Homework: Magic Malfunction

With guest editor Wally Waltner!

“I didn’t ask how big the room was. I said I cast fireball!”

—nearly every spellcasting RPG player character ever

There’s a wide variety of stories that can be told here, and that, I think, is part of the appeal. Nearly any setting will work, though I’ll say if you try to do a Clarke’s Third Law-style of story (“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”), you’re playing on hard mode, and you’d better nail the “indistinguishable” part of that law.

The main thing I will adhere to in evaluating stories for Magic Malfunction: there must be consequences. If there’s no cost to a spell gone sideways, it’s not going to make as interesting a story. The consequences can be the punchline, or they can be the obstacle to overcome. They can be comedic or tragic. They can come about by accident or by design. The intentions can be pure or selfish. Regardless, the focus of the story must be the unexpected, unplanned outcome.

Faustian bargains. The price of hubris. The uninitiated (or inept) getting themselves well over their heads. Taking shortcuts. Overestimating your abilities. These are the kinds of things that will resonate in an anthology like Magic Malfunction.

“Adding ‘thigh of newt’ to the shopping list wasn’t working out how he thought it would.”

The first thing that came to mind for me when thinking of examples to draw inspiration from was The Sorcerer’s Apprentice from Disney’s Fantasia. (That iconic bassoon solo is now in everyone’s head!) Mickey KNOWS he should not be messing with the wizard’s hat, but he does, and were it not for his master bailing him out, would have paid dearly for it.

Other examples of media that explore these themes:

• Any of the variations of the Faustian bargain – Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Goethe’s Faust, Benet’s The Devil and Daniel Webster, etc.

• The Tale of Taliesin

• Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series

• Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files

• David Eddings’s The Belgariad series

• Bill Willingham’s Fables graphic novels

• Various subplots from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, including the entire sixth season

"Fair is foul and foul is fair. Don't make love potions with back hair."

Magic Malfunction
With guest editor Wally Waltner!

Did you stutter over that incantation? Utter the wrong magic words? Do the spirits not understand homonyms? Did you say “Raze the building” or “Raise the building”? A misread ingredient tossed in the cauldron? "No, I didn't say thigh of newt!" Did Amazon ship your nemesis a blessing instead of the painful affliction you ordered? What happens when spells, potions, and hexes don't go as planned?

Opens: 01/04/25
Closes: 03/09/25
Contracts: 03/23/25
Publication: 04/18/25