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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010732" data-attributes="member: 1129">Redhurst is a hardcover that details the Academy of Magic. This book, the Student Handbook, is laid out like a brochure that any high school student might get from a high ranking college. It's minimal on the game stats and heavy on the role playing with numerous possibilities for adventure sprinkled liberally throughout the text.Redhurst is broken  into five chapters; Welcome to Redhurst, Campus Life, The Faculty, The Campus, The Schools of Magic, and several Appendices. The foreword by Margaret Weis is a strong sign of confidence that this book is something different and Margaret's introduction is in fiction, giving the book a nice fantasy feel right off the bat.Before you get started reading though, you noticed red handwriting throughout the book. This is apparently from a disgruntled student who plots with an unnamed master to overthrow the school. These notes range from giving the GM numerous ideas to add spice to the campaign to providing facts not revealed by the handbook. Some of the comments are just out and out hilarious though as the comments appear on the credits page as well as the OGL page so we get stuff like “Isn't “d20” the name of the system you have me use to encode your notes about these cretins?” or , “These “Wizards of the Coast” seem to be everywhere.” Funny stuff.The first element that kicks Redhurst off from a standard school is that it travels. It moves from place to place by nature of powerful teleportation magic. The next thing is that it provides pretty much everything that a standard school does from a history and background of the school, to sports, excursions, games and drama. They even manage to poke fun at rpgs with their games as they have the Grand Adventure Game, where “the students dress in the garb of adventurers about to venture into the dark, dungeons once controlled by an evil wizard-king, but now overrun by the monsters he once experimented upon.”The material on the faculty gives the reader a good run down of the notables of the school. This ranges from the secretary and chief of security, to the various deans of the eight schools of magic. Each one has background information and current doings with game information pulled off  in another box to prevent the fiction from hitting the mechanics. This works well as you can easily find what you're looking for. The stats look 3.5 with alchemy being a craft school and specialty wizards having two prohibited schools, save for divners who only have one prohibited school.The most interesting feature of this section isn't the faculty themselves, as all are painted picture perfect, but the side notes that range from this person is actually a lycanthrope to this person uses goblins in the soup. These notes provide a nice counter balance to the almost bland goodness that the school is selling the prospective students. It also provides the GM with the opportunity to run Redhurst as it's written or to run an 'evil' style Redhurst where backstabbing and secrets run rampant.The section on the campus deals not only with information on the security and mobility of the campus, but also the specific locations detailed on the four pages of maps. The Academy has four floors and over fifty locations detailed out for the reader. These details provide characters, plotlines and current happenings and like the rest of the book, are heavy with ideas. Because the campus moves from place to place and plane to plane, there are areas provided for a GM to put special characters that he can use to move the campaign forward in a number of different methods.Perhaps my favorite part of the book is the material on the different campaign settings that the campus visits. The following are all covered, Arcanis, Battle City (Seven Cities by Atlas), Dungeon World, Freeport, Kalamar (Geanavue), Nyambe, Sovereign Stone (Loerem), Scarred Lands (Hollowfaust). Often with a full page of ideas and information that ties well into the actual campaign setting as opposed to being a sentence or two about Redhurst being here or being banned from there. There are numerous other little entries but these refer to the native Redhurst setting, providing the GM enough material to have a good feel for the world.I think one of the reasons I like this is that it allows you to mix and match to you're heart's content. I also like the fact that what they do here makes sense. I know, you're thinking, “Dungeon World isn't really a campaign setting as much as a prison.” and that's true, which is why the academy is looking for ways to free those cursed souls. An innovative idea that gives Dungeon World another avenue of escape while tying it into the multiverse.The material on the schools of magic is very light on game mechanics, sprinkling some low level signature spells from each school throughout the section. The real information is in the classes and tutors, the expectations and class descriptions. It allows a GM to use the merit system latter introduced as well as add more detailed notes about the characters who run the academy, both the deans and the lesser teachers, all carefully counter balanced by the side comments.Each school has background information and includes the dean who founded the school, so we get Aegis School of Abjuration for example, the crest, the maps and the information not only in terms of classes and teachers, but also the year that the student is expected to take them and whose teaching them.In terms of game mechanics, they've wisely put them at the back of the book. There are little spells and magic items staggered through the book and the stats for the NPCs are listed with the faculty, but the majority of the game material is in the back. The information also includes what levels the characters should be when they join, what level when they leave, and some options for them that are both mechanical and role playing based.The material ranges from new spells, feats and PrCs, to a method of handling experience points based on merits. Merits are worth experience points and characters get them from successfully completing classes. This is an interesting twist on gaining experience from methods other than fighting and is something I've long looked for in a d20 product, having only seen something similar in the book Experts. Students are also expected to do some adventuring on the side here and there so they may actually be higher then 3rd level when they graduate.One example of role playing paying off is students who successfully graduate get the Redhurst Alumni feat for free, providing a +4 circumstance bonus to Diplomacy checks versus other Redhurst Alumni. One example of game mechanics, is not having to declare a specialty school until you reach 2nd level, and then having the ability to switch it again at 3rd level.Redhurst is bold because it's not the standard format. It may not be the first product to do so, but it's the first RPG product that I've seen use a landscape format. The text flows easily and the notes on handwritten notes aren't a problem to read. The layout is very strong and the full color illustrations mixed with the black and white line drawings add a touch of superior presentation to this product that many RPGs can't compete with.One of the things I didn't like about Redhurst were the maps. While they're effective in providing an idea of the layout and size of the campus, they're not good game tools, being rather pretty pictures instead of maps with grids on them. The scribbles, while highly entertaining are also too limited and tend to repeat themselves in terms of kill, blackmail, discredit, Redhurst is greedy. Fun to read and an excellent counter point to the literature that the book is, but more variety is needed. Redhurst is also high magic. It's not that they go over and take out cities or conquer the planes but the low powered stuff, like flying brooms and floating balls of light, are everywhere. If you're running a low powered campaign, Redhurst is going to be out of place. This isn't a fault of the book as that's what it's designed to do, but it's something to be aware of. Lastly, the game mechanics, while not weak, certainly don't make this a top d20 book if you're looking for numerous PrCs, feats, new legendary PrCs, high level spells, powerful magic items or other elements that you'd associate with a high magic setting.Redhurst is the perfect type of game book for those friends you have who are highly imaginative and like reading fantasy fiction as it's a well crafted book. By keeping the game stats minimized, they've made the book perfect for almost any game system. By making Redhurst a movable academy, they've allowed GM's using any campaign to insert this book into their campaign with as much or as little effect on it as they want.Redhurst is for the GM considering an all magic campaign and a great resource for those who want to expand the role of magic in the setting.</blockquote>

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