The Sigil
Mr. 3000 (Words per post)
Materia Magica
Dark Nebulae
108 pages, hardback, two-color interior
$23.95
For an explanation of the scoring given below, please visit http://www.cooleys.org/ogc/scoring.asp
Executive Summary: This is a volume of magic items - from the relatively minor to artifact-level power. It has the usual bevy of potions, rings, wands, staffs, and so forth, but also introduces "Synergy Outfits" and "Magical Cultivations" as new classes of magic item.
Adaptability 8
The cross-section of items, including weak, strong, and everything in between, means that anyone wishing to add some new items to his or her campaign will have little difficulty finding something they like. The large variety of item types helps as well. I suppose it won't work as easily in a low-magic campaign, but if you use the stuff in the DMG, you'll have no problem using most of the stuff here.
Balance 7
The "synergy outfits" were a nice idea, but I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with the balancing act they entail - basically, you wear/carry a specific set of magic items (usually one weapon, one wondrous item, one piece of armor, and one shield or another wondrous item), plus a "synergy ring" and you get an extra ability that you can use. The synergy ring is an item in and of itself, but the cost does not change based on the extra ability your outfit gives you; since some abilities are stronger than others, this can be problematic. It should also be noted that as far as I could tell, every one of the synergy outfits had at least one of the four constituent "required items" come from this book itself; I wish I could have seen them do some outfits with just "standard" items from the DMG.
Clarity 8
The effects of most items are laid out more or less clearly, though sometimes the illustrations or "anecdotes" describing the items could have been better-placed. Yes, it's nice to have an anecdote at the beginning of each section, but I generally prefer to have them "close to the item" so I don't have to hunt through the whole section to find the item in question (which is sometimes difficult, as the items aren't always "named" in the anecdotes so I can't just breeze through the section and find it).
Focus 10
This was advertised as a book about magic adventuring gear. That's what gets delivered. The book never strays from this topic, and is stronger for it.
Granularity 8
I knocked down the granularity score just a peg because, as I noted above, use of some items in this work (notably synergy rings) requires the incorporation of other, possibly unrelated (at least in a direct sense) items as well. Still, most items can just be picked up and dropped into a campaign with little fuss.
OGC 0
While the Open Game License was included, it was incorrectly done (Dark Nebulae does not appear in the Section 15) and there is no designation of Product Identity or Open Game Content; that makes the product either 100% OGC (if you believe some members of the OGF-L list) or completely un-re-usable. Because it's unclear if this can be re-used at all, I have to give it a zero here; there's literally nothing I can point to and say, "this is OGC."
Originality 7
The synergy outfits were a wonderfully original idea, and there are quite a few other "gems" in this book (I particularly loved the cursed gloves that make off with the wearer's hands!) but of course, there are other items that just seem, well, "stock fantasy stuff." So there are some good ideas, but nothing that blows me away.
Presentation 8
My feeling was that the amount of white space was slightly excessive; however, the glossy pages and hardcover as well as nice, medieval-esque illustrations, gave it a nice "period" feel - as if it might well have been something found in the archives of a "Shadow Council."
Price To Content 2
Hardcover or not, a scant 108 pages with more white space than I'm comfortable with for $24 is a lot to swallow. This book suffered from a lot of delays, but still was put out when WotC's 256-page hardcovers were going for $30... and compared to the 200+ pages of the Blackmoor hardcover I got earlier this week for $35, it's very expensive. The glossy pages increased production value, to be sure, but also increased the price. I found my copy in the discounted section, so I didn't pay full MSRP, but full MSRP is (unfortunately) too high. This product should have at least been beefed up to 128 pages. Heck, the closest competitors in size and price at the time were Bastion's 96-page products and while those were softcover, they were also in full color and had less white space.
Wow 4
Nothing in here jumped out at me and knocked me off my feet. I saw several things that made me raise an eyebrow and think of how I could incorporate it, but the "wow" factor just plain wasn't there. I think the original ad in Dragon Magazine (back around the release of 3e) wowed me more than the book itself did. It's not completely without good points, but nothing to knock your socks off.
THE FINAL WORD: A solid, if unspectacular book of magic items. If you like magic items, you could do worse than this book, and its breadth is a big plus. I don't consider it a "must-have" by any means, though. It really doesn't break much new ground in terms of rules; if you can find it in a "discount bin" for less than MSRP, you might consider picking it up, and I wouldn't recommend AGAINST purchasing it... but I won't tell you to go buy it, either.
TOTAL GRADE: 62, D- (B) -- Two stars
Dark Nebulae
108 pages, hardback, two-color interior
$23.95
For an explanation of the scoring given below, please visit http://www.cooleys.org/ogc/scoring.asp
Executive Summary: This is a volume of magic items - from the relatively minor to artifact-level power. It has the usual bevy of potions, rings, wands, staffs, and so forth, but also introduces "Synergy Outfits" and "Magical Cultivations" as new classes of magic item.
Adaptability 8
The cross-section of items, including weak, strong, and everything in between, means that anyone wishing to add some new items to his or her campaign will have little difficulty finding something they like. The large variety of item types helps as well. I suppose it won't work as easily in a low-magic campaign, but if you use the stuff in the DMG, you'll have no problem using most of the stuff here.
Balance 7
The "synergy outfits" were a nice idea, but I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with the balancing act they entail - basically, you wear/carry a specific set of magic items (usually one weapon, one wondrous item, one piece of armor, and one shield or another wondrous item), plus a "synergy ring" and you get an extra ability that you can use. The synergy ring is an item in and of itself, but the cost does not change based on the extra ability your outfit gives you; since some abilities are stronger than others, this can be problematic. It should also be noted that as far as I could tell, every one of the synergy outfits had at least one of the four constituent "required items" come from this book itself; I wish I could have seen them do some outfits with just "standard" items from the DMG.
Clarity 8
The effects of most items are laid out more or less clearly, though sometimes the illustrations or "anecdotes" describing the items could have been better-placed. Yes, it's nice to have an anecdote at the beginning of each section, but I generally prefer to have them "close to the item" so I don't have to hunt through the whole section to find the item in question (which is sometimes difficult, as the items aren't always "named" in the anecdotes so I can't just breeze through the section and find it).
Focus 10
This was advertised as a book about magic adventuring gear. That's what gets delivered. The book never strays from this topic, and is stronger for it.
Granularity 8
I knocked down the granularity score just a peg because, as I noted above, use of some items in this work (notably synergy rings) requires the incorporation of other, possibly unrelated (at least in a direct sense) items as well. Still, most items can just be picked up and dropped into a campaign with little fuss.
OGC 0
While the Open Game License was included, it was incorrectly done (Dark Nebulae does not appear in the Section 15) and there is no designation of Product Identity or Open Game Content; that makes the product either 100% OGC (if you believe some members of the OGF-L list) or completely un-re-usable. Because it's unclear if this can be re-used at all, I have to give it a zero here; there's literally nothing I can point to and say, "this is OGC."
Originality 7
The synergy outfits were a wonderfully original idea, and there are quite a few other "gems" in this book (I particularly loved the cursed gloves that make off with the wearer's hands!) but of course, there are other items that just seem, well, "stock fantasy stuff." So there are some good ideas, but nothing that blows me away.
Presentation 8
My feeling was that the amount of white space was slightly excessive; however, the glossy pages and hardcover as well as nice, medieval-esque illustrations, gave it a nice "period" feel - as if it might well have been something found in the archives of a "Shadow Council."
Price To Content 2
Hardcover or not, a scant 108 pages with more white space than I'm comfortable with for $24 is a lot to swallow. This book suffered from a lot of delays, but still was put out when WotC's 256-page hardcovers were going for $30... and compared to the 200+ pages of the Blackmoor hardcover I got earlier this week for $35, it's very expensive. The glossy pages increased production value, to be sure, but also increased the price. I found my copy in the discounted section, so I didn't pay full MSRP, but full MSRP is (unfortunately) too high. This product should have at least been beefed up to 128 pages. Heck, the closest competitors in size and price at the time were Bastion's 96-page products and while those were softcover, they were also in full color and had less white space.
Wow 4
Nothing in here jumped out at me and knocked me off my feet. I saw several things that made me raise an eyebrow and think of how I could incorporate it, but the "wow" factor just plain wasn't there. I think the original ad in Dragon Magazine (back around the release of 3e) wowed me more than the book itself did. It's not completely without good points, but nothing to knock your socks off.
THE FINAL WORD: A solid, if unspectacular book of magic items. If you like magic items, you could do worse than this book, and its breadth is a big plus. I don't consider it a "must-have" by any means, though. It really doesn't break much new ground in terms of rules; if you can find it in a "discount bin" for less than MSRP, you might consider picking it up, and I wouldn't recommend AGAINST purchasing it... but I won't tell you to go buy it, either.
TOTAL GRADE: 62, D- (B) -- Two stars
