1. What can they do?
2. What do they need to do it?

There is much great and detailed advise for making magic, but this is mine. It is also short. I will now show how to apply it. You can start with either question. I will therefore present two magic systems.

Start with: What can they do?

Wizards in this world can move things with telekinesis and teleport. Pretty standard.

OK. What do they need to do, to use telekinesis?

Wizards will generally use a runic staff to direct the target object. Generic staffs are good for all kinds of things, but you can make specialized staffs, pertaining to certain materials for example. Size matters too, big staffs for big things, small wands for fine work. Many mages will mutter a mantra when doing there work to better concentrate, but this optional. To make it easier you can mark the the target with runes to make it easier to grab.

Schnackpuck port authorities require all staff to wear runic vests, so they are easier to grab, if they go overboard.

OK. What do they need to do teleport?

A ley line. Ley lines are directional so it’s easier to go with the flow. To go downstream a competent mage needs but a bit of concentration to teleport themselves and whatever they hold on to. This will carry them to the next ley node, a place where two or more lines cross.

Everything else requires infrastructure. Marker stones are used to exit a line before a node. You can make it so that every traveller has to exit there, a fact beloved by the authorities. More complex is an anti flow archway used to send cargo against the current. It requires several mages to work at both ends.

Start with: What do they need to do it?

Pizza. Since we can use literally anything, why not pizza? I like pizza.

Our MC Henriette has a pizza place and finds out her pizza is magic.

OK. What can the pizza do?

At first the pizza place might be rather popular, so I’m thinking a general luck effect. Customers have a really good day after a lunch at Henriette’s. Henriette is a pizza witch.

She might then find out that she can do special pizza, like telepathy pizza. Whoever eats a slice is linked up for time.

Of course for her magic to work her pizza must be eaten. So it only affects people (and maybe the occasional dog or raccoon) and you can only use so many effects at a time, because people can only eat so much pizza. Sad but true.

It might turn out that there all kinds of witches each with their own craft. Like the old car mechanic on the next street. What you need to get more magic is how to represent it symbolically with your craft. That seafood pizza will sure come in handy when entering the Naiad’s lair.

Zoom and repeat

As you can see, you can ask these two question over and over getting more specific.

• If there are several kinds of magic users, ask for each type.
• If there are different power levels, ask for each level.
• If there are different magic effects or spells, ask for each effect or spell.

That is already the first and major limitation on magic. Anything not explicitly on the list, they can’t do.

As for things they need, that might be…

1. Identity: Birth date, birth place, residence, age, parentage, sex, gender, marital status, having kids…
2. Things: Ingredients, tools, clothes, infrastructure…
3. Actions: Words, gestures, song, dance, crafts, writing, hiking… …
4. Place: Natural/artificial, secluded?, fungible/unique, featuring…
5. Mental states: Emotions, imagining/visualizing certain things, personality traits. Either require it or acquire it.
6. Physical states: Fatigue, age, hunger, thirst, warmth, arousal, sickness, blue skin, purple eyes… Either require it or acquire it.
7. People: Coworkers, assistants, choirs…
8. Supernatural relations: Servants, guides, merchants, patrons…
9. Status: membership of some group, political/religious/… office
10. Outside conditions: Weather, time of day/week/year, astronomical constellations
11. Metaphysical juice: Personal/local reserve/taint, replenishing under conditions…, having outward signs..

It may happen that most effects share the same needs. Especially in a system with many distinct spells. That doesn’t mean there can’t be outliers with special needs though, like having a happy memory to make silvery messenger or being born under certain stars to affect Outsiders with magic.

You can use the same question to answer how one becomes a magic user in the first place or acquires a certain rank. They need to do those actions / visit that place / procure those materials / feel those emotions once to do their magic. Things in the identity category are probably rather constant anyway.

Gamifying it

If you want to make an RPG or some other game, note that neither those effects nor needs imply certain game mechanics. If our mages need certain ingredients, we can

• handwave that completely
• assume a bag of ingredients that is either filled or absent (cf. D&D)
• track various resources individually on our character sheets
• use a general Ingredients stat that goes down per use
• roll a die and on a 1, you are out of ingredients for that particular spell
• …

The same indetermenancy applies to all the categories. If they need to dance, we might make it a skill check or have them spend from their Grace resource. Except again for the identiy things, which will be likely modeled either with a class-like choice or some stable descriptor. For a birds-eye view on RPG magic systems see here.

Further questions

You do not need a metaphysical explanation. We have not explained why Henriette’s pizza worked. We have only hinted that maybe ley lines power the Schnackpuckian mages, but maybe there is more to it. Detailing those things is optional, but can be a lot of fun.

If there are different kinds of magic, belonging to a certain type might mean a weakness or vulnerability to opposing types or phenomena. Likewise certain types might strengthen one another. This is often introduced further along a story. You don’t necessarily have to bother with it in the beginning.

You might want to determine how mages interact with society at large, how their powers change the course civilisations. That’s great. In fact you should think about social implications for proper world building. But before you can determine those things, you first need to answer:

1. What can they do?
2. What do they need to do it?

Have fun making magic.