Usually, in most light novels, it's only "Just imagine it and pour your mana in, and some nanobot or whatever will make it reality". There are very few that have a clearly defined magic system with defined rules about what is possible and what isn't. Or they have one, but it gets muddied or retconned once the author reaches a point where it gets inconvenient.

I'm reading one good example right now with Zilbagias the Demon Prince. The bloodline magic in this series has a clear ruleset, which is consistent and still in effect 6 volumes in.

[–] I2jgwh0hYtxrCZQ@ani.social 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I still love Nanobot magic supremacy. We will or will not do it depending on how we decide to interpret our rules.

But I understand wanting more ridged rules to stop things going crazy.

Bookworm has a good mix, you have the rules of praying to the gods, the limitation of the vessel and the favour of the gods. But you also have the magic tools with more freedoms.

Side note - I am still waiting for a RPG game where there is a set magic script and you can create your own spells like programming.

[–] NineSwords@ani.social 1 points 1 month ago

I am still waiting for a RPG game where there is a set magic script and you can create your own spells like programming.

That's a cool idea. I like games that have mechanics that teach kids programming without them noticing. Stuff like FF XII, Unicorn Overlord, or Factorio. There are also some that are more "on the nose" like Human Resource Machine, but for my taste they are too far on the teaching side and not enough on the fun side.

As for magic script, the Ultima series had an actual magic script from which you assembled your spells. It's not very complex and didn't exactly reminds one of programming, but I wonder where it could have gone if the series didn't die with such a framework.

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