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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2011582" data-attributes="member: 1129">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.</blockquote>

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