“Any sufficiently advanced technology…is indistinguishable from magic.”

— Arthur C. Clark, Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible

The designers of the AQ: Jaern (2016) manual included an overview on their design process for a magical system that is inspired from the physics of the real world. This chapter explores the scientific and technological knowledge of Jaern, and discusses Majykology — the term for the study of the nature of magic, and its application in customizing and creating new magic. We briefly explore the PFC's approach to magic, and discuss some considerations for the GM when it comes to adjudicating magical effects in unique and special circumstances.

The Purdue Fantasy Club uses a homemade magic system, inspired by other TTRPGs and fantasy media. The creators noticed that magic was usually given completely arbitrary reasoning on its effects and capabilities, acting as a narrative tool that can explain away any inconsistencies. This has its advantages, allowing the narrative and plot to determine the limits of what magic can do, or offering creative and powerful solutions to conflicts through the application of magic. However, from another viewpoint, this makes magic inconsistent, unpredictable, and unbounded—which can hinder a gaming system that relies on balanced and fair rules.

In other gaming systems, the rules that do exist for using magic can seem arbitrary, and not guided by any upper level design, instead forcing magic to be confined to strict and balanced rules, but harshly limits creativity and may break the immersion of embodying your character in a fantasy world; you may find yourself asking, “why does my character simply accept that magic is limited in arbitrary ways? Shouldn’t there be some in-game reasoning that feels intuitive to how magic works?”

This led the creators to base the existence, interaction, and use of magic as an extended technology, a way of manipulating strange magical energies in familiar ways, similar to how we manipulate electricity, radio waves, magnetism, and gravity.