1st Edition

Game Magic A Designer's Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice

By Jeff Howard Copyright 2014
    376 Pages 79 B/W Illustrations
    by A K Peters/CRC Press

    376 Pages
    by A K Peters/CRC Press

    Make More Immersive and Engaging Magic Systems in Games

    Game Magic: A Designer’s Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice explains how to construct magic systems and presents a compendium of arcane lore, encompassing the theory, history, and structure of magic systems in games and human belief. The author combines rigorous scholarly analysis with practical game design advice in the form of a magical recipe book (grimoire).

    The book gives you an in-depth understanding of the history and structure of magic to make your games richer and deeper. It shows how to set up tables of correspondences and spell components as well as how to write programming code integrating these components as part of game mechanics. It also illustrates how to divide a simulated world into domains of influence (such as alteration, conjuration, and necromancy) and how to use specific rule systems to simulate powers within these realms.

    Showing you how to weave compelling magic into your games, the book is interspersed with examples that illustrate how to design and program magic systems. Working examples are available for download on a supporting website.

    How to Use This Book
    Who Is This Book For?
    A Note on Audience, and a Symbolic Key of Intended Audiences
    Triangulating Game Magic

    Magic Systems in Theory and Practice
    Putting the Magic Back in Magic Systems
    A History of Game Magic Systems
    Occult Magic and Game Magic
    Magical Grammars
    Ritual and Symbolic Correspondences
    Ritual and Multimodal Input
    Rituals as Puzzles

    From Exemplary Game Magic Systems to Code Recipes
    Magic Systems and Language
    Interactive Fiction and Enchanter
    St eve Jackson ’s Sorcery! and Gamebooks
    Modern Magical IF
    From Roguelikes to Recipes
    The Runes of Dungeon Master
    Sorcerian
    The Incantations of Wizardry
    The Magical Syllables of the Ultima Series
    Spell Reagent s in the Ultima Series
    The Magical Language and World Simulation of Ultima Underworld
    Ultima VIII
    Loom and Music as Magic
    Stonekeep
    Arx Fatalis
    User-Generated Magic and the Elder Scrolls
    The Void
    The Legend of Grimrock
    Dishonored
    Magicka
    Magical Gestures
    Magic in MMORPGs
    The Magic of Alternative Controllers
    Augmented REALITY and Location-Based Magic

    Schools of Game Magic
    Chapter Summary
    The Schools of Magic
    Beyond the Four Elements
    Mage and Vampire’s Alternative Spheres and Disciplines
    Eternal Darkness
    The Colors of Magic
    Mythology and Schools of Magic
    Colors of the Tree of Life
    Planar Magic
    Alternative Schools of Magic and World Simulation
    Schools of Magic and Magical Character Customization
    Magical Combat

    Magic as Programming, Programming as Magic
    Arcana: A Ceremonial Magick Simulator
    Recipe: Combining Linguistic Elements through an Array

    Game Design Lessons from Occult Magic
    Occult Ritual Flowcharts
    Mapping the Do mains of Ritual Traditions through Pie Graphs
    Occult Magic and Game Interactivity
    The Occult History of Symbolic Correspondences
    Videogames and the History of Ritual
    Iamblichus and Neo-Platonic Magic
    Writing Game Incantations and the Barbarous Names of Evocation
    Viking Magic and Runes
    Enochian
    Sigils
    Magical Level Design and Ritual Space
    Game Spell Foci and Ritual Objects
    Ancient Egypt an Magic
    Magical Books: Grimoires
    Modern Grimoires, Modern Practices

    A Videogame Designer’s Guide to Non-Digital Game Magic
    The Magic of Ancient Games
    Chainmail, Dungeons & Dragons, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
    Ars Magica

    White Wolf, the World of Darkness, and Mage
    Occult Role-Playing: Unknown Armies, Maléfices, and Nephilim
    Taking Performative Magic to the Next Level in the Palladium Fantasy RPG

    Adapting Game Magic from the Literature of the Fantastic
    Procedural Adaptation
    Tolkien
    Pulp Magic: Robert Howard’s Conan, Fritz Leiber
    True Names and Ursula Le Guin
    H.P. Lovecraft and Chaos Magic
    Jack Vance and Vancian Magic
    Larry Niven and Mana
    Roger Zelazny Chronicles of Amber (Planar Magic and Tarot)
    Michael Moorcock and Elric’s Ritual
    Dragonlance and the Moon-Based Magic of Krynn
    Death Gate and Quantum Magic
    Harry Potter
    A Song of Ice and Fire
    Contemporary Magical World-Building
    Comic Magic
    Fantasy, Games, and Magical World-Building

    Works Cited

    Appendix A: A Magic System Worksheet
    Appendix B: Timelines

    Index

    Biography

    Jeff Howard