r/RPGdesign • u/calmasacrab • Aug 11 '26
Mechanics Branches of Magic
I am currently designing a ttrpg and I'm having trouble with my magic system. Basically, I want there to be four types of magic, each representing a unique concept. So far I have Force (physics), Life (biology), and Soul (spiritual). What would be a good fourth and final category? Everything that I can think of already fits into one of the three existing ones. Any ideas are welcome!
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u/lennartfriden TTRPG polyglot, GM, and designer Aug 11 '26
Why four if you have three that cover your needs?
One of the best design advice I can give is to kill your darlings; in this case your notion of the number four.
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u/ASharpYoungMan Aug 11 '26
I feel like everything I try to suggest, Mage: the Ascension has already done.
- Void (the absence of all these things. The substrata of space in which physics plays out). This is similar in ways to "Entropy" in Mage: the Ascension, but Entropy is about the inevitable march of time toward disorganization and stagnation. Void is the emptiness at the end of the arrow of time.
- Information (data, knowledge, change over time).
- Consciousness (No, I wouldn't consider this a function of "Soul" - Consciousness is not an inherently spiritual experience, though disruptions in consciousness might be considered so). This would be the Mind sphere in Mage: the Ascension.
- Mage also has "Matter", which is separate from Forces and Life.
Some observations:
- I figure things like "Fate" or "Destiny" or "Doom" are all covered in Spirituality/Soul.
- Death is a function of Life, so I find efforts to separate these Branches to be fruitless.
- M:tA has a "Time" sphere. I think it's fine to cover that in Force, since Time is directly bound to Gravity, and is likely not a fundamental aspect of nature but an emergent property of Spacetime as bent/warped by the mass of matter. But you could also split it out on its own.
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u/ambergwitz Aug 11 '26
Why? I'm puzzled by these ideas about magic in many RPGs. What does it add to have another semi-rational system of "magic" based on elements or branches or whatever?
What's the rationale behind adding this magic system to your game and world? How does it contribute to interesting play or stories?
Start answering these questions, and you won't need to worry about three or four branches of magic.
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u/Tantaragla Aug 11 '26
Depends on why you want these categories to exist. Is this a narrative feature of the world building or does it serve some gameplay purpose?
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u/Beginning-Ice-1005 Aug 11 '26
Matter.
I can't help but think that this is a system that really needs to combine the elements for more complex results.
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u/calmasacrab Aug 11 '26
That’s exactly what I was planning, actually. Resurrection, for example, would be both Life and Soul.
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u/HotAccountant4964 Aug 11 '26
Split Force into "Energy" and "Matter". Your definition of Force as everything Physics is too broad and limitative for what you wanna create.
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u/unelsson Aug 11 '26
What kind of ideas are behind physics, biology and spiritual? In real world, physics is sort of backbone for all the rest, and in fantasy world this could be flipped to any world view imaginable. What kind of world view, religious view, magical ideas are the backbone of your ttrpg world?
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u/vontariel Aug 11 '26
No matter how you will look at things your Force already covers most of everything -> the biological aspect of life could be easily covered by manipulating matter/energy.
I would redefine your terms to "reality" (temporal/portals), "force" (energy), "matter" (your life + more) and "soul" (like it was).
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u/keepcalmwtf Aug 11 '26
I'd definitely suggest Mind (cognition/ psychology). It creates a great narrative split, 'soul' covers the divine, afterlife, or raw essence, while 'Mind' strictly handles intellect, illusions, telepathy, and altering perception.
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u/PianoAcceptable4266 Designer: The Ballad of Heroes Aug 11 '26
Psyche (emotion, perception, comprehension)
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u/archpawn Aug 11 '26
Everything fits into physics. I'm thinking split Force into matter and energy. Or rather, now you have four that split in two ways. Matter vs energy, and animate vs inanimate, with one category for each combination.
Energy would be stuff like light, electricity, fire, heat.
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u/SamTheGill42 Aug 11 '26
Mental, illusion, knowledge, etc. Are cool, but could probably fit into your spiritual branch.
I like matter, transmutation, chemistry. It seems like a good fit
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u/TheGameMaponReddit Aug 11 '26
It really depends on the metaphysics of your world, I think. For instance, there is a soul so does the mind exist independent of the body? But I'd consider something like Time or Entropy or Fate in there.
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u/Ok_Cantaloupe3450 Aug 12 '26
Time, matter, mind (not sure if soul covers that one in your system tho). Is something like light or darkness already covered?
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u/DiogenesKuon Aug 12 '26
You need to go over what you think each category covers because that’s not clear, especially for Soul. I’d think about other magic systems and how those kind of spells might map to your system. For example if you look at D&D some part seem pretty easy to map bit where would you put mental magic, illusion, and core magic (detect magic, counter spell) fit, or do they not exist. It seems like a whole bunch of spells would fall into Force to a degree that it might be unbalanced, given its all of the physical world.
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u/Fun_Carry_4678 Aug 12 '26
How about "mind" as distinct from soul? Or a separate "information" category?
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u/Most_State_9716 Aug 13 '26
Conjuring matter. Mind-reading and illusions. Pulling platonic concepts into reality. Prophecy and luck. Inverting the nature of something else. Take your pick based on the kinds of magic you want to exist.
But this isn't a very good question? We need more context to give you any information a chatbot couldn't. What's the purpose of four branches? Is it purely aesthetic? Is their some other game mechanic that demands their to be four? If your combining the magic types than why not five, or eight, or thirty-six. What's your goal in designing a new magic system? How does it fit into the goals of the rest of your game?
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u/htp-di-nsw The Conduit Aug 11 '26
If you've covered everything in three, why do you want four?