I decided to start by reading this excellent book. Some notes below.

Howard, J. and CRC Press LLC (2017) Game Magic : A Designer's Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice. 1st edition. Abingdon: CRC Press [Imprint] Taylor & Francis Group.

https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/game-magic/9781466567870/chapter-01.html

First chapter

• “magic systems (as conventionally defined) are only one way of simulating magic in games, and often not the most interesting or innovative way.”
• Sometimes simulating magic requires the invention of new forms of gameplay that fall outside of the list of spells conventionally associated with game magic
• Game magic does and should not exist in a vacuum
• We are unoriginal when we are not influenced by enough things
• Game magic has two points at its base to balance it, fictive (fantasy literature, George R. R. Martin etc. One of the richest and most direct potential inspiration source for game magic) & occult (human mystical practices among people who believe magic is real, i.e. voodoo, western ceremonial magic) magic
• ““Magick” is a spelling of magic frequently used by occultists to distinguish genuine mystical practice from illusionism, stage magic, or charlatanry. The term was popularized by occultist Aleister Crowley, whose book Magick is a standard work on the topic. As the eleventh letter in the alphabet, “k” signies the passage beyond the ten traditional branches of the kabbalistic tree of life and into the beyond of transcendence. Magick also sounds a bit romantically archaic, like medieval or Shakespearean English.”
• Satanic Panic

Second chapter

• “A magic system is any set of rules and symbols designed to rigorously simulate the alteration of reality through the will by way of metaphysical forces and entities. In order to simulate magic in a game, magic must be defined in part by rules.” (Rules = you cannot cast spells once mana runs out, etc)

• But rules alone are not enough — “Symbols are at the heart of magic.” They help us envision, visualise, hear and feel the magic, and to help it come alive.

• Magic is part of the reason why people play games

• Something lacking in video game magic — dull, repetitive, lacking in variety, superficial. Spamming buttons, cool down, does not feel like magic. There is nothing otherworldly about this. No connection to rituals

• “Magic in myth and mysticism is a complex art of words, gestures, and colors, woven by skilled adepts whose every action shows their initiation into hidden mysteries.”

• “The history of medicine in particular is closely tied up with alchemy”

• Magic entails contact w/ forces & entities beyond the physical. Forces:

  • bonds of sympathy
  • the energy of other planes
  • the aura
  • karma

  Entities:

  • spirits
  • gods
  • demons

• In many magic systems, no mysteries or otherworldly forces, frequently just projectiles of different elements