Some of you guys seem to enjoy these, so wanted to post my latest fantasy legal regulation!
My Magical Code of Regulations is already done, but maybe it'll make it into a second edition 🤷
Also, my cat familiar.
Hey, guys. Have been working on something else for a while now, and finally finished it. It was more of a fantasy reference book as opposed to a novel, so I’m kinda out of practice. But I came up with this idea for a cozy-ish story about a potato farmer who decides he needs to kill a prospective king in order to save his farm, and wanted to share the first page here. My tone is usually more Discworld-ish, and was going for something a bit different here. Just wanted to get some thoughts on this.
Would you read on? Is the tone too much for you? What’s your favorite type of potato?
Appreciate any and all opinions. Thanks!
Pitch: The Magical Code of Regulations is a 499-page fantasy legal code governing spellcasting, necromancy, magical creatures, ley lines, cursed objects, dimensional travel, and nearly every other aspect of magical life. Written entirely in the style of real statutes and regulations, it what magic would be like if it was regulated by your local bureaucrats.
Blurb: Ever wondered whether a wand must be registered before it can be used in public, or what documentation must be filed before casting a fireball? Curious how many forms stand between you and a legally compliant resurrection, or whether your familiar qualifies as a protected creature or a reportable asset?
The Magical Code of Regulations has answers. Or at least, it has rules.
Presented as the official body of law governing magic, the Code defines who may cast, what may be cast, and under what authority it may all go wrong. It establishes licensing requirements, classifies spells by risk and complexity, regulates rituals, familiars, and magical property, and outlines the penalties for getting any of it wrong.
Structured like a real legal code and written with complete sincerity, The Magical Code of Regulations is a fantasy rulebook of spellcasting law, arcane regulation, and magical compliance. Whether the system works is addressed elsewhere in the Code.
Tropes: magical academia, rules-heavy worldbuilding, legal satire, dark humor, deadpan comedy, D&D-inspired fantasy
Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX2SX1NJ
DriveThruRPG (eBook only!): https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/566282/the-magical-code-of-regulations
Hey, guys. Posted last week about my book that was coming out, and you all really seemed excited for the physical editions to come out. Well, the Amazon gods decided to bless me a few hours early, and both the paperback and hardcover editions are now available at the link below!
For those that didn't see it last week, it's a 499-page fictional set of laws governing the use of magic. Useful for D&D players and DMs, other TTRPG players, people that just want a cool-ass coffee table book, and people that just love themselves some law and some worldbuilding. Here's my blurb:
Ever wondered whether a wand must be registered before it can be used in public, or what documentation must be filed before casting a fireball? Curious how many forms stand between you and a legally compliant resurrection, or whether your familiar qualifies as a protected creature or a reportable asset?
The Magical Code of Regulations has answers. Or at least, it has rules.
Presented as the official body of law governing magic, the Code defines who may cast, what may be cast, and under what authority it may all go wrong. It establishes licensing requirements, classifies spells by risk and complexity, regulates rituals, familiars, and magical property, and outlines the penalties for failing to follow any of it properly.
Structured like a real legal code and written with complete sincerity, The Magical Code of Regulations offers a comprehensive system for managing magic. Whether that system actually works is addressed elsewhere in the Code.
And here's what some early reviewers had to say:
>“An unnecessarily comprehensive and deeply inconvenient framework. Several of my longstanding plans now require prior authorization.” -Glorgon the Destroyer, Antagonistic Entity of Prophetic Significance #33
>“Clear, thorough, and appropriately burdensome. I have no notes, though I will be requesting additional documentation.” -Arthur B. Wexler, Senior Auditor, Department of Magical Affairs
But yeah, hope you guys check it out and enjoy the most boring read of 2026! Thanks!
Pantser here with recurring blood clots (which are fine, I guess), and recurring writer's block (which is not fine). Wanted to post a quick tip here to help others here who may be a bit stuck, and looking for a way to get past their writer's block.
Basically, you always hear people say that to get over writer's block, you need to just pUt wOrDs oN pApEr! And this is true. But then how do you know which words to put (isn't that kinda the point of writer's block)?
Enter what I call chain-linking. Take the subject or a key word of your last sentence, and immediately follow the next sentence up with that word, and find a way to relate it to one of your characters - usually with a simile or metaphor.
Here's a quick, dumb example. Say that the last sentence of your chapter ended with something like this:
The townsfolk prepared their pitchforks.
You then make the first sentence of your next chapter begin with something related to "prepared" or "pitchforks." For example:
Pitchforks were like regular forks in that they were best used to stab blood-filled, meaty things. Gourd preferred his meat a bit more gamey than most, so he stuck to the indigenous folk in the woods.
or
Being prepared required one to know what to be prepared for. One could prepare their lunch without a second thought as to the need to prepare the city's defenses.
It just gives you a sort of jumping off point, and can help you move on and kEeP wRiTiNg. You can always go back and change it later on. And it's also good practice to help you link seemingly unrelated things.
I could go on and on with more examples, but I think I made a somewhat brief point. Chain-link your sentences, and I promise it becomes easier to get over writer's block.
Currently, my physical books are on Amazon and IngramSpark, but I believe I'd get more sales on TikTok by setting up a small TikTok Shop.
However, how do you actually get stock and fulfill orders? Like, Amazon, for example, only allows 999 lifetime author copies. So, I know it's not that.
Do people use different printers or something, and hold stock in their houses and they ship books out in their own? Guess I just dint understand how it works. Would be nice if I could just integrate it with Amazon or IngramSpark!
Basically, wrote a big fictional code of regulations governing magic, and am releasing it soon. However, ads on numerous sites (reddit, TikTok, Amazon) don't really seem to be leading to many purchases. It's a very niche (see: non-existent) genre, but I feel like if it gets in front of the right people, I may garner some interest.
So, for more niche fantasy-oriented stuff, where are you guys advertising? Are you making promo trailers, or just using static images of the cover? Just want to know how to make my launch on Saturday the best it can possibly be.
Hey guys,
Some of you have probably seen bits of this already, but I wanted to share the final product.
I’ve been building out a project called The Magical Code of Regulations, which is exactly what it sounds like: a full legal code for magic, written in the style of real administrative law. It treats magic the way we treat things like tax and finance, with a ton if oversight, licensing, enforcement, and a whole lot of bureaucratic gobbledy-gook.
499 pages of it, in fact, lol. Was inspired from my time at the IRS, where I stared at tax code all day. Eventually, learned to embrace the pain, and wanted to exert that pain on others, whether they be worldbuilders, D&D players and DMs, writers, or just people that want a cool-ass coffee table book.
The focus from a worldbuilding standpoint is primarily about how a society would realistically try to control magic. So instead of just defining spells or systems, it gets into questions like who is authorized to cast, how high risk magic is classified, what happens when someone bends the rules, and how different areas like necromancy or prophecy get carved out and handled differently.
One thing I leaned on pretty heavily was the use historical annotations to include little notes about when and why something was enacted, which ends up doubling as worldbuilding. It’s kind of like how, in real life, you can trace legislation and case history to understand why a rule exists in the first place, except here those explanations sometimes involve magical disasters, political overreactions, or someone very specific causing a problem that now everyone else has to deal with (thanks, David).
It’s meant to read like a real system that exists inside a semi-functioning world (but with some humorous sections added in for some levity), and I thought you guys might find it interesting because I just haven't seen others go as in-depth when it comes to fantasy law, and I think you could find use for it when crafting your own worlds and stories!
Anyways, if you’re interested, the eBook is up for pre-order on Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX2SX1NJ
And it’s already available as an ePub on DriveThruFiction here:
https://www.drivethrufiction.com/en/product/566282/the-magical-code-of-regulations?affiliate_id=5121378
Print versions on Amazon are planned for May 12, maybe a bit sooner if I can manage.
More than anything though, I’m curious how other people approach this side of worldbuilding. A lot of magic systems focus on rules and limitations, but not as much on governance. If your world has magic, what actually keeps it in check? Is there a formal system, or is it more cultural, religious, or just chaos that no one’s figured out how to contain?
Would love to hear how you’ve handled it.
I know about halfway through the scream, I kinda faltered a bit. Just looking for general opinions. I'd eventually love to make music, but always feel like my screams just aren't there.
Hey, guys. Wanted to first thank the mods for allowing me to post this here!
My name is Christopher Frigo, I'm an author and D&D enthusiast from Charlotte, NC. I used to be an IRS auditor, staring at tax code all day. Eventually, I learned to embrace the pain and started to love the structure and breadth of the rule of law.
So, I combined two of my passions: D&D, and law. As you can imagine from the title and the pictures, this ended up becoming the Magical Code of Regulations, which is 499 pages of bureaucratic gobbledy-gook nonsense governing the use of magic. 600-some-odd for the eBook version. It covers, spellcasting licenses, eldritch creature containment, dragon regulations, necromancy, demonic contracts, and much, much more. Needless to say, it's pretty dense, lol.
It's not an exact 1:1 D&D supplement, but it's meant to be system-agnostic, so it can be useful for both D&D players and DMs, as well as TTRPG players as a whole.
And while most of it is straightforward, there are numerous humorous sections to add a bit of levity!
Anyways, I finally dropped the pre-order of the eBook, and wanted to ask permission to post here because I think you guys might really enjoy it. I've attached a few images of random pages from the print version, and all three of these (eBook, hardcover, and paperback) officially come out on May 12th.
Edit: should've mentioned, if you want to be notified when the physical editions come out, there is a mailing list in my profile bio. I don't spam or anything, will just send the one email when it releases.
If this is something up your alley, if you love torturing your players (or your DM), if you just want a cool-looking book on your coffee table, would really appreciate you guys taking a look at the link below! I promise you've never seen fantasy law even close to this detailed!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX2SX1NJ
Edit 2:
Didnt realize how many people used DriveThruRPG and the likes. So, here's the DriveThruFiction link, where the .epub is available with no wait:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/566282/the-magical-code-of-regulations?affiliate_id=5121378
Picture 1 is just me covering the "bend" mark. Pic 1 is how it is now, with the bend mark in it. Pic 3 and 4 show how the spine is a bit off-center. Just curious what your thoughts are on these? I don't want to wait for more proofs, but I'm tempted to make a small adjustment to the paperback and risk it.
Want to make a beautiful version of something like NYC or Chicago, but I never know how to organize anything, even after watching a ton of CPP. Maybe this just isn't my game (to thrive at, at least).
How do you all do it?!?!
Blurb: Ever wondered whether a wand must be registered before it can be used in public, or what documentation must be filed before casting a fireball? Curious how many forms stand between you and a legally compliant resurrection, or whether your familiar qualifies as a protected creature or a reportable asset?
The Magical Code of Regulations has answers. Or at least, it has rules.
Presented as the official body of law governing magic, the Code defines who may cast, what may be cast, and under what authority it may all go wrong. It establishes licensing requirements, classifies spells by risk and complexity, regulates rituals, familiars, and magical property, and outlines the penalties for failing to follow any of it properly.
Structured like a real legal code and written with complete sincerity, The Magical Code of Regulations offers a comprehensive system for managing magic. Whether that system actually works is addressed elsewhere in the Code.
Triggers: None
Exact date of publication: 05/12/2026 (may push this out one or two weeks, depending on how my author proofs look)
The date you plan to send your ARCs to my team: Immediately upon viewing request
The date you expect your ARC team to finish the reading and submit their reviews by: 05/17/2026 (or one week past date of publication)
Instructions/link for readers to sign up for your ARC: Just reply to this thread, or email me at christopherfrigoauthor@gmail.com
Other notes: Not really a sit-down-and-read type of book, more like a D&D-style reference guidebook. Don't expect anyone to read every single word of 499 pages of magical legalese, lol. Just trying to garner some interest, so would love to get D&D and other TTRPG players and DMs, worldbuilders, fantasy writers, and the like. Most of my other existing ARC readers fall into these categories.