E.N. Toolbook - Mechamancy

[Crothian]

Mechamancy

Things Change
Mechamancy turns magic from its ancient role as a mysterious power into a modern tool. Mechamancers - mages who combine spellcasting with the principles of clockwork technology - are bringing magic to the common man, creating conveniences that will march the world toward a future where magic and science are one. Though they have many opponents who want to defend the old ways, the mechamancers have powerful weapons at their disposal, and the fantastic revolution seems inevitable.

Inside you will find the history of mechamancy, and the tools that will help you shape its future. Included are:

* The Machinist and Technician prestige classes, those who command and create items of mechamancy.
* 15 mechamancy spells, including grand calculation and summon machine.
* 25 mechamancy items, including Skinner armor and the White-Barker Enhanced Light Cannon.
* Detailed rules for designing and creating your own tools, weapons, armor, vehicles, and creatures with mechamancy.

Things change.
Your power will decide where that change will lead.

 

[catsclaw227]

Mechamancy: The Clockwork Magic

Mechamancy: The Clockwork Magic
56pg PDF
Written by: Robert Sullivan
Edited By: Ryan Nock
Published by: E.N. Publishing

I received this PDF as a complimentary review copy. This is not a playtest review.

PDF Details
Mechamancy: The Clockwork Magic (M:TCM) is a 56pg PDF, with 1 page for credits, 1 for TOC, and 1 for OGL leaving 53 pages of content. It doesn’t have an index, but it’s got an AWESOME set of bookmarks. It’s very easy to find what you’re looking for.

[rant] I wish all PDFs were bookmarked like this and not just a Quark export (or whatever). The big PDFs really need it, and though I imagine it takes time to create them, it can’t be THAT much time considering the benefits. [/rant]

Mechamancy is a new school of magic, floating between traditional magic and steampunk magic. Mechamancers empower devices with magical power, allowing even those not proficient with the magic to use the device. Practitioners believe that magic and technology aren’t mutually exclusive forces and they are quite forthright about their love of their art. (This, apparently, ticks off the oft secretive necromancers and infernalists.)

Mechamancy devices aren’t really single items like a sword or a wand, built by one person to be used by one person, but rather magical components built by many and combined together into a bigger device. I’ll explain more about this later.

Like most other authors, the writer uses boxed text throughout the book to further explain terminology and give examples, but he makes use of them in another way. M:TCM includes a “sample” world, Elstrice, and the idea of a Fantasy Renaissance to aid explaining how this new school of magic can be integrated into your own campaign. He uses these text boxes to make parallel references between Elstrice and Renaissance Italy as a real-world example of the plausible natural evolution of magic and technology. At first this really bugged me, but after sticking with it, I found myself looking forward to reading the parallel examples. It seemed to fit well.

This is NOT steam-sorcery revisited. That book is a but further in the “future” of techo-magic. This book doesn’t tread on the ground of steam technology at all. I would think it is closer to Chaositech (Malhavoc) than E.N. Publishing’s Steam and Steel. I may follow this with a review of Steam and Steel.

OK… about the contents…

Section 1: Introduction
This section basically described what mechamancy is and why it exists. It’s only 2 pages with an additional page devoted to a Lexicon of terms.

Section 2: For Gamemasters
Well… not really just for gamemasters, it also helps players to grasp the ideas how mechamancy could fit into the world they are adventuring in. This chapter talks about the levels of power, the ethical and moral implications of mechamancy and how mechamancy fits into the world. They also introduce Elstrice and the parallels to Renaissance Italy.

Section 3: The Magic of Mechamancy
This section provides new skills, feats, a couple of prestige classes, spells, a mechamancy organization (The Machinst Guild), and even a new deity (The Divine Engine) and cleric domain (Machine). I’ll list them, but to get the descriptions you’ll have to buy the book.

Skills:
Craft (clockwork),
Knowledge (philosophy) – quite interesting
Knowledge(technology)
Speak language (binary) – a bit cheesy.

Feats:
Build Fantastic Machine [ITEM CREATION]
Effective Crafting [GENERAL]
Eidetic Memory [GENERAL]
Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Renaissance Firearms) [GENERAL]
Living Machine Familiar [GENERAL]
Long-Term Effort [ITEM CREATION] – maybe to be used in conjunction with the drunken mechamancers in the adventure location form Appendix 2
Project Head [GENERAL] – no…. not a floating head… think project management.

Prestige Classes:
The Machinist – Prestige class clerics of the Divine Engine, also called the clockwork god, and the leaders of the deity’s mystery cult, are machinists.
The Technician - Technicians are secular spellcasters who study and execute the planning and construction of devices using mechamancy.

Spells:
Alter Range (Sor/Wiz 4)
Awaken Machine (Sor/Wiz 6, Clr 6)
Clear Metal (Sor/Wiz 1)
Grand Calculation (Sor/Wiz 2)
Know Design (Sor/Wiz 3)
Magnetic Spell Bottle (sor/wiz 7)
Magnetize (Sor/Wiz 0, Clr 0)
Sabotage (Sor/Wiz 5, Clr 5)
Summon Machine 1 – 9 (Sor/Wiz, Clr)
Transmute Shaped Stone to Mud (Sor/Wiz 6, Drd 6)
Undo Device (Sor/Wiz 8, Clr 8)

The write-up on the guild is quite good. The Machinist Guild helps buffer the mechamancers against those that would try to squash them out. Mechamancy is looked at with a strage eye, so skepticism and fear are common. The Guild is well organized and gives the practitioners a safety shield against this ignorance.

The new deity The Divine Macine is interesting. The write up includes information about the history, the function of the god, it's theology ("Conduct your life in as logical, coherent, dispassionate, and responsible a way as is possible, because excessive emotion leads to more suffering than joy."). It also goes into the divine view of mechamancy.

One note on spells, I thought the summon spells were a bit overpowered. But this is without playtesting, so take that with a grain of salt.

Section 4: Creating Fantasic Devices
This section goes into the basis of mechamancy: the creation of these magic-techno items. The description of the process of how to construct these items is very thorough, and it gives examples along the way, but I felt these items were also a bit overpowered. The creation DCs are really over the top, but I suppose that makes up for the power level. A text box explains this further. I still think that it would be easy to max out a char (or NPC) and they could crank these out with a lab and some engineers quite easily. There are creation DC modifications for everything, including (but not exclusive to) granting ability scores, weight, size, materials used, feats imbued and spells imbued. The gold and XP cost seemed a bit low, but I didn’t playtest these so it’s only a gut feeling. From what I could tell, mechamancy devices aren’t charged per se, they do “run out” but can be rewound to get their powers back.

Section 5: Tools and Items
This section has tables and descriptions for mundane tools, new weapons and mechamancy items. Some items stand out for better or worse: like a lightning cannon that can fire enlarged, extended and maximized lightning bolts, a spell bottle, battle armor that gives you 20 dex and 20 str, a flying ship, and a device that can calculate any number and even use probability to divine the future.

There are also two appendices that have a couple of artifact type mechamancy devices that are “lost” and an observatory adventure location complete with a pair of drunken mechmancer women and their drunken male companion (where’s Larry and Mr. Farley?)


Conclusions:
All in all this is a very well written and designed product. I believe Mr. Sullivan put in a lot of time researching the requirements necessary for introducing a Fantasy Renaissance into the game. I preferred the fluff over the crunch, but that’s my style. Don’t get me wrong, the skills and feats are interesting, the spells are necessary for introducing this school of magic (though I still am not as fond of the summon machine spells), and the prestige classes are well done.

I have some mixed feelings about how to introduce this into my game, but I done slowly, it would make for an interesting plot device. I really liked the Guild of Machinists and I think I will make the deity a “lost god” or something from another plane. And I read something about a living machine outsider web enhancement too. That would help bridge the gap for my campaign story, making this a product of another plane brought in and introduced by cultists that may worship one of these outsiders.

I don’t let “how this will fit in my campaign” bias my review, however. The book was well written, well supported with notes and how-to explanations for creating devices, and has a very good balance of crunch and fluff. I would give it 5 stars if my gut feeling wasn’t that some of the spells and devices were a bit overpowered. In a high magic world, it would fit in perfectly. This reviewer’s opinion is that it would take a lot of work to introduce this into your low magic world, it would require a fair amount of work to prevent to disrupting an already delicate magic system balance.

Most PDFs aren’t very expensive and if you want to add an interesting layer to your game, this book has some excellent ideas.

Matthew Olivia
aka Catsclaw

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Thank you for the generally favorable review. However, please note that Davan, PeeJee, Aubry, Choo-Choo Bear and Pepito are a refrence to Something*Positive, a web comic available at www.somethingpositive.net.

 

[catsclaw227]

Ahhhh yes! I understand the connection now. I have read this only a few times in the past and am not an avid follower, so I missed the connection. But I still thought the idea was funny.

CC

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Mechamancy: The Clockwork Magic

Review by Bill Collins

Mechamancy is a 56 page pdf from EN Publishing, written by Robert Sullivan. Art is by Marcio Fiorito, J.L. Jones, and Juan Navarro. I received a complimentary review copy.

The book focuses on technology powered by magic. This is a topic I love, even if my players usually don’t. If you like clockworks, magick engyns and a series like The Empire of Unreason, then you’ll like this book. The retail price is $15.95 (a bit steep if it were true), currently on sale for $8.95 at DTRPG, which I think is quite reasonable for what you get.

It is divided into Sections, rather than Chapters, which was a subtle touch. There is an extensive and prominent playtester list. It covers the subject matter in detail. These are all good things.

Section 01 - Introduction

This very short section includes a glossary of terms, a interesting and indeed necessary inclusion. I am going to speak about one thing mentioned here. Otherwise this is just what you would expect: an introduction.

Mechamancy creates a new statistic called Construction that replaces Constitution for constructs, especially living machines. It reminds me of Tik-Tok from the Oz books, because machines with Construction wind down and need rewinding. This is a cool plot point, but it’s scattered through the text and needed more description and centralization. Construction is odd the rules make all sorts of references to it that aren’t then covered in Section 04 where it’s discussed. For example, it mentions intelligent machines being “asleep” at –1 hp when you cast Undo Device, yet this is not covered later and the rules appear to contradict it. That said, it’s a good idea since we’ve all run up against the bizarre case where monsters lacking Con scores still needing to do things relating to one’s Constitution, but instead substitute Charisma. (Huh? I still say that 5 years later.)

Section 02 - For GameMasters

A short discussion on introducing mechamancy to your game world. While I have seen few books define and then discuss morals as applied to magically powered machines, I found the exploration of it here quite useful. I’ve been pondering a Renaissance era d20 game for some time (having run a non-d20 one that ended five years ago), and this helped crystallize my own thoughts. The discussion of mechamancy and technology as evil was particularly interesting. It’s one of those fun thought exercises for a DM that would probably not come into actual play except in one of those legendary groups one reads about on the Internet where the outre is expected, if not mundane. The most useful part was the section dealing with adding it to a fantasy world.

Unfortunately, the authors added a setting, Elstrice, a pseudo-Italian cognate, without giving it a map. Settings inserted in a book are useful to illustrate the author’s ideas. Even though I use few elements of them, I like reading them. The setting in this book is too short, though it’s decently done. It mainly focuses on House Verrocchio and Cardinal Ludd, two opposing forces. (The obvious reference to Luddites is too plain.) Details on these two factions appear in general terms, without some specifics such as gp resources and numbers of members to help save time for the DM who wants to insert this into their game. I really wanted to hear more about the magical catastrophe mentioned, but that too was glossed over. However, the description of Ludd himself and his philosophy is real and believable. I found myself intrigued by the possibilities of someone like that in a fantasy game. Another couple pages discussing more of the pseudo-Renaissance fantasy and the clockwork economy would have been gold. This section had intriguing examples of the distinctions between magic and mechamancy that left me wanting more.

Section 03 – The Magic of Mechamancy

This deals with feats, spells, guns, and other mechanics pertinent to character creation. A couple of the feats, like Living Machine Familiar, and Long-Term Effort, were neat ideas. All were functional and well-described, although I thought the Eidetic Memory feat was vague. It grants a +1 to +8 bonus (too high on the upper end!) to Int/Knowledge checks at DMs discretion. That sort of feat needs clearer guidelines, in my opinion, or players always argue for the +8. Even a short chart or table of examples would have been very helpful.

The first Prestige Class, the Machinist, I found very interesting. It is intended for clerics of the Divine Machine. They can turn living machines, heal damage to machines, and have technology-related abilities. They seem a tad overpowered compared to the core system with two good saves and nine levels of spellcasting over 10 total PrC levels with only a few prereqs. Given all they get, the loss of a second level of spellcasting advancement would be appropriate. However, this was a nicely flavorful, unique PrC for a cleric. Thumbs up!

The next Prestige Class is the Technician, intended for non-divine casters. It too has a high spellcaster progression, giving nine +1 caster levels over 10 levels. They have higher entry requirements than the Machinist, but they probably get better use out of the feats and skills requisites along the way. This class is a machine-themed caster with mechamancy skills boosts. It’s heavily front-loaded. The most useful feat or ability they get after level 1 is Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Renaissance firearms), but the character will be level 10 by the time they get it, at which point spells overshadow a pistol. It’s got too many bonus feats and abilities for the tradeoff of losing one caster level from the progression. This class could have been compressed to a more tightly focused 5-level PrC.

The Machine Guild is detailed and interesting. This is portable into any existing campaign. The writeup caused ideas to spark, which is always a good sign. I also like the author’s sidebars comparing the role of the Guild in the fantasy game to the Dutch East India Company to help determine a similar role in your fantasy game. The benefits for joining the guild are clear and decently balanced. I enjoyed the fact that you can get a small advantage without having to take a Prestige Class. I would have liked more discussion on what happens if a mechamancer fails to share a new discovery with the Guild, but that’s a bit of a nit to pick.

Mechamancy spells are presented next. There are 13 (or 21) new spells here: Summon Machine I-IX and a set of other interesting options. I was disappointed to see that there were no bard spells. Except for Summon Machine, the cleric list was minimal. After providing us with the flavorful, divine Machinist, a little more support would be good. Though the new Machine domain provided is cool. (Though it grants Turn Living Machine, making it redundant with one of the Machinist abilities.) The sorceror and wizard get an excellent allotment of spells of course. The spells were all thematic (a big plus), and well written.

Here are specific comments:

All spells used the older convention for casting time of “one round” or “one action”. This should be specified more clearly, such as “1 full round” or “1 standard action”, as most companies do now.

Alter Range: Many players will love this spell, since it doubles range increments, or reduces them for the other side. The spell does not specify if it can or can’t be cast a second time (and should state that) on the same targets. This is the sort of spell I don’t care for as a DM. It enables sniping by PCs and reduction of opponents’ weapon ranges, changing the tactics on the battlefield. With its Long range, the wizard can easily destroy enemy missile users and enhance the party archers, turning a fight into a long-range damage dealing exercise. The archer will of course crow with delight. If this had a Touch range, I’d be delighted with it because then it might spur a “sneak into the enemy camp” decision by PCs. Other groups will find this admirably suits their playstyle though. It’s balanced if you’re going to include it.

Awaken Machine is a logical, cool concept. This is shades of Perdido Street Station with the Construct Council. The spell has an immediate flaw in it that it refers to the (living) subtype and doesn’t describe it right there or reference it anywhere else in the text. (It’s not defined in the pdf either.) This is going into my game.

Clear Metal is a flavorful and interesting spell, remniscent of the old Glassteel. The one serious flaw is that it allows rogues to sneak attack constructs by making their innards visible. Just because you can see inside an iron golem doesn’t make it more vulnerable. Granted, the mechamantic machines or the living subtype constructs described could be vulnerable, but that’s really too good for a 1st level spell. If in fact the spell only worked on the living constructs of this volume, it would be perfect.

Grand Calculation has excellent ideas that seem inconsistent. You gain a +20 to a single Knowledge: Mathematics check for one round. Who do you know of that can solve complex math problems in six seconds? (By complex I mean a multistep equation or formula, not just something like computing out the value of pi to x decimal places.) Had the author expanded the uses of Knowledge: mathematics in the skills chapter to show me how this is useful, I think my objection to it would vanish. I do like the second half of the spell which lets you ignore cover and the first three range increments for the next round. That’s very neat. There is a typo in the components line. It says “DF” when it should say AF or F. There is also no listed cost for the abacus or slide rule arcane focus, which needs a price. (It doesn’t appear in the Equipment Section either.)

Magnetic Spell Bottle wowed me with both the description and the idea. The cost however seemed odd. For spell level * caster level * 20 to make the special bottle, you gain the benefit of Brew Potion or AE’s Craft Single-Use Item to create single-use spells for a fraction of the typical spell level * caster level * 50 cost. Granted, damage spells are centered on the bottle and go off in a random direction if they’re a ray or line, but you can easily get around that by making tiny flying automata to drop this on enemies. Technically this should be an abjuration and not an evocation spell since it creates a magical barrier imprisoning another spell. Many casters will like the utility of this spell.

Magnetize is a very clever 0-level spell. It’s nice to see folks coming up with balanced, creative cantrips.

Sabotage is a decent spell to target machines and objects only. I personally think this could be lower level by one, making it 4th level, but others will disagree.

Summon Machine is pretty neat. I like the 9th level version in particular, which lets you summon a vehicle instead of a creature. (Vehicles

Undo Device is a fun spell. Non-rogues will beg wizards for this. I assume a golem is not a device, but after reading the spell I do think it could have used a little clarification on what constituted the spell’s target. Does it include magical machines? Mechamancy? If the target line read “One non-magical…” I think that would entirely clear it up. The components line should read “V, S, F/DF”. It also appears to contradict the later rules, since it defines a construct at –1 hp as “asleep”, yet in Section 04 it advises that devices brought to 0 hit points can’t be repaired.

The Divine Engine religion gets a decent, if too-short treatment. This is another one of the enjoyable ideas in this book – that a machine can become a god. This would have been a good place for some art – illustrating the holy symbol of the religion. There is a short analysis of other “domain” deities view on mechamancy, a helpful piece indeed.

Section 04 – Creating Fantastic Devices

Right off the bat the fact that a sidebar addressed Prosthetics was really cool. The rules are also simple and easy to use. A bonus! This is a complete subsystem for creating mechamantic devices and beings. It’s more complex than say, Chaositech, but also more detailed, which I prefer. I like the fact that the author carried the example devices throughout the chapter, showing how to create both powered armor and a lightning cannon. The Malfunction rules need a bit of clarification. They don’t specify when to check for it, other than when someone deliberately tampers with a clockwork. The Malfunction table itself is fun.

I tried constructing a sample device – a mithral invisibility detecting watch that rings when someone invisible comes close. This would be equivalent to see invisibility. I gave it 20 extra hp just for fun. It works 3 x/day. You have to push a special button on the side to activate it. The cost (if I figured it correctly) came out to 3170 gp, with a Craft DC of 22. The rules did not seem to account for materials types cost, just weight. My watch is slightly cheap, but it does require rewinding, and it can be seized, so it seems all right.

Overall I found this section good. The Craft DCs have a tendency to rise really fast as you try to toss more good stuff onto the item. If there’s any negative to this subsystem, it’s exactly that. The Craft DC can rise really high really fast, especially compared to a similar magical device which can be made with the right spell prereq and caster level. The balance to this is the cost, which is a percent of the Craft DC. (I would rather have a direct relationship, as in standard D&D, with higher costs.) It is a good reflection of a new and difficult ability still under refinement, so many DMs will like putting wands of infinite magic missiles out of reach of their PCs. It does support epic mechamancy campaigns since some of the Craft DCs rise above 100.

Section 05 – Tools and Magic Items

New equipment is always cool. This section had a neat selection, many of those described earlier included. My favorite is the Gatling magic missile gun – although it’s not named that. When you look at the prices, everything does seem really cheap. The high Craft DC is supposed to balance everything, but the Wings of Daedal grant a 100 flight speed with good manueverability plus Dodge and Manueverability for 3770 gp. That’s too good. The pricing is at least consistent. With some tinkering with the multipliers, I think this would come in line with D&D pricing. The ideas themselves are all solid, and describe many items PCs will want.

Appendix 1 contains the Clockwork Egg, a really neat artifact that would be perfect if there were a diagram or picture of the innards, and Vectheafod, The Head of Death. The latter is an artifact reference to an old (still funny) D&D joke, the Head of Vecna. The Clockwork Egg is going into my next campaign somehow.

Appendix 2 contains the Observatory. It has many references to the webcomic Something Positive (with permission of the author). Some people will really like this. Others (like myself who don’t read that comic regularly) will find no value in the reference. (For me, in-joke references distract from a mostly serious work. I like my in-jokes a little better disguised.) But, it’s an appendix, so it’s not vital. This is another area that would really benefit from a map or illustration to let you just drop it into your campaign. The Observatory seems like a really cool spot for an adventure though, so I'll probably use it as some point.

Art Comments

There is no front cover. While this is becoming standard in the pdf industry, I’m old-fashioned enough that I prefer products that have it. There is a first page with a very cool clockwork illustration with tiny runes at all the cogs. I liked this piece right away. The other art pieces are sparse, but well done and fit the theme nicely. The myrmidon illustration and the p. 6 picture are probably my favorites.

Editing

I need to nitpick. There are a serious lack of references within the text. Even “See Section X; subhead” indicators would be helpful. The reader is left to puzzle out whether topics that are mentioned are discussed elsewhere in the text (the aforementioned “living” subtype come to mind). However, the text is clear and easy to read. The writing is engaging. I didn’t notice anything glaring other than passive voice, a sin of which I am also guilty. (So I don’t mark off for it.) I didn’t notice any typos, and the layout was very clean. With that taken into consideration, I give the editor good marks.

Conclusion

Mechamancy is an imaginitive and well-done product that left me wanting a lot more. Had this been a 96-page sourcebook, it would have merited five stars. As it stands, I’ve picked a lot of nits, many of which do not change the fact that this is a solid product, so I give it four stars. It’s easily adaptable to a game where you want to introduce technology without going wholly steampunk. It expands upon the d20 rules while demonstrating a good grasp of them. I liked it. I’ll look for other books in this line and by this author. Maybe he’ll even expand it.

 

[Moulin Rogue]

This is a review of a complimentary copy.

Mechamancy: The Clockwork Magic is a 54-page PDF by EN Publishing, written by Robert Sullivan for use with 3.5 Edition. The product has a full set of bookmarks as well as a linked-up Table Of Contents. Layout is clean and neat with no border adornment. Interior artwork is sparse and of what there was, it leaned a bit too far to the cartoony side for my taste. I thought the outer covers were terrific though, with a foot in both the "tome" look associated with Third Edition (the rune-etched clockwork gears on the front cover) and a hint of the "brushed metal" look of d20 Modern on the background. Great use of texturing here. The product would not open in Adobe Reader 5 but was fine in version 7.

Proofreading looked okay, I didn't find any spelling errors but there were some minor grammatical malfunctions: on p.1 "combing the two" should have read "combining the two", I suspect. On p.4 "on a few people understand" should have read "only a few people understand". On p.8 there should be an "of" inserted between "set and "traditions". On p.9 the word "artist" might read better as "artistic". On p.34 the phrase "sentient living machine" should have an "a" in front of it, and p.38 contained a run-on word, "malfunctionsof". On p.43 "image it moving" should read "image is moving".

Here's a rundown of the contents:

Section 01: Introduction is three pages and explains what mechamancy is: technology driven by magic. Established right away is the fact that this has massive implications for the game world, and whether they are frightening or promising is a matter of perspective. The "-mancy" half of the term is no small part of it - this is not technology developing exclusively of magic, it's technology and magic going hand in hand. A one page lexicon of terms is provided.

Section 02: For Game Masters runs ten pages and discusses the flavour and balance of mechamancy in the game world. The product explains that the technological flavour is closest to the fantastical devices envisioned by Leonardo da Vinci and introduces the concept of a Fantastic Renaissance. I was really on board for this as I greatly enjoy this era of history and feel that early modern times haven't been explored much in fantasy outside of swashbuckling settings. This part does a good job in explaining how mechamancy puts increased power in the hands of the commoner at the expense of traditional power bases, and the social conflict this brings about.

There is also a discussion on the machine as a force for both good and evil, and later on the section delves into the viewpoints of those who oppose and support mechamancy. While it was good to see that the product tackles this subject at all, it fell a bit short of the mark for me. The pro-mechamancy view is easily viable for PCs to take, but I don't think the same can quite be said for the anti-mechamancy side. The sample nation of Elstrice is probably neutral overall, bringing some good things to the world but with some unseemly conduct beneath the surface. A great patron nation for a party of adventurers, in other words. The other, unnamed, nation is home to a high priest, Cardinal Ludd, who has not only outlawed mechamancy but wants to stamp out all technological progress of the past thousand years. Ludd isn't flat-out identified as evil, but he sure does look to be set up as the antagonist.

I think Mechamancy would have done well here to bring out the "-punk" in "gearpunk", a term that appears in the lexicon but nowhere else in the product. This is a setting undergoing the birth pangs of modernism and it would be interesting to explore what new ideas of government this technology could bring about: what about a magocracy of mechamancers, or even communism?

Section 03: The Magic of Mechamancy is eighteen pages and is the place where the game mechanics start to get rolled out. There are some subskills and feats, two prestige classes, a good write-up on the Machine Guild and new spells. Craft (clockwork) is the big thing to have, and the Build Fantastic Machine feat is required to build anything that emulates magic so you'll likely want to pick that one up before too long. All the spells fall under the traditional schools of magic, I was glad to see mechamancy done the way it was instead of making it a "true" new school of magic, that would have been messy. A deity known as the Divine Engine and the Machine domain finish the section.

Section 04: Creating Fantastic Devices packs a lot into eight pages and is basically a walkthrough on how to build anything you can imagine through mechamancy. The examples are easy to follow and the rules flow intuitively enough. The finished items are cheaper than magic items that do the same thing and are easy to use, but there are some drawbacks: Craft DCs do have a way of running awfully high, and the items tend to be bulky and require regular rewinding to stay functional.

Section 05: Tools And Items runs through weapons, armour, vehicles and living machines, all statted out. There's some pretty neat stuff here to get the creative juices flowing. The Auriscope Helmet emulates the whispering wind spell and got me thinking about communication devices: a telegraph would be one thing, a telephone something else, but would some kind of internet be far off from there? (I know, I know, I'm still on the "punk" thing.) The Lightning Cannon is the premiere firearm of the setting, and although little over one-third the price of an equivalent wand, it's still over 11,000 gp, making it tough to equip a large military force. For those who wanted to introduce firearms to a campaign while keeping them fairly rare, here's a way to do it. There's also a Fluid Oscillation Pack right out of Ghostbusters, an affordable flying ship, and a combat machine called the myrimdon, among other things. No stats for a submarine or printing press as I'd hoped, unfortunately, so I'll just have to make my own.

A couple of appendices round out the product. Appendix 01: Deus Ex Machina consists of a couple of artifacts, and Appendix 02: The Observatory is a mechamancer facility.

Mechamancy: The Clockwork Magic is a very nice toolkit for kicking the technology in your game world up a notch or two and getting away from the medieval tech assumptions of d20 fantasy. It does feel like a toolkit in the sense that it seems to say, "here are the tools to make what you want, and here are some models to get you started, have at it". So in that regard the product felt a bit short to me at 54 pages when it could have easily been in the 64-80 page range. The advertising blurb and the introduction made prominent reference to the social change mechamancy would bring; while this angle did get covered adequately, I don't think it realized its full potential, as I wrote about regarding wanting to see a bit of "punk". In a slightly longer book, more examples could have been provided in Section 05 as well. Still a good product overall that could inspire some really interesting things and I give Mechamancy a 4 out of 5.

 

[Wyvern]

Vehicles?

Summon Machine is pretty neat. I like the 9th level version in particular, which lets you summon a vehicle instead of a creature. (Vehicles

You seem to be missing something there...

Wyvern