Magic turns in-setting beliefs into gameable content

    It's often said that Magic needs to be uncertain, dangerous, or strange in order to be interesting. Games like Dungeon Crawl Classics or the upcoming Arcane Ugly take this route. I, however, feel that Magic is best used as the vector for the players to experience the individual cultures of your world. The quickest way to get your players invested in your game is through gameable content, something they can interact with. I've already described how I use race and culture for this on my blog, but today's focus is on how to use magic to make your fictional cultures tangible. If you do this right, your players will be eating up your fantasy lore in no time.

    In the 1st century A.D., a book called the Testament of Solomon was written describing how Solomon built his famous Temple. He received a ring from the Archangel Michael, and used it to command legions of demons, named and ranked in their filth, to build the temple for him. For if the Lord is above the demons, and He created them, then they must obey Him. 

    This story demonstrates what are, in my opinion, the 3 major components of a spell. Its Domain, that being the casting's cultural significance; its Keyword, the action or the description of the effect, and its Method, that being what in the physical world allows for the casting. The Earth-bound, fallen angels must follow God, (domain) so they are bound by Solomon (keyword) using Michael's Ring (method).

    The creation of steel in ancient Scandinavia can be described in the same way. The bones of fierce, hunted animals could be ritualistically burned during the forging of a blade to make a stronger metal--the carbon needed for steel. This could be portrayed as a magic ritual: Wōden/Odin (domain) would bless ferocity (keyword) upon the metal by burning the fierceness of the beast into the metal (method).

    I call this system the domain-keyword system, and it is designed to be an in-universe, non-mechanical conversation between Player and Referee, without it being based entirely on fiat or begging. The 3-part system naturally leads to different sets of tables, and when you combine them, the effect is usually easy to extrapolate. We'll go into each part individually, then show some examples of the use of this system in my home game.

Domains

    When asked about what elements make up a fantastic world, the typical answer one might give is the 4 classical elements: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. But in China, these archetypes are different. They count 5, and are used to describe the effects of medicine, seasons, the passing of dynasties, the function and form of life and medicine, and the movement of the stars. Being culturally sensitive, we would call this real-world idea a "philosophy" or "nontheistic religion". But in both a gameable context, something like this is indistinguishable from magic, just as Solomon summoning a legion to build his Temple could be seen as magic.
    This Chinese Wuxing (pictured right) is not the only one of these cosmic models. There is the Sefirot present in Jewish Kaballah is another, the 4 humors of classical Greek medicine, and the reign of various symbolic families of Fomorians and Tuatha De Danann in Irish mythology. All of these were treated either as religion, secret occult knowledge, or as a philosophy. All sought to explain perceived patterns and meaning in the state and movement of the world around us. And this, I feel, is the hidden key to making gaming magic feel "magical".

    One example of this in action is the D&D spell schools and AD&D 2e spell spheres. One of my favorite parts of my early days of playing D&D was opening up a book of spells and seeing those listings and descriptions, like opening up a real magical tome. However, as D&D progressed, these distinctions became less important. No two human cultures are assumed to have access to different aspects, and even if they did, they still agree on what exactly those aspects are. For many of us, when we started playing D&D, the magic was strange and creative, but after a time, there comes a need for more versatile opportunities.

    One might realign all existing spells in D&D into new spheres, new schools, different sets for each culture in the setting. This takes a large amount of work, but I find that it is the kind of work that players notice and enjoy being surprised by. I would start by giving every single god from every culture their own spell list. A flavorful spell list represents many aspects--Poseidon was not just a god of the Sea, but also of Earthquakes, Horses, and Water itself. More religious cultures typically align universal truths with their gods, so their gods ARE domains. More secular or agnostic cultures may focus on their own understanding of natural laws, so those laws are their domains. Each culture should draw their domains from a different source. In my games, one culture draws its domains from a custom Wuxing-esque diagram, one from a Zodiac constellation set, and one from a set of 6 unique gods.

    If you want maximum charm, your domains should be unique to your setting, should never be derivative or standard, and should seek to combine elements we don't consider to be the same in our world. For instance, in my game, the Galla domain "Wood" represents all of life, but also represents the flow of Ley across the world, where roads are built, and the physical relativity of things--much like the roots of a tree.

Keywords

    Each domain can be paired with a keyword, which guides the effect of the spell or prayer. Keywords are usually organized by relative strength--"Locate" is always going to be less powerful than "Create", for instance. I would recommend keeping the same Keyword list between all cultures just for convenience, as it is generally the most practical and least flavorful of the 3 parts. The meaning of a keyword is meant to be ambiguous, but becomes clear when paired with its partner domain. Here are a few tables of keywords.

Methods

    They say that the spirits of the dead can only be spoken to on Samhain, the day the spirit world and the physical world are closest. They also say that one can exorcise an evil Yokai by crossing its neck with the finger or a brush of ink. Methods are an optional way to enhance the feel of a spell. They are optional because sometimes the method by which a spell is cast is obvious from its keyword. I recommend making rulings based on what balances flow and flavor.

There are effectively 2 ways to do Methods: Universal methods, and spell-specific methods.

    A universal method example might be Vancian magic casting. Casters must memorize spells, and then once cast, the spell exits the caster's mind. More experienced casters can memorize more and more complex spells. However, Universal methods also don't necessarily need to be universal for your entire setting--they can just be for all the spells of a given culture. In my setting, only the Kukua need to burn a special type of powder called "Mojo dust" or use charges of a special rod made from lightning-glass in order to cast their spells.

    Spell-specific methods are great for giving ritual significance. I give spells that are more powerful more methods to fulfill, and if the methods overlap, it becomes even more significant. This overlap could be from random table results, but I suggest that your cultures have 1 universal method and 0-3 spell-specific methods for every spell. So if your culture can only cast necromantic spells at night, and a specific necromancy can only be cast at a specific time, that means they can only cast it on one specific night of the year: Samhain, probably, or perhaps the Winter Solstice.

    Here is a table of methods, which are vague. More powerful spells require more specific or punishing methods. If your system uses tiered spells, like mine does (see Keywords above), increase the size of the die rolled on this table AND add more dice to really make it complicated.

Examples

    I'll generate a couple spells/prayers right now to demonstrate. These spells would be perfectly valid in my home game.

     Kukua are the desert-wanderers of the West. They ride in homes upon their great shimmering crabs, the Kashem-Thoro (in their language, the Wandering River). Each Kukua has a deep chromatic skin pigment, which they complement with its opposite color of face paints to express history and feeling. Kukua travel from jungle to jungle, across vast deserts, mapping and gathering sites of great river-serpents and strikes of lightning on the sand.

    Kukua are guided by their Wyrd written in the stars. Each constellation is an echo of the great old ones, gods whose word weaved the land. They call attention of the stars through glittering Mojo Powder, which is consumed, or via the various, rare Lightning-Glass implements. One of these two is required for the casting of each prayer. Kukua Magic Domains are: Bison, for hardiness, long life, and protection. Tiger, for fire, wrath, pride, and fatherhood. Rabbit, for swiftness, relaxation, sleep, and fertility. Dragon, for luck, time, and loss. Goat, for purity and beauty. Lancer, for accuracy, armor, and the slaying of foes. Crab, for versatility, water, and transformation. Polaris, for guidance, frost, and death.

Bison Dance: A haka-esque dance of posturing and shouts. Following the dance, for the next hour, anyone who participated in the dance can turn a hit against them into a miss, or a failed saving throw into a success. Once someone has used this, the spell ends. 

Goat's Mold: The caster's touch can return something to its original shape, or purify an object of poisons or curses. A curse cannot be broken if the caster is not strong enough to curse with equal potency--e.g. the death-curse of an archlich cannot be broken by a mere priest, but can be broken by the head of the order.

Rabbit's Smite: When cast, the caster's emotions are calmed like pure water (becoming immune to fear, anguish, etc.), they strike without disadvantage or penalty, they ignore readied attacks from others, and they move with twice their normal swiftness whenever they make an attack. If their movement is impeded for a round or a minute passes, the spell ends. 

Lancer's Dominion: The caster becomes an avatar of battle. The caster can animate and control a number of weapons within 30 feet of them equal to their level for one hour. Unwilling carriers of weapons can make a save vs spells to maintain control over all their weapons.

Advice and Final Thoughts

    To get the best mileage from the domain-keyword system, it helps to have a few rules of thumb. I'll also share some personal thoughts on the system.

Spell damage: Figure out how strong a spell will be based around other spells in your system or whatever makes the most sense in the narrative. I run OSR games, so spell damage is 2d6 times the spell's Tier damage for area spells, and 2d8 times the spell's Tier for single-target spells. 

Magic items: Random magic items using the domain-keyword system make for great loot. Players love experimenting with different objects, and experiencing different aesthetics or abilities. Remember that magical loot should usually be powerful, durable, or safe (pick 2).

Adjust it later: Make sure to talk to your players that spell rulings on the fly might be unbalanced. The fun of unique and creative spells usually outweighs the disappointment of it needing to be adjusted later, but it's a necessary evil.

Magical Research: Encourage this as much as possible. Players love messing around with different features. Encourage players to explore other culture's domains by giving them artifacts and guides, like language tablets or grimoires. However, keep cultures distinct with a slight penalty to spells that don't come from the caster's culture. For instance, if a Westron tries to cast Elf magic, they may pull it off at the expense of extra gold or experience.

This looks like a lot of work!: It's actually not once you get the hang of it. Putting tables in front of the players and asking them to roll for their spells is instant fun every time, and making rulings becomes easier in proportion to how well you know your world and its cultures. But even if it was a lot of work, this is the type of work that pays off. Sometimes, if you work really hard, players will think it's cool and fun. Players likely won't care about your intricate NPC's or the architecture of a building they can't see, but they will go wild for a bunch of idiosyncratic magical bullshit they can exploit.

Do players actually like this, or will they avoid it because they're scared? I have found that 9 times out of 10, if you keep what you're describing in-universe, conversational, and accessible, players will engage with you like no tomorrow. Since I adopted this system, I haven't had lore or expectation misalignment with my players, and I've never seen so much magical research and problem solving.

Further Reading

Focus on the World: Rules and Laws by Dreaming Dragonslayer. If you liked this article, you'll like his just as much. I agree with it almost completely.

Astral Tears, a game system I wrote. I wrote it around the magic system rather than the other way around. I don't run it anymore, I run a small B/X hack now, but I still use the magic system.

Sorcery is a Sword Without a Hilt. It's got a bunch of cool and evocative spells, I just think it's neat. When I rule how spells work, they resemble this.

Maze Rats. Inspired my love of tables, I don't run a game without it.

Survive the Jive. This dude is a historian who makes great documentaries on pagan European religion. The best way to make good content is to learn about the world and apply it, and this guy is a huge inspiration.

The Medieval Bestiary. This one is just for fun.