The Magic of Magicbuilding: The Three F's of Magical Frameworks

Welcome to the Magic of Magicbuilding, our little spinoff feature that focuses specifically on building a magical system for a fantasy setting.  Last week, we discussed the distinction between hard and soft magic.  This week?  We're discussing the three F's of magical frameworks:  form, function, and fees.

The Cart Before the Horse

Before that, we should talk about what we mean when we refer to "magical frameworks."  As mentioned last week, the primary difference between hard and soft magic is how rigid the rules of the system are.  Those rules aren't just in place to decide how and when you're allowed to do things with magic- they're there to help construct a chain of events that lead from a specific action to a specific consequence.

Let's grab our favorite metaphor for magical systems, sports.  Say, American football.  In a typical period of play, called a down, there are a ridiculous number of rules in place, but you don't see most of them.  Instead, you see the results of following the rules:

1. Play begins when the football is removed from the line of scrimmage, an imaginary line that divides the field.  While the ball is on the line, certain players are permitted to move away from, but not across, the line.  Others must remain where they are.
2. Once the ball is removed, everyone can move.  The team with possession of the ball may hand it to anyone behind the line of scrimmage, but they most likely hand it to the quarterback.  He, in turn, throws it to someone whose entire job description is "run very fast with the ball."
3. The team without the ball attempts to prevent the ball from moving any further forward while in possession of the team with the ball.  They do this using a variety of methods intended to take advantage of full physical contact without inadvertently hurting anyone. 
4. The down ends when the ball literally goes down.  The new line of scrimmage becomes the point where the ball was when the player holding it was forced off the field and/or off their feet.
5. The team with the ball has four downs to move the ball at least ten yards forward.  If they do not manage this, the other team gets the ball automatically.  If they do manage this, the number of downs is reset, and play continues.

Now, this is a vast simplification of what is going on, but it is more than accurate enough that, if you watched your first football game tomorrow, you'd be able to follow along with what was happening.  In order to get this five-step process of basic play to work consistently, the American football rulebook has 19 chapters' worth of rules.  Of those, the vast majority are never referred to during play.  They cover details you might never consider, like the size of the ball, the type of protective gear worn by the players, and the dimensions of the field.  They also cover how the teams are to act during play, how the referees are to adjudicate any issues, and a wide variety of edge cases that normally never occur, such as what to do when a player gets confused and accidentally kicks the ball into their own end zone.

In other words, they build a framework: a system that allows you to clearly determine what effect a given action, with respect to the game, will generate as a consequence.

Hard magic systems, to summarize last week's discussion, have a highly detailed, rigid framework, which generates consistent, predictable results.  Soft systems have a poorly-defined framework that allows for a great deal of creativity and unpredictability.  Regardless of the system you choose to have, you will at least want a basic framework, a general idea of what happens when someone attempts to use magic.

The First F

There are many ways to build a framework, but most involve setting some rules down for your magic system.  And of those, the most fundamental rules are the three F's:

• Form.  What form does magic take?
• Function.  What function does magic have?
• Fee.  What cost must be paid for magic to work?

All other rules will be built on these three, so it helps to establish them early on.  We'll establish our three F's for the system we're building later; for today, we'll just explain how to do the establishing part.

The first F is Form.  It can best be described as the rule or rules that establish what magic looks like in your system.  Is it, as in Lord of the Rings, the song of Creation itself, willed into existence by powerful spirits?  Is it an invisible "Weave" of energy which can be manipulated to create specific effects, as in Dungeons & Dragons?  Is it the confluence of imagination, will, and mutable reality, as in the World of Darkness?  Is it a quantifiable, regenerating pool of power that can be tapped to empower, create, or destroy, as in wild amounts of anime shows?

Any of these could be the correct answer, or none of them could be.  That part isn't important.  What is important is that you actually have an answer, even if the answer isn't known to any characters in the setting.  The water wizards of your world don't need to know that the mysterious liquid that gives them their powers is actually drops of sweat from the armpits of the Frost Giant Ymir... but you do.  And the more detail you add to the form that magic takes, can't take, and when it can take form, the more rigidly you'll define its possibilities.  To return to our football metaphor, describing the Form of magic is like explaining when, where, and how a football game can occur.  It's equally okay to say that the game can be played in any open field or that it must occur only in precisely measured stadiums, or anywhere between... but which location you pick, as well as the rules you place on how they can be picked, will result in an entirely different game.

The Second F

"Function" is a bit more straightforward than Form.  Put simply, Function is what magic does in your system.  Does it inflict damage?  Heal?  Raise the dead?  Generate small coins behind the ears of innocent young children?  All of the above?  None of the above?

This is obviously a broad topic, and many people who build magic can get lost in the weeds around here (ourselves included).  Often, it can actually be better to ask what magic can't do, instead.

Here, we'll offer some advice rather than provide examples.  The most successful magic systems are the systems that lean firmly toward either hard or soft functions:  they either have very specific limitations or no limitations at all.  Dungeons & Dragons, for example, places an upper limit to the power of its magical spells... but that upper limit is "cannot be used to steal godhood," which isn't much of a limitation.  Conversely, a form of magic that can only be used to manifest a singular, specific power per caster pretty much defines mutations in the X-Men universe.

On that note, we should add that in most cases, having lots of limitations proves more creative than having no limitations.  Look at Magneto:  a mutant who possesses the power of Magnetism uses that single ability to become one of the most powerful people on the planet, not just through the strength of his talent, but through the creativity of its use (generating force fields, levitating, pulling the iron out of someone's blood, and more).

The Third F

The third F, Fee, is what determines who can use magic in your setting.  The answer is deceptively simple:  "whoever can pay the cost."  For there should always be a cost for the use of magic.  Perhaps it is a physical cost, and magic users become weaker with each spell.  Perhaps the cost is mental, and the caster loses memories, willpower, emotions, or even sanity.  Perhaps magic use corrupts, and magic users stray further from humanity as they grow in power.  Perhaps the cost is literal, and every spell hits the caster's bank account.

The cost doesn't need to be detrimental.  It could be an opportunity cost:  anyone who learns how can use magic, but learning is difficult, and time spent studying magic is time that could have been spent pursuing other goals.

The point of having a cost for magic is that you need to answer two related questions simultaneously:  the who, which we've already mentioned, but also the why.  As in, "Why isn't everyone using magic?"  And to be fair, the answer to that question can definitely be, "Actually, everyone is using magic."  As with the other questions we've asked, what the answer may be is less important than actually having an answer.

Once you've established the Fee paid to use magic, you may notice something else has occurred:  by determining the three F's, you've also answered most of the basic questions about your magic system.

  What is magic?

  When can magic occur?

  Where can magic be used?

  How can magic be used?

  Who can use magic?

  Why can they use magic?

That's by design.  Like we said:  frameworks are necessary, even for soft magic systems.  You'll want those answers regardless; soft magic systems will simply have fewer details and restrictions (and thus, more options).

Conclusion

We said last week that we would be touching on the topic of consequences, and we don't like to lie, but we do occasionally take a while to get to the point.  That's the case here.  You may have missed it, but there's a reason we want that framework in place. A framework allows us to start with an event- such as "this person performs these specific actions"- and, by following the rules we've set in place, arrive at a consequence- such as "this magical effect occurs/does not occur."  Because we love consequences so much, our framework is going to be fairly detailed.  This, in turn, will allow us to have more consistent, specific consequences.

Next week, we're going to start selecting some specific answers to the questions we've raised regarding the three F's, and by doing so, we'll get to explore the consequences of those selections.  Which reminds us of the tale of the World Turtle:

Once upon a time, a curious child asked a shaman what shape the world took.  "The world is flat," the shaman replied, "and rests on the back of a turtle."

"And what does that turtle stand on?" asked the child.

"Another turtle," the shaman replied.  "It's turtles, all the way down."

We're on the first turtle of consequences, folks.  For the next little bit, it's going to be turtles, all the way down.