Magic and Mayhem
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A Guide to Writing Magic Systems
If you were to grab a stranger off the street and ask them what magic was, well… first they’d probably mention someone like Penn and Teller, ... -
Martial Arts and Magic, Part 4: Qigong and Inner Power
Part 4, all right! If you haven’t read the previous installments, here are the links: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. I’m going to start ... -
Martial Arts and Magic, Part 3: Internal VS. External Styles
All right, here we go again–talking about martial arts, movement, and magic systems! If you haven’t read the previous articles in this series, Part 1 is ... -
Martial Arts as Magic, Part 2: Baguazhang and the Basics
Welcome to Part 2 of my mini-series on creating magic systems based on movement and martial arts! If you didn’t read Part 1, start here, you ... -
Martial Arts as Magic, Part 1: Yoga and Arhat Fist
Fantasy runs on tropes. In fact, the clichés are so deeply embedded in the genre that you can make a splash by carefully noting them (“okay, ... -
Evil and the Tao of Earthsea
Note: Ursula LeGuin died this year. She was my favorite fantasy writer, if only because she wrote Wizard of Earthsea. I think I’ve written more articles ... -
The Magic of Warhammer 40K
If you want to shoot 3d4 magic missiles and colorful sprays of light from your hands, you play D&D. If you want to burst open the ... -
Vancian Magic and D&D
My very first introduction to D&D and its magic system came from the Dead Alewives’ parody “Dark Dungeons,” which can be summed up with the following ... -
Magic and Mayhem: The Genius of Terry Pratchett’s Magic
I know Terry Pratchett put out a lot of books, and they were pretty thick on British humor and silly footnotes, but that doesn’t change the ... -
Magic and Mayhem: Welcome to a World of Pure Imagination
As a fantasy writer, I think it’s important to listen to “Pure Imagination” from the 1971 version of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory every once ...
