How to Create a Magic System

Over the years of building magic systems, I uncovered a 7 Stage Process everyone goes through while building their system. Let's look at what those stages are and what you need to do to start building.

I’ve developed a magic-building tool called The Magic System Blueprint and is designed to quickly give you a holistic understanding of any magic system. I’m currently running a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo for it and you can check it out at:

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:45 Stage 1: Inspiration
02:48 Stage 2: Idea Generation
04:33 Stage 3: Alignment
06:21 Stage 4: Definition
07:43 Stage 5: Restrictions
10:24 Stage 6: Testing
13:20 Stage 7: Iteration
15:20 Review

[VestigialLung]

The situation you found with banking infected blood to make larger portals reminds me of the doping scandal that hit the cycling world several years back. One of the main things that a lot of them we’re doing was called blood doping, where in the weeks preceding a race, they’d pull a bunch of blood out of themselves, spin it down to concentrate the red blood cells, then inject those right before the race. It was a nightmare to detect b/c it’s just the person’s natural blood, no other chemicals involved, so something like what you described absolutely would happen in a world where that was possible.

[SolDMars]

Just as a fun pastime, I had loosely designed a elemental magic system where you start to gain negative personality traits associated with an element the better you got at using it, but when I finished the loose overview I made of the system it seemed oddly familiar. And then I realized I accidentally fleshed out the very vague magic system I created with my brother when I used to play pretend with him as kid, I even assigned the same negative traits to the respective elements our characters used to have.

[mollof]

Keeping it simple makes it, simple. From my experience having a simple core consept, then go deeper is a good method.
When making a big magic system with a lot of stuff, it could end up feeling very unconected and random.
When building on that core consept things usualy feel more conected and a progression of what's established.
Having a broad system of course can work but I find it harder to do.

[morfeuszgodefroy]

You look like Thor and Jesus at the same time.

[ryanratchford]

This was good. I’ll try applying this to my preexisting system.

[RunningOnAutopilot]

Seed crystals seem like a cool idea to base a magic system around

[baacloud]

It's rare to stumble across something this interesting, then to scroll down and see under 1k subs. I can safely say you've earned more and that this creative topic is surely something I would wanna play around with myself down the line. I can already imagine some kind of reality-warping magic system powered and harnessed by the very desire to escape from reality. Keep up the good work dude, and I'll keep tabs, this is hella cool and inspiring

[dimanarinull]

I am currently making a card game based on a magic system and this is actually helpful in creating the lore of the game.
I have 3 types of spells in this game:
a sign - a fast simple spell that is very limited and is mostly used for small effects and interfering with Runes.
a rune - a slower spell that takes up a bit more time to use and has more utility
and the final one
a channeled spell - an extremely slow spell that takes WAY longer to cast and has a ton of room for interference but yields significantly more power than possible using the other types of spells.
the power is harvested from spirits that can be converted into familiars that assist or augment your spells with different effects.
and I would probably add potions or artifacts to give the game a bit more flexibility in the next test run.

I used Magic: The Gathering as inspiration for the game mechanics but reimagined the game in a sorcerer vs sorcerer fight like in Slay the Spire rather than planeswalkers summoning creatures or shifting the lands.

[lks_mobile]

I love what you said about harvesting the blood of someone infected to, almost industrially, create huge portals because that's actually the first thing I thought of when you mentioned this part of your magic system. Personally I love leaving these kinds of things in on purpose because I am very convinced humans will abuse whichever advantages they can find and this can make for such interesting worldbuilding... or an interesting villain's motivation. Or an interesting class system.

[zachariaravenheart]

I already have a solid magic system, but I never stop coming up with new ideas for it. My stuff constantly evolves. Also, there are things that I've moved away from, but returned to after a while and finding better ways to utilize those ideas. Always good to revisit old ideas.

[Epsilon]

I once created my own magic system for fun. The idea was that you took raw mana and "shape" it with certain "qualities" that belong to certain "catagories". There were a few ways to go about it each with their own limitations. You could shape th magic yourself, but every person poseses a quality for each catagory and how compatible you are with a certain magic is determined by how well the qualities match. Alternatively one could use a catalyst to shape the magic for you, but this was more diifficult and carried the risk of catastrophic backfire if you made a mistake. Finally their were spirits who inherently are very strong with a specific form of mana, some of them being unique to spirits, but could only exist in the world under certain conditions, one could form a pact with them to borrow their strength and allowing the spirit to exist in the world, the catch being the bond was permanent and you it's not possible to form more than one.

[StarlitSeafoam]

Thanks for this; I love your focus on storytelling. As a writer, it's helpful to be reminded to consider the story implications of a magic system, especially since my magic system will probably exist across many different stories, each with its own needs. This was supremely helpful for getting my brain exited, again, and reminding me that I can explore the implications of what I already have rather than needing to add more to it.

[thewizard]

This is a great video! I didn't realize it wasn't about d&d until I was about a third of the way through but the advice completely applies whether you're writing a novel or a campaign!

[CasstheAquarius]

This video is so pleasant. You are such a calming and grounding presence. Everything was really helpful and gave me lots of inspiration for creating my first magic system. Thanks for the lovely work!

[Wolfie]

Thank you Algorithm, I was looking for a video about magic systems

[ProjectEchoshadow]

My favourite part was that he didn’t remove the loophole entirely so it could still happen in universe but is impractical for the story. I want it to be possible to gain omnipresence but with the draw back of your concentration being so segmented you practically don’t exist

[karinadeniseandersonpark]

I struggle with testing my system. I try to think through the pros/cons/problems of my system and then one day weeks into the project realize a new angle that undermines what I've created. Any advice on how to test my system? Questions to ask myself?

[thisrandomdude_]

I wish this was more popular, you really know your stuff. This will be incredibly useful if I ever make a story involving a magic system.

[nicholaslewis]

I'm working on a science fiction series, but fundamentally I'm building a magic system. There is technology/magic that follows rules and affects the characters, so I found your video very useful. Thank you!

[craftable_]

This video is great help, but it’s too underappreciated, keep up the great work!