Wave your wand, something happens. Wave your staff, sling your buddy around. Stick your hand out, [bleep] explodes. This is the state of magic in movies. Magic in Dungeons and Dragons, though, has always felt much more interesting, like there are esoteric processes and verbal, somatic or material requirements, and we hardly ever see that sort of thing in film and television. But I wanna talk about one show that I feel is full of wonderful inspiration for D&D and other tabletop RPGs in its portrayal of magic – the BBC mini-series Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

Greetings good humans and welcome back to Tabletop Alchemy, where your host labors under delusions of mad metaphors and sick similes. And also … random alliteration. It’s almost like I’ve been cursed with some weak version of a D&D spell, Samwell’s Slippery Spell of … something clever that, on a failed Charisma save, causes the target to constantly alliterate. 

Oh and check out my tee shirt today! I made it, I gotta like rise up here so you guys can see it. Here we go, yeah, there we go. Yeah, check out my shirt. all by myself. I’m looking – I’m looking over there, that’s my, that’s where my monitor is … to sorta see what I’m – making sure my headroom is all right and all that other stuff, but anyway! Yeah! I made this all by myself. With an app. Online. At tee spring. Which is not sponsored in any way. But hey,  it’s my first tee shirt and you can buy it. I don’t know why you would, but this seems like a very YouTuber thing to say and do.

All right, you and I both know we’re thirsty for good movies that visually depict magic in ways that feel like how magic feels in our D&D world. Showing magic and magical effects in ways other than just the typical “have an angry face, thrust out a hand and something explodes”. It’s pretty rare for that to be a satisfying visual depiction of magic because that particular action phrase is basically cinematic cliche at this point. Even in the Lord Of The Rings, Gandalf’s casting of magic is pretty lackluster, as far as how us D&D players perceive it. All right, at least how I perceive it. Harry Potter’s another example sort of on the other end of the spectrum, where you just wave your wand and literally anything can happen, without rhyme or reason. 

Don’t get me wrong, there are some very cool scenes in both of those series. 

But let’s face it, first off, GOOD fantasy flicks are kinda few and far between and then on top of that, really cool interpretations of magic within those good flicks are fewer and farther in between. Fantasy movies and tv shows are hard to make, they’re period pieces so you’ve got wardrobe and locations you have to build or dress and they typically have tons of visual effects and other cost-intensive stuff that impact the budgets. It’s just cheaper and easier to make something that takes place in a contemporary setting. 

All that said, I thoroughly enjoyed the BBC series based on Susanna Clarke’s book, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I enjoy it as an adaptation, which in and of itself is a rarity. I mean, as a filmmaker I know how hard it is to adapt something and I typically I’m prepared for the changes and compression that has to happen to stories being adapted. And even as adaptations go, I think Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell the show is a pretty decent adaptation of, let’s face it, a pretty large book.

But we’re not here to review the show overall, I just want to go on about one of the things I really, really like about the show, which is how the filmmakers depict the use of magic and its effects. I think there are numerous examples in the show that can be inspirational for how to describe magic in a role playing game session. Both from a player and a Dungeon Master perspective.

And of course, Spoilers. I mean, the book came out in 2004 and the show dropped in 2015. But nonetheless, SPOILERS – consider yourself warned. 

All right, let’s start with the idea of hard vs soft magic systems. I’m not a magic system scholar and to be honest, I think I can only just grasp the general concept. Like, I know an example of a soft magic system is Lord of the Rings, where the magic isn’t described hardly at all and how or why it works is intentionally vague, and that’s totally cool, it generates a certain kind of feeling, like magic is more mystery than anything else.

I also know there’s a lotta chatter online about how the author Brandon Sanderson writes hard magic systems and this seems to imply the magic functions in almost a technological way, with detailed information on how or why a magical effect occurs or is produced. 

I feel like D&D is kind of a hybrid, somewhere in the middle. Of course, it’s an RPG so it’s completely customizable. Some folks might like the granularity and precise description of how the magic is produced and some might like the more esoteric, mysterious manifestation of ethereal power. Personally, I’ve always liked this sort of hybrid approach. I like that there are some technical aspects, like ingredients – or, you know, I mean, “materials” – and somatic gestures – specific hand movements that aid in calling forth magical effects. I always kinda thought of these somatic gestures as kinda like playing a musical instrument. You move your hands like this, and a certain sound is produced. You move your hands like this, and I just airdropped you a fireball. I don’t – I’m just – I don’t know what this is, doesn’t feel very specific but you know, it’s somatic! Somatic.

Anyway, all this is to say that I think the magic in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is in the hybrid arena of soft versus hard magic systems, but it definitely veers closer to the Charmin side of the spectrum. Versus, I guess the … sand paper side of the spectrum? Sure.

Something I like that Matt Mercer does on Critical Role, and I’ve tried to keep in mind running my own D&D games, is how he asks a player to describe what their spell looks like. And I remember the Caleb character in Season Two, the Might Nein series, when he first cast Wall of Fire. 

And her eyes kinda flare for a second and she says “But that is okay, because I can.” I take a bit of phosphorus and squelch it through my hand and cast wall of fire across the entire length of the boat between them and us. That’s where we’re gonna pick up next week.

I just thought that physical description and actual somatic gesture he made at the table was so cool. And Liam O’Brien did that a lot through the Mighty Nein season, describing how his wizard character actually produced the magic.  

I don’t know if a lot of DMs treat magic this way or if a lot of players do or don’t, my guess is a lotta games just have folks saying, “I cast magic missile” and then rolling for damage. And that’s totally fine, and probably the norm. I just like the idea of adding a bit of detail here and there. Flavor, you know?

So how about some examples?

In the Strange and Norrell show, there’s a really cool version of the classic detect magic spell in action.

Some water! What on earth are you doing? Has Strange been here? Course he’s not. Where’s Norrel? Someone’s doing magic here. It’s in the square. What on earth are you talking about? What’s in the square? Magic! What are doing, man? Tell me, tell me, tell me. Madam! Madam!

I love that scene. I love that he asks for the glass of water, that’s he’s stumbling around in the street like a maniac with this glass of water, trying to look through it to see where the magic is coming from. I think part of what intrigues me about this type of thing is it places the magic in the world, so now the magic user is contending not only with generating magic, but also dealing with real world limitations. Like if he drops that glass of water, he can’t detect magic any more. And doing something physical always has inherent risks of failing, which automatically imparts – even if small – some sense of risk, of danger, of obstacle to overcome. Just feels like good storytelling. 

This here is just kind of an aside to the whole magic thing, but one little bit I really enjoyed in the Strange and Norrell story is the whole chasing of books at the beginning. I mean, that’s some classic D&D wizard [bleep] right there, right? I mean, how many times does the wizard in the party go shopping for books, or scrolls, or searching bodies and treasure for magical texts, looking for precious pages of spells to add to their spell book? It’s not even cliche, it’s literally an intrinsic part of being a wizard.  

Can you believe there are no books of magic to be had? In York? Books about magic are rare enough. Books of magic. Sir! We need fresh opinions. Oh I’m afraid that those books have been sold, sir. I reserved them! Yes I am sorry for it, sir. It is no matter. Do you have anything upon the nature of clouds, rain, atmosphere? Yes! Yes I do as a matter of fact! Oh that’s interesting. I’m most fascinated by clouds myself. Keep an eye open. Mr. Segundus! At least I can find the devil who keeps swiping my books! Yep, there. Norrell.

Here’s another fantastic rendition of a classic D&D spell that pops up in the show, the whole Speak With Dead incantation. 

We have some dead ones for all the good that will do. The magic I will do this night is not modern magic. In fact it is very ancient. Enough, that’s enough. Is that for the magic? Tis for the smell. You didn’t say they were so mutilated. Does it matter if they are? I suppose not. Only I have to look at them. Sharp knife please Ned. Borrowed life. Borrowed life. Borrowed life. Dear god, what language is that? Believe it may be one of the dialects of hell. They’ve learned it very quickly. Can you speak this language? Is that Italian? Be my guest. That’s more like it. Come along Grant. Ask them where the guns are. We have it sir! It’s in a small town called San Jacamore, on the road to Ville Torre, they’ve hidden it by the church.

Another thing I like about how Strange and Norrell treats its magic is how there are consequences the magicians have to deal with. Like how Strange is visibly upset when he discovers he doesn’t know how END the zombie spell.

What the devil are you doing up there? I do not know how to make them dead again. Set them loose and let them wander in the bushes. We have the French on the run and we need to press on. His Lordship is asking for you. We’ve not seen you in days, man. Look at them, poor wretches. What do they say? They, uh, they beg you not to send them back to Hell, they, uh, ask you to send them home to their little sons and daughters. No such power in this magic. I cannot in any way reverse it, I’ve tried everything. Everything?

Detailing consequences could really be cool when used appropriately in D&D games. It’s not something that can be hard ruled or anything, it’s just something a Dungeon Master can keep their eye out for and spring consequences on players when the time and story are right. 

How about the home security system Mr. Norrell has installed to protect his library? 

Come here and face me! Mr. Lascelles! We mustn’t leave the library! Come back! Mr. Lascelles! Stay with me, you’ll get lost! Mr. Lascelles! Childermass! Come out and face me! Mr. Norrell? Mr. Lascelles! Mr. Norrell!

Such a cool use of the labyrinth idea, the labyrinth as a spell or enchantment – in D&D it’s an eighth level spell called Maze. The spell description states that the wizard is sending the targeted entity to a “demi plane” to wander a labyrinth for a set duration of time, so not a far cry to sort of have the Maze spell function like a trap that characters fall or wander into. 

Another detail I dig in the show are the audio cues when magic happens, it’s like the world is bending slightly and warping all the wooden structures. 

And there’s this cool spell, it would certainly be from the school of Illusion in D&D, I don’t know if there’s a straight one-to-one correlation to a particular spell in the Players Handbook, but to me this feels like a very DnD style cantrip or something. Or maybe a first level spell with the ability to be cast at higher levels to allow larger and larger objects to be … mirrored? 

Why Mr. Strange! Oh my dear Mr. Strange, this is remarkable! I have never even heard of such magic. This is not recorded, sir. This is not in Sut- this is not in Sutton Grove! Is it a different color? Pick it up. Pick it up, pick it up! It is backwards. That is the reflection! The real one is in the mirror. I apologize sir I do not know how to bring it back. To earn the truth, I have only the haziest notion of what I did.

And of course you’ve got the classic water scrying spell, that’s used quite a bit in the show.

Arabella! She is not in the house, sir. We do not know where she is. She’ll freeze herself to death. Bring me some water, Mary. Now! Fill it up. Mr. Strange – quiet! Quiet! Sir, what is this meant to do? Find her. Not in England, not in Wales, not in Scotland.

And there are just cool phrases and little tidbits I find really inspiring for D&D role playing.

That place just breathed magic. I would think one would have to negotiate with the trees. A magician is not an easy thing to kill. Wherever magicians used to go perhaps. Beyond the sky, on the other side of the rain.

This next idea is just a cool example of the Susanna Clarke’s imagination – I’m sure something similar has been used in an RPG campaign somewhere or in another piece of media but I love the sort of Neil Gaiman-esque story of the origin of a certain book.

Show me this book. Show me this book if there is one. My rotten, no-good, bastard father was stupidly entrusted to deliver the book of the raven king. To a man in the Darbyshire Hills. The last man in England who could read the king’s letters. Unfortunately, en route, he got himself embroiled in a drinking competition with a blacksmith in Sheffield. And when challenged, proceeded to eat the book. Four years later I was born. With it written all over my infant body. You … are the book of the raven king.

And I love this next sequence where the two magicians – side note, I really like how the wizards or mages are called magicians, just a – it’s cool like that – sort of like taking back that modern day term of magician is you know an illusionist sort of a thing and applying it to actual magic users. But yeah, here the two magicians discuss how to summon an entity they don’t know the actual name of, ‘cause a classic trope in historical magical mythology is the idea that you need something related to or know the “true name” of to be able to summon it.

It need not matter that we do not know his name. Of course it matters! He was stolen into Fairy before he could be christened. He became the nameless slave, Mr. Strange, nameless! But if we use an ordinary English spell of summoning, we can make the elements of the spell identify him for us, can we not? No no, of course we cannot, I’ve never heard of such a thing! This house was built upon the raven king’s land, correct? With stones from the king’s abbey. The river that runs outside bore the king on its waters. And in … and in my garden is a pear tree … that is a direct descendent of some pips the king spat out when he sat in the garden. If we let the abbey stones be our envoy, the river be our path. The orchard pears be our hansel. Then we may name him simply the king. And the rivers, the stones, and the trees, they don’t know any other!

And you’ve got classic fast-travel by mirrors and of course the whole idea of a hidden world BEHIND the mirrors is another classic fantasy thing, right?

Good lord! Where did he go? It is the most amazing place I have ever seen. But what happened behind the mirror? I discovered … the king’s roads. The ancient paths between this land and the other realms.

And then there’s the whole idea of Fairy. Now, D&D itself is of course inspired by tons of classical English and European mythology, and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is drawing directly from that same historical and ancient content. The way Susanna Clarke and subsequently the filmmakers depict both the realm of Fairy – in D&D that’d be the Feywild right? – and Fairies themselves, the Fey, is super cool and illustrative of what I think original Fairy legends were like. Talk about being a shadowy place of twilight and grim shadows.

Currently, elves and fairies and whatnot are typically portrayed as things to aspire to or adventure with, et cetera. But back in the old days, the old days of Earth, I understand that Fairies were essentially stand-ins for demons! Like don’t make a deal with the devil is essentially don’t make a deal with a Fairy. And that’s a huge part of the plot of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and it couldn’t be more apt, right? Wizards having to deal with these dangerous but alluring entities that, if one took the right risks, one might reap powerful rewards in the form of having a Fairy servant or utilizing a Fairy’s magical knowledge or power for one’s own purpose. There are definitely echoes of the D&D warlock class drifting around in here.

What do you mean by summoning me here? What have you done to Lady Pole? I am bringing my lady to a ball. A gentleman must prepare. I summoned you because you cheated me. I have kept to the terms of our agreement. Half a life. Yes, but I thought she would just live to forty and then she had to die. I never said so. No one will ever know where she is when she sleeps. Half a life. That was our bargain.

That’s such a perfectly diabolical deal, right? Just a perfect example of twisting or undermining someone’s greedy goal. And of course there’s the necessary quest item, the token the Fairy takes to seal the deal. 

I should take something of the lady’s to signify my claim. One of her rings? No. Ah, I have it.

That token, in a D&D game, would obviously be the subject of a quest or campaign goal, for sure.

Who was the last English magician you dealt with? I do not have to tell you that. What token did he give you? I do not – Bring it to me! Bring me what you gained from your last dealings with an English magician. No. It is worthless. Utterly. A binding agreement, I think you said. Bring it to me.

And the Fairy, in the show played by Paul Kaye and in the book the character is known only as The Gentleman With The Thistledown Hair, this character is such a great demonic personality. He’s egotistical and ruthless and petty and cruel, all while confidant he’s leagues better than any stupid human. 

Watching this fellow try to do magic is like seeing a man sit down to eat dinner with his coat on backwards. And how did you come by this fortune, little pig person?

I love the enchantment he places on his victims – maybe it’s a curse versus an enchantment in game terms, I don’t know – but to protect his investment, he enchants them so that during their waking hours, they cannot inform anyone of their plight.   

I should warn you, I have made many attempts to tell people of what’s been done and I have not yet succeeded. In 1607, there was a silversmith named Redshaw who lived in the kingdom of Halifax West Yorkshire who inherited a Turkish rug. I’m sorry, that is not what I meant to say. What is the matter, Stephen? Madam, in 1349 there was a parson in Dunbridge, he was followed by a tiny man – I’m sorry Madam!

And the stakes are all very high in the story. I mean, the already once-resurrected Lady Pole feels so miserable under the curse she just wants to die again.

What can be done? I cannot free you of this enchantment milady. No! How old are you, milady? I am nineteen. I may tell you that you will live another 75 years under these circumstances. I’m sorry. No! Mr. Norrell! Mr. Norrell!!

Towards the latter half of the series, Strange is trying desperately to summon a fairy in order to bring his wife back from the dead. Of course, she’s not dead, he’s been duped by another great, flavorful use of magic by the Gentleman With The Thistledown Hair. 

We must find and awaken a moss oak. The moss oak is in there. The tears of the lady, shed in pain.

But he keeps failing, Strange can’t SEE the fairy when he summons him. So he goes on this quest for knowledge, looking for a way to see that which he can’t see. And this drives him finally to the conclusion that perhaps he needs to go mad in order to see things that are unseeable.

I did not see the fairy, that is the difficulty, to see and hear them. Yet there was one present who perceived him very clearly. Why could he, when I could not? Was this fellow a magician? No. No, this man was just … mad. But how does one work up a little madness in oneself? Perhaps I should go wandering, perhaps the wilderness will make me mad. I think you hit upon something, Grant.

And this is a concept I really, really get a kick out of. He kinda goes on this whole rampage of drug-addled craziness, trying everything he can to alter his perception so he can tune into whatever mysterious frequency will allow him to see a Fairy. To me it just feels so real, it’s like riffing on the idea of how people today go off searching for shamanistic psychedelic experiences, whether for entertainment or treating psychological conditions. 

And I am studying, experimenting. New magic. With what object? I wish to secure myself a fairy servant. I’m working to uncover the magic that might bring such a spirit forth. I have tried everything. None of it with the slightest success. But are they not wicked creatures? Is it not very dangerous to entrust with such a disreputable companion? To be sure. Fairies are naturally full of mischief and exceedingly difficult to control. Were I to succeed, I would have to proceed with the greatest caution. And besides, their knowledge and power are such that a magician cannot likely dispense with their help. Not unless that magician is Gilbert Norrell. Well, who are we to say that madness is a curse? For many people, poets for instance, it’s a gift.

And in the show, the pinnacle of this is when Strange ends up distilling madness down into a drug. That feels so Dungeons and Dragons to me! He finds an old woman who’s quite mad and works a deal out with her, she gets to be a cat and he gets to have her madness in physical form.

I want you to teach me … how to be mad. You question my wisdom? Now, madam, I will give you what you wish but in return you must give me something. To serve as a symbol and vessel of your madness. Do you agree? Capital. Well, one thing is certain madam you were very mad indeed. Just a drop or two I think. I have been thinking about your proposal and I perceive it to be an excellent plan.

I love all the alchemical laboratory gear and instruments, the sort of visual riffing on scientific pursuits theme, it all just feels like what I want in a DnD game. Like if my character walks into a mages tower, that’s all the kind of stuff I wanna see and interact with. 

There’s just so many cool things in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell – I mean, obviously I dig it, I had to make this whole video about just some of the magic. There are of course other scenes with more of that, you know, point your hand and things explode sorta gimmick but even those are typically executed in such a way that there’s some mock up of logic behind the casting of the spell.

What the hell are they? They’re called horses. I made them out of horse sand.

Even prophecy is treated in a way that I liked. Typically I really dislike “prophecy” type story gimmicks, they’re just so overused and usually really boring in and of themselves. But in this story the prophecy is genuinely obscure and yet fulfills itself in the end in a satisfying way. It’s definitely on that Charmin side of the magic spectrum, but something about the turn of phrase or whatever, I find really evocative.

Do you still not understand, John Childermass? They are the spell. They are the spell the raven king has spun and that is all they have ever been. He’s spinning it now.

All right, well, that’s probably more than enough. I hope you find some inspiration here for your D&D or RPG game, obviously I think you should watch the show or read the book if any of this looks interesting to ya. 

I’ll leave you with one of my absolute favorite lines in the show – which has nothing to do with magic.

Forgive me lady, you are his, uh, his special friend. What is he about in there?! Do you wish to be shot? No. Then behave differently.

Behave differently. See ya!