A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture (print)

[Messageboard Golem]

He killed the God of War. He ascended into his divinity. No one told him that was the easy part. Look into the inner workings of gods and how they build worlds. From a divine perch, map your world and experience tectonics, magical geography, predation, ecological conflict, and cultural development. Following in the foodsteps of A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe (Gen Con ENnies 2003 Best Setting Supplement), A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture provides real-world phenomenon for a fantasy game.

Build Your World. Better.

 

[Psion]

A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture

A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture is a follow up to the widely lauded Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe. The book is a rules light format, examining aspects of a fantasy world of the sort that exist in many d20 System fantasy games, with an eye towards design of such game worlds. The book is written by Suzi Yee and Joseph Browning of Expeditions Retreat Press.

This review is of the print format, though PDF format is also available through RPGnow.

A First Look

A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture is a 160 page perfect-bound softcover book available for $27.00 US.

Cover and interior are illustrated by Ravindra Rana. The cover has a wrap around illustration of the book’s iconic fledgeling god of war and his gnome assistant with an image of the wilderness of a world unfolding behind him.

The interior is black and white. Some art is nicely detailed though others are a bit simplistic.

The book uses a variety of sketched graphs to illustrate concepts. While helpful, these sketches appear hand-drawn and photocopied; it seems that they could have been more professionally rendered.

A Deeper Look

The book has sections in three major types, interleaved throughout the book. The substrate of the book is the descriptive text chapters, which provide the basics of geology, topography, ecology, and culture of a typical Earth-inspired fantasy world. After every few chapters is a brief “building your world” chapter which describes how to apply the materials in the preceding chapters to the task of world building. Finally are a number of interludes, telling the story of a world building project being undertaken by an erstwhile god of war.

The informational chapters cover Ecology, Biomes (topography), and Culture. These sections bear a great resemblance in style to Expeditious Retrat’s first offering, A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe, in that they present a great deal of well researched actual information on the respective topics (selected to be most useful to the prospective world builder), but then expounds on this to theorize about the role that magic would play in the makeup of a world. This includes theorizing on classes of creatures that feed on magic and their role in the food chain, and even a few idea for samples of such creatures (and references to exisiting creatures, some from third party works, such as the Disenchanter from Tome of Horrors.)

The “building your world” chapter describes how to apply the information herein, and provides direct advice on what to do to create a world in a fairly realistic fashion from the ground up. This begins with descriptions of how to draw continents taking into account factors such as continental drift, placing geography taking into account the geology, climate, and wind bands of the world, and placing races and cultures, assuming they originate in certain regions and expand.

An appendix in the back provides a miscellany of entries for things you might find in a world: trade goods, plants, and animals. Most of these are items from the real world, but the authors extrapolate to describe a number of magic-feeding (magiovore) life forms that might exist in a fantasy world. This is where the majority of mechanics in the book come in, providing resolution mechanics where appropriate for entities such as “spy grass” and “spell moths”.

Conclusions

The biggest boon of this book is that it collects the sort of material that would take the dedicated world builders extended visits to a library to uncover, along with the boon of several well thought out takes on the role that magic will play in the societies and ecology of an otherwise earthlike world.

I must say that I did not find this book as easy to create immediate results with as I did Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe (with which I sat down with a question in my mind about what estates would be like in one of my fantasy worlds kingdoms, and by the end of the evening had a working model of what the whole kingdom was like.) Now that may be a tall order for a topic like this, but I believe it can be done to some extent, as was done in the AD&D 2e World Builder’s Guide. I think the authors sabotage themselves by telling us (and themselves) that we would not want a book like this with a lot of tables. As I consider that book to still be the definitive resource on world building, I obviously believe that statement to be wrong.

Still, it’s a potentially useful book that, if I would have had it a few years back, would have saved me some hours in the library. It’s a nice resource for a dedicated world-building DM.

Edit: After reviewing my thoughts on this book and it's general utility, it seems like it is more representative of a "3". You do have to do a little work to get actual use out of this book, and much of it seems more likely to be read than used.

Overall Grade: C+

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[Wraith]

A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture is another book in this series dedicated to building a world from scratch.

The interior is very nice to look at with large, detailed borders and parchment backgrounds to all pages. This does however, reduce the amount of text on each page. Illustrations are well done and the diagrams that explain various concepts are appropriately done. I especially like the scenes of various parts of a world as things like that are rarely shown in RPG books (even in world building books, action scenes seem compulsory).

The book is divided up into 2 main sections and an appendix. There are also three different sections on mapping your world. The two main sections cover ecology and culture (hence the name) and give extremely detailed and well researched information on the topics. Just by reading through these sections, with no mention at all to world building. I can see how I can make a world much more realistic. After each topic is presented, the book explains how to apply this to world building.
Then follows a mapping section to explain how to apply the information to your maps. A minor quibble I have with the mapping sections is that the explanatory maps are located at the end of the section when they would be more usefully on the page opposite the explanation of the map itself.

It does take a while to get your head around some of the information and this book is deferentially not for casual reading (at least for the first time).A Magical Society: Ecology and is a lot more abstract than Expeditious Retreat Press' last offering A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe, It is more a book full of information that you apply later than a direct tool for world building. Still it is extremely useful and is a must buy for prospective world builders who have not spent hundreds of hours already researching to topic. For those who have done the research, A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture a great quick reference book that saves having to wade around for the information you need.

Especially fun was the information on magiovores (creatures that feed off magic), they will be showing up in my game shortly!

 

[GameWyrd]

A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture is one of the most intelligent d20 books I've read. The fact that I nearly typed "A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture is one of the most d20 intelligent books I've read" perhaps shows that I'm not smart enough to give it a fair review!

This offering from Expeditious Retreat Press deals with world building. So many gamers love world building and I suspect all too often we're left to articles in roleplaying magazines for assistance on this art and science. Expeditious Retreat Press make two early crucial successes. The first success is assuming we'll want to build a magical world - but base the book's intelligence on a mundane world (Earth, no less). The second success is wrapping the entire world building exercise up in an "in character" story. This works very well.

Kierian the Bold did quite well in a fight. Kierian slew Korgol the Destroyer, God of War. As a result we're introduced to the book through an opening penned by Kierian the Bold, Petitioner for God of War and Bringer of Justice. As Kierian discovers it isn't quite the simple matter of killing a god to become a god. He has to make a world too. He has to make a world and see if the other gods approve of his efforts.

A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture is Kierian's work. The would-be god has recorded his discoveries and efforts in the book.

This is not a crunch book. There are no prestige classes, feats or new spells here. Some of the diagrams reminded me of school geography books - but in the good way. Other comments reminded me of snippets I've read from my anthropologist brother's books - but in the good way. The worlds might be created by gods but they're created in a sensible way. Want mountains? Slide your tectonic plates together! And yet we're after a magical world not a mundane one. We can have a world on the back of a giant turtle. That's relatively easy as Kierian notes. People will accept that their world is on the back of a giant turtle. It's much harder to get them to accept water which runs up hill. And you know; that's exactly what fantasy worlds are like in most RPGs. We might have worlds ruled by dragons, a strange Planar system that's both heavily criss-crossed by travellers and simultaneously somehow a mystery to most. We don't have worlds were apples fly upwards from trees.

We begin with a subject that many d20 gamers are familiar with - mapping. A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture carries the d20 logo. This must be marketing decision. It doesn't need to. We're not mapping dungeons - but worlds. I wasn't joking when I hinted at tectonic shift either. That's just mountains; we also look at the creation of islands and archipelagos.

It's basic biology for the ecology chapter. I know how the food chain works around my neck of the woods; I'm at the top, above pizzas and pizza boxes (if left long enough) are above socks. Socks spend their time hiding in corners because they're at the bottom of the food chain. I'm joking even as I flick through the book again - it might be reminiscent of a text book at times, but it's never dull. We actually look at food webs as well as food chains.

Roleplaying teaches me stuff. I hadn't used the word "Biomes" before. Now I can. I can use it to talk about tundra, grasslands, forests, caves, coastlines and other land features.

The book covers more than geographical features though. It also has the social side. A world probably doesn't start off with kobolds, hobgoblins, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, orcs, elves and humans. It's more likely to begin with a race that evolved into two separate offshoots and became kobolds and hobgoblins, another which split into three and became dwarves, gnomes and Halflings and perhaps man, orc and elf also had a common ancestor. These races would explore the world by the most likely means - pleasant sailing conditions would encourage naval travel whereas a tough natural barrier might force two nearby races to share the same habitat for generations.

Once the beginnings of the races - and their default locations (dwarves in the mountains, halflings on the grasslands, etc...) - the book moves onto the development of cultures. Well, it's in the title. How does writing evolve? How does religion evolve? If questions like this sound terribly boring to you then I fear, despite being brilliant, A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture isn't going to appeal to you. The book is something of an academic exercise but it's one which is pitched at exactly the right level.

There's more detail too. A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture finds time for flora and fauna. We have the usual and the unusual here too. At no point does the book loose sight of the fact that this is a fantasy world we're creating. It doesn't loose the magic.

I really liked A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture. I wish we had more books like this. This is a real supplement - something that makes almost every other look like a splatbook. I don't think there can be many more books like this as there's only so much ground books like this could cover (but perhaps people said that after the third prestige class collection).

* This A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture review was first published at GameWyrd.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Sometimes people wonder why it takes me so long to write a review. Sometimes it’s because I don’t want to under the theory that “If you have nothing nice to say…” In many ways, A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture falls into that category. At first glance, I already mentally flinch. It’s 160 black and white pages for $27.00 in softcover format. Seems a little expensive to me, but I have to remind myself that this is the year 2004 and what Relics and Rituals cost years ago is no indication of the potential value of this book.

It’s not a terrible book in any way, shape or form mind you, it’s just not a book I really love. This book focuses on bringing a campaign world to life through “real world phenomena..” Good idea right?

Well, I’m a fairly old hand at RPGs. I’ve been playing in one form or another since the original Marvel Super Heroes game came out by TSR. I’ve read the original DMG (which I still use), as well as numerous writing books and role playing books. Some of these came with tools and were highly illustrated and official like the World Builder’s Guidebook by Richard Baker, while others were for reference purpose alone like The Medieval Fortress by Kaumann Jurga. This doesn’t count other systems with world or universe creating books like GURPS Space or even other AD&D books that took a lighter approach to these bits like the various blue covered DMR series.

This book is broken up into various interludes that deal with Kierian the Bold, a god in training, and his creation of a world as he’s tutored by Noj. These are interesting bits with the godling acting as a sounding board for the wisdom of the gnome Noj. The best part of this is the comments section where the other gods grade Kierian’s attempt at creation. “Useful for starting a fire. The gnome should be punished.”

Chapters include the following; Ecology, Biomes, Mapping Your World (Parts I, II & III), and Culture. The internal art is handled by Ravindra Rana, the same person who did the cover. The various interludes are an entertaining read for the most part, providing some character and personality to the text itself.

I had a hard time reading the book. Some of that is due to the design. I’m probably used to books that are two columns in layout. This one is one column, for the most part. In several instances, the author uses some fancy word wrapping to throw a paragraph or two into the text but often does it at an angel, causing my eye to wander. It’s really bad when the author does it on two pages at different areas like page 96 and page 97. Several times the terminology was just a little too thick with technical terms. I took my Earth Science course years ago and felt I was being subjected to a sneak attack quiz.

In other areas, the book seems to forget that it’s focus is a god creating a world. “When creating a society’s religious beliefs…” Why would a god create a society’s religious beliefs that go against his portfolio? Because he’s in testing? Some useful material for general creation but drags it out of the background story and into a general set of rules which doesn’t always happen. For example, in several instances, the reader is reminded not to use magic because in cases where magic can be used to create unique effects like floating continents or rivers that flow backwards, it would take a lot of magic to do so.

In terms of utility, sometimes the book goes into detailed information that’s great but perhaps a little too heavy unless the player’s are heavily involved in the Earth Sciences but in other cases, just raises questions without providing any answers. When you’re a sourcebook providing the reader answers, sentences in the form of questions are good to get the brain flowing but should be followed up with numerous concrete examples with the logic behind those examples. “Do guests bring gifts when they visit someone else’s home? Do hosts offer food and drinks to visitors?” Questions like that are fairly common but having some background to them helps. Sometimes the questions are answered in another section though so read the whole book in order to insure that any questions you have afterwards aren’t in the book.

For example of specifics, one thing I remember from Al-Qadim is the ritual of salt where, “Quests should be like Salt. They should be gone in three days.” Other uses of salt were mentioned, such as not stealing from a home where you’ve tasted salt. Those are solid examples.

But like I said earlier, I don’t hate the book. There is a lot of potential information in here that will make world building easier for you if you’re looking to build a real world. I guess part of my problem is that I’m one of those people who likes a lot of options which aren’t touched on here. I also like tables of stuff to roll on because that can help spark your imagination. “Why would an abandoned oasis be here?” A big part of this goes back to the world Builder’s Guidebook.

In terms of utility, the appendix has a great section on formations. This covers everything from atolls and canopies to cave rafts and eskers with a lot of material in-between. Real world examples help illustrate various points in the book but are just listed. Take the Amazon River. It’s huge but what good does that information do you? The section on valuables is probably one of the easiest things to yank out. It lists things like adamantine and brass and shows what it is and what climate is can be found in as well as what value it would have by the pound. There are numerous other bits of information like animals, magiovores, fungi, gems, insects, plants, and common dyes.

Another useful tool is the bibliography. The authors have done a fantastic job of breaking down various sources for a reader who wants to get into more detail. To make it more useful, I think it should’ve been broken up into subject but heck, if you want more details on practically anything, you know where to look.

The other thing I found useful were the maps. They are great in understanding certain parts of the text. Want to see how continents come together or how Pangaea might’ve looked? Want to see the world that the war god is building in progress? These aren’t full color pretty fold out maps, but they are maps that show the author’s line of thought and look ‘real’ if you will.

In the end, I think this would be a great book for a fantasy writer who wanted to have a solid set of reference tools to make a real world and in that vein, I actually encourage the authors to retool the book into a true reference manual for authors or at least get rid of the d20 system logo if it’s not selling to the d20 crowd. I say that because this is a book with no prestige classes, feats, magic items or spells. It’s a book of information and ideas, much like Game Mastering Secrets. For gamers with little time, the book might require too much interaction and deep though when all you want is a land with no significant water formed in the shape of a d12 where everyone starts off with four levels of sorcerer.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Wow!

It’s been a while since I was wowed by a book. For people who just want the bottom line of this review here it is: A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture is a brilliant book that challenges the reader to think while improving the world they play their campaign in. The important word there is “challenges”. This book is not for someone who does not think and reason. I pulled out my college text books to compare them, and this book stood right by it the whole time. I’m truly impressed with the research and the intelligent writing. I’m impressed with the way it is all brought together and made interesting (unlike my college textbooks). Joseph Browning and Suzi Yee prove once again they can write a role playing book covering something no else really has. They do it with style, with smarts, and bring it all together in an easy to read and follow package.

A Magical Culture: Ecology and Culture (MCEC) is a book produced by Expeditious Retreat Press. It is a follow to A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe (MMSWE). Each book is 160 pages in length. The book is well organized for easy reference. With the sheer amount of information in the book, this makes it really easy and is a great timesaver.

The cover and interior art are by Ravindra Rana. All the art is well done used to both illustrate the text and break up the text for easy reading. It is important to note that many of the pictures are used to help with the concepts of the book. For instance the pictures used for the subduction of continental plates and how it helps create mountain ranges really allows the concept to come across visually and makes a lot easier to understand.

The content of the book is unusual for any role playing supplement. It contains no rules. One will not fine pages of feats and prestige classes, nor will one fine a catalog of magical items. This book is written for the Game Masters who want to design their own worlds or to make the worlds they play in a little more realistic. As such, it is not for everyone. But I feel that the people who do find use for will be amazed and have their world enhanced greatly with the information found in this book.

The book starts with mapping out a world. It uses the earth as a baseline for simplicity. It discusses the axel tilt of the planet and the seasons. It talks of the continents and how they interact through continental drift. It goes into how mountains are formed from collisions and volcanism. It goes into islands and archipelagoes are formed and how might place them. The level of detail is very complete and should allow for the construction of a well built world. It does not ignore magic, but suggests that creating a realistic world will make the magical places that much more magnificent by comparison.

Next the book discusses the inhabitants of the world. It goes into detail on the animals and plants and how they form food chains and food webs. Again the detail is impressive. It also includes magical ecologies of creatures that exist solely off of eating magic. This includes how magic exists in ley lines and how creatures have a magical metabolism to use this magical energy to survive. The book also takes us through the different types of locations and gives expected temperature, rainfalls, types of plants, and other information on these different areas. The sheer amount of information in here is mind boggling.

Weather can be a complicated subject especially tracking it over a full globe. The book breaks it down into some simple constants to help a person understand and use it. The book goes into what causes weather and how weather reacts to different terrains. It also goes into ocean currents and temperatures of them.

One of the most complex and difficult parts of a world is the design of the intelligent species and their cultures. There are many variables that can be placed into them and just using the different cultures on Earth one has hundreds of different ones to draw inspiration from. The book does not discuss specific cultures but does go about describing some with relationship to climate and some philosophy. The book goes into taboos, myths, migration, technology, and interaction of the cultures.

Then we get to the appendixes. They are formations of water, rocks, lands, etc; real world places of natural wonders and brief descriptions of them; Valuables and approximate price of them; list and description of many plants; list and description of many animals; list and descriptions of magical animals, fungi, gems, insects and plants; and a table of common dyes.

The whole book is brought together as the research of a new god, Keirian the Bold. As a new god he has to prove that he can create a world and throughout the book his journey is written about. It is very interesting, well written, and has some cool ideas and plot devices in it. It brings together this book and gives it purpose and direction. Near the back of the book are little comments left by the other gods. It is a brilliant touch.

When I first read MMSWE I could not imagine another book having so much information in it. Leave it to the people of Expeditious Retreat Press to have even more information in the follow up. The bibliography alone takes up two pages. It is intelligent, well researched, and covers an area most people ignore. This is a must have for home brewers and people who want their worlds of fantasy to seem real. There is nothing here that limits it to d20 either. There book should have equal value to people who play other systems and create their own world in them.