Note: This is a series meant to talk through some ideas that I have found helpful when dreaming up worlds for fantasy RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons. The things you read here are neither rules nor guidelines: only talking points. I’m sure you could create some interesting worlds by bending or breaking some of what I suggest. If indeed you can, then you should.

All worlds of Dungeons & Dragons are suffused with some amount of magic. Wizards spend years in their isolated towers, amassing the knowledge necessary to cast certain spells. Sorcerers call upon the unique power of their bloodlines to enable astonishing supernatural feats. Clerics channel the divine might of their deities to showcase the mercy or might of their gods. Magic might be readily accessible to all, or it might be a rare gift. In any case, fantasy worlds must be able to incorporate undeniable feats of reality-shaping magic without buckling under the weight of the power this grants certain individuals.

This is not an article about creating specific spells for use in grid-based combat. This is an article about making magic a part of the world, rather than mere tools in the dungeon-conquering utility kits of adventurers. If that interests you read, on.

Part of the fun—and part of the difficulty—in creating worlds with things like magic, monsters, and minor gods is the exercise in empathy it requires. Most of our day-to-day lives don’t include reality-warping spells, creatures large enough to eat houses or encounters with divinity in the flesh. As creators seeking to craft compelling worlds, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of entire cultures who live with these things as they do any other aspect of their reality.

The fact that most of human history has been low on magic, monsters, and lesser deities doesn’t mean we can’t look to history for examples. Many cultures feature oaths and curses meant to curry divine favor or invoke divine wrath. Our fairy tales are filled with maidens who sleep for years, men who turn into beasts, and benevolent blue beings lurking in lamps. Even today, watching the ways in which people use and react to technology might give us an idea of how fictional societies might react to magical developments. Is an AI in a smartphone really all that different from a genie in a bottle?*

Historically, the response of many cultures to new or alien things – whether resource, animal, or people – has been to either harness those things or destroy them. For the purposes of the world-altering magics to which D&D is a home, we can expand this into a longer list. You will note the list has 20 items, so even though some of them are very similar, you can at least roll a 20-sided die to pick one at random.

Standard Reactions to Alien Phenomena

1. Harness it.
2. Worship it.
3. Destroy it.
4. Appease it.
5. Serve it.
6. Harmonize with it.
7. Make peace with it.
8. Forbid it.
9. Outlaw it.
10. Fear it.
11. Banish it.
12. Respect it.
13. Yield to it.
14. Tie it to a known quantity.
15. Leave it alone.
16. Domesticate it.
17. Extort it.
18. Subjugate it.
19. Moderate it.
20. Incorporate it.

Note that in fiction, as in the real world, different cultures may have different views of different subjects. The default rules of games like D&D give us worldbuilders plenty of knobs to tweak for differentiating races and nations with respect to magic.

Before we get to that, I would like to make note of one potential pitfall that fantasy roleplaying games tend to send believability-minded creators straight into: magic is real. Player characters can create water from nothing, raise the dead, and fly unassisted. Depending on how you build your world, dangers like famine and drought might be unthinkable to societies that have developed the relevant type of magic. How does death maintain its sting in a world where the wealthy, and perhaps everyone, can simply be brought back to life? If anyone can fly with a little training—or a little help from a wizard—what does that do to crime, warfare, or urban planning?

Powers like resurrection and the free creation of resources probably shouldn’t be available to everyone, or the society will have no problems that need solving. If it is available to everyone (or a significant portion of everyone), then there had better be something pretty damn scary staring down these civilizations. Particularly problematic are the Bard, Monk, and Wizard classes, as their supernatural abilities are (theoretically) available to anyone living in a world with mortal-accessible magic. There needs to be a reason that there aren’t enough such individuals to tip the balance of civilization towards the absurd.

One solution to this problem is to simply make magic rare. It can’t break the world if only a percent of a percent of the population has access to it. Be sure to account for the fact that innately magical races do exist, many of which any player has the option of using. Also be sure to explain how these rare individuals are able to find each other and form things like adventuring parties (unless your character group is unprecedented throughout world history, which can be valid in certain genres or settings).

Another possible way to curb the stakes-eliminating power of magic is to make all magic dangerous. If there are risks (or sacrifices) involved in taking up the arcane arts, then wizards and their ilk would be rare indeed. Perhaps deadly monsters or NPCs seek out those who practice magic and either eliminate them or whisk them away to some malevolent end. Alternatively, the use of magic in your world might come with a curse, such as a shorter lifespan, a sacrifice of access to the afterlife, or a loss of fertility.

Regardless of how you choose to deal with the fact that your world may contain individuals with the ability to bring countless loved ones back from beyond death, many fantasy gaming systems provide a plethora of ways to distinguish between the ways different cultures might use magic. Dungeons & Dragons, for instance, categorizes all magic into eight different categories, which I will place in a numbered list for your rolling pleasure.

Types of Magic

1. Abjuration
2. Conjuration
3. Divination
4. Enchantment
5. Evocation
6. Illusion
7. Necromancy
8. Transmutation

Historically, a common flaw many cultures have exhibited in their thinking has been presuming that they’ve figured out all of something. It’s not hard to picture this happening with magic. Imagine a tribe of storytellers who use illusion magic as part of their craft, and how shocked and terrified they might be when an invading culture proficient in the more fiery and harmful varieties of magehood demonstrates that magic can be more than just visual.

While there are many different kinds of magic, there are also multiple ways that an individual can come to possess magical power. Clerics, paladins, and even warlocks all arguably derive their supernatural abilities from some sort of connection with a higher power. Wizards and bards hone their arcane skills through hours of arduous study. Sorcerers and some monks harness innate magical abilities, albeit ones that they have practiced for long periods of time. Note the difference between a monk channeling ki and a wizard manipulating the strings of the universe to create a magical effect. This may seem a strictly semantic difference, and you are welcome to consider arduous study and innate ability one kind of source, distinct from magic derived from a higher power.

However, while both wizards and monks make magic, I tend to think of the difference in their magical source as similar to the difference between the ways a singer and a pianist make music. They both produce notes and melodies, but one does so via interaction with a separate entity, while the other harnesses a part of their own self to produce their effect on the universe. As always, these are some of my thoughts; take them or leave them.

It’s easy to see how cultures that derive their magic from different sources might find cause for suspicion or hostility. A society in which all known magic is passed down through sorcerous bloodlines present in the nobility may look upon the possibility of universally accessible arcane magic with alarm, as its use would upset the balance of power and could not be tied to an honorable or important historical figure. Similarly, a culture that associates magic strictly with the divine might view a society of sorcerers as dangerous heretics whose use of supernatural power is not supervised or guided by a deity with more wisdom or strength than mortals possess.

Note that both sources of magic and types of magic can be transferred from one society to another. Neighboring cultures who have mastered shielding magic and healing magic respectively may initially view the opposing trade with scorn (“Why dirty your hands with blood if you can deflect the sword that would shed it?” / “What good is a magic barrier if the man already lays dying?”), but, if they are on good terms, they may share the keys to their crafts, making each side stronger. Knowledge of different magical forms and sources might be transferred through trade, diplomacy, conquest, or conversion efforts. Alternatively, our two fictitious societies may form an alliance, each maintaining their own magical technique but nonetheless becoming “brothers without blood.”

There is one more thing to be said about magic, and it is the same thing that must be said about most valuable resources, knowledge, and technologies throughout history. Oftentimes, sources of power are hoarded by or entrusted to only certain members of society. They are also sometimes deliberately kept out of the hands of other groups. Think of how the art of reading was for a long time limited to the nobility in Europe, and how learning to read was seen as a punishable ambition for a slave living in the American South.

The exclusive claims a portion of the population may have to magic, or certain kinds of it, could be intentional, or it could be a byproduct of other factors. If all sorcerers in the land have inherited their magic through the blood of an ancient dragon emperor, then it makes sense that most of the common folk would not have access to such powers. If only divinely-chosen individuals, or those who emerge triumphant in ritual combat, are seen as deserving of magical abilities, or even capable of having them to begin with, then there might not be any malice involved in the privation of such powers to the public or peasantry.

However, a dynasty that selfishly outlaws the knowledge of reading so that they alone may harness the scrolls of power, or a once-noble priesthood passing its divine energy to increasingly dubious individuals of mortal choosing, may provide a source of conflict: either for the broader culture or for the heroes of a campaign to address.

Here is a list of groups that may, intentionally or unintentionally, maliciously or benignantly, exercise exclusive control over one or more magical arts.

Groups to Whom Magic is Limited

1. Royalty
2. Religious Authority Figures
3. Nobles
4. Political Leaders
5. Demigods
6. Victors
7. Warriors
8. Artists
9. Landowners
10. Enforcers of the Law
11. Hermits
12. The Chosen
13. The Old
14. The Young
15. The Educated
16. The Beautiful
17. Members of a Certain Sex
18. Members of a Certain Race
19. Members of a Certain Bloodline
20. Roll twice, ignoring this result on future rolls.

In the end, the magic of your world can be whatever you want it to be. I hope you enjoy designing cultures who interact with this extra element of reality in diverse and interesting ways. Until next time!

*I know the answer is yes. Let me have my fun.