Listen to The Kingmaker Histories right here on KZfaq: www.youtube.com/@thekingmakerhistories

thank you, now I can write objectively better.

Fun Fact: Combining rule 8 and 9, could really help your magic feel more fleshed out. Haveing a character face a problem, which forces them to think outside the box and find a unique ability they can use with the magic system. Only to find out the drawback to useing that unique ability, is worse then the original problem, could really help develop your magic system and your character.

Badly summarized tips here: 1: Consume everything 2: become a scientist 3: Be big brain using logic 4: What birthed magic 5: take real life inspiration about categorizing things. 6: What are the limitations? Social norms + physically impossible 7: Give stuff from 5 its own thing--color scheme, art style, origin among other things. 8: Make sure 6 interacts with the story consistently. 9: For conflict, make sure you are using 6 and 3. 10: make sure you've thought of every possible implication for the rules. For example, Skyrim. The rules weren't thought out for magic. Anyone can learn it, and thus anyone can learn transmute ore, which is a basic as fuck spell, make a lot of gold from iron, and then flood the market with it, effectively throwing off the whole economic value of things because of it. Also Bound Blade/Bow. "Oh you're in prison for murdering people with magic? Naaaaah, we're not gonna make sure you can't use it while you're in the cell." In other words: if everyone can conjure fire out of nowhere--society should logically have giant vats of water everywhere as well as try to have everything be non-flammable. Make sure you don't break your own rules and stuff. Also watch the video because I did this for the lols mostly while also noting this down for myself.

Really great list here! I especially like the idea of hard magic system causing problems more because of character traits rather than a lack of understanding-it’s an excellent idea to use and can make for some wonderful writing! As for a piece of media that has a great hard magic system: to go back to the tip on using real life for inspiration, I would say that Brent Weeks Lightbringer series has one of the best hard magic systems I’ve seen (to the point where I would argue it rivals even Brandon Sanderson’s work). The magic in it is called “drafting” and consists of specially born people called “drafters” who can absorb different colors of light from the electromagnetic spectrum and convert it into a physical substance called “luxin”. The properties and uses of luxin vary-for instance, blue luxin is hard, stiff, brittle, has a consistency similar to chalk, and is often used for making study buildings. Green luxin is hard but flexible, very similar to plant matter, and is used to creating buildings that can “bend a bit” in high winds, as well as armor, weapons, and siege items. Red is described as oily, slick, and flammable, and is basically a clean-burning version of regular oil, and subred (infrared) is heat crystals that can explode quickly. There are a lot of other rules-such as that while drafters can draft more than one color, the more they draft the rarer they are; that drafting causes a “build up” of luxin that cannot be removed and will eventually lead to the drafters having to give up drafter or else go mad; that drafters need to see the color they are drafting (unless they are the Prism, the head of the drafters), and more! Definitely check it out if you want to see an excellent take on light-based hard magic. I also would like to point out that C. R. Rowenson, the “Magic Engineer,” is an excellent person to check out for creating magic systems-especially because he’s written a couple of books on the subject and goes into great detail on how to create and portray magic systems in stories!

I think the owl house magic system is good, how the magic that leaks front the titan's bones powers glyph magic is really cool in my opinion.

I got a little tip myself! When considering what sort of real-world rules to bring to a hard magic system, looking at well known physics experiments can help give you potential ideas for techniques in your setting. Maybe your wizard throws molten glass through their water spell to create St Rupert's Drop projectiles, as an example! Now your audience can chew on some cool potential ways physics affect your magic system, while also establishing that your setting does not have a Geneva Convention to keep people from inventing "Make someone inhale vast quantities of glass dust" techniques.

Legitimately want to thank you for this list. Even if people agreed with some or all of these, a big part of confidence is validation.

One recommendation, especially for those on the hard side of the magic system spectrum... Extrapolate out the social-political implications of your magic system. Something I thought about in the setting for my web fiction was how magic influences political structures. Those that can throw fireballs literally and figuratively call the shots when very few can. When a few have significant magical power, things might trend to monarchies and aristocracies. When magic is more accessible and widespread, you might shift much closer to oligarchies and democracies. Even if it's in the background, it provides that little extra bit of logical cohesiveness to the world. Nothing breaks immersion harder when a reader knows from experience X implies Y, both X and Y exist in the story world, and for some reason when magic does X but not Y.

I love how blunt this is, helps me distinct the tones a lot easier. Also that Artificer Doll-House is such a great idea OH MY GOD!!!

I'm a simple man. I see a thumbnail with two of the best pieces of animated media ever created, I click.

"Consume everything" being rule #1 is very on brand for the Diregentleman channel :')

I've got a semi-soft magic system, myself. I made it as concise as possible, but it's based on modern witchcraft practices- meaning, nobody agrees on where magic comes from or the best way to use it or what its limits are. It's kinda complicated to work with.

As someone who loves writing hard magic systems, but struggles with fleshing them out properly, this episode was a welcome surprise. Thanks Meg!

Unironically I was sketching out the basic magic system of my world, so this is extra helpful.

I've struggled with defining my hard magic systems in my stories so as to make them distinct from one another but also compelling in their own right. This is great advice, thank you Meg!

As Meg briefly alluded to here, I think the best way to write fantasy is to not regurgitate the old stuff and put a new spin on stuff that's been done before.

Why not have a character who refuses to use their powers to the fullest extent for moral reasons? For example, my character Hazel has the ability to possess other people, but she only uses that power on inanimate objects as she feels that possessing other people, even if they're evil, is wrong.

Thank you for this list. I’ll be referring to it while working on my fantasy story

Finally Gus has been written off of the diregentlemen channel was getting tired of that guy. This is a great start to the new season and I hope The writers don’t bring him back anytime soon. Even if there is pushback from the wider fandom. (I’m looking at you Gus Zagstans)

kingmaker is so fucking good

Hm, how very interesting, pretty fair and valid points and opinions, I appreciate your insight.

You you are going to have that Dollhouse ability In Kingmaker. You need that Artificer to rage quit, because of Telesphores ability.

Does Meg have a stronger Australian accent in this video, has she been gaining one?

Conveniently, I have a question about Kingmaker's magic system. If masters of fleshcraft have the ability to break the preservance of mass rule, why won't Ariadne grow herself a right eye out the tissue that she has on her left one? Of course, it would mean she has to sculpt an organ from scratch and then attach it to the remains of her ophthalmic nerve strand by strand, which is probably a ton of tedious work, but nothing the best -milf- fleshcrafter in the state cannot do.

I thought this was going to be a shitpost video but no it's actually good advice

When writing magic systems, I like to think of the societal impact and implications of the magic. For example, my story involves Druids, Who can turn into a human animal hybrid. The catch is the animal form can affect the Druids behavior physically and mentally. Druids are similar to rangers that stabilize the natural world. But their also used as political tools. So they’re pressured by society to control their powers. And depending on the animal, some are more likely to face discrimination. Example, if you can turn into a spider, most people will be afraid of you. I’m still working on the nuances of it. Feel free to share your thoughts.

Watching this... has made me realize my hard magic system is so vague and different between people using it it's basically a soft magic system. Fuck! Uh...any tips for those?

BAAAAASED

These also work for soft magic systems. Good video.

Thank you

Yeee boi, Meg takeover!

5 is one of those tips that I totally know of but forget to actually use

Hm, ever heard of Machimaho?

Long story short: Dont use magic to solve your characters problems

all i know is fire magic is very hot

I'm already hard, thank you very much.

Aussie jail 😂

HOW DARE YOU JAIL THE BOYS IN AUSTRALIA!! I WILL DO EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO STOP YO- Oh wow these are really good tips! Yeah, they can stay in Aussie Prison for the rest of their natural lives

Hear me out: replace Gus with Meg permanently.

Ok.