The Ultimate Mystic

[Crothian]

The Wonders of Magic

Magic, spells, and mystical beings are one of the most popular elements in most roleplaying games - in fact, they're so popular that gamers often introduce them into genres where they don't normally exist! The Ultimate Mystic is a comprehensive guide to using mysticism in your HERO System campaigns, whether they're magic-filled Fantasy games or games that don't usually feature spells and spellcasters. The Ultimate Mystic includes:

- a detailed discussion of the types and backgrounds of mysic characters, and how to create such characters in HERO System terms, with new and optional rules for character design

- review of major styles and types of magic found in the real world and in fiction, such as Hermetic Theurgy, Voodoo, Rune Magic, Necromancy, Alchemy, Taoist Theurgy, Shamanism, Sadhana, and many more

- discussions of how to include magic on any genre of play, particularly genres that don't usually involve magic (such as Science Fiction)

- descriptions of denizens of the Mystic World, such as angels, demons, faeries, gods, ghosts, and shapechangers, with dozens of examples from world folklore and mythology

If you're looking to put a little magic into your characters and campaigns, The Ultimate Mystic is just the book for you.

Stock #: DOJHERO108
ISBN: 1-58366-038-0
232-pg Trade Paperback, Perfect Bound
Retail: $24.99
Author: Dean Shomshak
Artists: Barry Winston (Cover), Various (Interior)

 

[Sketchpad]

First off, this isn’t a d20 supplement. The Ultimate Mystic is a sourcebook for the Hero System, authored by Dean Shomshak and sold both in your local gaming store and online at Hero Games’ website (http://www.herogames.com). Upon first overview of the book, it’s obvious that this book would be useful for any genre and pretty much any system. As with all of Hero’s Ultimate line, the Ultimate Mystic tackles the ideas of playing a mystic in any setting with various studies and builds that could fit most magic systems easily.

In chapter one of the book, the reader is treated to the typical genre material that Hero Games has become know for. Composed of seven sections, chapter one is geared to both player and GM, as it gives advice on concepts and rules. The first section, which covers various models of characters, takes a detailed look at what kinds of characters could be made using the Ultimate Mystic. With each concept, suggestions are posed on how to play them, what abilities, skills and powers to give them and a brief description of what goes into such a character. The second section of this chapter compliments the first with ideas that pertain to specifically building a magus. The last five sections go into the meat and bones of character creation, offering advice on skills, powers, talents, modifiers and disadvantages. It’s within these sections that one could find variations on building an astral form, or the rules for using auras in any game (including a color scale). Of all the chapters, this was one of the ones I found most useful, as it helps players and GMs build any mystical character from the floor up.

Chapter two covers the theory of dimensional travel in terms related to magic. Each of the three sections covers a part of dimensional travel. The first section serves as an introduction to the idea, while the second gives opinions on how to build dimensions and, finally, the last chapter gives some thoughts on how to travel to and fro through the dimensions. Personally, I found this chapter a bit weak, as it attempted to give some base material to something that really deserves its own book.

No book on mystics would be complete without a section on spells. In chapter three, the concepts of spells are broken into four separate sections, each detailing various philosophies of magic. The first part serves as an introduction to the ideology behind spells and the magic systems that they work within. The second section begins looking into “real world” magic, detailing spell builds, beliefs and background for spell systems like voodoo, theurgy and shamanism. The next section has a similar treatment of more fantastic styles of magic, including such systems as alchemy and necromancy. Finally, the last section briefly examines some of the variant systems not normally covered in most games. It’s here that one could find info on Kabbalism or rune magic. This is really the chapter that makes Mr. Shomshak’s writing shine a bit, showing that he obviously has done some research on the magic included.

As I had said before, the Ultimate line of books are usually designed with a multi-genre feel to them, allowing people to use them for superhero games, science fiction campaigns and so on. The Ultimate Mystic is no different, as chapter four would attest to. This chapter is composed of only one section, but is chucked full of information on every genre available. Also within this chapter are samples of various genre-specific spells (though they could technically be used in most other genres with a bit of tweaking) and some explanations on how to incorporate magic into a genre.

Finally, in chapter four, we’re presented with ideas on building a “mystic world”. Here, the reader is presented with various ideas on populating a campaign with mystic flavor. From the people behind the mysticism to the possible legal infringements that would be possible in typical campaign, this chapter is easily one of the most useful ones. In addition to the world building Mr. Shomshak also delves into the concepts he presented early, expanding upon their place within the world and their characteristics. The chapter is then closed with brief cliff notes on possible items and mystical groups. In addition, Mr. Shomshak has been gracious enough to include a glossary for those not in the know about some of the vocabulary used within the book. Match this with Hero’s impeccable use of an index and company wide format and the book is complete.

Personally, I liked the book for the most part. I found some of the art a bit repetitive and the cover a bit “out there” for the most part, but the book wasn’t too bad. In fact, the only major problem I had with the Ultimate Mystic is that, unlike the other Ultimate books to date, there weren’t any sample characters. I think that Dean Shomshak has a good grasp of the topic and wrote a useful and informative book on the subject of magic.

 

[Crothian]

I went ahead and edited in some blank lines between paragraphs to make this a little easier to read.

 

[Samurai]

I felt the cover was truly terrible... the wost on any Hero 5th book I've seen. It doesn't convey mysticism at all, it looks much more scientific with a brain scanner and all. The colors were garish, and the poses stiff and unrealistic. The interior art was better (or at least more appropriate), but still below the standards set by some other Hero books.

Putting the art aside, I agree with your assessments on the usefulness and quality of the information in the book. It is an interesting and informative read. The writing seems scholarly and well researched, and the quality of editing seems good (I haven't seem many mistakes).

I would have liked a bit more discussion on various ways to represent a mystic's spellcasting ability. The section on using Power Frameworks should have been significantly expanded and included more examples. The Fantasy Hero Grimoire gives plenty of individual spells, but I was hoping for Ultimate Mystic to provide templates for the Frameworks... a section on Necromancy, Elementalism, Ritual Magic, Rune Magic, etc each as Elemental Control, Multipower, and VPP would have been nice to see.

Overall, I'd say it's a worthwhile purchase if the topic interests you and you can overlook the subpar artwork.