Many magic systems are curious things, thrown together from lists of cool effects and ideas of game balance as much from a vision of the role of magic in the game setting. I prefer my magic to be, well, magical, and endeavour to provide an internal logic to magic systems in play beyond the whiz-bang artillery mages provide in some other games.

The Law of Similarity, as described by Frazer and Bonewitz for example, is a fruitful place to start. I will start with a metaphor; a one-line tag describing the magic that gives an instant picture of how it might work. Let us assume that "magic is like clay". At first the magic in a given area is in a raw state and without particular shape or purpose. It needs to be worked by a practitioner to take shape as a spell. A mage must expend time and effort to force the magic into a particular pattern. Once created such a pattern will remain until an equal effort is spent to change it. Under certain circumstances, additional effort can "fire" the magic and make it permanent, but unchangeable and possibly more fragile or brittle.

From this basic idea we can expand on certain properties of the raw stuff of magic. Magic will occur in different varieties, and different magics will be appropriate for different tasks. Mages may travel some distance to seek out the precise form of magical "clay" that suits their needs, but will often have to make do with whatever local resources are available. Over the course of time, depending on the prevalence of magic working, the local resources of raw material for magic will be depleted, and a mage may have to move to seek a new source of magic to power his or her workings.

The raw material for magic occurs in certain areas, usually pooling together downstream from mountain areas or granite formations. The closer to the mountain source of the magic, the purer the resulting raw magic. Far from its source the raw magic will be less pure, having picked up impurities along its way. These impurities, like salt in clay, can subtly change the character of the spells worked from the raw magic, and it is sometimes possible to achieve effects with impure raw magic that are impossible with a purer grade. The downside of impure raw magic is that it is more prone to poor results and can sometimes just fail to work at all. Too many impurities make the magic very unstable. However pure raw magic is much harder to work, being less plastic and less robust. Pure raw magic does not hold a shape all that easily and often fails to take exactly the shape desired. "Fixing" such magic, to make it permanent, is also risky, and can result in the spell working failing completely at the last step. However a successful fixing can produce very refined and precise results.

How do we reflect these ideas in rules mechanics? Let us summarize the basic points:

1. The raw material for magic is an insubstantial "clay" produced by the interaction of flows of water and the earth. Limited raw material for magic exists in any given area and it can be used up by working magic. This raw material must be gathered and prepared before it is usable in a spell.
2. Magic is initially hard to force into a pattern ("a spell") but it retains its shape and quality for a long time once worked unless deliberately changed by an equivalent effort. Magical weathering may affect the duration of a magic working
3. With particular effort and planning, magical effects can be made permanent and unchangeable by "firing" the magical clay. Thereafter the magical effects are impossible to modify or distort, but can be broken irreversibly by sufficient effort. The remains of such magic linger and can cause unusual or unforeseen effects.

The first point suggests that we should have a local rating for the available magic. I call this raw magic, and it is rated on the normal Fudge scale of Terrible to Superb (with Legendary and Non-existent also possibilities). Depending on the desired availability and power of magicians in the campaign world, we can set a default level for raw magic at Poor or Mediocre. I would suggest Poor for most urban areas, Mediocre for cultivated or inhabited countryside, and Fair or better for more out of the way, remote locations. This provides a ready explanation for the reclusive habits of many mages, and gives player characters excuses for trekking out into the wilderness in search of places of power. Nearby water is crucial for the formation of a good source of raw magic, though a source can persist long after the water has dried up. Here's a table:

We define two skills for seeking out and gathering the raw magic as follows:

Smell Raw Magic

The skill of seeking out raw magic and pinpointing its type and quality. This has no obvious parallel with clay working, but provides an unusual piece of colour for the campaign world, and mirrors the skill of a potter in finding the right sort of material to work with for the task at hand. The maximum level of the raw magic for gathering depends on the available level as listed in the Raw Magic table.

Declare the level of Raw Magic you seek. Make a Smell Raw Magic roll. Add the Gathering modifier from the Raw Magic table. Add one for each level your Smell Raw Magic skill exceeds the level you seek. Subtract one for each level it exceeds your skill. Other situational modifiers can be applied as desired. A Fair result takes two hours, and yields a use of Raw Magic at the desired level. Each level above Fair halves the time taken to find the Raw Magic. Each level lower doubles the time spent. A Terrible result wastes 8 hours and yields nothing.

Example: Morinda is a village sorceress who lives near a river that flows down from a mountain of power. Her home is quite a distance from the village. One morning she decides to go out to gather raw magic to prepare for a complicated working she will attempt later in the week. After a light breakfast Morinda gathers her implements: a stout walking stick, a bag of assorted fetishes and shiny stones, and some bread and cheese for lunch. After wandering along the river for a while she comes to a place she knows well. She has gathered magic nearby before, and she is confident of finding useful raw magic here today. Morinda decides she wants some Good raw magic. Her skill is Good. The locale is rural with irregular habitation. She rolls her Smell Raw Magic and gets a Great result. This gives her a solid lead to a promising site of the raw stuff of magic, permeating the environment about her, and it only takes half an hour to find a site of Good quality Raw Magic to work from. This is the maximum level of raw magic she can find in this place (Fair + 1 for the presence of the river). To find better raw material she must travel further afield.

Gather Raw Magic

The skill of drawing out the raw magic of a place and readying it for magic working. This is like excavating clay from a riverbank or mud flat, and preparing it for working. The preparation is crucial to have material that is easy to work with and that will endure any later manipulations. (This is like wedging or blending the clay prior to working it.) Roll the Gather Raw Magic skill of the mage against the quality of the Raw Magic source, as determined when find the source. A success gathers one use of Raw Magic at the level of the source. A -4 die roll result (critical failure/fumble) spoils the source, rendering it unusable as a source of raw magic in the future. A +4 die roll (critical success) gathers one use of raw magic at one level higher than the source, but the source is then permanently reduced by one level in potency.

The difficulty of the Gather Raw Magic roll can be modified by the conditions at the time of gathering. Increase the difficulty by one level if this is the first time the mage attempts to gather from this particular source. Modify the difficulty by the result of a situational roll to represent the variation of a well-worked source over time, if there are other mages gathering from the site. In urban areas sources of raw magic are often Poor and may even be completely worked out. They will recover eventually, but not normally within the lifetime of a mage.

Once the quality of a given site of raw magic is determined it will yield 7+4dF uses of raw magic at that level. It then drops a level and provides a further 7+4dF uses of magic at the new, lower level. This continues until the raw magic level reaches Terrible and no raw magic can be gathered from the site again. A mage using a particular site will usually move on to find a new source long before this.

A magic worker can store a number of "lumps" of raw magic up to the level of her Gather Raw Magic skill. i.e. Terrible = 1 amount stored, Poor = up to 2 lumps, Mediocre = up to 3 lumps, and so on, each with a level determined at the time of gathering. These stored amounts of magic remain potent for about a week to a month. The GM may require an additional Gather Raw Magic skill roll before working magic with particularly old raw magic. Any mage may store raw magic of greater potency than their Gather Raw Magic skill, but it is more likely to lose its potential for magic than gathered magic of equal or lesser potency. This can be left as a GM's call, or can be modelled by the loss of the level of raw magic from the highest stored amount unless a successful Gather Raw Magic roll against the raw magic's level is made.

The stored magic is ephemeral and cannot be detected on the mage's person except by another mage using the Smell Raw Magic skill. Stored raw magic can be wrested from another mage by a physical struggle or stolen if sufficiently light-fingered. Such a theft is quickly noticed however.

Example: Having found a site Morinda sits down to meditate a while, and begins to use her Good Gather Raw Magic skill. She rolls a Good result, which is equal to the level of the raw magic, as determined in the earlier example, and gets a Good overall amount of magic gathered. This is one use of Good magic, and she "stores" it. She already has one Great and one Good lump of raw stuff stored away. Morinda's Good skill means that she could gather and keep up to another two amounts of raw magic.

The second point in our summary list suggests we should use something like a Craft skill for actually working magic. I call this skill Work Magic and define it thus:

Work Magic

The skill of working raw magic, manipulating it into a particular shape to produce a particular effect. This can be a quick affair if the intended effect is basic and subtlety or artistry is not required. The more precise and delicate the final desired result the longer the magic working will take. Generally the limitations on the results depend on the rolled result, the quantity and quality of raw magic used, and on the time invested in the effort. A fumble (-4 on the 4dF) at any stage with the Work Magic skill causes the working to fail and all raw magic invested so far to be lost. The outcome of a particular Work Magic attempt is the lower of the rolled result or the level of the raw magic used. If the result does not satisfy the mage, she can set that working aside and attempt it again with fresh raw magic. The previously used raw magic can be later reworked and reused with a simple Gather Raw Magic roll against the level of the raw magic.

I don't wish to limit the possible outcomes, and assume that most GMs will define their own spell effects for a given result with the Work Magic skill. Generally a magic working will act like a skill or ability at the level of the result. For example a Good magic detection charm will be Good at detecting magic in the vicinity. Another mage attempting to work magic in secret nearby would have to overcome its Good resistance in an opposed roll to remain unnoticed. Another useful guideline is for the creation of servants and summoning of helpful spirits. Assume that a single Great result with Work Magic grants a summoned being with one useful skill or ability ranked at Great, or two skills/abilities at Good, or four at Fair, and so on, converting one skill at a given level into two skills at a level one less.

A sequence of skill rolls can be combined to create a more powerful result, but this risks a fumble wasting all the magic invested in the working so far. Nonetheless most serious magic workings tend to be done in stages, with a "drying time" or a setting period between stages. The raw magic needs time to relax after each working, and too rapid progress can spoil the entire spell. Working magic is generally a slow process, and any attempt to create a spell under pressure suffers at least a -1 penalty to the caster's skill. I suggest a few hours effort per working is about right. Rapid spell casting is much faster, but the results are more uncertain. Add the outcome of a situational roll to the final result if you like.

Generally the duration of the magic working is indefinite, and the stuff of magic tends to hold its shape for a long time. The weather may have an effect on the duration of magic, with wet, damp days reducing the longevity of any magic workings. A single use of magic (one "lump" of raw magic used to power a spell) can produce a single effect of Fair durability with an effect level equal to the level of the raw magic expended or the result of the Work Magic skill used to create the spell. Levels of magical effect can be traded for increased durability, e.g. A Good result could be a Good effect, with Fair durability, or a Fair effect with a Good durability. This durability counts as the spell's resistance against weathering and deliberate attempts to undo the magic working.

Example: Later that week, Morinda begins working on her spell, a working to bind a spirit of place to protect her village while she is away for an upcoming journey to her motherhouse. The magic she will work is the creation of a dwelling place for this spirit, and as such, it must be comfortable and welcoming. She has gathered three uses of Good magic and one use of Great magic. She prepares with a long fast and meditation to prepare for the effort. After some time (determined by the GM and what seems right) Morinda is ready to start work.

She rolls against her Good Work Magic skill and gets a Good result, spending one use of Good magic to power it. This Good result, Morinda decides, will be the quality of the dwelling place. The GM will use this as a measure of the spirit's willingness to remain, and in contests to resolve repeated calls on the spirit to serve the community. Morinda then concentrates again and rolls for the initial welcome, which will determine for the most part the strength and skill of the spirit called. The mage rolls a Mediocre result (-2 rolled against her Good Work Magic skill. Morinda is unhappy with this result and decides to roll again. She wastes her first Good quantity of magic, and tries again. This time she spends the entire Great quantity of magic ahead of the roll, in an effort to ensure a successful roll. Spending a quantity of magic with greater potency than the caster's skill allows a +1 to the Work Magic skill. This attempt is more successful. Morinda rolls a +1, which yields a total + 2, for an outcome of Superb. This result is limited to a Great effect, however, due to the amount of Magic expended.

With a Great result the GM rules that the magical call draws a powerful guardian spirit from the realm of Earthy Ghosts. The spirit is then defined by a process of discussion between the GM and Morinda's player. With a Great result for the magical call, the spirit can have no attribute or skill higher than Great.

Later Morinda attempts to recover the Good raw magic she failed to work into the Spirit House spell. It is an amount of Good raw magic, so it needs a Good result with Gather Raw Magic to recover. Morinda only rolls a Fair result and the raw magic is permanently lost.

Finally we need to address the possibility of making a magic working permanent, much as a potter fires his clay to produce a lasting work. I call this process fixing magic, and define it as follows:

Fix Magic

The skill of transforming worked magic material into a permanent form. It takes patience and physical effort on the part of the mage. The effort expended by the mage is the "heat" that fires the magical clay. Fixing magic is a slow ritual process that usually takes several days. There is an initial period of preparation during which the mage gathers her thoughts and makes ready a site for the ritual. Once ready (say after a day's preparation) she lights a sacred fire and must tend it regularly until the ritual ends. The fixing of magic then takes a few days (GM's call) and is resolved with a Fix Magic skill test. If the rolled result is equal or greater than the highest-level effect in the magic working being fixed the ritual is successful and the working is made permanent. Failure to match or exceed this minimum means the ritual fails and the spell is unmade and ends. All raw magic invested in the spell and ritual is lost. A critical failure with the Fix Magic skill shatters the spell and produces magic shards; see below. Certain magic residues will persist and can make future magic workings in the location difficult.

A magic working that has been fixed is more durable (+1 to its durability, i.e. the usual Fair durability becomes Good). It is generally also of particularly fine quality, and will grant a +1 bonus when used if the working has a plausible skill use associated with it.

Example: Morinda will be away from home for some time and for protection takes her Ward the Path charm, a fixed working that acts as a traveller's blessing. It is a Good charm, with Good durability (Fair +1 for fixed magic) and grants a +1 skill to keeping safe on the road. When no skill applies, for example in resisting an arrow shot from ambush, the Good charm rating is used as a default. For comfort she binds the effect to a sturdy walking stick.

Sufficient physical or magical force can overcome a magical working and break it in the process. Any successful physical attempt to overcome a magical resistance that results in a +4 die roll (a critical roll) shatters the magic.

A mage can attempt to unmake a magical working. For her own spells she need only manage to not roll a Terrible result with her Work Magic skill. For unmaking another mage's magic she must overcome the spell level, expressed as the value of the highest-level effect in the spell +1 for each additional effect in the spell, with her Work Magic skill. The attempt takes at least a minute and may be much longer for a complicated spell. Usually an unmade spell dissipates without incident, but it may shatter, leaving magic "shards" lying about to trouble the unwary. If an unmaking attempt exactly matches the level of the spell there is a 1 in 3 chance that the spell will shatter and possibly injure those nearby. Most mages will not stand still and let another mage undo their workings, obviously.

After certain magical failures or the destruction of fixed magical workings "magical shards" can result. These pieces of spells remain in the area where they were formed for a long time, and can affect magic working nearby in unpredictable ways. Only fixed magic can yield shards. Unfixed magic will shatter, but the debris is not threatening and will dissipate quickly back into the general magical environment.

When attempting either a Work Magic or Fix Magic roll in the presence of shards nearby roll an additional dF and add it to the final result. When magic shards are first produced make a situational roll for anyone nearby; on a Poor result or worse they suffer an injury (usually a Hurt result) from the sudden release of magic.

Here is a sample character and a few other examples spells created with these guidelines.

Bar the Passage

A simple magical shaping that uses the raw magic to fashion an invisible barricade to block a passageway. The outcome of the Work Magic skill is used as the strength of the barricade. Additional amounts of raw magic of potency equal or greater than the level of the basic effect may be expended to increase the Scale of the barricade and make it correspondingly more difficult to overcome.

Example: A mage takes one use of Good magic, and rolls against her Work Magic skill getting a Good result. She then expends two further uses of Good raw magic to produce a Bar Passage (Good Scale 2 effect). Anyone wishing to pass the warding will have to overcome that resistance. The GM may rule that the durability of the bar will be the same (Good Scale 2) rather than the default durability of Fair.

A Healing Charm

A combined Work Magic and Fix Magic spell, this creates a charm to be worn about the neck to aid healing and to promote health. It is created first with a Work Magic skill roll, and the resulting quality of the spell is then used as the skill of the healing effect. Roll a situational roll once each day less than or equal to the charm's quality to heal a level of one current injury. It also grants a +1 to all normal healing rolls.

Example: The mage working the spell gets a Great result to her Work Magic skill, and expends raw magic of Great potency. She then spends a considerable amount of time ensuring that her subsequent Fix Magic skill attempt is successful. She gets a Great result on her Fix Magic skill roll, and successfully fashions the healing charm. It is now a charm with Great effect, allowing healing of one injury level per day on a Great situational roll or less. It also improves normal healing, giving +1 to any associated rolls.

A Guardian Spirit

Using a sequence of Work Magic rolls, a mage attempts to create a powerful magical guardian. She decides that the guardian will have three useful abilities: Defend Holy Place, Cause Tremors, and Raise Alarm. The mage takes plenty of time, and has a Good Work Magic skill. She also enlists the help of a companion with Good Work Magic. This grants a total +2 bonus to Work Magic, yielding a final skill of Superb. The mage has 4 amounts of raw magic, two Great, one Good and one Fair. She prepares herself and the sacred place that the guardian is to protect, and makes the first roll. She gets a Great result and, expending one use of Great Magic, grants the spirit a Great ability to Defend Holy Place. Continuing, she gets a Superb result on her second roll, and spends her second use of Great raw magic to grant a Great ability to Raise Alarm. Finally she rolls a Fair result (Superb -3) for the third ability. She is unhappy with this, and spends her use of Fair raw magic and discards the result, hoping to succeed with her final roll. She rolls a fourth time, getting a Superb result. Spending her last raw magic she grants a Good ability of Cause Tremors. The guardian is raised from the earth and takes its place in the holy precincts. Note that unlike a spell working the spirit resists magic individually and not with the default Fair durability of a spell.

Terrumas, An Earthy Ghost

Body	N/A	Raise Alarm	Great
Mind	Good	Defend Holy Place	Great
Spirit	Great	Cause Earth Tremors	Good

If Terrumas dwells in the spirit house created in the example under Working a Spell, the Good quality of the house is used in opposition to the spirit's Mind should he decide he is not being suitably treated and wish to leave. Terrumas is a more powerful spirit than would have been summoned by the spell in the earlier example.

The time needed for working magic is quite high, and some people might like to have a mechanic to model quicker castings. I've suggested at least a penalty of -1 skill if rushed, but if the caster needs to produce an effect right away, assume a penalty of -2 or worse, and that the resulting magic has reduced durability. Without time to relax during the working, the raw magic is tricky and temperamental. Subsequent uses of rushed magic workings should probably also require additional situational rolls to see if the magic holds together. Remember that immediate effects can be achieved with Fixed Magic from previously created items. This is one of the primary reasons for creating such artifacts.

When working magic, there are some tricks from pottery that might have an analogue. Clay can be worked in moulds, to speed up a repetitive part of the labour, and pieces can be made separately and combined later. With this magic a mage can have simple spells that can be quickly formed using a spell mould, which itself is created using a working and the Fix Magic skill to make the mould permanent. More complicated or powerful workings can be attempted in stages, using smaller workings that are later combined into a single whole.

What about seconds, or low quality results? In pottery many items don't reach a given standard but are nonetheless useful. We could allow for such results for both the Work Magic and Fix Magic skills by saying that a skill roll that misses the required difficulty by only one level produces a magical second. These lesser spells have reduced effects and durability of only Mediocre, but may well serve the mage's purpose all the same.

Unfixed magical workings are prone to weathering effects if left exposed to the elements. We could model this with situational rolls after a spell has been exposed to normal wear and tear for some time. If the situational roll is less than the spell's durability, it loses a level from one of its effects. Extreme weather may modify the situational roll. Generally fixed magic is far more resilient and only very extreme conditions are likely to threaten a fixed working.

Remember too that the idea here is produce an interesting and unusual magic system, not to equate pottery absolutely with magic working. If something in the above system does not appeal, dump it or rework it. This is Fudge after all.

Finally, I wrote this article in part to show a different approach to magic system design and to encourage by example. Any reader inspired to do the same with a metaphor of their own please get in touch. I'd love to see what you come up with!

Credits: The ideas discussed in this article were in part inspired by a series of discussions about metaphors for magic that took place in Alarums & Excursions, a highly recommended gaming APA. Additionally an article by Greg Costikyan in Different Worlds 33 discussing magic as metaphor started me thinking. Thanks!