Thinking about my Monday post further (and reading more examples of magic in McKillip's Heir of Sea and Fire), I feel like the part that perhaps the most central element to number of these magic systems I like is that they demonstrate Frazer's concept of sympathetic magic.
Raderle can create a powerful illusion of large lake, by digging a fist-sized hole and pouring water into it. Arthur in The Revolutions can snap a chair leg by snapping the stem of a wine glass. These are both examples of similarity, or like producing like.
The other common employed aspect of sympathetic magic is contagion. It shows up quite a bit in The Revolutions, but I don't think I quoted an example. It's where an item that was once physically connected to someone or something else still has a magical connection to that thing. This is being able to cast a spell on someone because you have a lock of their hair or the like.
Similarity shows up some in D&D spell material components, but I think more of these are sort of jokey correspondences instead. These things are fine and could even be flavorful for bigger spells or more complicated rituals, I think more spells that used a perhaps caster-specific but reasonable application of similarity and contagion.
2 comments:
That reminds me of a post from some years ago by The RPG Tinkerage (an excellent and highly recommended blog) about ideas for free-form magic rules:
https://rpg-tinker.blogspot.com/2016/12/magic-in-arihmere.html
It seems clear that the magic system devised for the original RPG took several steps away from how sorcery was depicted by fiction and folklore; it's always nice to see ideas on how to reconcile this.
Agreed. Good stuff at that link.
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