Role Playing Books

THER IS NO OTHER BOOK LIKE IT IN THE WORLD TODAY THAT THE AUTHOR SAYS HE WAS INSPIRED TO WIRTE THIS BOOK AND TELLS US ABOUT A FUTURE BOOK CALLED MACROSS45 WITH THE S.D.F.45 ON THE WAY!

This is the third entry in the Freeport trilogy, a series of adventures revolving around the return of the Unspeakable One to a pirate-type city called Freeport. Please note that this review contains spoilers, so don't read further if you intend to play it.

A word on Freeport: It's part-Cthulhu, part pirate city, minus any actual oversea adventures. It's also very much based off of the actual city of Freeport in the Bahamas (or more likely, Nassau), from the pirates themselves to the idea of a mythical town known as Libertyville (AKA Libertine). In short, this is a fantasy version of a real place...or rather, an idealized version of a real place with some creepy stuff thrown in. Like a lot of campaigns, it doesn't always have a cohesive consistency, but then that can be said of Dungeons & Dragons too.

Where last we left our heroes, they discovered two major plot points that simply can't be ignored: 1) that the high priest of the Temple of Knowledge is, in fact, a serpent person, and 2) that the Sea Lord is actually a Brother of the Yellow Sign. These two revelations are so disturbing as to be difficult to ignore: heroic player characters (PCs) should want, at the minimum, to deal with both antagonists in a very direct fashion, probably with something pointy. Cowardly PCs would probably leave town. PLEASE NOTE: This is a play test review.

As the saying goes, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Milton Drac, the Sea Lord, does just that, inviting the PCs to a formal ball. As a DM, this was fun stuff; the role-players had a great time chatting the various non-player characters. For an inexperienced DM, role-playing so many NPCs (18 in total!) can be daunting. I dumped the boring characters and let the PCs mingle freely for an hour or so. There's nothing quite like putting your fighter-types in an awkward social situation. Fortunately, the bard sang, the rogue danced, and everyone else managed to keep their noses out of trouble.

From there, a mysterious stranger announces that the only way to stop the Unspeakable One is to find the Jade Serpent of Yig. The PCs are expected to investigate. That investigation leads to a sunken Temple of Yig. But first they have to find it. The Temple happens to be where the dreaded pirate Black Dog buried his treasure, and only one old coot remembers it. The party bard charmed him into telling them the location, and off they went.

Bumping around in partially flooded tunnels is tough. Dealing with what amounts to a long series of incorporeal monsters is tougher. My PCs were higher level on average (5-7th), but they didn't have much in the way of offensive spells, which means a 50% miss chance in combat. Combats take a looooong time as a result.

After destroying the ghost of Black Dog (and assuming he was an illusion, oops), the PCs made it to the Sunken Temple. They rolled their eyes as they were told to find four artifacts. This they did; there were several rooms that were completely empty and served no purpose other than, well, to give adventurers a reason to tear every room apart from corner to corner. That might be fun in old-school games, but we play with a time limit, so the PCs quickly got tired of checking each room for anything of value. What did matter is that the rogue picked up an egg, "just in case." Then he promptly forgot about it.

Upon successfully retrieving all the widgets, someone has to sacrifice 2 Constitution points permanently to claim the Jade Serpent of Yig. To clarify, that's a permanent loss of 1 Hit Point per level and a penalty of 1 to all Fortitude saves. How does the adventure deal with this? "Although the PCs may understandably balk at this idea, there is no other way for them to obtain the Jade Serpent. This may be a good adventure hook for later in your campaign, as there may be a way for the PC to regain the lost points of Constitution."

Gee, thanks. Fortunately, the dwarf fighter took it all in stride. The temple then collapses in rubble behind them...but not really, as it shows up with the EXACT MAP AND EVERYTHING in another adventure.

Ahem. By the time the PCs return to Freeport, Drac's got a warrant out of their arrest and he's about to unveil Milton's Folly, a lighthouse that will project the Yellow Sign into the sky above Freeport. Viewing the Yellow Sign will drive people mad, so it's up to the PCs to stop Uncle Milt.

My PCs made it through several floors, only to be pounded into the ground by the dreaded flying serpent sorcerer known as N'Tal. They survived, barely, and then rushed to the final level, where they faced down Milton Drac himself. It took four rounds in total to kick the Yellow Crystal off a pedestal and replace it with the Jade Serpent of Yig. The catch is that if the PCs leave the pedestal without anything on it, a wave of concussive force blasts outwards, which gets progressively worse each round. Milton and our rogue played hot potato with their respective artifacts, until the rogue got the Jade Serpent onto the pedestal and BOOM! Things end in suitably dramatic fashion.

The PCs are expected to high tail it out of there, because they've effectively killed the leader of Freeport without a reasonable explanation. That's exactly what my PCs did, but not after the aforementioned egg hatched and the rogue discovered he was the foster father to a baby serpent person.

This adventure has an interesting mix of heavy role-playing, pure dungeoneering, and then a reverse dungeon (going up the lighthouse instead of down into the Temple of Yig). It makes effective use of the environment (sunken caverns) and forces the PCs outside of their comfort zone (adventurers...at a formal ball). As a DM, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge, and my PCs rose to the occasion even when I thought the adventure was being a bit unfair. It brought out the best in them. As a bookend to the trilogy, it makes for an excellent denouement. If you want to shake up Freeport and your players, Madness in Freeport will get the job done.

For those who complained about the 'lack of cultural depth' in Awakening, this supplement will change all of this misconceptions. Magical Traditions introduces the idea that at least some Mages draw on real world occult practices, whether out of genuine belief or sheer pragmatism. The first section of the book, in fact, goes into detail about how (and why) to incorporate various mythologies, occult traditions, paranormal phenomena and folklore into your Mage game, as well as introducing options for changing the setting. Most important is the Magical Tradition Merit, which gives concrete benefits for adherents of a particular Tradition.

The rest of the book is filled out with several sample Traditions, but the guidelines are easy enough that with a bit of research (even just wikipedia or your local library) you can easily make up new ones wholecloth. Each section includes not only details on the belief system (adapted for the cosmos of Mage) but also some new Rotes and a sample NPC as well. First we are presented with 'traditional' beliefs, those from ancient times such as Hebrew kabbalah (complete with golems and correspondences on the sefiroth) and Taoist alchemy. Next it moves on to more modern beliefs such as Santeria (which recieved a very well-detailed chapter, I might add), the secret rites of the Knights Templar, and THEOSOPHY! Finally, the book closes with two 'fringe' Traditions - Appalachian Hoodoo and New Age ethnogenic cults... The former being the rich folklore and superstitions of the South, while the latter is hippie psychodelia, McKenna-esque shamanism, and even UFO cults.

All in all, a very well done book in my opinion. It certainly adds another layer of complexity to Mage. And aside from giving more than enough detail to make your own Magical Traditions (which should be able to cover any belief your players could want, from Tantric Hinduism to Mayan astrology to Haitian Voudon to medieval alchemy), the book also comes with several Traditions that can be used straight out of the box, or adapted with some work. And whats more, each comes with details on occult correspondences and new Rotes to boot. This book will almost certainly add to any Mage chronicle.

One of the major themes of Mage the Awakening is exploration, and one of the major areas for that exploration is the ruins of ancient Atlantis. This being a World of Darkness book, there's a lot more to it, of course. The myth of Atlantis is the defining myth of the Mage worldview, whether they accept that and believe it or not. The first chapter delves into the myths and stories about Atlantis. Quite a lot of players from the old World of Darkness despised the choice to make the origin for true Mages. Part of that, perhaps a large part, was that it gave a clear and fixed beginning for Mages ... supposedly. The first chapter is a mind-spinning recounting of Mage research on Atlantis. Where was it? An island in the mid-Atlantic, of course. Or the continent of Antarctica. Or the Americas. Or New Zealand. Or in East Asia, the Middle East, the Sahara, the Mediterranean, Britain (that was new to me), Iceland, Scandinavia ... pick a location on land or sea, and some mage has evidence Atlantis was there. Then there the theories of a hollow Earth or a planet where the asteroid field now is. It is a wonderfully written chapter, and most of it is based on real-world claims, too. The best part of it may be that it links mages together, through time and across continents, in their research and travels because of Atlantis.

The second and third chapters get into the fine details of exploration. The second chapter deals with the concepts of exploration, why mages go looking, how they get leads to lost ruins or artifacts. There are extensive descriptions of all the types of things that could be in a ruin: challenges, guardians, other explorers, weird creatures that escaped from experiments or were attracted to an uninhabited ruin, and of course pages of descriptions of all kinds of traps, magical and sometimes not. Naturally, there are also descriptions of all the kinds of treasures and artifacts and such the explorers may find. The third chapter goes into specifics, setting out example guardians, spirits and weird creatures, and example items and artifacts.

The fourth chapter is still about exploration, but not so much about Atlantis. It is about the Astral Realms, a topic not covered in much detail by Mage books at this point. This section goes into considerable detail about the Temenos in general and various realms in particular. I find the concept itself fascinating, and the image of thousands of generations of mages exploring here and constructing citadels, libraries and universities is awe-inspiring. Then the chapter moves on to the creatures of the Temenos, and how those things can escape into the material world, and it inspires fear as well. Any player or storyteller interested in the Mastigos and inner demons should find this chapter really interesting and useful.

Rather unusually, the book has an appendix which contains a conclusion rounding off the book as a whole. The appendix is about Atlantean High Speech, and goes into technical but clear details of how languages are constructed. It is also about the efforts of mages to reconstruct that language. There is subtle but powerful theme running through this section: in Atlantis, whatever it was, one mage feuded with another, but as a group they were united. Until the Celestial War divided them, that is. Now the main goal of plundering a ruin is to gain magic items and spells that can empower one cabal, or one lone mage, against all the rest. But recording and translating the High Speech would enhance the lives of all the Awakened - with the catch that they have to work together to even begin such a project. It is a sobering reminder that knowledge is power when you hoard it, but can become wisdom when you spread it around, a very fitting image for this game.

What can I say?? This is the greatest magic book that I have ever read. From cover to cover, this book glows with brilliance. In no time I went from a beginner to an intermediate to advanced player. It is extremeley well written. Shakespeare could not have written it better!!! I recommend this to all who are beginner magic players. This book may be older than other books but it provides a strong basis to began your magic journey!!!!

Magic in the Shadows is essentially a consolidation and update of the Grimoire and Awakenings: New Magic in 2057. Most of it seems to be the Grimoire but they did include (in abbreviated fashion) material from Awakenings.

It updates all the advanced magic stuff like initiation and meta-magic to 3rd edition rules and does a pretty good job of it. My only gripe is that section on Voodoo is cut down and a lot of the "flavor" of Voodoo from Awakenings is gone.

I'm not totally up on the 3rd edition magic system but it does appear to have been cleaned up quite a bit and simplified. I'm sure this removes some of the complexity but I think overall it's for the best.

This book was written by Stephen Kenson who seems to be the magic guru of the Shadowrun universe. It's not an entertaining read just for fun but it's a better "textbook" than the previous magic books were. There's more examples, clearer definitions, and better organization. It provides a little new information on ghosts as well.

If you have magicians in your games your going to need this book sooner rather than later. It's pretty easy to find and you might have some luck finding cheaper used copies of it.

This is another great FASA magic supplement, designed for Earthdawn but useful for inspiring spell ideas in D&D as well. Earthdawn's magic system is one of the best in RPGs for the ideas governing how magic works and the execution of the spells as game materials with great flavor.

Even if you don't use the Earthdawn system I would get the magic supplements (this, arcane mysteries of barsaive, earthdawn[the basic game] and earthdawn companion)for the quality materials that they are and adapt them to the system you use.

Volume 6 covers Invasion, Planeshift, Seventh Edition, and Apocalypse. As usual, this volume only deals with expansions released since the previous volume of the encyclopedia. If you've *never* collected previous volumes, you might want to look into _The Complete Encyclopedia of Magic: The Gathering_ instead (which is no longer complete, what with the expansions released after the summer of 2001).

Before launching into the expansion chapters, the usual introductory material includes 'how to use this guide' and a Collector's History - a few paragraphs of introduction plus the usual Magic timeline, including the 'for beginners' decks (e.g. Portal), the basic sets, and the expansions. The introduction to the Collector's History gives the roll call and price list for the Power Nine - the most notorious and expensive cards of them all: Black Lotus, the 5 original Mox cards, Time Walk, Timetwister, and Ancestral Recall.

Each set of cards covered in Volume 6, as usual, is provided with an introduction, the style of which has been updated to make it more useful. Each introduction begins with 'At a Glance': Release Date, Size (number of cards), Featured Mechanics, and The One-Sentence Story. For example, Featured Mechanics for Invasion lists 8 features: multicolored spells, kickers, Dragon Legends, dual lands, Kavu, and 'divvy' cards. After 'At a Glance', each introduction continues with the kind of material provided in previous volumes, still broken into segments but now given a framework and consistency by conforming to At a Glance. The framework begins with the story segment (a few paragraphs fleshing out the one-sentence version), the development segment (design history), individual segments for each of the entries in the Featured Mechanics list, concluding with Standout Cards. All the segments are interspersed with images of the relevant cards. After the Standout Cards discussion, of course, we come to the main body of the chapter for a given set: the cards.

The individual cards for each set are listed in alphabetical order; they're shown at about 3/4 actual size. The versions of Magic that included those cards (at the time of printing) are specified, as well as any errata. The card lists' images are enough to hold the attention of even a casual collector, since the flavor text is legible and the artwork is printed well.

The introduction for the 7th edition chapter adds a new item: a table listing Cards Removed from the Basic Set (compared with 6th edition): 31 each for white and blue, 35 for black, 26 for red, 24 for green, 24 artifacts, and 6 lands. (On the bright side, Serra Angel has been brought back - I thought it was gone for good.)

After covering the individual sets, the book gives an overview of 2000 World Championship decks, this time including photographs of the World Champion and the other 3 quarterfinalists. The book concludes with a "Deckbuilders Indexes" section, as in the earlier volumes of the Magic encyclopedia.

This book contains many great info on the World of Lone Wolf. The contents of the book range from the History of Magnamund to Modelling Magnamund. They even throw in a special segment that teaches you to speak, write and understand Giak !! Hehe, pretty cool eh ? There's a solo game adventure based on Banedon. And another solo board game with u as Lone Wolf. Trust me Kai Lords, this is the book you need even if u already have the basic knowledge of Sommerlund (u SHOULD have it, or don't call yourself a Kai Lord , lol). I know this book is outta print, why not order it from amazon.com ?? U will luv this book man !!

p/s. I'm not an empolyee of Amazon.com or nor am I related to Joe Dever or Red Fox.

One may consider my actions foolish, revealing this to untold persons. Yes, perhaps I act without caution. However, this book has been published, and made available to, the public at large. To the best of my knowledge, it has completely escaped their notice. So, gentle public, here is my claim : Major Arcana is the best RPG book ever published. Period.

The Game system is Nephilim : one of ludicrous complexity that encompasses recorded history and before. The setting is in modern times, but the idea of Past Lives is used extensively. The players choose from 9 races, whose goals are simple: they want to go to Agartha, a sort of Pagan Heaven. No one seems to know quite how to get there, but everyone has theories. Primary among the theories is magical advancement: the closer one comes to transforming one's seized human body into the idealized race, the closer to Agartha. The class (derived from the Major Arcana of the RiderWait Tarot) the player picks will determine the character's strategy for getting there, as well as her outlook, her allies, and her paradigm, if you will. The crux of the game derives from the disagreements the Tribes have with each other, and the labyrinthian conspiracies they involve themselves in, in order to defeat their rivals. Humanity as a whole is also an enemy, as many of their societies attempt to capture or kill Nephilim. While the material detailing these classes in the rulebook is adequate, Major Arcana goes into considerably more depth.

The book begins with a section regarding the history of the Arcana, or Tribes. It details the joining, the leaving, their numbers, and the outsiders. Then a long, and possibly accurate, history of the Arcana follows. One of the chief strengths of this book and the game in general, is the entertaining way in which history and fact are blended with suppositions and fantasies. According the Waite's own history of the Tarot, the important thing to remember is that there is no connection whatsoever between ancient egypt and the Tarot. Hite's history begins with just that supposition, creating a mythical (probably) origin for the deck.

After the history we get into the meat of the book: details of each (except for Unnamed, arcanum 13) Tribe. Mindblowing would be one way to describe the text, illuminating, another. One can almost see the conspiracies laid against each other across the very spans of history. In short, it really comes alive. Each chapter is divided into several parts. Beginning each section is a description and interpretation (from a game perspective) of each of the cards. Following is the general philosophy of the whole tribe, in effect, what marks each member. After that we have enemies and allies, followed immediately by a text box describing how that particular Tribe views all of the others. The effect is similar to the text box in Mage: The Ascension. I find the insights extremely useful: they are both political and illuminating. Then we have a section regarding the Simalacrum, the body each Nephilim inhabits. How they care for their body is a further reflection of their philosophy, although some hate the humans they inhabit most passionately. The mundane section reflects upon how the world at large is interacted with. Following this is a section regarding Arcane secrets, further divided into Initiation, Secret History, Secret Places, and Arcane Techniques. Most Tribes have places and techniques which vary in power and interest. Finally, we have a section on Arcane Tasks, each with three story seeds relating directly to the Tribe in question. The last page is devoted to an NPC from said Arcanum, usually of significant power and importance. The quality of each section varies somewhat, but nearly all contain evocative and insightful information. Some, like the Magician, have several rather powerful techniques, although for game balance this is offset by most of the other Arcana hating them.

The artwork is not particularly great, although it is appropriately styled for the theme of Tarot decks. Each section contains several sketches and a photo of a person meant to look like the Tribe in question.

The primary strength of the book comes from the Tarot itself, which many have found to be keys to certain archetypes of univeral truths. Each Arcana is said to represent mystical forces writ large upon reality itself. Difficult to directly express in words, these truths make most sense from a game perspective, where they plug into a series of plots and counterplots the characters may involve themselves in. So for example: while the symbolism of the Tower may be interpreted as the failure and fall of man's pride, it may also be interpreted as psychological warfare.

Furthermore, the characters are involved in magic to a degree that may be astonishing in some ways. Mostly this manifests as legends of past NPCs and their fame, names which you have doubtlessly heard. The book makes several assertions that sound unlikely, regarding the truths of history, and their secret causes. Entertaining Lies, no doubt.

The only real downside to Major Arcana is easily discerned from the title. Like a college course load, the amount of work you may have to put into reading is possibly huge, though ultimately rewarding. Discerning truth from falsehood has never been more entertaining. When in doubt, remember this warning label from the main book. This Game is Not Real: You Are.

Disclaimer: I previously posted this review on Rpg.net.