EDIT from the future: Geez, apparently I’m really into writing lists today.
I don’t recall if we’re ever done an out of world thread on this before. It’s probably well past time we have now that we’re trying to cast what may be our biggest spell yet and we have tons of people who may want to help out but are intimidated to ask. So ask any questions or read along here and hopefully it helps out!
I’ll try to keep this to light, simple facts and we can deep dive for any questions. And @CJB or @Catherine please redirect me if I say something askew.
-The magiqverse is an interactive story.
-Spellcasting is one of several mechanisms for having input in the story. It’s not the most common type, but is usually reserved for the most flashy or pivitoal parts of the story.
-Magiq has basic ‘guidelines’ as defined in this universe.
- Magiq never, ever directly harms anyone.
- Magiq usually requires magiq. So generally only people with powers, or weidling mighty sticks can do magiq in this world.
- One Exception to the previous rule is Figuration magiq which uses a form of storytelling to power new magiqs. That’s bascially the only kind we can do, and we’re one of the few who still can.
- Most importantly, Magiq is in many ways the heart of @CJB’s story. It’s a shared dream he invites us to tag along in. Be respectful of his story. You don’t have to have an exhaustive knowledge of what we’re doing, or what works or doesn’t, but you just have to go in with respect and not initially say ‘No we’ll do it my way.’
- The very act of writing guidelines for Magiq is transitive and fickle and a waste of time…oh bother.
-EVERYONE is welcome to participate. Sometimes there’s a lot of voices, and it’s hard for every question to be seen and answered in the heat of the topic when you come back and there’s a dozen posts all with their own questions. That NEVER means we don’t’ care if you participate. And it’s why I’m making this thread to tell you that Out of world. 
-Here’s my basic thoughts to the ‘steps’ of spell casting.
Usually CJB tells us there’s something big that needs to happen, and it probably won’t happen if we don’t do anything about it. This could be through blunt force we find an old spell somewhere that seems to solve some problem we have, or it’s a more nebulous ‘Gee, we don’t know how to solve this problem’.
Someone proposes doing some form of spellcasting. I usually try to look for things we’ve done in the past that were deemed ‘good’ and got successful results and see how that can be molded to meet the current dilema.
For better or for worse one way to know if you’re on the right track is if an NPC likes the post.
Sometimes it goes nowhere. I’ve suggested some dumb ideas in the past. (cough destroying the Magiq Guide cough) and when you hear that deafening silence and quiet judgement and no major NPC’s like your post and/or outright tell you that’s not the way the story is going to go. Just be cool with it and hop back on the train at the next stop.
One of the major ‘problems’ (might be too strong a word) we have sometimes with this process is how we balance the deep desire we have for everyone to input their ideas and feel valued, and the need to get something across the finish line at the end of the day. (Or in the case of the current spell, Feb 1st, 11 days away from our start.)
Trust me, we can talk a good game about any problem. We can talk forever about ideas. And we have. And then some NPC comes along and reminds us his house is on fire and it’d sure be nice if we implemented something soonish.
If we keep the floodgates of suggestions and improvements, and new ideas open forever then we’ll never have a workable set of steps. None of us want to be the person who says ‘We’re doing it this way, final answer. Here’s who’s doing what’. i do NOT like doing that job. It hurts my stomach to be honest to push things past brainstorming to decide what to include and not include. I’ve done it on some spells, Nimueh, Ginger, Ashburn, Revenir, Oraclesage have all pushed this over the finish line and I am grateful to every single one of them every time it’s not me. But it’s a job that needs to be done so the story moves along.
All that to say, we’re all just making this up. We’re trying to keep the story going in the world we like pretending we’re a part of for some part of our day. We desperately want each and everyone of you who wants to participate to get in there and feel like part of it. We’ll do everything we can to get you in there as well. For example, I’m about to suggest there’s no ‘maximum’ number of casters for the current spell, and the more the better. I just have to think of some in story way to frame that, but that’s the kind of stuff that goes on during this.
Always feel free to ask me, your local leaders, or anyone in general how the best way you can help. We don’t expect everyone to have an encyclopedic knowledge of that’s come before. If you know absolutely nothing about what’s going on and want to participate I’d be happy to be very specific.
For example here’s the current thinking on the spell we’re doing in practical, out of world, steps.
Goal: We want to take this tiny piece of magiq we have (the Aliquary) and use it to kickstart the next Book (age). Long story short some NPC basically told us that’s what this item is for, and Saberlane has basically told us it’s now time to do it.
The suggestions made early on are to use this item as fertilizer to ‘grow’ more magiq back into the world. And then we hope somehow that gets us where we want to go.
Actual, physical tasks to be done in this spell as currently proposed.
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Find some item you want to use on it to turn into a ‘magiq’ item.
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Come up with a story of charity, generosity, giving or otherwise good “growing” emotions as our intent . This is the Figuration part of the spell. Tell a story. It doesn’t have to be good, or long. it can be a poem, a picture, whatever inspires you and/or gets the message across you’re trying to send some good vibes here.
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Help us come up with some sort of ‘unifying thread’ to tie them all together. Usually this is done by all having some common refrain or chant to say after we each do our part. it’s just some storytelling fluff to make this all feel like one connected act as opposed to individual art projects.
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(Optional) come up with a story to describe what happens to your item if this is successful. Keep it small. You’re not creating the One Ring here, please. It’s a token of growth and generosity Maybe it just makes people feel safe when held, or helps them resist the cold (so you gave it to a homeless person in Winter) or whatever. You can say ‘It just feels different to me, but I know it worked somehow, I left it on a bus for someone to find and hope it brings them joy to use this new item of magic’.
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On the day in question, post your item and story. And wait with us to see if we’re told it was successful. usually by awesome story response from CJB.
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If all goes well, feel free to post your after affects, or not . Maybe pretend you have some spell sickness (or get really sick and blame spell sickness) for a few days after.
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Next time this all goes down, help out the new people. We were all new once.
then corrections feel like corrections and not like admonishments. It’s probably irrational but that’s still what I’ve noticed : j