[Perry] Magic Systems: The Bait and Switch

Alright.

With regard to magic systems, we’ve talked about the good and the bad.

Now let’s talk about the ugly.

What I consider the bait and switch magic system is one that starts off by having you think it works a certain way, but then turning around and yelling, “Gotcha!” as it yanks the rug right out from under you.

To be clear though, this isn’t a reference to the system of exceptions. Stories that use the idea of exceptions are usually the ones that use prophecies or ‘Chosen Ones.’ They’re the ones that take place in the land of the blind but a poor farm boy somewhere gains the power to see and goes around overthrowing tyrants and the Big Bads all over the place.

No, this isn’t a reference to those systems at all. They have their place.

To use a more concrete example, we’ll take a look at a novel called Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty.

There will be major spoilers for said novel in this post so if you feel like taking a gander at the novel first before reading any further, by all means =)

With all respect to Lafferty, I thought that the novel had a wonderful concept that suffered a bit of a misstep about halfway through.

The story is about a city where superheros and villains duke it out on a regular basis but centers around a group of misfits, “third wavers” who have powers that just aren’t that…crime-fighty.

The protagonist, Keepsie, has a passive ability where anything that falls into her possession, nobody can take it away from her without her permission, express or implied. Attempting to do so results in the person getting frozen in place until Keepsie lets them go.

The story was fine for a while, very promising in fact. While Keepsie has what’s regarded as a minor power, it becomes useful when a villain slips an important object to her for safekeeping (because nobody can take her things away from her). The heroes come looking for it but tired of being pushed around, Keepsie refuses to give it up and there’s this wonderfully ambivalent moment where you’re rooting for the villains even though you know you’re not really supposed to.

Things get sort of interesting a little later on with the revelation that Keepsie can’t be killed. She can’t be killed because murder is essentially ‘stealing’ someone’s life and as we’ve established, nobody can steal something from Keepsie without her permission.

It’s after this promising development that things kind of go to the pot and I’m going to place the lion’s share of the blame on the magic system.

One character who can ‘know’ details about a person by smelling them discovers that if he kisses them (taste being a part of the sense of smell), he can know MUCH more about them. Then he accidentally inhales another person who could turn into gases and there’s this whole possession thing going on.

Another character’s talent is that she can lift bar trays with perfect balance and no effort, regardless of the weight or if it’s balanced or not. This character discovers halfway through that she can lift ANY flat surface with perfect balance and no effort regardless of its weight or if it’s balanced. At one point, her friends hop onto a bed and she lifts it without any problem (cause it’s a flat surface, duh) and off she goes, carrying everybody around the city.

Oh, there’s a villain who’s power is that he can make machines out of metal and they do what he bids. His name is Doodad. At one point, he receives an injection that amplifies his powers and he creates a gateway to another dimension (cause he’s so awesome with machines) and winged demons and a huge tentacle monster form the final conflict that our heroes face.

No, I’m not exaggerating in the slightest bit.

Here’s what I think the problem is.

You see, from the start, we’ve been shown a very specific magic system and the development with Keepsie’s powers (the first incident) is a deepening of that system. It’s plausible because despite her power ALWAYS working this way, if nobody’s ever tried to kill her before, it’s definitely possible that this ramification of her talent might have escaped her until now.

The other developments are increasingly implausible and it shows. Is it reasonable to assume that the sniffer guy hasn’t kissed or licked anyone, EVER? He’s portrayed as a guy in his late twenties, early thirties and I find it a little hard to believe that he’s never been on a date or ever kissed a girl in his life.

What about the bar tray girl? Are we to seriously believe that she’s NEVER tried to lift any sort of flat object before and noticed that it weighed nothing?

I don’t even want to go into Mr. I’m Going To Create a Portal to Hell. The story just completely jumps the shark there for no discernible reason and it was incredibly frustrating. Frustrating because I really liked what she had been doing up until that point and then I just wanted to throw the book across the room.

In a way, it hit me the same way the movie Hancock did, with Will Smith. It seemed like a wonderful idea but about halfway through, the execution falters and it all goes to pieces.

The fault, to me, lies with the way the magic system worked. When the story starts, we’re told the magic works like this and the story will be about that. Halfway through though, suddenly the magic works this other way instead and as a direct result of the change, the story is now about dimensional gateways populated by tentacle monsters.

The end of Playing for Keeps extends the silliness even further when Keepsie is lauded by the city for helping to save it. The mayor presents her with the key to the city and Keepsie, with a devilish glint in her eye, says, “My city, huh? I like the sound of that.”

This implies that now her power extends to the city with a sly nod and a wink.

This only makes the problem worse. With that little smirk-y ending, it makes the car wreck of a magic system infinitely worse as it combines the worst of the bait and switch with the worst of the arbitrary systems!

It’s HER city? It was HER city before they gave her the key too, wasn’t it? And on that note, isn’t it HER country? Couldn’t you say that this is HER religion? Earth is HER planet? Her universe? Her reality?

Ugh.

Despite all of this though, I feel I would be irresponsible if I didn’t stress that I’m not saying the bait and switch is ALWAYS bad.

It’s just that compared to the other systems out there, it has more potential to be misused and to hurt your story by attempting to incorporate it.

The only times I think I’ve actually seen something like this put to good use are more…satirical or comedic pieces, like the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.

The bait and switch is hard to do well and if you’re someone that can pull it off, more power to you. For the rest of us, I would advise a great deal of caution and a LOT of advice/thoughts from the trusted readers and writers in our lives.

Related posts:

[Perry] Magic Systems: Arbitrary Versus Rules
[Perry] Magic Systems: The Hook
Audio Book Magic