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<blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8572187" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17397/The-Magic-Encyclopedia-Volume-I-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>The Magic Encyclopedia</em></a>, volumes one <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17408/The-Magic-Encyclopedia-Volume-II-2e?affliate_id=820" target="_blank">and two</a>, are fairly infamous...at least, among those who know of them at all.</p><p></p><p>That's really not saying much, as these are easily some of the most forgettable products from the entire AD&D 2nd Edition era. That's largely because the two-volume set, despite being titled as an encyclopedia, is anything but. While it includes a single-paragraph description and black-and-white illustration for each item category that it showcases, this is far and away more of an index than an encyclopedia, referring readers to various other D&D products that were made up through the end of 1991 (or 1992; the books disagree with themselves about that) for the magic items that they catalogue.</p><p></p><p>Given that, it's not hard to see why this particular pair of products is perpetually panned by plenty of players. After all, if you don't have sourcebook X, then being told to go consult it to find out more about a given magic item isn't very helpful. That's not even getting into just how badly these books have aged; nowadays, if I want to know more about a <em>plumalitter</em>, I can just type it into Google, which will direct me to the <a href="https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Plumalitter" target="_blank">relevant wiki</a>. Or even just buy the PDF of the <em><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198112/Maztica-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Maztica Campaign Setting</a></em>, where they appear in full.</p><p></p><p>The funny thing is, though, that this type of product wasn't always the sort of thing that made people wonder "what were they thinking?" Back before the advent of the World Wide Web, when role-playing was a niche hobby which was popularly regarded with fiery condemnation or <a href="https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2022/03/it-beats-swallowing-goldfish.html" target="_blank">complete bafflement</a>, things of this sort were more common. For reference, see Dave Arneson's own <a href="https://oldschoolfrp.tumblr.com/post/660051853702266880/dave-arnesons-dungeonmasters-index-published" target="_blank"><em>Dungeonmaster's Index</em></a>, which sought to do much the same thing as <em>The Magic Encyclopedia</em>, except for Original D&D.</p><p></p><p>Of course, that product, like this one, was published at exactly the wrong time. Just as the popularization of the Internet spelled the beginning of the end of paper indexes, the advent of AD&D made Dave's own index outdated even as it came out. But for TME, at least, there were a few saving graces. Namely, that it was more than "just" an index. There were actually a lot of brand new magic items here...albeit in very abbreviated form. While each type of item had a basic description (e.g. the entry for "Saber" overviewed what a saber was), with each listing - the name, XP value, gp value, and source - appearing under it, there were plenty of these that were tagged as being new items. It was just that virtually all of them were prosaic expansions of existing items, rather than anything truly new. So, for instance, you had "saber +1" (as opposed to a scimitar +1 or a sword +1) given here as an all-new item.</p><p></p><p>I'll admit that sounds crazy to me now, since from the 3E days onward we've treated magic item abilities as being mini-templates in their own right, able to be plopped onto almost anything that fits their basic function. A +1 weapon can be <em>any</em> weapon now, but it wasn't always like that; back in the day, things like a <em>frost brand</em> or a <em>holy avenger</em> were always assumed to be swords - and swords of particular types - for that matter; having them appear as something like a scimitar, let along an axe or a spear, was very much outside the norm. Hence all of these "new" magic items.</p><p></p><p>More notable was the inclusion of Chemcheaux - the world-spanning franchise of magic item shops - and its proprietor, Prismal the Outrageous.</p><p></p><p>Now, being that Prismal is a 35th-level wizard/35th-level priest, I can only assume that he's the personal character of Dale "Slade" Henson, who wrote these books. I take it as supporting evidence that several of the new items that we'd see in <em>Encyclopedia Magica</em> were attributed to him (e.g. "Holy Symbol, Prismal's" in volume two). As a young player, this fascinated me, because it seemed like there was a story there, and when I got my hands on volume one of this set, Prismal's personal history was indeed to be found here...but its casually referencing the world of Pangaea (no, not pre-historic Earth; rather, it's the world where Prismal's father was from, despite his Shou mother being from Kara-Tur in the Forgotten Realms) and its cities of Electropolis and Chamshaea, convinced me that there had to be more about these places than mere name-drops. After years of reading through various Spelljammer and Planescape products, however, I'm now certain that I was wrong on that front. As much as I was tantalized by the allure of another, little-known campaign world, there's virtually nothing else out there about these exotic-sounding locations.</p><p></p><p>More notable is that, Prismal is the owner of Chemcheaux ("KEM-show"), a set of magic item shops that serve two functions: each shop is solely responsible for the production of a single type of magic item (e.g. so to make up an example, Chemcheaux #47, located in Waterdeep, makes nothing but <em>longswords +4</em>), and each also has a teleportation pad that goes to the central hub, where they turn in orders from customers for particular item types, and receive the requested items from whichever Chemcheaux branches produce them. So if someone at Chemcheaux #47 wants a <em>carpet of flying</em>, the proprietor will send off the order, and receive one from Chemcheaux #314 over in the Free City of Greyhawk by way of the central hub.</p><p></p><p>And people think that 3E invented magic item shops.</p><p></p><p>The book doesn't even stop there, telling is how Prismal himself hangs out at Chemcheaux #223 in Ravens Bluff, which presents us with a map of the place, a history lesson about how the city - under pressure from local magic item shop owners who didn't want to be undercut by a big retail chain - forced that particular Chemcheaux to be a wholesaler only, and even a copy of the eleven-point charter relating to magic item sales in the city.</p><p></p><p>Now, this last point makes a lot more sense when you take into account that it was meant to outline the availability of magic items in the RPGA's Living City campaign. What I want to know is what changed, because there's a particular issue of <em>Polyhedron</em> (I can't remember the issue number, though I've tried; somewhere in the early triple digits, I think) where it outlines how the Chemcheaux #223 suddenly and inexplicably blew up one day, with Prismal missing in the aftermath. You can find mention of that in 1998's <em>The City of Ravens Bluff</em>.</p><p></p><p>So yeah, overall this product doesn't quite deserve the bad reputation that it gets, nor should it be consigned to the dustbin of history so easily (there's also game stats for a few of Prismal's associates here, one of his new spells, and the teleportation pad used to go between stores). Don't get me wrong, it's very much a dated relic now, but there's still reason to take notice of it beyond simple historical curiosity.</p><p></p><p>Even so, it will be near-totally upstaged by the next entry on our list...</p><p></p><p><em>Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 8572187, member: 8461"] [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17397/The-Magic-Encyclopedia-Volume-I-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]The Magic Encyclopedia[/I][/URL], volumes one [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17408/The-Magic-Encyclopedia-Volume-II-2e?affliate_id=820']and two[/URL], are fairly infamous...at least, among those who know of them at all. That's really not saying much, as these are easily some of the most forgettable products from the entire AD&D 2nd Edition era. That's largely because the two-volume set, despite being titled as an encyclopedia, is anything but. While it includes a single-paragraph description and black-and-white illustration for each item category that it showcases, this is far and away more of an index than an encyclopedia, referring readers to various other D&D products that were made up through the end of 1991 (or 1992; the books disagree with themselves about that) for the magic items that they catalogue. Given that, it's not hard to see why this particular pair of products is perpetually panned by plenty of players. After all, if you don't have sourcebook X, then being told to go consult it to find out more about a given magic item isn't very helpful. That's not even getting into just how badly these books have aged; nowadays, if I want to know more about a [I]plumalitter[/I], I can just type it into Google, which will direct me to the [URL='https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Plumalitter']relevant wiki[/URL]. Or even just buy the PDF of the [I][URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198112/Maztica-2e?affiliate_id=820']Maztica Campaign Setting[/URL][/I], where they appear in full. The funny thing is, though, that this type of product wasn't always the sort of thing that made people wonder "what were they thinking?" Back before the advent of the World Wide Web, when role-playing was a niche hobby which was popularly regarded with fiery condemnation or [URL='https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2022/03/it-beats-swallowing-goldfish.html']complete bafflement[/URL], things of this sort were more common. For reference, see Dave Arneson's own [URL='https://oldschoolfrp.tumblr.com/post/660051853702266880/dave-arnesons-dungeonmasters-index-published'][I]Dungeonmaster's Index[/I][/URL], which sought to do much the same thing as [I]The Magic Encyclopedia[/I], except for Original D&D. Of course, that product, like this one, was published at exactly the wrong time. Just as the popularization of the Internet spelled the beginning of the end of paper indexes, the advent of AD&D made Dave's own index outdated even as it came out. But for TME, at least, there were a few saving graces. Namely, that it was more than "just" an index. There were actually a lot of brand new magic items here...albeit in very abbreviated form. While each type of item had a basic description (e.g. the entry for "Saber" overviewed what a saber was), with each listing - the name, XP value, gp value, and source - appearing under it, there were plenty of these that were tagged as being new items. It was just that virtually all of them were prosaic expansions of existing items, rather than anything truly new. So, for instance, you had "saber +1" (as opposed to a scimitar +1 or a sword +1) given here as an all-new item. I'll admit that sounds crazy to me now, since from the 3E days onward we've treated magic item abilities as being mini-templates in their own right, able to be plopped onto almost anything that fits their basic function. A +1 weapon can be [I]any[/I] weapon now, but it wasn't always like that; back in the day, things like a [I]frost brand[/I] or a [I]holy avenger[/I] were always assumed to be swords - and swords of particular types - for that matter; having them appear as something like a scimitar, let along an axe or a spear, was very much outside the norm. Hence all of these "new" magic items. More notable was the inclusion of Chemcheaux - the world-spanning franchise of magic item shops - and its proprietor, Prismal the Outrageous. Now, being that Prismal is a 35th-level wizard/35th-level priest, I can only assume that he's the personal character of Dale "Slade" Henson, who wrote these books. I take it as supporting evidence that several of the new items that we'd see in [I]Encyclopedia Magica[/I] were attributed to him (e.g. "Holy Symbol, Prismal's" in volume two). As a young player, this fascinated me, because it seemed like there was a story there, and when I got my hands on volume one of this set, Prismal's personal history was indeed to be found here...but its casually referencing the world of Pangaea (no, not pre-historic Earth; rather, it's the world where Prismal's father was from, despite his Shou mother being from Kara-Tur in the Forgotten Realms) and its cities of Electropolis and Chamshaea, convinced me that there had to be more about these places than mere name-drops. After years of reading through various Spelljammer and Planescape products, however, I'm now certain that I was wrong on that front. As much as I was tantalized by the allure of another, little-known campaign world, there's virtually nothing else out there about these exotic-sounding locations. More notable is that, Prismal is the owner of Chemcheaux ("KEM-show"), a set of magic item shops that serve two functions: each shop is solely responsible for the production of a single type of magic item (e.g. so to make up an example, Chemcheaux #47, located in Waterdeep, makes nothing but [I]longswords +4[/I]), and each also has a teleportation pad that goes to the central hub, where they turn in orders from customers for particular item types, and receive the requested items from whichever Chemcheaux branches produce them. So if someone at Chemcheaux #47 wants a [I]carpet of flying[/I], the proprietor will send off the order, and receive one from Chemcheaux #314 over in the Free City of Greyhawk by way of the central hub. And people think that 3E invented magic item shops. The book doesn't even stop there, telling is how Prismal himself hangs out at Chemcheaux #223 in Ravens Bluff, which presents us with a map of the place, a history lesson about how the city - under pressure from local magic item shop owners who didn't want to be undercut by a big retail chain - forced that particular Chemcheaux to be a wholesaler only, and even a copy of the eleven-point charter relating to magic item sales in the city. Now, this last point makes a lot more sense when you take into account that it was meant to outline the availability of magic items in the RPGA's Living City campaign. What I want to know is what changed, because there's a particular issue of [I]Polyhedron[/I] (I can't remember the issue number, though I've tried; somewhere in the early triple digits, I think) where it outlines how the Chemcheaux #223 suddenly and inexplicably blew up one day, with Prismal missing in the aftermath. You can find mention of that in 1998's [I]The City of Ravens Bluff[/I]. So yeah, overall this product doesn't quite deserve the bad reputation that it gets, nor should it be consigned to the dustbin of history so easily (there's also game stats for a few of Prismal's associates here, one of his new spells, and the teleportation pad used to go between stores). Don't get me wrong, it's very much a dated relic now, but there's still reason to take notice of it beyond simple historical curiosity. Even so, it will be near-totally upstaged by the next entry on our list... [I]Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.[/I] [/QUOTE]
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