The title pretty much says it! I’d like to explore that idea a little and would love to hear y’all’s recommendations. This thought was originally inspired by lord of the rings, but I’m also currently on a little nostalgia trip by reading The Sea of Trolls and the soft magic system in that is pretty fun

  • Zagorath
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    3 days ago

    Sanderson, who coined the terms, describes Potter as being a pretty good example of a mixed magic system.

    Which makes sense to me. The spells they learn at school are a pretty hard magic system. But then things like “the power of love” are more reminiscent of a soft system.

    • dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 days ago

      Thank you, I do think this was mentioned in the article I linked, and it does seem like Harry Potter is a good example of a mixed system. In my mind what makes it a soft system more fundamentally is how the author is inconsistent and the way magic is never really restricted by rules, even if there is a lot of focus on classes and how the spells are conjured, etc.