Soft VS Hard Magic systems: (The Lounge Podcast)

[QuercusMalus]

Yes? There aren't many spells. But what makes it tricky is that for effects the caster is having to maintain and combine multiple spells. For example a fireball- unless you are just going to drop it over the wall onto someone's head, you need to combine the heat generation spell with the density spell with the directional force spell. So better mages are faster and more creative with their combinations.

Magic capacity is genetic, and some types are tied to a specific gene, so no matter how skilled, if you don't have the gene, you can't do it. Over exertion can kill you.

So I'm not sure if that qualifies as soft or hard. Medium firm maybe?

 

[D.S.Nate]

Yes? There aren't many spells. But what makes it tricky is that for effects the caster is having to maintain and combine multiple spells. For example a fireball- unless you are just going to drop it over the wall onto someone's head, you need to combine the heat generation spell with the density spell with the directional force spell. So better mages are faster and more creative with their combinations.

Magic capacity is genetic, and some types are tied to a specific gene, so no matter how skilled, if you don't have the gene, you can't do it. Over exertion can kill you.

So I'm not sure if that qualifies as soft or hard. Medium firm maybe?

I like that Idea of having each step of what is normally shown as one spell broken down into parts. And I guess how soft it can gets depends on what crazy combinations people discover that most don't understand so in that sense it depends on the general knowledge of the people of your world who see the magic.

Either way that's an interesting take.

 

[Grim_Ether]

I'm not actually sure for my WIP, in theory magic in setting can do anything short of creating or destroying matter, but with the additional prerequisite that whoever is using the magic needs to know how it works. As in, they must have an internally understandable reasoning why they can do this thing with magic. It's why one of the major empires does not have any healing magic, since that would the the domain of the goddess, so of course magic can't do that, while no one else has the same restriction.

 

[M.G.Driver]

is this podcast on soundcloud? also discord link doesn't work

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Is it really magic if you've turned it into a science?

Depends one what you call science. For me, science is a systematic pursuit of positive knowledge through rigorous verification of testable and repeatable hypotheses.

Looking at anything through this lense can become a science and anything concerning the natural world cannot be inherently antithetical to science.

If magic in your story is done through some natural functions of the world then it can be a science. If magic in your story is done by, say, trading with spirits, then it may not be possible to systematise it with scientific method.

Although it can also be possible, because marxism, economics, sociology and even psychology are sciences by the definition that I stick to, and all of them are concerned with social interactions.

Although, when they use the word "science" in a casual setting with me, I also think of a body of commonly accepted (by people that I converse with in that setting) theoretical models concerning the way the world works. Magic, obviously, does not fit in that framework.

 

[D.S.Nate]

is this podcast on soundcloud? also discord link doesn't work

No but I do want to place this on other platforms.

Also I'll DM you the link XD

Depends one what you call science. For me, science is a systematic pursuit of positive knowledge through rigorous verification of testable and repeatable hypotheses.

Looking at anything through this lense can become a science and anything concerning the natural world cannot be inherently antithetical to science.

If magic in your story is done through some natural functions of the world then it can be a science. If magic in your story is done by, say, trading with spirits, then it may not be possible to systematise it with scientific method.

Although it can also be possible, because marxism, economics, sociology and even psychology are sciences by the definition that I stick to, and all of them are concerned with social interactions.

Although, when they use the word "science" in a casual setting with me, I also think of a body of commonly accepted (by people that I converse with in that setting) theoretical models concerning the way the world works. Magic, obviously, does not fit in that framework.

Yeah, the line can really be where you put it in alot of cases. If understanding how the 'magic' works then is it even magic by then?

Magic itself is often linked to wonder. When you first encounter something cool like a plane, how it stays up I think air may be beyond you but for that lack of knowledge you gain a sense of magical wonder. It is only when you understand the mechanics of it dose that wonder lessen and you see the thing for what it is.

 

[TwoApes]

We see 'magic' as a means of making things happen out of sheer willpower or after fulfilling certain unrelated criteria. Obviously, by means which that thing would not happen in our reality. In order to avoid abusing this dynamic we have this passage in our story notes:

IMPORTANT AND CRUCIAL
When writing any sort of hexergy ( magic ) that:

ANY AWESOME COMES AT A COST TO SELF
THAT IS EQUAL OR GREATER TO THAT AWESOME
WITHIN THE CONSTRAINTS OF DESIRED DRAMA.
​

That is almost the exact formatting. In this lieu, there is a scene in one of our WIP stories where a character is doing some serious AWESOME ( cracking a stronghold with magic ), but in order to avoid getting cooked alive, is wearing a suit filled with ice shards and after doing his deed, loses consciousness in a bath of ice slurry. Then needs several days to recover from internal burns anyways.

So I guess - Hard?

If understanding how the 'magic' works then is it even magic by then?

In order to have a 'spell' - a trigger to an effect - you need to understand how it works to develop it. The underlying truth is that for the people _in_ the fantasy world magic is not "magic", but just a way to interact with the natural world. It's just 'magic' to us. For a purist, the world 'magic' ought not to be uttered anywhere where magic is used. I mean, we do it, but for a different reason.