The secret to a good power(magic) system.

[Story_Marc]

Lol, this is going to be fun next week when I explain why this is both right and wrong.

 

[Vnator]

You don't need a power system.

To deduce how important a power system is, let's do a small thought experiment. Imagine a genre, a tag, or a combination you don't read. For example, let's say you don't read BL. Ever. Are you going to read BL if it has incredible power system? No, this won't be an action story with BL subplot. It won't focus on fights with the said system. It will be a full-blown BL, which means focus of the story will be BL.

Imagine the generic isekai harem, imagine MC that is an equivalent to a block of wood, smut, GL, GB, beta MC, slave harems, NTR. Imagine stuff that you don't like, that you don't read. Will a good power system make you read it?

You don't read a story for power system, you don't like a story for power system. You think you do, but you liking a story comes from different things. A power system can be a nice bonus, no shit; however, power system is not a dealbreaker. Just write an interesting story, and ignore nerds.

That kind of explains the front page of the Rising Stars section on Royal Road. They're ALL some form of Isekai LitRPG and the only thing they have to differentiate them is the specific power of the main character (necromancer, cultivation but with X or Y focus, money = exp, etc.) but it all boils down to isekai litrpg.

Like you're saying a power system is a plot device to drive the story forward, to give the main character and opponents abilities that can over come one another depending on what's needed by the plot. It doesn't define why someone would read the story (the genre does) but for litrpg at least the main character's power/flavor within the power system determines whether a litrpg fan would give it a look.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

What if most of your readers are nerds~?

??

 

[Bartun]

Best magic system out there. Easy to understand.