Verago

I know that the Eragon books have a rule system in magic, in which you must break into your enemy's mind before you can use magic on them. This, I think, is a good idea because it prevents your characters from going crazy spending magic energies, and adds a tactical element...

So, how should I set up a magic rule system for my story? I use elemental magic, daemon summoning, mental attacks...but I'm looking for an unusual, while not 'weird' way of restraining my characters.

Help?

Thanks...
Ethanael.

jta_8888

In the anime Full Metal Alchemist - or Hagane No Renkinjutsushi - the characters who preform alchemy must present items (of equal or lesser value, on a side note) in order to complete a 'transmutation.'

I think that this idea could be worked into your story.

Where, if your character wanted to work a bit of water magic, he or she would have to present, say, a jug of water. Or a small campfire to work fire magic.

Or, something to that extent.

In Full Metal they use bigger things (trees...mountains) but I imagine it'd be quite different for magic.

I don't really know if something as small as a jug of water could be limiting, but it would slow down the magic frenzy a bit, huh?

Verago

Good idea! I'll do that.

jta_8888

Don't get yourself sued, though.

kintaris

I always liked the thought of daemon-summoning having to be balanced - summon a daemon to do something for you and you are in their debt, and one day they might suddenly summon YOU to do something for them in their world...

kintaris

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Verago

I like that idea.

And jta, I highly doubt they'll sue over me limiting my characters to only being able to work magic with the elements around them.

jta_8888

Course not Didn't know if you meant you were going to do just what FMA did, or put your own twist on it. My bad

Kira the wanderer

But this is based off of real alchemy. Come up with your own ideas.

Research some things that people believe in, like witch craft or something, and get ideas from there.

jta_8888

Wait... ...I'm called unoriginal for basing my idea off pre-existing alchemy ... but you can go and offer the idea of basing it off of pre-existing Wicca? A bit hypocritical..

Lord Raiden

One of the things I'm using to keep my spells reasonable and realistic is to set physical limits to them. The limits might be explained in very loose terms to the reader, but to me, the rules are pretty detailed. For example, if you cast a water spell that threw a 50 foot tall, 8 foot wide, and 3 foot deep wall of water at me at 20 mph, I'd have to quickly calculate how much the water weighted, it's force on impact, and its density, then cast an earth spell that could block it or a fire spell that could vaporize it or a wind spell with enough strength to blow the wave apart.

Now spells outside the elemental realm have much fuzzier lines of limitation and therefore I think you can get away with them a lot easier. For example, say your mage had to create a bridge over a canyon. To create the materials needed, he'd need to convert XX amount of energy into mater, form it into specific elements, compounds, alloys, shapes, and so forth to create the final product. If you use a simple equation of (E x 2) + 20% = M or in laymens terms, Energy times 2, plus 20% overhead equals matter, you will have a good guideline for rendering items out of thin air. The equation I gave basically states in scientific terms (using science to explain magic, at least for me, makes doing everything right a lot easier. Your results may vary though.) that it takes twice as much raw energy (matter and energy are interchangable) as the matter created, plus a 20% overhead of energy which is used to actually convert the stock raw energy into matter and form it into what you need it to be. So far, just using that in my head has worked. Again, it's not something you need to explain to the user, but you can use it on your own.

I think that unless you really have a need to explain the limits of a given magic system or spell, don't. Most people I know of who read a story (and I learned this early on) don't need to know a lot of details unless it's vital to the story itself. In 95%+ of cases, I've found that it's not. But creating a rules system for your own use is almost always a requirement or at the least, an extremely good idea.

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Lord Raiden

LOL. Nothing wrong with bassing something off something that exists in real life. You can do that easily, but if you do, be sure to spin it with your own special take on it. Maybe improve the idea, expand what's there, etc. Never take something wholesale to use in your writing without improving on it.

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Verago

I would do it like Wicca, but I'm trying not to make it too "supernatural", if you know what I mean. I kind of like the alchemy idea.

And I like your equation.

Dan101

Just be sure to distance yourself from using alchemy the way FMA uses it, as I am almost 100% sure that the artist created that particular use of alchemy ( I mean comeon, real alchemists didnt clap their hands together and pull weapons out of the ground now did they? ^_-)

Masashi Kishimoto (author of Naruto)creatd a system to describe his characters' usage of "magic", though it is roughly based on the old beliefs of eastern monks (the chi system and all that jazz). So make sure to develop your own original theme and system for whatever your magic is ^_^

EDIT: Also be careful with the summoning deal and being in their debt, as that basic idea is also used in Naruto. Basically, they have to preform a blood sacrifice to summon the demon, and it uses up like all of thier energy to do so (assuming its a large demon). Some demons (orochimaru's snake for example) wants human bodies to feed upon because orochimaru summoned him. Get it? Youve gotta be careful, cus a lot of these ideas have been worked with already....>_<

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Verago

I mean, my magery system is already created. I'm pretty much just implementing that:
You have to have say, a bucket of water, nearby if you want to use water, or like a campfire to use fire, grass or dirt or whatever for earth, and air to use air...You'll need more of each element in physical form in order to use more powerful magic.

Dan101

Yea, that sounds good. FMA is a little different. In FMA, they need somthing made of wood in order to create an object of wood, for example. They need to give a life, in order to bring someone back, which is another example (Edward only gave his right arm which was only good enough to bring his brother's soul back).

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