If you’re looking for amazing and helpful advice about how to use magic systems, and their science counterparts, in your stories, you’re reading the wrong article despite some of the tags. I am in no sense an expert. If anything, this little string of consciousness is me trying to think about how such systems work, and I welcome any discussion from people who understand it better than I do. I’m the one asking for tips on this one. Any design of magic system I’ve used to this point has been more dumb luck than any actual thought put into it. I want to do more complex stories than my Christmas superhero minicomic and four-panel gag strip in the future, so it’s worth thinking about. Popping “magic system” into Google gave me this term description from Laterpress:
What is a magic system?
Magic, in the realm of fantasy novels, is essentially a catch-all term for non-scientific, non-physical feats. This usually includes things like ultra-realistic multisensory illusions, teleportation, instantaneous creation or destruction, and similar tricks that aren’t possible in the real world. When we talk about a magic system, we’re talking about the way that magic works in a particular setting and how it interacts with the story. I’ll go into more detail in a bit, but for now, it’s enough to say that magic systems answer the who, what, when, where, and how of magic in a fictional setting.
Why do you need a system for magic?
Because magic is so inherently unrealistic, it almost necessarily makes writing harder. If your characters have magic, why do they have any problems at all? Couldn’t they just snap their fingers and will it all go away? Shouldn’t they be living in a utopia full of dragons and fireballs?
Magic systems impose rules on the magical power in your setting so that your reader can understand why there are problems in the narrative at all. They make it possible for you to include magic without breaking your setting or making your story really boring. To put it simply, magic systems prevent the presence of magic alone being a deus ex machina.
In addition to that, having a system for your magic means you can up the ante by breaking out of that system. Establishing a rule and then breaking it can, if done well, introduce an element of intrigue and make your reader desperate to uncover why that rule isn’t holding up and what the characters are going to do about it.
So let’s discuss.
BW Media Spotlight 
Modern Entertainment Vs Escapism
Above (if still active) is the trailer for free DLC edutainment for “Good Trouble”, a game using Minecraft to teach kids about various civil rights movements. It sound innocent enough since Minecraft is a game for kids despite all the channels of adults playing the game. Unfortunately we live in a time when any kind of message that carries a whiff of social pandering and far-left prophelitising is receiving serious pushback, which is not what we discuss around here. It is one of the issues I hear people have with this DLC, which is free but not mandatory. I also saw a 6 minute speedrun playthrough and it looked so boring I didn’t even finish the video. I’ll leave examining that to the culture warriors. I already had one nap today and I don’t need a second or nothing’s getting done today.
The other complaint I saw in X-Twitter responses collected in one article and in video titles while looking for this trailer and the map walkthrough (which was more like a runthrough) was that Minecraft is supposed to be escapism. Edutainment, which is a topic on its own to go over why most of it fails whether you’re teaching actual math, science, history, politics, religion, or anything else (even Christian media makes the same mistakes), isn’t a bad thing on its own. I’m not against educational games or even the idea of a DLC where you take part in the various civil rights marches (whether you want to or not as your player character–and I don’t know if the player created the crazy activist LGBT+stereotype design or not–is forced to move down the bridge as much as he/she/whatever is forced away from a school to give your report and can only go to a library to read up on civil rights movements around the world). However, players and watchers are fighting for escapist entertainment to be just that: an escape. So something like this just activates a sort of “fight or flight” response: push back or go do something else.
This is most of the problem with how current media is treated. The activists who want their message pounded into every waking hour of your life, and the elitists who think they’re being more “serious” directors and performers (this predates the current social culture, by the way) won’t hear of it. You can escape. You must be as radicalized as they are. Again, right wing media does this as well, but right now the big money and pop culture outlets are in the hands of one-sided politics. I’m including everyone in this because it’s all the same problem: we just want a break from your “real world” and enjoy ourselves, which apparently isn’t allowed anymore in entertainment…despite what the name actually means!
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on February 3, 2026 in Movie Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Video Game Spotlight and tagged commentary, escapism, stream of consciousness.
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