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Magic use in contemporary fantasy

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Willowhugger:
In my world, magic takes place in the "real world" like Harry Dresden so there's a question as to why it's not more prominent.  Magic needs to be inhibited, in my opinion, because it's a deus es machine that can do whatever you want it to unless you really DETAIL out the ground rules for it.

I went for the idea in my campaign that magic is really, really, really difficult.  The idea that its exhausting and mentally taxing seemed like an excellent way to handle it.  The bigger the effect, the more you risked your life and sanity to do it.  Plus, it also gave me the excuse for a lot of extra plots solely by this limitation.  Stuff we see in other worlds like human sacrifice, ley lines, and pacts with demons are things that solely exist to provide someone more magical 'oomph' to draw upon.  Magic can also be done without spells and the like, which makes some scenes easier, but they're really needed to pull off more difficult effects and make the cost for the spells less cumbersome.

I think that gave a good excuse as to why someone would just go out and buy a gun as opposed to trying to kill someone with fire from above.

How do you think it should be handled?

Josh:
Well, you've got one of your big questions to solve right there. If magic is so darned difficult, exhaustive, costly, etc. then why would anyone use it? They would have to have a compelling reason...magic would need to achieve something entirely impossible to achieve otherwise, otherwise...just get a gun.

The other question is, what kind of people are going to be willing to take these risks? Madmen? Powermongers? Those with nothing to lose perhaps? Groups of people? Can more than one person be involved in the same spell, thus lessening the risk to the individuals? If so, then you'd likely see some sort of social structure, clans, guilds or the like pop up around magic use, making it safer and more accessible to those in the know. This would also inhibit it because these "insiders" wouldn't want to involve many more people than necessary because they could just become potential threats.

Anyways, I've probably made it more confusing than helpful. One could ask these kind of questions all day. One thing I would ask is, what are the parameters of your "style" of magic in the first place? What does it affect? Can it be used to do anything, or are there boundaries, immunities, shieldings, etc.? Knowing this often will help you narrow your focus and get a better idea of where a practitioner could go with it.

Willowhugger:
Well it can still do anything.

This is less about my sort of magic than what kinds of magic you like to read about in contemporary fantasy.  What do you, for example, like out Jims or want from what you read?

Josh:
Ah. I see what you're looking for. Out of Jim's? I enjoy that the magic is driven and shaped by the person wielding it. I've always seen magic as any sort of tool or weapon. It can be used to hurt or heal, build or tear down. And those who have morals and values always are more constricted in how they use it, thus making it easier for the bad guys to be deadlier, simply because they have less qualms about drowning a baby to fuel their black magic. This adds an inherent frustration of "Yea, but...yea, but...Fine. I'll be the good guy, even though it puts me at a natural disadvantage." More built-in conflict to any story.

I also enjoy creative magic...magic that has some system and rules to it...not necessarily limiting what it can do, but just defining factors that keeps the story from being about a bunch of godlings running around beating up on each other. That gets tiresome.

trboturtle:
In the novels I am creating, magic involves chanelling energy that's around everyone. The problem is that so very few people can sense the magical energy around them. To be a sucessful wizard in thiss uuniverse, you have to have the talent, the teaching and the will. All three are needed for 'Order Magic' both light and dark. 'Chaos magic' is a whole other kettle of fish that will be explained later.

To keep those who have the talent to feel and direct the energy, but are not either well enough or are too young, some are isolated, while others have the ability to sense the magic blocked off. An untrained person with the talent can accidently leave a smoking crater. So magic can be rough......

Craig

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