The Lantern Hall
Painting: an ancient lexicon open on a carved lectern in a dark chapel of books, glowing runes and symbols lifting off its pages like fireflies.
TermLiterature term2007

Hard & soft magic systems

A hard magic system follows explicit rules and costs that readers understand, so characters can solve problems with it; soft magic stays mysterious and wondrous, like Gandalf's. Games need hard systems, which is why every RPG turns magic into rules and resources.

A hard magic system follows explicit rules and costs that readers understand, so characters can solve problems with it; soft magic stays mysterious and wondrous, like Gandalf's. Games need hard systems, which is why every RPG turns magic into rules and resources.

Origin

Popularized by Brandon Sanderson's 2007 essay on what he called Sanderson's First Law of magic.

Quick answers

What does "Hard & soft magic systems" mean?
A hard magic system follows explicit rules and costs that readers understand, so characters can solve problems with it; soft magic stays mysterious and wondrous, like Gandalf's. Games need hard systems, which is why every RPG turns magic into rules and resources.
Where does the term "Hard & soft magic systems" come from?
Popularized by Brandon Sanderson's 2007 essay on what he called Sanderson's First Law of magic.

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Brandon Sanderson

Novelistb. 1975

The prolific architect of the Cosmere, author of Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive, finisher of The Wheel of Time, and the writer whose 2022 Kickstarter raised $41.7 million for four secret novels.

Mistborn

Book series2006

What if the Dark Lord won? Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn begins a thousand years into the Lord Ruler's reign, with a heist crew of metal-burning magicians, and grows into a multi-era saga of a world industrializing.

Vancian magic

Tabletop term1974

A magic system in which wizards memorize a limited number of spells each day and forget each one as it is cast. Named after the fantasist Jack Vance, whose Dying Earth magicians could hold only a few formidable spells in mind at once, it defined D&D spellcasting for decades.

Mana

General term

A pool of magical energy spent to cast spells and replenished by rest or potions, usually shown as a blue bar. It is the chief alternative to Vancian magic and made famous in card games by Magic: The Gathering's lands.

Worldbuilding

General term

The craft of inventing an imaginary world's geography, history, cultures, languages and ecology. Tolkien's languages and maps set the modern standard; roleplaying games made worldbuilding a hobby in itself, practiced by every Game Master with a campaign map.

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