How to Make Magic Work
There were two main struggles that I had to compete with when dealing with magic in my books. The first was the fact that I had magical beings coming into a world that either didn’t have magic or refused to accept that magic existed. This is a problem that a lot of modern or urban fantasy has to deal with and is usually met in-world with skepticism until the sheer amount of evidence overwhelms the skeptics and they’re forced to accept as well as the desire to hide magic from the rest of the world for fear of being targeted. I’ll admit that I too took this path of least resistance, though most of that came down to player choice and the advice of NPCs who thought that drawing attention to the party before a foothold was secured would bring them unnecessary trouble. (Because it would, and I would have had to run WAY more combat encounters than I would have wanted).
What I had a lot more fun with was how my players portrayed their characters experiencing a world without magic but somehow still functioned in a way that was similar to their own. See, I think we’re all used to fantasy worlds that use magic to take care of tasks or perform functions that mimic our modern world. Using this spell or that item to create a refrigerator to keep our food from spoiling or describing an idea we got from a common tv show as something our character saw “in a puppet show that one time.” What was fun and fascinating was watching them do the opposite.
Some of the best times we had in game was watching as one of the characters shorted out the brains of people from our world by questioning where the horses were on cars, why one didn’t simply just take out corrupt guards, and if there were sick people why weren’t the clerics of this world weren’t doing more to actually heal them… you know, I have some of these questions myself…
The magic itself in the world was also less of an issue, because as much of a surprise as it was to the NPCs that the PCs had magical powers, it was just as surprising to them when they learned that there was actually magic still in this world. Not only that, but it was accessible to the people of this world. Religious magic still ran on faith, natural magic still drew strength from nature, and arcane magic still squirreled itself away despite the desire by many to be stamped out. As the great Ian Malcom once said: Life… uh… finds a way.
The second problem was far more difficult to deal with. When I started writing, knowing full well that my players were just throwing the names of the spells around, I needed to figure out how could I portray what were clearly copyrighted spells in a book where I don’t have legal right to the IP? I mean, if you read through the books, you could probably figure out what spells the players are using based on both the description and their classes, but I needed to make sure I was being subtle enough to not get sued. This was something that worried me quite frequently, until inspiration struck from a better and more experienced author.
If you haven’t read The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, you are severely missing out. I started reading them in high school and still quote them on a weekly basis, if not more. They are fantastic stories that follow a wizard through modern day Chicago, and were the biggest inspiration for my love of Urban Fantasy.
Back when I was starting to write these books, I was doing a reread because a couple new books were coming out, and I wanted to be caught up and fresh for the next part of the story. Something happened in that reread that hadn't happened before and I think it had everything to do with not only me being more into TTRPGs at the time when I’d first read the books, but also the fact that I had experienced more games than just D&D at the time. At one point in the books, and I plan to be as spoiler free as possible here, Dresden is in a bind and draws on power to create a massive spectral hand that he can control with his own and fight against the creature he was moments ago afraid was going to kill him.
And all I could hear in my brain was “SCANLAN’S HAND!”
It was in that moment that the dots connected. Much like how Critical Role didn’t have the rights to use the term “Bigby’s Hand” as Bigby was a character owned by Wizard’s of the Coast and by extension Hasbro, they could still utilize the function of the spell by changing its name. Or in the case of Dresden, by omitting the use of a name at all. This wasn’t an anime where the characters needed to shout their attacks, we could just write around them a bit, use the descriptions, and see if people could identify exactly what was going on. It was like something I learned when writing poetry in high school and college: sometimes, putting parameters around what you’re allowed to do when writing actually makes it more fun, because now I’ve created a challenge for myself.
Finally, a little addition based off of my little discoveries in Mr. Butcher’s work: my time spent playing another table top game called Vampire: the Masquerade made me draw a connection between a character of his and a clan of vampires I enjoy portraying in my own games. He has a character, whom I won’t name and spoil currently, that uses his shadow as a weapon and is directly connected to the Christian faith. Anyone who plays VtM may notice the similarities to the Lasombra, a clan of Vampires that can use their own shadows as weapons and are deeply ingrained in the Catholic faith. Putting two and two together on this one made me wonder… could I do something similar?
The answer is yes.
But I didn’t use Vampire.
Arch four is going to be a crazy good time, people.