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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2010567" data-attributes="member: 172">SpellboundSpellbound: A Codex of Ritual Magic is a magic sourcebook detailing rituals as a system of magic in d20 System fantasy games. The book is by Living Imagination, and the ritual magic system detailed here is an extension of the one that appears in their Twin Crowns campaign setting.Spellbound is written by John Faugno, Evan Burnstein, Celeste DeAngels, Joseph Unfried, Harald Henning, and Larry Fitzgerald.A First LookSpellbound is a 128 page perfect bound softcover book priced at $19.95 dollars. This is a competitive price for a d20 System product of this size.The cover of the book has the blue marbled look common to Living Imagination's releases to date. The front cover picture, by Dale Lawrence, depicts what appears to be a wizard and a cleric, with each in a different backdrop, both stepping into a glowing circle on the floor. The picture is bisected by a glowing bolt of energy. This picture apparently addresses the two major types of magic in the d20 System: arcane and divine.The interior is black and white and includes art by Paul Butler, Marcio Fiorito, Eric M. Lofgren, Britt Martin, Catherine Noble, Jose Rivera Pares, and Ronaldo Santana. The art varies in quality, but veteran RPG artists Fiorito and Lofgren have some great work in the book, and Santana and Martin are definitely making a good first impression on me. However, some of the remaining art is not so pleasing to my eye.The interior body text is conservatively sized, and the lines and paragraphs are single spaced, delivering a good product content quantity. Some of the tables are a bit block and boring, but otherwise the layout is decent.A Deeper LookThe ritual magic system presented in Spellbound is fundamentally similar to the one introduced in Living Imagination's Twin Crowns campaign book. Ritual magic in this system is uncertain, using skill rolls relying on special skills. Different skills are needed for arcane and  divine ritual magic. Ritual magic also relies on expensive components.Rituals are fundamentally similar to spells, but have more powerful effects. All rituals have a DC, a flaw number, and a korba cost. If the ritual casting skill check fails, the casting of the ritual fails. If the character rolls a natural number on the dice equal to the flaw number, even if successful, then the ritual has a random flaw as a side effect. It is also possible to critically succeed or fail at rituals, similar to combat rolls. The effects of a critical success, failure, or flaw are typically listed in the ritual description, though some rituals refer to a common random table for these effects.The skill check for ritual casting can be modified by other factors, such as deliberate attempts to sabotage the ritual by one of the characters involved in it, or by inscribing a special ritual circle (which can also modify other aspects of the ritual.)The primary listed method of controlling access to rituals in a game is by requiring korba, a silvery powder with fantastic properties, and that is rare and expensive. This is the option that the Twin Crowns setting uses, though the you are encouraged to come up with your own ideas for the origins of this mysterious substance.A more flavorful alternative is also provided. The book spends several pages providing specific exotic components that can be used in the place of the called for korba requirement. A number of possible components are provided for rituals in each of the eight schools of magic.Finally, the book discusses combining the two methods.To support the ritual casting system, Spellbound provides the arcane ritualist and divine ritualist prestige classes as well as a number of feats that affect ritual spellcasting and magic items related to ritual casting. The prestige classes are fairly balanced, only providing two spellcasting levels with their advancement, the bulk of the class abilities enhance ritual casting.The bulk of the book is the rituals themselves. Rituals allow powerful effects such as reversing of aging or raising a fortified cathedral from the bare ground.ConclusionIf you are interested is a magic system that allows for a bit of power in exchange for a bit of randomness, without totally scrapping the existing system, Spellbound ought to be right for you. Overall, the book seems well written, conceived and balanced. That said, I must say that personally I still prefer the popular ritual casting system in Sword & Sorcery Studios' Relics & Rituals for the fact that you can use it to cast normal spells, not just special ritual spells.Overall Grade: B-Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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