
1
Chapter 1
How to Use This Book
T
grimoire: a guidebook to the construction of magic
systems that doubles as a compendium of arcane lore, encompass-
ing the theory, history, and structure of magic systems in both games
and human belief. e book thus combines the rigors of scholarly analy-
sis with the strengths of a handbook for game design and a textbook of
magic. e book is a cookbook, a compendium of recipes, a spellbook for
weaving more potent and subtler magic in games. e text is intercut with
examples of how to design and program magic systems written as snippets
of pseudocode, with working examples downloadable from the book ...