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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Moulin Rogue" data-source="post: 2545325" data-attributes="member: 1192">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.</blockquote>

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