In many games where magic happens, magic is not ubiquitous. GURPS has levels of mana, and a low-mana world means a -5 on all spells cast. I'm in a D&D campaign right now where we're touring the planes of existence, and some spells work much better than others. I remember the Ravenloft campaign where dimension doors were verboten, both for plot reasons (can't trap the PCs if they can just pop out) and for atmosphere. Original D&D only allowed Elves and Humans to be magic users (temporarily ignoring divine magic for now). But, what does this mean? In the spirit of Snakes On A Plane style of advertising, that's what the article is about. Let's walk four paths and see where they lead.

"My deductions may be faulty. But the facts are physical ones, and anyone can test in their own district whether moats, mounds and churches do not line up in straight lines with a hill peak at one end, and with bits of old tracks and antiquarian objects on the line."

"Early British Trackways, Moats, Mounds, Camps, and Sites." Alfred Watkins. http://kobek.com/british.pdf

Scenario one: Laylines (or leylines, alternate spelling, or dragon tracks). This was popularized by Alfred Watkins in the 1920's; he noticed that old markers, mounds, and tracks followed what he felt were straight lines through the countryside, crisscrossing across England. It started out as more of an anthropological study, but quickly jumped the line to New Age theories, extending beyond England to world wide. But, let's focus on the small stuff. In England alone, the countryside is littered with these laylines. Between Glastonbury Tor and Somerton, you have to cross at least five or six of these lines. And I had another thought: "it would be cool if someone did a Google Maps / Google Earth interlay with laylines. But someone beat me to it. Trust me, you don't get much more spooky and conspiracy theory sounding than layline fanatics. So, anyway, we're tripping over these things constantly, yet they are very important to magicians because without them, they can't power their spells. In a modern world, we may be very orderly about everything, changing zoning laws to reflect where laylines are. In a less lawful society, it may start a war, just like not having access to an ocean port. And what if people can poison, destroy, or shift laylines? It adds another layer of intrigue to any spy campaign.

Some thoughts for this scenario. How common are they? In the Google Earth link above, it just plots the major lines, so access to them is limited. But, even the major lines encompass a lot of area, since they span the whole globe. I lived about 10 miles or so from one of the blue laylines, and I suspect that that's fairly common. How wide are the lines? If it is just a point in space a meter wide, then zoning may be a bit difficult, and every square inch of space is used to its fullest extent. But if the lines are a hundred meters wide (as Tom Williamson and Liz Bellamy claim in their book, Ley Lines In Question, where they debunk Watkins' ideas), then there is space enough for everyone, and it becomes more difficult to control these lines. You hopping on unsecured wireless connections.

Transport across laylines can be interesting. They could turn into the equivalent of a railroad system, with people telekinetically moving items from nation to nation. Of course, geography has a say in this as well; a layline that goes up a mountain wouldn't be used as much as one that goes across a field. And of course, bandits may also be able to tap the magic to hijack a transport.

From a campaign / gaming side of things, laylines are nice because it's a predictable way of changing the campaign. If you want to have the fighters/thieves/non-magic users have the spotlight, then the next dungeon adventure is miles away from a layline. One of the reasons why no one higher is trying to fulfill the quest is because it's away from a magic source. Then, next session, have it on a layline and have your magic users shine. Or burn, or freeze, or spark.

Scenario two: Atlantis. Ah, Atlantis. I'm going deep in fantasy here, aren't I. First, a history lesson. Atlantis was described in 348 BCE by Plato, told by Solon from an earlier age. It was more of an allegorical island, although Ignatius Donnelly, Helena Blavatsky, and other Theosophists have come up with the idea that Atlantis was infused with magic or higher technology. Atlantis was also used to link pyramids in Central America and Egypt and flood legends from multiple cultures; everyone evolved (or devolved if you consider that the Atlanteans were the peak of civilization/humanity) from this one cultre. For a gaming version, probably the best resource is GURPS Atlantis; it goes through a "straight" telling of the myth and a more Illuminated setting, along with everything you need to know about underwater combat and travel.

Anyway, the idea is magic emanates from a central point. Much like the rings of Atlantis, someone close to the source has a lot of power, and as you move away, you lose power. You can substitute Atlantis for Mu, Lemuria, England, or any number of places. So, what does this mean?

Well, it partly depends on the place. It would be tempting to think that if someone had full control over magic, it would take control over the world. And it may. But, its closest neighbors are next in line for getting magic, which may cause issues. Plus, magic isn't just having the power, it's being able to use it. Finally, a truly magical place may not see much worth in taking over the world. If the society depends on magic, then if they try to move outside their land, the thing that makes them powerful fails. Instead, they may turn insular, not caring about the rest of the world.

And if it gets too powerful, there's always a volcano and tidal wave to take care of the problem.

Scenario three: Good/Evil places. OK, moving back to a more fantastic world. I'm thinking of the old Archon computer game, where you have two poles of magical energy, one "good" (life affirming, healing) and one "evil" (death, destruction). As the good pieces moved from one side to another (and as the phase changed, but lets leave that out of it), the good magic loses power and the evil magic gains. This is fairly common in literature, and it adds a level of tension to know you're attacking someone on his home turf. Most games don't do this because, well, lowering a character's powers just as you get to the climax is not fun. But if you have players who are game, it can be fun. And you can tempt players to learn the dark arts, so they can get that extra boost of power, but at a price.

In a way, this is like the second scenario, except there are multiple points of magical points. Something to look into is what is involved in creating one of these points. And that sounds like a start of a massive campaign.

"The smug look on Malfoy's face flickered. "òNo one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood,' he spat. Harry knew at once that Malfoy had said something really bad because there was an instant uproar at his words."

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J. K. Rowling.

Scenario four: The chosen ones. Yes, stealing from the popular. The idea is there's a line of people who can use magic, and then there's everyone else. Magicians and Muggles. In the Harry Potter world, Muggles can learn magic, but my vision is a bit more"¶intolerant. I'm thinking of the GURPS "Magic" advantage. If you don't have it, you can't use it. You can hardly pick up a book and not find the chosen one trope.

This gets into troublesome territory; if in your world, some races are inherently more powerful than others, you run into racial issues. An easy way to diffuse this is to point out that D&D races are different species, and not the cultural definition of race used commonly. No one's going to argue that an average cheetah is faster than an average sloth; likewise, some species can fly, and others cannot. It's all biology. And if that doesn't work, point them to the YouTube video of Edward James Olmos's presentation at the United Nations. Another issue is dealing with game balance. Again, GURPS, Savage Worlds, and Hallow Earth handles this through a point-based system; D&D and non-point system would need to handle this through experience points or problems with the race (prejudice, lower strength, etc.). As always, don't cripple the race, but make the disadvantages count in the game.

There are two options with creating the race. First, you can have the race be very obvious. They have wings, or are seven feet tall with blue skin. When they walk into a room, all eyes turn to them, because they are inherently powerful. The other option is like Harry Potter, magicians look just like regular people. It turns into an X-Men style world, where the magicians can pretend to be normal, and even ignore their power if they are in denial for long enough. This, of course, makes everyone a suspect, and if the Mundanes realize that supernatural people exist, then crackdowns happen.

Any one of these scenarios would work in a game. I predict that next column is going to be precognition and retrocognition, and the particular problems these raise for the GM. Until then.