Magic System Generator

There is no AI here. Roll a whole magic system: where it comes from, who can use it, how it is worked, what it acts on, a price, three rules and the one thing it can never do. Set it anywhere from soft wonder to hard rules. It runs in your browser, with no sign-up, and nothing you roll leaves the page.

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Balanced

Stellar Dance

Where it comes from: It is stored in the bodies of animals, and given up when they sleep.
Who can use it: It is taught in secret circles, and people are invited in rather than asked.
How it is worked: It is worked by dancing: a worker follows steps that are older than the words for them.
What it acts on: It works on the stars and on thoughts and feelings.
Price, rules and limit: Price. Each working needs a witness, who shares the cost with the worker.
The witness must be awake and willing.
A witness who looks away makes the working fail.
A worker with no witness can only manage the smallest things.
Never. It can never name a witness without their consent.
How people treat it: Schools teach it to the rich and punish the poor for trying it.
A story it starts: A ship's worker refuses to work in a storm, and the crew must decide whether to trust her.

Keys: R rolls a new system, C copies it.

How it works

Choose a hardness from Very soft to Very hard. Soft systems keep their costs and rules vague and wondrous. Hard ones state exact costs and limits that a character could write down.
Press New system, or R. The tool rolls seven parts: where the magic comes from, who can use it, how it is worked, what it acts on, a thread of price, rules and limit, how people treat it, and a story it starts.
Keep any part by locking it, then roll again to change the others, or reroll a single part by itself. The price, the three rules and the thing it can never do are locked and rerolled as a single thread.
Change the hardness to see the same system written another way. The method, what it acts on, how people treat it and the story stay, while the source, the users and the thread are rewritten.
Copy the whole system with C, copy a link that brings back this exact one, or save it as an image. Systems you rolled earlier on this visit are listed under the tool.

Seven parts, one system

A source says where the magic comes from and who can use it. A method says how it is worked, and two domains say what it acts on. The price, three rules and the thing it can never do are one thread, written to agree with each other and drawn to suit the method and domains. How people treat it and a story it starts finish the system.

Hard magic and soft magic

Writers talk about magic as hard or soft. Those two words, and three laws for writing a magic system, come from the essays of the fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, and his essays are the place to read the full argument. In short, a hard system has rules the reader understands, so it can solve problems in the plot, while a soft one stays mysterious and is there for wonder and dread. This page borrows the two words and the idea that readers trust what they can follow.

Neither end is better. A story about a lost child in an enchanted wood wants a soft magic that nobody can explain, because the explanation would spoil the wood. A heist with spells wants a hard one, because the reader should be able to guess how the crew will use it. Most books sit in the middle, which is why this tool has five steps rather than two boxes.

What each hardness changes here

At Very soft, the source is a mystery, nobody can say who it chooses, and the price is felt rather than counted: a lost memory, a colder hand, a favour owed at the worst moment. The rules are things the characters have noticed and could be wrong about. Nothing in the text is given a number.

At Very hard, the source is a resource with a known supply, who can use it is a matter of tests and licences, and the price is an exact amount: a day of life, a coin, a number of words. The rules are exact too. The steps between mix the neighbours, so Soft and Hard each borrow a little from the balanced middle.

A price is what makes a system fair

A magic that costs nothing solves everything, and then the story has no reason to continue. A price gives each working a weight. It makes the character choose, and it makes the reader ask whether this problem is worth it. The best prices are personal. A memory, a night of sleep or a favour owed hurts one particular person, which is more useful to a novelist than a bar that drains.

Prices work best when they connect to the rest of the story. A worker who pays in warmth will be cold at the wrong moment. One who pays in days will count them. When you roll a system here, look at the price first and ask who in your cast would struggle most to pay it. That person is often your main character.

Three rules, and one thing it can never do

One of those laws holds that what a magic cannot do matters more to a story than what it can. A limit is a promise to the reader that the hero will not simply wave the problem away. The three rules in each system are the limits a character would learn first, and the line about what it can never do is the wall at the end of the garden.

Rules should be few, firm and visible. Three is enough to build a plot on, and every one of them should be breakable at a cost, because a story needs somewhere to go when the characters are desperate. If you are stuck for a scene, take one rule and ask who would want it broken.

Why the price, rules and limit come as one thread

Pick a price from one list, rules from another and a limit from a third, and sooner or later they disagree: a rule that lets a worker do what the limit forbids, or a cost that has nothing to do with the rules about it. In this tool they are written together as one thread. The rules talk about the price, and the line about what it can never do does not repeat any of them.

The thread also checks itself against the rest of the system. A thread about spoken words is only offered to methods that use the voice, and a limit on reversing time is never paired with a magic that acts on time. If you lock a thread and roll again, the method and the two domains are drawn to suit it.

Who can use it, and how it is worked

Who can use a magic matters as much as what it does. If anyone can learn it, you have a society of schools, exams and rivals. If only a few are born to it, you have secrets, hiding and inheritance. If it chooses at random, you have fear. The method gives the magic a look and a sound. Singing, ink, knots, bargains, carving and quiet vigils each put a different picture on the page and make different scenes easy.

The two things that the magic acts on, such as the tides and memory, give it a flavour and a name. The tool joins a word from the first domain to the method, so a magic of tides that is sung becomes Tidesinging, and one written in ink might be the Tidal Ink. Two domains are never drawn from the same family of ideas, so a system gets a pair that pull in different directions.

How people treat it, and a story to start with

A magic has no effect on a world until somebody reacts to it. The line on how people treat it is there to give you a setting: guilds, fear, taxes, festivals, a law against it that nobody follows. It is written to fit any system, so a rule of three can sit beside a village that leaves gifts at a worker's door, or a city that licenses every spell.

The story hook at the end is a place to begin, not a plot. It names a person and a problem and leaves the answer open. Lock the parts you like, roll the story again and keep going until you find one that makes you want to write the next scene.

Example systems

Very soft
Caveshaping
It works on caves and deep places and on the wind.
Where it comes from
It comes up through old wells on nights with no moon.
Who can use it
It favours the lonely, the patient and the curious, in no particular order.
How it is worked
It is worked by gesture: the hands draw the shape of the working in the air.
Price
Each working draws a little warmth out of the worker, and the cold lingers for as long as the working lasts.
Three rules
Cold hands are the first sign that a worker has done too much. A worker who is warm and rested can do far more than someone who is not. No working is ever stronger than the worker's need for it.
It can never
work for anyone who has not asked for it.
How people treat it
Sailors consider a worker on board lucky, and a second worker on board very unlucky.
A story it starts
A former apprentice returns to town with an answer to a question nobody dared to ask.
Soft
Windsinging
It works on the wind and on beasts and birds.
Where it comes from
It falls in thin silver threads during the worst storms of the year.
Who can use it
Anyone can use it for small things, but only trained workers can do more.
How it is worked
It is worked by singing: a worker holds a note, and the working follows the tune.
Price
Each working takes a memory from the worker, and they do not get to choose which.
Three rules
The memory is gone for good, even when the working fails. Memories that are dearly loved are taken last. A worker cannot work on something they have forgotten how to want.
It can never
give back a memory it has taken.
How people treat it
Cities license it, tax it and complain about it, much as they do with any trade.
A story it starts
A thief steals a worker's tools and finds she cannot put them down.
Balanced
Rootbrewing
It works on roots and soil and on dust and ash.
Where it comes from
It seeps up from deep veins of pale stone that glow faintly in the dark.
Who can use it
It runs in certain families, and the families guard that fact closely.
How it is worked
It is worked by brewing: a worker steeps herbs in water, and the working waits in the cup.
Price
Each working must be paid for in kind, with something of the same worth as what is asked.
Three rules
The worth is judged by the thing that answers, not by the worker. A working that asks for more than it pays fails at the start. Nothing can be traded that the worker does not own.
It can never
be worked on credit.
How people treat it
Most people fear it, and workers are asked to live at the edge of town.
A story it starts
An ambassador from far away asks to learn the gift, and everyone suspects a trick.
Hard
The Stone Script
It works on stone and on the tides.
Where it comes from
It is carried in a rare grain that grows only on one island.
Who can use it
It is open to anyone who can pay the fees of the old colleges.
How it is worked
It is worked by writing: a worker sets the working down in ink, and the page does the rest.
Price
Every working takes the worker's whole strength for one night, and it may be done once a month, at the full moon.
Three rules
No working may be done outside that night. A cloudy night works as well as a clear one. A worker who misses the night waits a whole month, whatever the reason.
It can never
be worked twice in one month.
How people treat it
Villagers leave small gifts at a worker's door and are careful never to be alone with one.
A story it starts
A former apprentice returns to town with an answer to a question nobody dared to ask.
Very hard
Leafcharming
It works on plants and growing things and on rivers and springs.
Where it comes from
It rises from a deep lake with a fixed yield, shared out between the towns that sit on it.
Who can use it
It is passed down the mother's line, and the rate is known: about half the daughters of a worker.
How it is worked
It is worked through an object: a worker holds a charm, a ring or a staff, and the working passes through it.
Price
Every working costs one silver coin, paid to the earth beforehand, and the coin must be buried.
Three rules
The coin must be struck in the worker's own country. A coin buried for a working cannot be dug up again. A coin that is not buried the same day is wasted, and the working fails.
It can never
be bought with anything but coin.
How people treat it
It is protected by law, with large fines for anyone who interferes with a worker.
A story it starts
A merchant realises that the charms he has been selling for years are real.

Build the world around it

Questions

Is the Magic System Generator free, and does it use AI?: Free, with no AI behind it. A system is put together on your device from lists a person wrote, so there is no account to make and nothing you roll is sent anywhere.
What are hard and soft magic?: A hard magic has clear rules and costs that the reader can follow, so it can be used to solve problems in a plot. A soft magic stays mysterious and is used for wonder. The terms come from the essays of the author Brandon Sanderson. This tool treats them as a scale from Very soft to Very hard.
What does the hardness control change?: It decides how exactly the source, the users and the thread of price and rules are written. Very soft keeps everything vague, with no numbers. Very hard states amounts and tests. The method, the two things it acts on, how people treat it and the story stay when you change the setting.
Why are the price and the rules locked together?: They are written together as one thread, so that the rules mention the price and none of them contradicts what the magic can never do. Locking the thread keeps all three, and the rest of the system is drawn to suit it.
Can I use the systems in my own stories and games?: Yes. Anything you roll is yours to use, change and publish, in a novel, a campaign or a role-play server, and no credit is needed. The systems are original and use no names from published worlds.
Can I keep a system I like?: Press C to copy it as one paragraph, use the link button for an address that brings back this exact system, or save it as an image. Earlier systems from this visit stay in the list under the tool until you leave the page.

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