@Dragonmoon1598]

For mine (urban fantasy), the magic comes from within. Similar to Jim Butcher, after so many spelles, 3 to 6, you have to stop and rest and also eat something. Due to the physical exertion. Power is limited to certain abilities. Elemental, divination, light, and dark (which have subgroups). Als, not all magic power is equal. Some are stronger than others.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Is there a defined "reason/origin" for how magic came to exist in the first place? 🙂

[@Dragonmoon1598]

@TheTaleTinkerer I also have supernatural creatures:license, fey, demons, vampires (the classics). Plus some humans have "gifts" (basically X-men). So the magic is a combination of evolution as well as probably breeding with fey and demons (so a bloodline element).

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

@@Dragonmoon1598 Sounds like a HIGHLY magical world then - certainly something I'm fond of 🙂

[@Pelerin985]

12:09 The Call of Mary Sue

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

I'm actually working on a Mary Sue video - coming in two weeks or so 😀

[@dr.jekyll5234]

Relevant and Supportive Comment to feed the Algorangim.

[@niccosalonga9009]

As something of an experiment, I'm making a story with no actual upper limits to magic. The power does have to come from hard study, dangerous experimentation, and outright stealing from the mythic powers that be but there's no actual hard limit to what it can potentially do other than the caster's skill and wisdom (and maybe willingness to alter themselves). I'm doing this more to see where such a story would go and if it would devolve into something stupid or if it can plod along nicely that way.

[@Konpekikaminari]

I feel like the key factor for the success/failure of this story is the pace in which the characters progress and the rate/ways it takes their environment to catch up to them

[@sohrabroozbahani4700]

My magic system is based on significance, since in my universe magic welding is done by tapping into power of the myriad of gods, people who use it rather keep it small and manageable, imagine, there are millions of tiny things living in our beds, so small you will need electronic microscopes to see them, and they are eating away at the detritus falling off our skin without us ever noticing. That's using rudimentary magic tricks in my universe, but then as we find ants digging into our food stuff irritating, so do gods if they notice one mortal making a living out of their powers without proper reciprocation, and then there's when a blood suckling insect bites us, that is when a mortal pulls a really significant feat of magical power show, and that mortal better be already powerful enough to survive the ire of the god they have provoked... at each given time there are about a handful of people of such standing in my entire universe and they are often the arch villain type, cause that kind of magic usually also needs substantial resources which are never collected by good will... besides the consequences they bring to the land and people... The major point is, it very much depends on the god you tap your magic from, it's magic, it is not supposed to make that much sense, it would be science if it was, right...

[@claran3616]

That’s really cool! I LOVE the metaphor, I can tell you put a lot of thought into it.

[@sohrabroozbahani4700]

​@claran3616😅🙏

[@IrisDImtv]

That's the best vide on the topic I've ever found (even if I don't like AI images)

[@EdiyaGrey]

This is a fantastic video, new subscriber for it. I do have a similar question as another person has written in - my character is by no means an Indiana Jones type, but I find the idea of having a world that's already integrated with the magic system to be extremely difficult to write effectively. Yes, my whole world is affected by the magical system. Readers either complain they understand nothing or that that it is too slow (depending on if I've adjusted it to be faster paced or slower to explain). My character has lived in this world, the magical is integral to her "fairy" type, I do not have a character in the story who doesn't already understand the system. I've come to the conclusion that it's too ambitious of a project for an amateur writer after a year of actively scrounging around trying to a balance. Would love some tips in future videos on how to actually implement a nonportal / no newcomer fantasy world.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Thank you, I'm glad to hear that the video was helpful to you. Always heart-warming to hear such positive feedback. Integrating magic into your world without overwhelming readers is tricky, but here’s a quick tip: show magic in everyday life through action and emotion. The idea is to focus on experience first, rules later. Even if everyone knows about magic, you can show this to readers and explain a few things about your magic system without exposition by effortlessly have them use magic or come across magical effects from others while reacting in a completely unimpressed manner - it's just another regular day for them. I hope that makes sense 🙂

[@jeremychevalier5831]

Something you could do that may work is have it be a cultural thing. Like if you have fairies able to do a specific type of magic, maybe some other race has a different approach and they could learn from eachother. An example of this (kinda) is the avatar. He knows airbending, but has to learn how each of the different tribes bend each element, and learns their traditions and emotional state as well. Obviously there is some nuance, but having someone know A magic vs ALL magic could be a more convincing way to explain it. You could even have different people 'experience' it differently. To compare with stuff you may come across today, when trouble or danger is near, some people might say "my missing thumb always hurts when danger is near" or "something bad is coming. I can feel it in my bones" or "my toe always hurts when something bad is about to happen". There's also the cop in 'cloudy with a chance of meatballs' that knows because his chest hairs start tingling. All are experiencing a premonition of sorts, but the experience is different for each of them.

[@mikhailbisserov]

It is a mistake to have all of those mistakes in your book, but it is a bigger mistake to not have one or two of those mistakes in your book, because that would be a standard character-driven book.

[@stellargalaxy9]

What if my main character already knows how to use magic at the start of the book? He’s no expert or anything but he already knows how to handle himself in the world of magic. Does this simply need to be changed or is there still a way to teach readers about the magic system even though the character already knows a decent amount of it?

[@markwood4378]

You can still teach the reader how the system works, for example, by having your character ponder the limitations of their skill, or having them recognize the magical works of others.

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

@ Yes, these are good options. A character can definitely be very skillful already. But it should still make sense based on what life they've led and who they are. We don't want to see Gandalf struggling with the tiniest spell in Lord of the Rings either. He IS powerful, but there is a backstory that informs that power. What doesn't make sense is if the character is just powerful for the sake of it, knowing things they've never learned and excelling in skills without even trying while others - who are very good - struggle forever.

[@jeremychevalier5831]

One approach I love is crafting new spells. Depending on how hard your system is, this can give a ton of background into magic without info dumping. If it's a soft magic system, the reader doesn't really have to know as much about how it works

[@stellargalaxy9]

@@jeremychevalier5831 I haven’t been able to decide whether my magic system is soft or hard yet. Basically people get their powers from Eldritch gods, kinda similar to Percy Jackson except they’re not directly related to the gods. There used to be Gods of Order and Gods of Chaos, but after a civil war between the two, all the gods of Order are dead, and a good chunk of the gods of Chaos died as well. With only Gods of Chaos still alive, the world turned into a pretty shitty place.

[@stellargalaxy9]

@@TheTaleTinkerer I think it would make sense for him to be decently skilled with magic, as he is a Mercenary/Bounty Hunter with a bit of experience under his belt. Before the start of the story 90% of his old crew, including the leader, got wiped out on a job gone wrong, so now he has to lead a completely new crew with no experience in leadership.

[@啊啊啊啊-m4s]

Quick question: if magic has so many limitations and requires you to pay so much price, then why would the characters even bother using magic at all? Why don't they just...buy a rifle or something?

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

Magic still allows for things otherwise impossible, and as with many other things, if risks/costs are worth the outcome then you'd use/buy it 🙂

[@jeremychevalier5831]

This could be an interesting question to pose at the start of a story. What types of circumstances would lead people to relying on something? The higher the risks, the more crazy their motivations could be. If it's a world with Big Brother, maybe magic is the only way to defend yourself. Maybe it's in a semi modern world but magic is untraceable and assassins use it to go unnoticed. Maybe it is just super powerful, so you follow someone who is trying to get revenge on someone that is too well protected to take down with regular means.

[@啊啊啊啊-m4s]

@@TheTaleTinkerer I'm a TCG player, and if a card does something cool that no other card can, but is too convoluted to use, it just won't see meta play. People will rather not do that instead of losing games due to inconsistency. If people really want do that, they'll come up with some ways to bypass the limitations and minimize the price, or some degenerate combo that would have won them the game even without said card. If magic is a deck that every card comes with some hard-to-pay price AND has high limitations, it's just a terrible deck. The enemies the mages face will easily find ways to undermine their attempt to cast spells - making them unable to pay the price, intentionally attacking them when their magic doesn't work, etc. I think the "not to be overpowered" and the "comes with a price" advise are both fine, but these two don't work together. If magic comes with great price, it better be overpowered. If magic can't do much, it shouldn't ask you to pay a big price. Otherwise it just won't be worthy to use. If a guy sacrifices all his limbs to turn a cat into a dog for an hour, people are gonna think he's crazy.

[@jeremychevalier5831]

@@啊啊啊啊-m4s i don't disagree with your premise, but I feel like you are pushing a bit to prove your point. First, in anything (especially tags) power is relative. Something that has no easily understandable use is one thing, but if the power of it is slightly higher, that little bit of power could be enough of a reason depending on desperation. And the cost is less for ruining their lives as making them make deliberate decisions. As an example, I have a story I'm planning where the magic system gives you a slight boost, but you have to burn a memory to 'power' it. The cost could be super low, as some memories are just worthless. But the more power you want in the moment, the stronger your memory has to be. For regular combat, it'll just deter use, but if there is a huge confrontation, there are choices to be made. It forces the dilemma of surviving with no memory of the things you are trying to live for, or dying while retaining your memories. Obviously, no one wants to see a magic where you sacrifice your life for some inconsequential task. It's more about making restrictions so it isn't a deus ex machina and the reader doesn't think you are going to just hand wave things away with a convenient power up. Every use of magic should have some cost, even if it is relatively minor. There could even be a delayed cost of "cast 1000 spells and then you die". That would still force some kind of decision-making. Either through sparing use, or maybe they wear beads for each time they've used magic to track or something. It could even be a specific threshold for when the cost starts, so magic could be prevalent but higher magic could be super rare. There are lots of approaches, but it doesn't necessitate a huge cost with little payout

[@啊啊啊啊-m4s]

@ The memory thing is pretty interesting. But I have a question: if someone has a very important information (like an enemy legion is approaching) that they need to deliver, and they write it down on a piece of paper, does it mean that each time they need to cast a powerful spell they can just read the paper, say "this is a very important memory", and use it to cast the spell, and after the battle they just read the paper and say "this is a very important memory" again? Or, could memories be made up? Like how they make Simple Rick's Wafers in Rick and Morty.

[@summitstreams]

I genuinely hate this fixation on mAgIC SYsteMs. Just make sure it makes sense, but most of all, keep it magical. Focusing so much on the system kinda defeats the purpose of magic, imo. It’s not science. It’s not technology. We don’t all have to write like Brandon Sanderson

[@summitstreams]

And that’s not a critique of this video. It’s just a frustration that I have with this fantasy trend

[@hlebvladimir726]

Agreed. A story isn't meant to explore all the amazing worldbuild that the author has no doubt done - it's the worldbuilding that serves the needs of the story

[@jksupergamer]

I think a good idea is to have a developed system, but just not mentioned too much and only use it to build consistency and implied rules. And of course, if needed, expand and set rules later. And yeah, these days I see too many stories that have overdeveloped magic systems. The world building can only be as good as the story since it’s the story that tells you about the world.

[@unicorntomboy9736]

In your opinion, what is the best kind of magic system for a gothic horror novel?

[@intergalactic92]

One that involves candles, incense and astrological based rituals.

[@unicorntomboy9736]

@intergalactic92 I was thinking more like black magic involving curses, or some kind of witchcraft. I love magic swords and other weapons

[@Sazzxdndandmtg]

time dependent magic (mabey magic with healing can only be done at noon or killing can be done at 2-3 in the morning or tie it to lunar phases where magic types wax and wane across a month, also a cost of aging or memory loss could also work and be more potent at some times

[@TheTaleTinkerer]

First things that pop into my mind would be Blood Magic, Witchcraft, Necromancy and basically anything ritual-focused 🙂

[@unicorntomboy9736]

@@Sazzxdndandmtg What about just borrowing the idea of Bloodbending from Avatar?