Further Thoughts on Science Fantasy Magic

Following up on my earlier post on an alternate magic system.

I’ll try to post some thoughts on each of the 7 points from the previous post.

1) The gemstone mountain. This may or may not be literaly true. Maybe it is only a legend that the current inhabitants believe in. Maybe it is sort of a distorted memory of some past time when super-science became dominant and magic was almost wiped out.

2) The gem mountain explodes. Again, this may or may not be literally true. Somehow, magic was released back into the world in discrete chunks embodied as the gemstones. Maybe the gods sacrificed themselves to free the magic, or the alien space fortress sucking up all the magic power self-destructed.

3) The gemstone fragments. These are certainly real. They do contain power that the inhabitants of the world call “magic.” Can be ambiguous whether it is actual magic, or if the gems are some type of super-material or devices that store or draw on some type of scientific-based energy source.

4) Spellcasters. There are individuals with the knowledge or ability to release the power from the gems in a controlled fashion. Maybe it is a dim recollection of a technical procedure that has become a ritual. Maybe some individuals have some type of ability (such as a psionic power) to alter the gems at a subatomic level and get energy out of them. Maybe the gems are actually INTELLIGENT; disembodied souls or super AIs imprisoned in crystals – and spellcasters can communicate with them somehow.

Points 5, 6, and 7 might be getting more into the “nuts & bolts” of an actual magic system and how it works, so I will leave that for a future post.

Thoughts on an Alternate Magic System

Recently, I’ve been thinking of coming up with a game setting with a more science-fantasy feel than the typical D&Dish fantasy world.

One thing I knew I would have to figure out is how “magic” would work. In the context of the setting idea, it really would not matter if it is actually “magic,” super-science, or some combination of the two. In fact a certain degree of ambiguity might be desirable.

So on Thursday night a few things gelled in my brain and I wrote them down before they escaped. This is only a starting set of postulates for how the science-fantasy magic system might work.

1) Long ago, all the magic in the world was gathered and imprisoned into a mountain consisting of a single gargantuan gemstone.

2) The gemstone mountain was shattered in a titanic explosion and countless millions of gem fragments were scattered across the world.

3) Each gem fragment contains a portion of the magic, still bound to the gemstone.

4) “Spellcasters” in the world know how to manipulate the magic in the gemstones.

5) Each time a “spell” is “cast” a fraction of the magic in the gem used by the spellcaster is released back into the world.

6) After a number of “castings” the gem crumbles into dust, when all the stored magic has been released.

7) Gem fragments come in various sizes and types that contain different amounts and forms of magic.

I’m starting to do a bit more thinking of what these starting concepts would mean for how an actual alternate magic system might be constructed, while still bearing some relation to the usual magic system found in D&D and old-school clones.

More to come when I feel it has gelled some more.