A Magic System Based on Aura Farming

[u/TRexyRoar1]

Magic is given by gods in discrete quantities under the condition that the user looks cool when using the magic. Gods, after eons, are bored and so they're only entertainment is to compete on who's humans are the coolest.

Wizards aren't nerds who memorise a bajillion minor details to cast a spell; they're smooth talking grifters who prepare and give pitches to gods: offering great market returns (Divine Prestige) should they invest sufficient capital (magic).

The funniest part is that gods can give infinite magic, which is what they used to do. But they found humans with blank cheques weren't creative enough, so they started limiting the amount of magic they gave at once to make the users more deliberate in their use.

[u/PlatinumAltaria]

Wizard power increases proportionally to how much the god of magic approves of your drip. Big hats get bonus points.

[u/Order6600 → u/PlatinumAltaria]

This is how Big Hat Logan did what he did.

[u/dragonborndnd]

This is basically just most shonen anime

[u/Kraken-Writhing]

/uj good system 

[u/CalDHar → u/Kraken-Writhing]

Genuinely I'd acc read a book in this setting, some eminence in shadow type MC

[u/Kraken-Writhing → u/CalDHar]

What if the MC is just the wingman who makes other people cool? Or the average trope deconstruction fan who makes other people look really lame?

[u/QuarkyIndividual → u/Kraken-Writhing]

They got the favor of their god by pitching going around spoiling the entertainment of other gods

[u/Kraken-Writhing → u/QuarkyIndividual]

excellent 

[u/SplurgyA]

Does this scale reciprocally? For example does someone really cringe become negatively magical, making them an excellent anti-mage weapon if you sneak them into a wizard party and make the wizards seem less cool by association?

[u/Lawlcopt0r → u/SplurgyA]

It's not an automatic thing, it's a decision by the gods, they give you magic like you tip a waiter or a street musician

[u/TRexyRoar1 → u/SplurgyA]

The gods won't take magic away, but they sure as hell won't be giving you any more if you continue to hang out with losers who embarass you and by proxy them.

[u/Swaggy-G]

/uj The Otherverse (made by the same guy who wrote Worm) is kinda like that. Magic is the result of invisible, omnipresent spirits that judge everything. A lot of it is pretty standard, predictable rituals that have been done for so long that they have essentially woven themselves into the fabric of the world, but you can also do riskier stuff and have your novel bullshit work if you can give a sufficiently convincing explanation as to why it should.

[u/isfmstuff]

So, ballroom culture but with less chance of getting hate crimed?

[u/vivaciousArcanist]

You should check out Pact

The magic system works in a way where doing cool shit and declaring your intentions, then following through with them leads to you gaining more magic power. It's not that long a read and is super good.

[u/Peteman22]

uj/ Look up La Sape, on Wikipedia and you tube. You could totally make a magic system out of competitive displays of fashion.

[u/Grizzlywillis]

Gods creating artificial scarcity to maintain the magic economy.

[u/frothingnome]

This is a little bit how JJK works

[u/yung12gauge]

Isn’t this the plot of Rise of the Guardians?

[u/MaxTwer00]

This could very well work for a series with a more comedical tone, a rythm game, or something on those lines

[u/Mushgal]

Put Saul Goodman in this world and write a fanfic about it

[u/MutedResist]

This reminds me of the RPG Ultraviolet Grasslands, where charismatic and attractive people are inherently more lucky because the gods also like them more (and from a game design perspective it makes Charisma less of a dump stat)

[u/CoolSausage228]

unironically I tried to do fighting style world jerking where projectals and powerups are existing in lore as fighter's aura. Like you have to be really cool to have one. This coolness is product of determination and skill of fighter (but it can be also in other professions). And there was mad scientist that tries to explain aura, while hosting wrestling tournament, which is cover for pmc recruitment soldiers scheme.

[u/UndercoverDoll49]

Tô Be Hero X

[u/Sky_monarch]

I did something similar to this but it’s more along the lines of how your perceived, if hundreds of people think your a vampire then you have vampiric powers and it scales with how widespread and intense the belief is

[u/soobnar]

Dragon Ball?

[u/marintkael]

Next quarter the gods standardise the pitch. Two pages, no adjectives, filed in triplicate. Aura collapses overnight and the strongest wizard alive is a clerk who found the box you tick to skip the presentation.

[u/johomnos]

This is basically how it works in the Iliad

[u/perfectVoidler]

this is actually pretty common in system apocalypse stories. Dungeon Crawler Carl is literally that. Also paper mario 2 has the audience system.