Another review of Mysteries of Magic
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 3:54 am
Hobbes, if you're out there, you may not want to read this!
First off, let me just say that Mr. Hall was not the only author of this title, therefore the blame for whatever you folks may not have liked can not be placed squarely on his shoulders. Not knowing what he wrote and what Kevin wrote makes it difficult to determine what info came from where. (Although, being a fan of Mark's work, I think I can tell his style from Kevin's.)
Now, we're off.
Book One: The Heart of Magic
It's pretty obvious from the get go that this book is intended as a segway into greater mysteries. All the background and history on magic and it's various uses is put there for a reason. People were complaining about how much information was reprinted in this volume. Look at it from the perspective of someone that hasn't read a lot of the other books. If Kevin (and I'm assuming here that it was him that did it) hadn't put all that re-written but admittedly repeated information in there, it is very likely that someone who only has a few books in the Fantasy line may have been completely lost. It was all necessary, and frankly, I'm glad it was in there. Makes sense to have all the magic history together in a magic book where you don't have to weed through a bunch of other classess and facts to find what you're looking for.
The first part of the book, in which the mage Symmelene is talking to his new apprentice I thought was very well written and entertaining to boot. It wasn't too long and did the job of getting the point across that different mages will view magic differently. Different mages will learn different spells and find different things appealing about magic. Different strokes for different folks, right?
I'm not going to go through this book section by section, I'm simply going to talk about the parts that jumped out at me. Admittedly, I haven't read the thing cover to cover yet, though I will. Life ensues and I just haven't had the time as yet. (Those airplanes won't build themselves.) The next part of the book that really jumped out at me was the section on PPE. The fact that a mage can use more PPE than what is generally considered the personal limit was a stroke of genius to me. IT's also going to be a nightmare, as I have a player in my group that uses magic in ways no one ever considers, and this just opened a whole new reality for him. I look forward to seeing what he throws at me next.
Careers in Magic. I thought this was a good idea. Sure, a player with a bit of imagination might be able to come up with a few unique ways for their mages to make money, but not everyone can think like that, so having this part in the book allows those of us with a little less imagination to read the ideas of those who have obviously done this before. I have to say thank you for putting this in, it will be useful.
I confess, I didn't see much purpose to the section on clergy. I understand, I think, why it was put in the book, but I don't necessarily think that it needed to be. Priests aren't true magic users, so I'm not sure they had a real reason for being in a book that is, largely, about magic and magic users. Still, I know without any doubt that some people will find this quite useful.
I thought the sections on auras and familiars were brilliant. It's about time that someone thought of those poor, under appreciated animal companions. They needed some more power to make them, not only more useful, but also give them more survivability. And the fact that their life spans are incredibly lengthened was a good idea, I know my mages are always devestated when their familiars die. It's bad enough when they're killed in combat, I don't need them dying of old age, too!
Not much to say on the magic guild creation rules, but I think that they were necessary and they will be very useful, especially to myself, since I now have rules to use in the creation of the guild in my own fantasy city, from which most of my campaigns are launched, Peacehope.
Revisiting the scroll conversion was awesome. I've always believed that there wasn't enough mentioned on this subject, and now I'm quite happy to say that my players will be far more cautious in the converting of scrolls. Thank you for this, it has made my job as a GM much easier.
Loved the section on True Names. I recently ran a brief campaign that dealt primarily with true names, and I'm a little surprised to find that my ideas, used before this book had seen print, and those in the book are nearly identical. Great minds think alike, I guess? But this was awesome, and very well done. I'm glad it made the final cut of the book, as there wasn't enough known about true names before this.
Absolutely loved the Forsaken Mage. I've already created one for myself, and he's been play tested in my most recent games. Works quite well, and he's already a favorite of my players. (Granted, I'm using him as an NPC, but he's a good guy, and they seem to like him.) I confess I'm not sure how I feel about the Half Wizard yet. The jury is still out on that one.
Lastly, the additional spells, while not hugely useful, will be fun to play with in game. NOt every spell in the world has to be useful in combat. IN fact, in my experience, a mages true talent is gauged not by his repertoire of fighting spells, but by the variety of magic at his disposal. These are good flavor spells, as I like to call them. Spells that add character to a mage because they're something that not just anyone is likely to have.
I've rambled enough. Good job Mark. Thanks for giving us some new PF stuff.
Looking forward to Volumes Two and Three.
First off, let me just say that Mr. Hall was not the only author of this title, therefore the blame for whatever you folks may not have liked can not be placed squarely on his shoulders. Not knowing what he wrote and what Kevin wrote makes it difficult to determine what info came from where. (Although, being a fan of Mark's work, I think I can tell his style from Kevin's.)
Now, we're off.
Book One: The Heart of Magic
It's pretty obvious from the get go that this book is intended as a segway into greater mysteries. All the background and history on magic and it's various uses is put there for a reason. People were complaining about how much information was reprinted in this volume. Look at it from the perspective of someone that hasn't read a lot of the other books. If Kevin (and I'm assuming here that it was him that did it) hadn't put all that re-written but admittedly repeated information in there, it is very likely that someone who only has a few books in the Fantasy line may have been completely lost. It was all necessary, and frankly, I'm glad it was in there. Makes sense to have all the magic history together in a magic book where you don't have to weed through a bunch of other classess and facts to find what you're looking for.
The first part of the book, in which the mage Symmelene is talking to his new apprentice I thought was very well written and entertaining to boot. It wasn't too long and did the job of getting the point across that different mages will view magic differently. Different mages will learn different spells and find different things appealing about magic. Different strokes for different folks, right?
I'm not going to go through this book section by section, I'm simply going to talk about the parts that jumped out at me. Admittedly, I haven't read the thing cover to cover yet, though I will. Life ensues and I just haven't had the time as yet. (Those airplanes won't build themselves.) The next part of the book that really jumped out at me was the section on PPE. The fact that a mage can use more PPE than what is generally considered the personal limit was a stroke of genius to me. IT's also going to be a nightmare, as I have a player in my group that uses magic in ways no one ever considers, and this just opened a whole new reality for him. I look forward to seeing what he throws at me next.
Careers in Magic. I thought this was a good idea. Sure, a player with a bit of imagination might be able to come up with a few unique ways for their mages to make money, but not everyone can think like that, so having this part in the book allows those of us with a little less imagination to read the ideas of those who have obviously done this before. I have to say thank you for putting this in, it will be useful.
I confess, I didn't see much purpose to the section on clergy. I understand, I think, why it was put in the book, but I don't necessarily think that it needed to be. Priests aren't true magic users, so I'm not sure they had a real reason for being in a book that is, largely, about magic and magic users. Still, I know without any doubt that some people will find this quite useful.
I thought the sections on auras and familiars were brilliant. It's about time that someone thought of those poor, under appreciated animal companions. They needed some more power to make them, not only more useful, but also give them more survivability. And the fact that their life spans are incredibly lengthened was a good idea, I know my mages are always devestated when their familiars die. It's bad enough when they're killed in combat, I don't need them dying of old age, too!
Not much to say on the magic guild creation rules, but I think that they were necessary and they will be very useful, especially to myself, since I now have rules to use in the creation of the guild in my own fantasy city, from which most of my campaigns are launched, Peacehope.
Revisiting the scroll conversion was awesome. I've always believed that there wasn't enough mentioned on this subject, and now I'm quite happy to say that my players will be far more cautious in the converting of scrolls. Thank you for this, it has made my job as a GM much easier.
Loved the section on True Names. I recently ran a brief campaign that dealt primarily with true names, and I'm a little surprised to find that my ideas, used before this book had seen print, and those in the book are nearly identical. Great minds think alike, I guess? But this was awesome, and very well done. I'm glad it made the final cut of the book, as there wasn't enough known about true names before this.
Absolutely loved the Forsaken Mage. I've already created one for myself, and he's been play tested in my most recent games. Works quite well, and he's already a favorite of my players. (Granted, I'm using him as an NPC, but he's a good guy, and they seem to like him.) I confess I'm not sure how I feel about the Half Wizard yet. The jury is still out on that one.
Lastly, the additional spells, while not hugely useful, will be fun to play with in game. NOt every spell in the world has to be useful in combat. IN fact, in my experience, a mages true talent is gauged not by his repertoire of fighting spells, but by the variety of magic at his disposal. These are good flavor spells, as I like to call them. Spells that add character to a mage because they're something that not just anyone is likely to have.
I've rambled enough. Good job Mark. Thanks for giving us some new PF stuff.
Looking forward to Volumes Two and Three.