Neuroglyph
First Post
Rituals tends to polarize 4E gamers into two camps: Players love them or they hate them. I know of some campaigns out there which do not bother to use rituals at all. But I think Rituals were an elegant solution to keep a lot of the great utility spells in 4E.
And while there are plenty of Rituals released from “official” sources, there is always room for more. And Taurus XII has introduced a new supplement of rituals called Magical Memories From Beyond: Forgotten Rituals – or Forgotten Rituals, for short.
Magical Memories From Beyond: Forgotten Rituals
The Production Quality of Forgotten Rituals is a mixed bag. It has some solid writing and illustrations, but because this ebook has quite a few other issues, it makes it hard to rate the quality higher than fair. The ebook is displayed with a rather striking “negative” print (white letters on black background), but this effect also makes Forgotten Rituals nearly impossible to print without obliterating a black ink cartridge, and the publisher does not offer a “printer-friendly” version with the purchase. Forgotten Rituals also does not include bookmarks, which is troublesome for a book this size, but does have a table of content - however this is of little help when the order of how the rituals fall in the ebook is somewhat counter-intuitive. The rituals are mainly organized by type (Creation, Exploration, Divination, etc.), and then alphabetically, with no consideration for the ritual’s level in the ordering process. This means that rituals appear in a jumbled order by level, and there is no delineation page or header to tell a reader they have moved from Creation Rituals to Exploration Rituals, and overall it just tends to be quite confusing.
However, the illustrations and artwork are quite good, and are drawn from various royalty-free photographs by various photographers, as well as some public domain art pieces. The Cover Art by Pinfoldphotos is really quite stunning, and is perfectly suited for a book such as this.
The Author introduces Forgotten Rituals with a short story, a tale of a disembodied spirit locked in a strange skull, and brimming with knowledge about lost rituals. Clearly, the Author was inspired by Pinfoldphotos’ picture, and it makes a charming way to introduce the ebook:
There are certainly a lot of interesting and creative ideas in Forgotten Rituals, but sadly, there are also some real problems with execution and balance. Certainly, some adventuring groups and Dungeon Masters might enjoy adding some of these rituals to their campaigns, but most will require at least some serious editing before they can be used freely. However, the ebook is modestly priced, and might be worth considering for adding some fun new rituals to a campaign - despite some unfortunate flaws.
So until next review… I wish you Happy Gaming!
Editor’s Note: This Author received a complimentary copy of the product in PDF format from which the review was written.
Grade Card
Presentation: B
- Design: B-
- Illustrations: A-
Content: B
- Crunch: C+
- Fluff: A-
Value: B+
And while there are plenty of Rituals released from “official” sources, there is always room for more. And Taurus XII has introduced a new supplement of rituals called Magical Memories From Beyond: Forgotten Rituals – or Forgotten Rituals, for short.
Magical Memories From Beyond: Forgotten Rituals
- Designer: Jarrod Camiré
- Cover Illustrator: Pinfoldphotos
- Publisher: Taurus XII
- Year: 2010
- Media: PDF (31 pages)
- Cost: $2.95
The Production Quality of Forgotten Rituals is a mixed bag. It has some solid writing and illustrations, but because this ebook has quite a few other issues, it makes it hard to rate the quality higher than fair. The ebook is displayed with a rather striking “negative” print (white letters on black background), but this effect also makes Forgotten Rituals nearly impossible to print without obliterating a black ink cartridge, and the publisher does not offer a “printer-friendly” version with the purchase. Forgotten Rituals also does not include bookmarks, which is troublesome for a book this size, but does have a table of content - however this is of little help when the order of how the rituals fall in the ebook is somewhat counter-intuitive. The rituals are mainly organized by type (Creation, Exploration, Divination, etc.), and then alphabetically, with no consideration for the ritual’s level in the ordering process. This means that rituals appear in a jumbled order by level, and there is no delineation page or header to tell a reader they have moved from Creation Rituals to Exploration Rituals, and overall it just tends to be quite confusing.
However, the illustrations and artwork are quite good, and are drawn from various royalty-free photographs by various photographers, as well as some public domain art pieces. The Cover Art by Pinfoldphotos is really quite stunning, and is perfectly suited for a book such as this.
The Author introduces Forgotten Rituals with a short story, a tale of a disembodied spirit locked in a strange skull, and brimming with knowledge about lost rituals. Clearly, the Author was inspired by Pinfoldphotos’ picture, and it makes a charming way to introduce the ebook:
But as charming as the reader might find the introduction, there are some fundamental problems with the rituals our spirit-skull wishes to teach. While many of the nine rituals in the book are certainly interesting and often downright inventive, there are some serious issues with their execution and balance.
- Glass from the Sand is fairly self-explanatory, and allows the ritualist to create glass objects on the fly, given enough time and sand. As the cost in ritual materials is equivalent to the market value of the glass objects produced, it is one of the most balanced rituals in the book. Although I do have to question if a ritualist can make up to 4 gargantuan glass structures, would their market value really be only 500 gold pieces?
- Light the Way creates small objects which can accept a Wizard’s Light cantrip, and double its duration when cast on the object. Sadly, it costs 10 gold to get six 10-minute light “rocks” - or one could simply buy six 4 hour-duration sunrods for 12 gold. Clearly, this ritual is an emergency measure when you are out of lamp oil and sunrods, and only have some residuum left to try and light your way out of a dungeon.
- Marilith’s Arms gives you extra arms and the chance to use several of the attack forms of this she-demon, for an hour or more (dependent upon ritual success). But at 6000 gold and 4 healing surges per casting, it seems a little pricey for what one gets out of the deal – although the results undoubtedly look really impressive!
- Phantasmal Miner summons a dwarf shaped force for 75 gold worth of residuum, and upon casting it “sets to work at your command, excavating earth and rock at a wild pace.” Sadly, it digs at a rate of 10 cubic feet of dirt per hour – which is only a 2’x2’x2’ hole. This dwarven spirit must be taking a whole lot of “ale breaks” when the foreman’s back is turned.
- The Spirit of the Letter creates a scribe to assist a ritual caster in creating books and other writings, including ones in foreign languages. It can also read to you, which makes it sort of like a medieval fantasy book on tape.
- Snow Glass starts out pretty nifty, allowing a burglar to break glass silently and then transform the shards into a cloud of obscuring glass-mist which grants him concealment. But sadly, the spell does not stop there, and goes on to provide a substantial damage shield against anyone who tries to attack the thief. And further, the thief can hurl the clouds of shards as bolts, doing damage and causing combat effects such as possibly rendering foes unconscious on a hit! I think that is a bit too much power from a mere 4th level ritual.
- Time Arrow is a nifty ritual which allows a missile weapon to be fired, and then held in stasis, waiting to complete its attack when certain criteria are met. Great for creating traps around, say, a campsite, but not too practical to use as a rear-guard deterrent, since it takes an hour to cast.
- Timeless Reflection is really a very inventive ritual, although it will have Dungeon Masters who favor whodunits grinding their teeth in frustration. Capable of allowing a reflective surface to show what transpired in its presence, it can show a wizard, for example, the scene of the local lord being assassinated, assuming that the event transpired recently and there was enough light to reflect the scene where the crime took place. But at a cost of 25000 gold per casting, this 25th Level ritual will only be used in extreme situations – and I imagine when there is a major reward to be had.
- Wild Jester is a fun ritual, summoning a harlequin automaton to do the bidding of its creator. The jester is a 6th level monster with a number of interesting and amusing abilities, including the ability to cast cantrips “taught” by its master. But it probably will not be much more than a minor distraction against a level appropriate encounter for the ritual caster that created it (Level 12).
There are certainly a lot of interesting and creative ideas in Forgotten Rituals, but sadly, there are also some real problems with execution and balance. Certainly, some adventuring groups and Dungeon Masters might enjoy adding some of these rituals to their campaigns, but most will require at least some serious editing before they can be used freely. However, the ebook is modestly priced, and might be worth considering for adding some fun new rituals to a campaign - despite some unfortunate flaws.
So until next review… I wish you Happy Gaming!
Editor’s Note: This Author received a complimentary copy of the product in PDF format from which the review was written.
Grade Card
Presentation: B
- Design: B-
- Illustrations: A-
Content: B
- Crunch: C+
- Fluff: A-
Value: B+
Attachments
Last edited by a moderator:
