Excellent! Thank you so much for putting this together. Probably the only aspect of the game I've found missing in your review are the scenarios. Could you tell us something about them?
Sorry, pal – I'm just re-posting that review from the original site. I'm not the reviewer (it'd be a bit of a conflict of interest, if the editor reviewed the book!).
I did post some information on one of the sample scenarios a few pages back – The Mausoleum – which should give you some idea of the scenarios.
The basic scenario, used with a bit of imagination, will give you the classic range of mundane scenarios – 'skirmish', 'raid', 'ambush' etc. – so the 10 special scenarios in the book focus on the unique elements of the setting, and are examples of what can be done with a magic-saturated environment – special encounters and locations that show how to incorporate the Bestiary into games or add something bizarre and (inevitably) dangerous to an encounter: living statues, angry demons, magic null-fields, malfunctioning teleportation magic etc.
Between those and the rumours scattered throughout the book, there should be plenty of seeds for developing your own unique encounters. Come to think of it, there are some cool possibilities in the fiction anthology too (shameless plug!) – fighting on a (mostly) frozen river springs to mind...
Hi,
I know I am going to be very bold to ask this question but I am now working on thinking about my wizard. It's like preparing an RPG character for me. I am working on it's background and motivations and so on. I have not yet decided what school he is going to practice (although I narrowed it on three by now). Here comes the cheeky question: Can we know what is going to be the relationship between the schools? Will there be some "star" of magic schools (were it in ADnD or where?) determining which schools are in opposition to each other?
Thank you.
I don't think I could get away with posting that whole section of the rules, I'm afraid – sorry! Every school has three aligned schools, five neutral schools, and one opposed school – it's all in balance, and outlined in the Wizard creation chapter of the rulebook.
Wizards can learn any spell, regardless of school, so a Thaumaturge could cast a Sigilist spell with little difficulty, and an Elementalist spell with a bit of effort. He would, however, have to either get really lucky with the die roll, channel his own health into boosting the spell, or commit time and resources to study and improvement in order to go completely against his training and cast a Necromancer spell – a slippery slope to corruption for our Thaumaturge.
Of course, 'school' is a very loose term – and a game term at that – so it can be interpreted in story terms however you like. For example, a Summoner doesn't necessarily summon a demon (although 'demon' is the default game term for any extra-planar being) – he could work with the spirits of dead heroes, entities of pure emotion, genies, elemental avatars etc., depending on the backstory you give him.
Hmm... a Summoner with a strong Elementalist leaning (or vice-versa)... that could be really cool...