Magic. The core of so many iconic fantasy worlds, and perhaps one of the most enjoyed parts of worldbiulding. Really appreciate that you've gone into more detail than just the hard/soft magic scale and taken a more wholistic approach to the magic and everything affected by it.
It's crazy this channel doesn't have more reach yet. Your videos are well-thought-out, yet still of a nice snappy and manageable length. Looking forward to being able to say I was an early subscriber when this channel inevitably blows up.
The developing relationship between Dax and his Divine matron Raven Queen during the first season of Critical Role and The Legend of Vox Machina is an excellent roleplaying example of the nature of paladin/warlock and their empowering entities.
Great videos and content! You have a gift for teaching! You’re well spoken with a distinct clarity and ability to explain/simplify your topics. I appreciate your craft. Im going to stay tuned! Congratulations thus far on your growth!
My approach tends towards systems with simple rules but very high versatility, where there is only one type of magic but it can potentially do almost anything. I also prefer magic that is inherent to the setting and available for anyone to use. In my latest project magic comes in three levels of advancement. The first and simplest is to use magic power to strengthen the body and to project it outward for defense, explosive speed, etc. Basically this is so I can have superhuman warrior types. The second level is "vulgar magic" which involves focusing and projecting magic while altering its properties, which lets you do relatively simple stuff like throwing fireballs from your hands or levitating stuff. The third and most advanced level, "high magic", is when you project magic but use it to alter the properties of the target. This is where you get the kind of reality warping magicians who can turn people into frogs, stuff like that. The reason not everyone becomes an OP sorcerer is partly because not everyone has the talent for it, but mainly because most people start out with fairly little magic and the main method to make it stronger is killing increasingly dangerous monsters. Hence, the more powerful people in the setting are those who were willing to put themselves at great risk and managed to survive. (Yeah, it's all kind of an homage to RPG mechanics where you need to farm XP.) There's also tons of magical weapons and artifacts. Had another system that was kinda similar except magic had to be channeled through special catalysts that had been "coded" for specific types of magic, so this staff might let you cast fire spells while that ring lets you use healing, etc. "Adventurers" in the setting were people exploring ancient dungeons trying to collect old artifacts with unusual or undocumented codes.
Im currently creating a world on Worldforge, and i want to link it to my pnp system. I looted ideas for both for years, and now is the time i have to detail it out, so this random ass video that just showed up in my recommendations is damn useful. Ill leave a sub and a thank you.
Great vid. A subject that has interested me since childhood, having grown with D&D, Tolkien, and many RPGs and JRPGs of old. While watching, i was thinking especially of The Witcher, Dark Sun (AD&D 1991), and the Bene Gesserit Order from Dune which has interested me lately with the movies and such ('though I believe the Magic System in that whole work is much more broad and complex). So I was trying to answer or apply your 3 essential questions or method to the IPs and stories I love, and when one does that exercise, it's fascinating to try and discover how did those authors answered them. You've earned my sub.
I think a fourth category is necessary: scope. What percentage of the population is magical? It's touched on in places (especially with the bit on sorcerers), but it's important to specify how accessible magic is to flesh out the world. Even using the provided example of the Jedi, the number of Force users matters for the worldbuilding--especially for the Sith (i.e., "There is always a master and an apprentice.") Magic in LOTR and ASOIAF feels very different from Avatar (where the systems are all ostensibly "sorcerers"), and one of the big differences is the number magic-users running around.
That's a good point--I could just about make a whole video on the scope of who gets to be a magic user. Whether I do exactly that or not, it's a topic worth addressing in a future video.
I'm working on a worldbuilding project with a friend that has 4 distinct magic systems. One of them is based around crafting magic items. While designing such items requires intensive study and crafting them requires a great deal of specialized skills, using the resulting items is usually quite straight-forward. These items are functionally a form of technology in the setting. The other forms of magic are usually more powerful (items of comparable power are ludicrously expensive), they each have drawbacks that make them not seem worthwhile to the average person. One of them is extremely dangerous, requiring training from an expert, lest the would-be practitioner end up striking themself with lightning accidentally. Another is simply very boring to learn, typically requiring many extended periods of meditation over the course of several months before one can do anything useful with it. The last one either requires natural resources that can only be found in specific regions, and can't be easily transported, or it requires one to be a member of a species native to those regions, capable of using such magic innately.
Great video. I learned a great deal watching. Great content, looking forward to checking out more of your Worldbuilding topics. Great editing, too, Yamez!
You missed the "transformed" user, who can use magic because something in them was altered in a way that provides such power. You know: the tatarigami curse, the cult ritual, the hemalurgic spike, the symbiote, the radioactive spider bite.
Thats completely fair. I don't see that one too much in the genres I peruse, which is why I didn't include it. There's definitely something to be said about that type, however.
Watching this I'm realising the system I have planned is far more everything than I initially thought but also kind of not and more like 3 separate system that just coexist in the world. Normal+ mana in the air for scholastic wizards, it has varying concentration in places making some places harder to do magic unless you bring mana potions Elemental sorcerers who use the same mana but also naturally produce a small amount within their body(that can also be dangerous if it builds up too much) And warlocks who can be scholastic if they're clear with their contracts or a bit whimsical if they're not and also they lose a bit of control over their magic. Also they don't use mana but what they do use is ubiquitous with no fluctuation in concentration Oh and whimsical divine artifacts that interact with fundamental concepts and are super OP
I don't agree with you, that "sorcer based system" doesn't became a problem. It is a different kind of beast. I mean, if you have this dude who can basically incinerate anyone on a whim, than it begs the question: "Why are they not the leader of every community?" Because they have no interest in power, I guess... Why castles exsists when a random child sorcerer can demolish the whole thing with just a fart. If so why don't people fear them or at least weary of them? You know the basic questions which most author tend to avoid answering. Other than that, good, well structured content. Keep up the good work.
Thank you for the feedback! I might've phrased it incorrectly, because you're definitely right. If you don't take power scaling like that into account, there are going to be a lot of logical problems!
@@J-Bat Don't fret about it. I was just nitpicky. As for the power scaling. I think it is a fundamental problem of all the magic system. If you think about it, any magic which can cause meaningful effects on the world would turn the whole society upside down. It is pretty hard to imagine all the possible conseqences. Although, to be honest, I don't think most people care that much about this level of realism in fantasy :)
A good first approuch, but I found your scope too limited to "medieval-ish styled" concepts of magic. Advanced technology, superpowers and cosmic horror are magic systems too, just to name a few. Where do you put Frankenstein's Creature or Neo within this clasification?
Thats fair, but medieval stuff is what I'm good at. I don't care for superheroes or most sci-fi, so I wasn't aiming to cover them as much. Cosmic horror is a very broad term but can definitely fit in this framework as a corruption of "divine magic" as an example. Frankenstein's monster, in my opinion, isn't really relevant to the topic of magic systems, nor is Neo. Both are unique via being "magic" at all, rather than characters utilizing an established system of magic. If you do consider those examples magic systems, that's completely fine, I just didn’t for the sake of this video. I may also revisit one or two of those topics later on.
Third bit for why nit everyone exspence this is what dnd does The cost of a single spell is rediculessly high And magic items are cost in good value which most peasents dont even have gold
Wrong on 40k the chaos gods dont own the earp their a small poket of the earp that grew too big after the massive galaxy wide genicide of the war incheaven you dont borrow magic from chaos gods u warp the energy of the warp
I LOVE JBAT CONTENT!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE LEARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HELL YEAH!
Your channel is a gold mine 🙏
Magic. The core of so many iconic fantasy worlds, and perhaps one of the most enjoyed parts of worldbiulding.
Really appreciate that you've gone into more detail than just the hard/soft magic scale and taken a more wholistic approach to the magic and everything affected by it.
It's crazy this channel doesn't have more reach yet. Your videos are well-thought-out, yet still of a nice snappy and manageable length. Looking forward to being able to say I was an early subscriber when this channel inevitably blows up.
Thank you so much!
The developing relationship between Dax and his Divine matron Raven Queen during the first season of Critical Role and The Legend of Vox Machina is an excellent roleplaying example of the nature of paladin/warlock and their empowering entities.
*Vax
Thanks! This was a good refresher. Very inspirational.
Great videos and content! You have a gift for teaching! You’re well spoken with a distinct clarity and ability to explain/simplify your topics. I appreciate your craft. Im going to stay tuned! Congratulations thus far on your growth!
Thank you! This means a lot.
My approach tends towards systems with simple rules but very high versatility, where there is only one type of magic but it can potentially do almost anything. I also prefer magic that is inherent to the setting and available for anyone to use.
In my latest project magic comes in three levels of advancement. The first and simplest is to use magic power to strengthen the body and to project it outward for defense, explosive speed, etc. Basically this is so I can have superhuman warrior types. The second level is "vulgar magic" which involves focusing and projecting magic while altering its properties, which lets you do relatively simple stuff like throwing fireballs from your hands or levitating stuff. The third and most advanced level, "high magic", is when you project magic but use it to alter the properties of the target. This is where you get the kind of reality warping magicians who can turn people into frogs, stuff like that.
The reason not everyone becomes an OP sorcerer is partly because not everyone has the talent for it, but mainly because most people start out with fairly little magic and the main method to make it stronger is killing increasingly dangerous monsters. Hence, the more powerful people in the setting are those who were willing to put themselves at great risk and managed to survive. (Yeah, it's all kind of an homage to RPG mechanics where you need to farm XP.) There's also tons of magical weapons and artifacts.
Had another system that was kinda similar except magic had to be channeled through special catalysts that had been "coded" for specific types of magic, so this staff might let you cast fire spells while that ring lets you use healing, etc. "Adventurers" in the setting were people exploring ancient dungeons trying to collect old artifacts with unusual or undocumented codes.
I like your video's thumbnail! The Middle Earth Quest books are great!
Glad you like it! It's probably my favorite thumbnail.
This is exactly the sort of video I'd want to see looking up this topic!
You come well prepared for your videos, and it shows in the quality of your content.
Thank you for your kind words!
Thanks for the cool ideas!
Shout-out to Yamez!
Of course!
Im currently creating a world on Worldforge, and i want to link it to my pnp system. I looted ideas for both for years, and now is the time i have to detail it out, so this random ass video that just showed up in my recommendations is damn useful.
Ill leave a sub and a thank you.
No problem at all, and thank you for the support! And go for it, I hope your project turns out wonderfully.
Great vid. A subject that has interested me since childhood, having grown with D&D, Tolkien, and many RPGs and JRPGs of old. While watching, i was thinking especially of The Witcher, Dark Sun (AD&D 1991), and the Bene Gesserit Order from Dune which has interested me lately with the movies and such ('though I believe the Magic System in that whole work is much more broad and complex). So I was trying to answer or apply your 3 essential questions or method to the IPs and stories I love, and when one does that exercise, it's fascinating to try and discover how did those authors answered them. You've earned my sub.
I think a fourth category is necessary: scope. What percentage of the population is magical? It's touched on in places (especially with the bit on sorcerers), but it's important to specify how accessible magic is to flesh out the world. Even using the provided example of the Jedi, the number of Force users matters for the worldbuilding--especially for the Sith (i.e., "There is always a master and an apprentice.") Magic in LOTR and ASOIAF feels very different from Avatar (where the systems are all ostensibly "sorcerers"), and one of the big differences is the number magic-users running around.
That's a good point--I could just about make a whole video on the scope of who gets to be a magic user. Whether I do exactly that or not, it's a topic worth addressing in a future video.
I'm working on a worldbuilding project with a friend that has 4 distinct magic systems. One of them is based around crafting magic items. While designing such items requires intensive study and crafting them requires a great deal of specialized skills, using the resulting items is usually quite straight-forward. These items are functionally a form of technology in the setting. The other forms of magic are usually more powerful (items of comparable power are ludicrously expensive), they each have drawbacks that make them not seem worthwhile to the average person. One of them is extremely dangerous, requiring training from an expert, lest the would-be practitioner end up striking themself with lightning accidentally. Another is simply very boring to learn, typically requiring many extended periods of meditation over the course of several months before one can do anything useful with it. The last one either requires natural resources that can only be found in specific regions, and can't be easily transported, or it requires one to be a member of a species native to those regions, capable of using such magic innately.
Sounds like an excellent balance! A well thought out way of having all sorts of types of magic is great. I wish you and your friend the best!
You've earned my sub.
Great video. I learned a great deal watching. Great content, looking forward to checking out more of your Worldbuilding topics. Great editing, too, Yamez!
Same! 💯 Agree!
Banner lord ost goes hard
It does!
My magic system is the classic “ancient technology which was mundane in his time rediscovered”
You missed the "transformed" user, who can use magic because something in them was altered in a way that provides such power. You know: the tatarigami curse, the cult ritual, the hemalurgic spike, the symbiote, the radioactive spider bite.
Thats completely fair. I don't see that one too much in the genres I peruse, which is why I didn't include it. There's definitely something to be said about that type, however.
Watching this I'm realising the system I have planned is far more everything than I initially thought but also kind of not and more like 3 separate system that just coexist in the world.
Normal+ mana in the air for scholastic wizards, it has varying concentration in places making some places harder to do magic unless you bring mana potions
Elemental sorcerers who use the same mana but also naturally produce a small amount within their body(that can also be dangerous if it builds up too much)
And warlocks who can be scholastic if they're clear with their contracts or a bit whimsical if they're not and also they lose a bit of control over their magic. Also they don't use mana but what they do use is ubiquitous with no fluctuation in concentration
Oh and whimsical divine artifacts that interact with fundamental concepts and are super OP
I don't agree with you, that "sorcer based system" doesn't became a problem. It is a different kind of beast. I mean, if you have this dude who can basically incinerate anyone on a whim, than it begs the question: "Why are they not the leader of every community?"
Because they have no interest in power, I guess... Why castles exsists when a random child sorcerer can demolish the whole thing with just a fart. If so why don't people fear them or at least weary of them? You know the basic questions which most author tend to avoid answering.
Other than that, good, well structured content. Keep up the good work.
Thank you for the feedback! I might've phrased it incorrectly, because you're definitely right. If you don't take power scaling like that into account, there are going to be a lot of logical problems!
@@J-Bat Don't fret about it. I was just nitpicky.
As for the power scaling. I think it is a fundamental problem of all the magic system. If you think about it, any magic which can cause meaningful effects on the world would turn the whole society upside down. It is pretty hard to imagine all the possible conseqences.
Although, to be honest, I don't think most people care that much about this level of realism in fantasy :)
What u even on about that questions been solved a million times ober
@@demonic_myst4503 Our definitions of "solved" differ then.
There are a few close enough attempts though.
A good first approuch, but I found your scope too limited to "medieval-ish styled" concepts of magic.
Advanced technology, superpowers and cosmic horror are magic systems too, just to name a few.
Where do you put Frankenstein's Creature or Neo within this clasification?
Thats fair, but medieval stuff is what I'm good at. I don't care for superheroes or most sci-fi, so I wasn't aiming to cover them as much. Cosmic horror is a very broad term but can definitely fit in this framework as a corruption of "divine magic" as an example.
Frankenstein's monster, in my opinion, isn't really relevant to the topic of magic systems, nor is Neo. Both are unique via being "magic" at all, rather than characters utilizing an established system of magic.
If you do consider those examples magic systems, that's completely fine, I just didn’t for the sake of this video. I may also revisit one or two of those topics later on.
Third bit for why nit everyone exspence this is what dnd does The cost of a single spell is rediculessly high And magic items are cost in good value which most peasents dont even have gold
Lord the rings magic isnt just everywhere or law of nature the mages are angels in human form essencialy
Wrong on 40k the chaos gods dont own the earp their a small poket of the earp that grew too big after the massive galaxy wide genicide of the war incheaven you dont borrow magic from chaos gods u warp the energy of the warp