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Message: <blockquote data-quote="catsclaw227" data-source="post: 2454541" data-attributes="member: 14197">Mechamancy: The Clockwork MagicMechamancy: The Clockwork Magic56pg PDF Written by:  Robert SullivanEdited By: Ryan NockPublished by:  E.N. PublishingI received this PDF as a complimentary review copy.  This is not a playtest review.PDF DetailsMechamancy: 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:  IntroductionThis 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 GamemastersWell… 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 MechamancyThis 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. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Skills:Craft (clockwork),Knowledge (philosophy) – quite interestingKnowledge(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 2Project 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 DevicesThis 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 ItemsThis 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. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  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 Oliviaaka Catsclaw</blockquote>

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