On the Difficulty Problem of Magic

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how to implement a magic system in my tabletop roleplaying games. I would like to create something rather long-lasting in a persistent world where players might be able to play over generations and see the effects of their actions. 

As such, I want a system with rules that I can reference to consistently adjudicate actions. I also want to treat magic as a kind technology that can be developed over time to create emergent effects on the world.

This post from the Crossing the 'Verse blog represents an attempt to codify mechanically how different types of magic might manifest. It is part of a larger, useful series attempting to reach the heart of what magic is, in-game.

When considering the magic system one problem that emerges is how to explain why some people use magic and others don't. If magic can be broadly considered a kind of technology, then why is there a class of magic users and why don't peasants employ goodberries to feed their pigs, or children for that matter?

My current post is a response to a response at Crossing the 'Verse, in which Simon T. Vesper writes about the limits of education, belief and human will in his world and the world, generally.

It's a good post, worth reading. I will attempt to summarize several points here and bring up some additional considerations.

He equates magic with technology and then explores barriers to knowledge/technology transfer, particularly in a premodern world. One of his first premises is that magic is caused by Thought (Will/Belief) Made Manifest.

According to Vesper, the reasons not everyone uses magic technology:

1) It requires learning, perhaps training by another.

2) It is not trivially easy and not all are able to achieve it.

3) The technology has not been thoroughly distributed among people and societies.

Because I would like to create a setting that lasts into more modern eras, I am interested in how magic knowledge might be transmitted from one person to another. This means written down, read and understood by others. Pedagogy is another consideration. Limiting factors, as I see them are:

The ability to read

The ability to read magic

The ability to teach magic

The ability to copy texts

Admittedly, one of the reason this is important is because I don't want to run a setting in which magic is freely available to everyone, or at least not until the players do something to make it that way. Again, I want development of magic as technology to be available to players. 

Note at least for now I want to keep to most of the basic conventions of D&D, such as magic-using classes, and not limit magic use through Lovecraftian corruption mechanics, or Jedi force-sensitivity.

At the moment I think the key is making it something sufficiently complicated and time-intensive to be too difficult for most people. Another important factor is to make it very difficult to write and read. I don't want spellbooks printed and distributed to children like primers and every conflict to be decided by casting.

Taking all this into account I want my magic to have the following qualities:

- It needs to have consistent, discoverable qualities that can emerge through play

- Complex and time-consuming to master

- Difficult, but not impossible to describe in written language (perhaps like writing description of senses other than vision)

- Hard for people other than the writer to read and understand

- Not so flexible and powerful as to arbitrarily remove tension from the game