Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great effort, but..., March 13, 2005
I've raved about the 4th edition basic books in prior reviews now it's time to look at the 4th edition Magic book.
The authors have tackled a very large subject here. They are attempting to replace the old GURPS Magic, Grimoire, and Magic Items 1 in one book. But the biggest challenge they are facing in writing this book is that the old 3e GURPS magic books were boring. The problem wasn't so much the writing (which could have been better) but the spells themselves. GURPS has long been known for having a... well, generic universal spell system (GUSS?) that really didn't appeal to a lot of players.
Now to this book proper:
The editing is as good as ever, the artwork might be even better than other 4e books, and the authors have added flavor by highlighting spells in fun 2-3 paragraph stories at the beginning of each college of magic. There is a lot of interesting material about black magic, alternate magic systems, etc. The alchemy section was just plain good clean fun with lots of potential mayhem. The index is much better than in previous books of this edition.
So why the four star instead of another five star rating? Simple, the book strives mightily but can't overcome its generic beginnings. The authors were obviously aware of this problem and offer quite several ways to get around it (rename the spells, use an alternate magic system) but don't quite do a good enough job to warrant the five star rating so I'm giving it a 4.5 star rating.
Like GURPS Fantasy, this book is literally stuffed with ideas, it provides SO many ideas and possible spin-offs that the GM will need to give extra thought before starting a campaign to exactly what they want the players to experience. Otherwise some wiseguy player is going to say, "Can I use this neat little idea on page 93 that will wreck the whole concept of your campaign? Can I? Please, please?"
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A comprehensive magic system, December 11, 2006
GURPS Magic is a must have for any fantasy campaign which includes any sort of spell casting or magical items.
The system is divided into several spell categories, including fire, air, earth, water, food, knowledge, enchant, necromancy, etc.
Like the other aspects of the character development system, a spell caster must invest several points to be able to cast spells. They then must build a "tree" of spells, starting with the most basic (such as produce fire, create water, etc) and building up to the more powerful ones, such as force field, fireball, body of lightning, etc.
Playing a spell caster in GURPS is vastly different from other systems, such as Dungeons and Dragons. I had been accustomed to blasting huge groups of monsters with fireballs and cones of cold in the DnD system. As a GURPS wizard, I found that a single fireball would drain my fatigue to the point that I had to wait a few minutes (which means until the next combat in GURPS) before casting another one. Spellcasters have to be much more clever in GURPS, casting spells which do little damage here and there where they can help the party. While they can become quite powerful, their power has been greatly reduced in comparrison to other systems. Your players who are used to the DnD system might not like it.
Several spells enable casters to summon elementals or animate dead bodies. A few monster stats are listed for these sample creatures, but it would have been a lot more useful if these had been listed in greater detail, or perhaps with a bit more variety.
The book also explains the rules for creating magic items. These are a must for any fantasy campaign, and can be quite interresting.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All in one book!, February 24, 2005
This book is great. Just like the other 4th ed. books you get a hard back, full color book. The book includes everything from both magic books in 3rd. ed, plus magic item and alchemy information. There is so much information in here it is hard to believe. Although my initial reaction to the price was a little mixed, once I had this book in my hands and started reading it I had no regrets.
The book contains the complete magic system expanded from basic set and alternative magic systems. The magic system covers casting spells including cooperative casting.
The book also contains information of creating magical items and complete alchemy rules along with a good list of elixers.
If you are not convinced yet go on over to the sjgames web page where you can view some samples from inside the book (table of contents in particular).
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