Wild Spellcraft

[Messageboard Golem]

Wild Spellcraft provides game masters with a toolkit for including the unpredictable forces of magic in their game with whatever depth and complexity they want. Ranging from rules for spells gone awry to prestige classes for those who try to master magic in its rawest, most chaotic form, Wild Spellcraft is designed to be modular, to fit into your game in individualpieces or in its entirety.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Well, this might be a little odd, since I think this product should be listed on the Natural 20 Press list of products, but since I'm reviewing the print version (got it at GenCon), I'll post the review for this one.

I've been a lurker for a while, but I've liked the stuff from Natural 20 Press so far. I first got their Tournaments, Fairs, and Taversn book, and then went back and got the pdf version of Wild Spellcraft. I probably won't get Four Color to Fantasy, but I did pick up the print version of Wild Spellcraft at the con. In a way, this will mostly be a review comparing the original to the print versoin, since there are already a couple good reviews for the original version.

First, Wild Spellcraft, is a 72 page softcover book, printed by Mystic Eye Games, with a black and white interior. For $14, it's a pretty good deal, and a better cost per page than many products of the same size. The pdf version, available at rpgnow.com, is $7 for 63 pages, so if you factor in printing costs, the print version's probably a better deal.

However, in the print version there are two pages of reprinted tables that already appeared earlier in the book, there is an ad for Mystic Eye's products on the last page, and the Open Gaming LIcense takes up 2 pages instead of the normal one. If Mystic Eye Games had put the OGL on the interior front cover, and the ad on the interior back cover, they probably could've shrunk the book a little, though I'm not sure if 72 pages is one of those magic page count numbers that publishers should shoot for. I won't criticize this much. Overall, the text density is good, and is comfortable to read, but the layout is nothing fancy.

The content is practically unchanged from the pdf version. According to the writer (Ryan "RangerWickett" Nock, who signed my copy at the con), there are four new spells (Minor Hex of Misfortune, Major Hex of Misfortune, Maledict Hex of Misfortune, and Preserve Form), a new chapter at the end of the book (a sample adventure location that uses the rules for wild magic), some new wild magic items, and some general polishing of the text and balance. Also, Mystic Eye Games added in new art to fill up the page count.

The new spells are pretty neat. While the majority of the spells in the book fit the standard D&D style high fantasy magic, the hexes of misfortune take a different tack. They're useless in combat since they have a casting time of 10 minutes, but they give the target penalties to checks for an entire day, kind of like some sort of voodoo curse. The higher-level versions cause the target to occasionally suffer damage from 'accidents' caused by bad luck, and though the damage isn't really dangerous right away, it can disrupt the target, causing him not to get sleep, or to be too distracted by aches and pains to act effectively. Preserve form basically is counter-wild magic, giving the target immunity to entropic damage and bonuses to resist transmutation effects.

The new magic items make up a very small section, with only four or five of them. There are two new weapon enchantments--entropic and dystopic--that cause random probability to favor injury and damage. Thus, a weapon with these enchantments deals full damage, without having to roll. The weaker version (entropic) only affects weapon damage, whereas the stronger version (dystopic) affects even sneak attack damage inflicted with the weapon. It's priced equivalent to the vorpal power, and probably for good reason.

The nicest part of the new book is the new chapter, a section on an abandoned magical library called Yen-Ching. The premise is that it was once a huge library complex where many wizards learned, and much magic was kept and studied, until a huge magical experiment filled the entire area with chaotic magical energies and started summoning monsters into the area. The wizards there fled, and since then, the area has filled with monsters of many different varieties. Thus, there's a whole swath of ancient magic and treasure that can be found. Mr. Nock does a good job of explaining to the DM that the library is like an above-ground dungeon, and that the structure of the place lets DMs tailor adventures as they see fit.

Weaker parties can explore the outskirts of the area where there are fewer monsters (but also less treasure, since previous adventurers have probably already ransacked the area), while stronger parties can try to break into the central area, where powerful magical secrets are held. The central vault of the complex is an area that would make a very decent challenge for an epic-level party. Get this: it's a tower filled with magic treasures and an entombed evil sorcerer, that is guarded by six CR 17 golems on the roof, and over a dozen on the ground floor. Plus the area's magic is constantly going awry, making adventuring hard for parties who rely on spells or magic items.

Though it might have been nice to include a map of the area, I suppose it makes sense to keep the layout amorphous, since the whole chapter is presented almost like a toolkit for making an adventure. Mr. Nock presents a lot of adventure hooks that might bring parties to the area, then details how the magical energies there affect spells, lists a small collection of sample locations in the library complex for people to explore, and even provides rules and guidelines for how uncovering magical secrets might help the party (note, they work kinda like Loremaster secrets). Basically, you choose what you want to do, pick the right elements out of the chapter, and you can make a lot of different adventures in this one area. Just like the rest of the book, it has a very nice toolkit approach, that makes it easily adaptable for nearly any game.

So, that's the good stuff. Just like the pdf version, it's a good book, a little light on actual crunchy bits, but with tons of advice for how to utilize what's there. Overall, it probably will influence your game a lot more than another book that has more crunchy bits but less advice. When Mr. Nock presents ideas, you'll usually find a few that make you say, "Wow, that'd be cool to do." For the text alone, I'd probably give the book a 4 (it might've made a 5 if there'd been even more crunchy bits). For the record, I would've given the pdf version a 3.5. The adventure location at the back of the book really impressed me, especially since it's only . . . 9 pages long, but manages to be very intriguing.

Now, on to the drawbacks. As with the pdf version, there should probably have been more delineation between rules and non-rules stuff. Most of the book is good about this, but Chapter Two (which has a lot of the really cool ideas) intermixes optional rules with advice for your game. While reading through, it's a good format, but it makes it hard to find what you're looking for afterward.

Also, the prestige classes are probably a little overpowered. For each, you have a greater chance of your spells failing, in exchange for more flexibility or power. I don't like this for the same reason I don't like rolling for AC in combat (y'know, one of the optional rules in the DMG). It basically means you have two chances to fail your spell--the casting check and the saving throw to resist. It might be balanced, but I think it could be a hassle. I would rather have seen the classes get reduced spellcasting advancement. Still, the classes have cool ideas, and the change is easy to make . . . maybe Mr. Nock would like to post some alternate versions of the prestige classes?

But here comes my main beef with the book. It looks . . . kinda ugly. In the pdf version, the illustrations were nicely integrated with the rest of the document; text wrapped around them nicely, very professional looking, and all the illustrations were large enough for you to appreciate them. In the print version, practically everything is kept in its own column. Though this might make the text a little cleaner, it's a fairly amateurish way to handle the layout. And in order to fit the art into those small spaces, it's all be shrunk to the point where the images look dinky. If you have both versions, compare, and I'm sure you'll agree that the pdf art looks better when it's larger.

Similarly, the new art added in is just confusing. Almost none of it has anything to do with the text around it, and very little of it even has anything to do with the book at all. One picture has a woman sorcerer sucking the breathe out of a bunch of orcs, and it's at the end of a section talking about optional rules that don't even mention orcs or sucking air out. There's also one image that gets repeated three times in the book. Twice in the text, and once on the back cover.

All the new art looks pretty cartoony and comical, whereas the original art (though it was kinda cartoony in style) at least made wild magic seem interesting and cool. The new art makes it look silly and goofy. My favorite art piece, the illustration for chaos blast, is sadly shrunk to a tiny spot, hiding all the great detail in the piece. Next time, show that pic three times, instead of the one with smoke coming out some guys' ears.

The cover art is a little nicer than the original pdf's, but since I'm familiar with the book's content, I think the artist didn't know what character he was supposed to be drawing. It's obviously _supposed_ to be one of the book's iconics, a gnomish wild sorcerer. But the person on the cover looks like a human, not a gnome, and he doesn't have hummingbird wings. Also, it's kinda lazy that the artist just re-used the exact same Jack of Hearts card three times. Couldn't he at least have scanned in some different cards? It's a prettier piece than the original on the pdf, but a little disappointing to someone who liked the original.

Finally, the sidebars on the interior pages are just unattractive. There are skulls and weird mysterious symbols, but they look amateurish and out of place. Compared to the sidebar images used in, say, FFG's Path of the Sword, these look bad. I never liked this type of sidebar in Mongoose's books, and I don't like them here in Mystic Eye's book. This is the first MEG book I've bought, and since I liked the way the original Natural 20 Press version looked, I pretty sure the blame falls at the feet of MEG for making it look bad.

So, in my final review, the content is good, the price is fair, but the book is visually unattractive. If you aren't an art critic, consider this review a 4, but since I like pretty books, I'm giving it a 3.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Wow. I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. I thought a lot of the art was bad and that McFalls was the one of the only decent artists in the book. Ah well, that's art for ya. People have different opinons on it.

 

[GameWyrd]

The core idea in Wild Spellcraft is a rocky steady one. Wouldn’t it be better if magic was a little less scientific? Magic works to rules and carefully defined regulations in a roleplaying game because that makes for neat, clean and easy to understand game mechanics. Wild Spellcraft suggests a simple extra mechanic to govern those times when the spell might not go as described by the spell book. It’s a d20 mechanic but the concept works for all high fantasy games and much of the "mishap tables" content can easily be adapted for other game systems. As simple as the Wild Spellcraft idea is I don’t think true blue newbies will be likely to be trying it out and I think the author could have adjusted the writing style for a slightly more game-wise audience than the book currently seems written for.

It’s a 72-paged book if you count the full-page advert at the back. It’s good value at $13.95 even though the book’s black and white, with a fairly large amount of comic-magazine style art (nothing larger than a quarter of the page) and slightly thin paper. The book’s big enough and robust enough to stand up on its own and that’s enough to give it that user friendly, travel safe, "real" feel that I like my RPG supplements to have.

Chapter one is just a couple of pages long and that includes the page that details what the rest of the book is going to tell you. If you want you only ever need to read these few pages and be done with Wild Spellcraft. Here you’ll find the mechanic rules – roll an extra d20 and if it’s a 1 then roll on the mishap table. There’s a page for the 20 event mishap table. There’s a boxed section that explains a d100 is used on the 20 event mishap table as not to confuse you into thinking it’s some sort of attribute check. The same boxed comment points out that a d20 is used to see whether the spell mishaps and isn’t a check they’re sure you’ll not be confused and its easier just to roll a d20 at that stage. It’s a fair point, I suppose, but it’s also a good example of pitching the sourcebook too low.

The second chapter serves up some examples of how you might fit wild spellcraft into your own game. There are some great ideas in here; "sentient sorcery" suggests that magic itself is alive and to this review is the sort of great push to make wild spellcraft worthwhile. There are some common sense ideas in here; clerics of lawful gods aren’t likely to "suffer" from wild spellcraft but those of chaotic gods are. There are some less than tempting ideas here; that unless a spell makes someone laugh it’ll fail to work. I suppose someone else might have put that list of three in reverse order but I couldn’t help shake the feeling that this chapter was just a touch too stretched.

Wild Arcana looks at the possible ways wild magic might interact and work with magical items. It’s a chance to present yet more magical items. I quite liked the chaos field ideas though; the mechanics side of this suggestion is well handled, there are even character level adjustments available to balance encounters. There’s no padding around how or why chaos fields might occur and this is great, the suggestions are given and that’s it. I wish the previous chapter had done the same.

There’s a rule that all d20 supplements must have new feats and prestige classes. I’m not sure where that rule is written but all publishers seem to stick to it religiously. I accept that race and class books have a fair call for new feats and prestige classes and as it happens I think books like Wild Spellcraft has an even stronger claim since the whole new aspect to magic deserves specialist feats and prestige classes. For the first time ever I think Wild Spellcraft could have offered us more in the way of these mechanics. What they do give us is good though. Feats include "Enwild Spell" which ensures the spell will suffer a "mishap" but because the spell caster knows something wild is going to happen they can be better prepared for it and may successfully push the effect from a "mishap" to a benefit. The prestige classes are the "Pandaemonicist" and the "Sculptor of Chaos" which are both nicely grounded prestige classes. I think the play on Pandemonium is nicely done.

New wild spells have a chapter all to themselves and are presented with a summary first and then the details later. This is the sort of organisation which often gets cut out when the page count becomes a serious concern and it’s a good sign that Natural Press’s relationship with print partner Mystic Eye Games seems to be working well. There are about 40 new spells suited to Wild Magic and thanks to the first half of the chapter you’ll quickly see which are suited to Clerics, Druids, Wizards, etc. In my opinion it’s well worth the extra pages and whatever fraction of the cost of the book that it adds up to. Sample spells include "Minor Hex of Misfortune" and "Soliptic Disillusionment". A fare few of the spells are more complicated than the average damage-dealers from the core rules but they’re all plainly explained and take the a whole side of paper to explain themselves if needs be.

The last chapter of the book but not the last significant section of the book contains a sample location where Wild Magic might come into play. The idea here is that magic works as "normal" throughout your campaign world and you can playtest the wild magic rules by having a location where magic acts strangely. The Library of Yen-Ching is entirely on par with the sample scenario or extended scenes that you’ll find at the back of RPG supplements. As a bonus it’ll help you tinker the location to suit the character levels of your group of PCs and I think this is extremely helpful. You can tell guess that the book’s written by an author who still roleplays himself.

Wild Spellcraft finished off with a section of Exotic & Bizarre Mishaps Tables. It’s not really a chapter and they’re not labelled as an appendix either. It doesn’t really matter though. The point is the tables are in an easy to find location if you want to make use of the charts provided by the book.

Wild Spellcraft is a clear cut case. If you’re tempted by introducing more chance and a bit of humour into your game then this a product for you. It’s a RPG supplement to check out because there aren’t many alternatives though. Despite it’s name, Wild Spellcraft plays fairly safe. I was disappointed to find only one system to see whether a spell has a wild effect or not. The front cover shows a gone (he is, really) surrounded by cards and yet the "draw a card and if it’s an ace" method of determining that something extra has happened doesn’t feature. I could say that nothing truly interesting leaps out from the book to impress me but perhaps more importantly I can say that the book does the job at hand without anything throwing too much of a spanner in the works. In the end you’re left with a stalwart and safe offering from the industry to the community.

* This GameWyrd review first appeared here.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Review of Wild Spellcraft by Natural 20 Press

This is a nice little gem. It is filled with great ideas for use of wild magic. It includes a few different notions of using it so one can use it a little or a lot. It can be a large feature of the campaign world or just a unique spot that it happens in. It can apply to certain casters of any type and magical items.

Introduction: This is one of the better introductions I’ve read in a role-playing book. It tells one exactly what the book has in it chapter by chapter. The best feature is the 10 Ways to Scavenge This Book. A nice little feature and it is very well done.

Chapter One is Wild Spellcraft Template. This is what I consider the meat of the book. It shows one how to apply the wild Spellcraft to any spell caster. There are many options to make the tables of mishaps fit one what needs. There are also ways to make mishaps more common or less common.

Chapter Two is Wild Spellcraft in Your Game. This is the best chapter in the book because of the great ideas presented here. It gives many great suggestions on why wild spellcasters happen and how to have that in one’s world. It gives good advice for using this unpredictable type of magic in different genres as well. There are many ideas presented in this chapter, most of them can inspire campaigns.

Chapter Three is Wild Arcana. In this chapter are the rules for wild magical items and even a few examples of them. Having items that are not reliable is a great idea as the average gamer seems to take for granted his items will always work. Just introduce the concept of wild items and one’s players will be a little more careful and maybe a little paranoid. Next, the chapter goes into the concept of Chaos Fields. These are places that all magic becomes wild. The areas tend to be small, but one can have regions miles long. There are many options presented here allowing one to have Chaos Fields with varying degrees of power so one’s players will never know what to expect from these places.

Chapter Four is Masters of Wild Spellcraft. This is the chapter with a few feats (three), but the heart of this chapter is the two prestige classes. The feats are all interesting and would be fun for either a player or a Dungeon Master. Chaotic Disruption allows spells that one counters, to instead go become mishaps and go astray. Enwild Spell allows one to automatically have a spell he casts become a mishap in hopes of having a good outcome. The third feat is Reckless Spell and at the risk of a mishap one can turn a lower level spell into one that is one level higher. The two prestige classes are also interesting and would be a fun in most games. The first is Pandaemonicist. This is a person that who enjoys the mishaps and has abilities to help make them a little more beneficial, at least he hopes they can. The Sculptor of Chaos is for someone trying to control Chaos. Both classes do get a lot of abilities so I would suggest that both the player and dungeon master are familiar with the Wild Spellcraft rules before using either of them. However, the rewards from such classes are well worth the understanding of these rules. Next the chapter details three NPCs. They are very well detailed giving the back-story, the appearance, and role-playing notes. These NPCs are well done and should be fairly easy to fit in most campaigns.

Chapter Five is Wild Spells. There are over three-dozen new spells in this book. All of them are wild in nature. There are new spells for the Bard, Cleric, Druid and Wizard/Sorcerer.

Chapter Six is the Land Tomb of the Library of Yen-Ching. This is a sample adventure that is given to easily introduce the Wild Spellcraft rules in one’s games. There is advice for making the adventure for first through third level characters, fourth through ninth level characters, and tenth level and higher level characters.

Overall this is a very interesting book full of ideas to expand upon one’s game. Using this book will only add another level of complexity and interest to one’s game.