Customer Reviews

World of Warcraft: More Magic and Mayhem

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

More Magic and Mayhem adds magical, alchemical, runic, and technological options to the World of Warcraft RPG. Other than the occasional editing gaff and one minor annoyance, it's a great buy. Note that this is NOT a stand alone role playing game. If you do not own the World of Warcraft RPG (the hardback, not the PC game), it is pretty useless on its own. The rest of this review assumes that the reader is familiar with the (hardback) World of Warcraft RPG.

There are three new classes: The Inscriber is an Arcanist variant that can use individual Runes. The Witch Doctor is a Healer variant that has special abilities (cheesily labeled 'Mojo') that enable it to create especially potent magic potions. The RuneMaster emblazons Runes on his body to augment it in various ways, and can also cast Runes from Rune Patterns. The class concept is utterly opposite of a typical Dungeons and Dragon's Monk, but outside of casting Runes the class abilities are similar: extra damage from unarmed strikes, fast movement, immunity to disease, extra attacks during a round but each attack is at a -2 to hit, etc... etc... The main difference is that a Runemaster has a list of special abilities to choose and may pick one at level 1 and every 3 levels after.

There are four prestige classes. The Argent Dawn Templar sacrifices class abilities in gained from previous classes in order to gain powerful new abilities. The Enchanter captures the energies released when a magic item is destroyed and can use that energy to add new abilities to other items. If your high level party has three dozen +1 magic items lying around, he can turn them into a pile of scrap metal and a +5 magic item in a matter of hours. The Ley Walker uses the ley line energy that crisscrosses the universe. She can grant herself fast healing for a few rounds, spontaneously cast dimension door or teleport, use a small number of metamagic feats without using a higher spell slot, and change any damaging spell to do half of its damage as 'ley' damage - which cannot be resisted. The Steam Warrior specializes in piloting Steam Armor.

There's a nice selection of new feats. Most revolve around runes and runecasting or the new rules for Alchemy. The Alchemy section has dozens of new concoctions an alchemist can create. They offer substantial benefits - +4 to an ability for an hour, recovering 6 levels of spell slots, invisibility, healing 8d6 damage. On the other hand, using the Craft (Alchemy) rules from the main book means that the typical PC or NPC that does alchemy work will require a week or two to craft a very simple elixer and months to put together a complex one.

The Runes introduced into the book all fall into categories called Rune patterns. The Inscriber class learns individual runes just like spells. The RuneMaster class attunes himself to one pattern at a time (more than one pattern at a time with feats), and can cast any rune within his attuned rune pattern by spending a spell slot of the corresponding level.

The spell section introduces a new action type to the game, a 'Swift' Action. A swift action is like a Dungeons and Dragons free action, but a PC can only make one per round. Some spells can be cast as swift actions. A small variety of new spells are introduced.

The magical item section is huge. The technological item section is nice, but it would have been nice to see something nearly as big as the magic item section. Technological 'Mods' add technological features to existing items, like rapid reload for firearms, vibrating blades, and armor that shocks those that touch it.

The last bit delves into a new system for determining the capabilities and features of steam armor. These rules replace the ones in the World of Warcraft book. (That is my annoyance with the book, which I mentioned at the beginning. I dislike when a new set of rules just ignores the previous set, instead of building upon it.) They cover such things as passenger compartments, extra shielding, adding hit points, etc... etc...
My only other pet pieve for this section is that size Large and Huge steam armor boosts the wearer's Strength by +10 and +15, respectively. I would think it more logical to provide independent Str scores for the armor once it reached a certain size. Goblins are among the foremost Steam Armor builders on Azeroth, and their -2 racial Strength penalty make them a poor choice for Combat Steam Armor pilots.

The only thing I hoped for but did not see was rules for the creation of Phlogiston, the special fuel many Warcraft technological devices require. Apparently 'Magic & Mayhem' details its creation, but this book does not.

This book is a necessary addon for the RPG, so it must be purchased. It add some good stuff and all the spells.

Most of this book consists of material of use to DMs and players - new classes, new prestige classes, new devices for tinkers to make (and blow up) - and also such things as new magic items for the DM and some details on enchanting. It's a good companion to the World of Warcraft RPG book with a lot of material that has a good chance of being used in an RPG campaign - or at the very least, of giving the DM a few new ideas. It's fairly light when it comes to background material - but that's no surprise.

The main reason I don't give this a "5" is that the editing is less than stellar. There are typographical errors that should have been caught by a simple spellcheck, and, as with the World of Warcraft core RPG book, there are errors in tables here and there. (And, I wonder, why couldn't a simple proofreading catch this?)

Also, a lot of the "filler art" quality is a bit less impressive than that in the core rulebook - but that's inconsequential enough not to have any bearing on my rating.

Overall impression: If you plan on running a World of Warcraft d20 RPG campaign, this is a useful resource, well worth getting.

I won't go into a detailed review here as those above have covered it quite well and I don't want to end up repeating what was said,but there was one small problem I did have...in the magic items second set items from the MMORPG were mentioned...but strangely enough not all the basic suits were covered. Where is the Dreadmist,the Wildheart,etc. Even the tier I epics are not covered (which I can accept that one),but the other zero tier's should have also been there. But again this is a small problem in what is otherwise an excellent book.

As a freelance RPG writer with very little actual printed work under my belt (so many unprinted, but paid for, products... *sigh*), I know that my opinion on such things is not often asked for, but here in this review I will give it, nonetheless. Simply and objectively put, this is a solid, well designed supplement. It contains nothing that supercedes the original Magic and Mayhem too terribly, although it does reprint some items whose creation methods and overall effects have changed between V3.0 and V3.5 "fantasy roleplay" (Just say it, D&D). The reprints are useful, however, and well described. The feats are, by and large, balanced and well composed, as are the spells (finally, Mages can use Firebolt!). While I personally would have added rules to the Core Classes for such things as the Paladin's new Seal spells (making them class abilities instead of wasting precious spell slots on them), or made Enchantment a series of Feats on the same level as Alchemy (thus allowing any character with the inclination to become an Enchanter), the methods used here are stable enough to be adapted to just about any game.

However, this book, much like the new edition of the WoW RPG, suffers from journeyman level editorial and proofreading mistakes that, honestly, should have been caught - a simple spell check would have done it. Page 196, for instance, the word "at6" in the Exploding Sheep description would have become the appropriate "at" had the body text been spellchecked. Also, much like the new WoW book, stylistic errors are also present in a good many places, such as a style type marker for the Shaman/Witch Doctor 2nd Level Spell list being retained instead of the proper style being implemented. Widows and Orphans - hanging sentences or "abandoned" words and sentences - are not as prevalent in this text as in others, but are still there. I admit I haven't been looking for it very hard, but thus far, I have not seen the customary "Page XX" reference.

A solid book, with some very easily-caught (at least I would have thought so), mistakes. Overall, I'm very impressed by it.

It's a fair to moderate representation of what a Warcraft rpg should be a little overpowered on spells and character info but other then that good just a little expensive.

Guys and gals of 4th Edition fame, if you don't have this book, you are missing out on something very, very useful. The book has rules for creating alchemical elixirs, draughts, and transmutations and what you can create with the craft (alchemy) skill.

That being said, I recently received this book as part of the Necromancer Games' gift exchange. It comes in hard cover, and is about 200 pages of useful information for roleplaying spellcasters and engineers in the World of Warcraft using the d20 System. For once, I'm happy that this came out for the d20 System instead of the 4th Edition rule set.


The book is split into six parts. One deals with new classes, another deals with new feats, then new spells, new magic items, and finally engineered machines. Missing spells like firebolt, blastwave, pyroblast, and corruption are finally included. Beyond that, the book is useful out of WoW.

The Alchemy skill and the Enchanter skill are covered in grand detail. The Alchemy section covers everything that a player character can create relating to WoW using the craft (alchemy) skill. From mana draughts to healing potions, to transmutations using the philosopher's stone. At last, a PrC a friend of mine devised for Atlas Games' Occult Lore makes a huge amount of sense (the Grand Alchemist PrC) with these rules for Alchemy.

Secondly, the Enchanter skill is boosted by the Enchanter PrC. The Enchanter is able to create and destroy magical items. He can enchant items not only using the Item Creation feats, but he can also destroy magic items and enchant them with special abilities.

One interesting PrC is the Ley Walker. Now, I'm willing to bet that the PrC -- in practice and in theory -- is like the Ley Line Walker of the Rifts RPG.

Boy, I hope KS doesn't get wind of this! But the Ley Walker PrC of WoW and the Ley Line Walker O.C.C. of Rifts are deadly similar to each other. So similar in fact, that if some one were to do Rifts d20, they'd just have to pop open this book and take the Ley Walker PrC and use that to represent the Ley Line Walker O.C.C.

The book is useful for a World of Warcraft RPG game, and it is useful out of World of Warcraft. Aside from little nitpicks as missing armor items to editing; the book is chock full of information that can be used for a 3rd edition game, or with some work, a 4th edition game (some stuff can be used "straight out of the box," other stuff needs some work).

That is my review for 4th Ed fans and 3rd Ed fans alike. My recommendation is to purchase a copy of this book in hardcopy or on .pdf since you are missing out on some goodness here.

As any WOW fan would know it is an online world full of advantture and role playing. The world is complex and difficult to learn for a newbie. So a book on how to navigate this complex world, full of hints and tips would be very helpful. Even at the heavey price of this book! Well this book with its hardcover and hundreds of pages of information does not have anything in it about the online role playing. It is printed as a optional board game for people who prefer playing a dundeons and dragons scenerio. This book is very misleading in its content and worthless to the online gaming fan.