Spellbook - anyone seen it yet?
- Thread starter Host of Angels
- Start date
Daithi O'an tSionnaigh
Mongoose
I am still waiting on this book. Cannot wait to give it a read. From the sounds of things it is well worth the wait.
Picked up my copy last night and so far I'm impressed and think its a good buy. I was afraid that it would be just a list of 1001 ways to fry an Orc but there are spells for almost any occasion. There are spells to help you with crafting(Mason) to let Priest set up shrines(Cairn of Worship) and to punish sinners(Castigate). And yes, there also plenty of spells to fry an Orc too. Also there some legendary abilities and new occupation for your casters to top everything off.
Now for a few gripes. Like the above I would like to see an index that says which spells use which Runes. But it has a nice index that at least tell you where to find which spell. MRQ is though getting to the point where a master index would be real helpful with things scattered over 20+ books. But how many of us would buy a boo that nothing but a big index knowing it would be obsolete next month.
A second gripe going to be over which spell uses which rune , or for divine spells belong to which God. For example all the electric spells use the Chaos rune. And I for one think that Cemetery Horde should be for Undead Gods. But then no matter what runes where given for which spells I think some body would disagree. and you are going to have to sit down and figure out which God gets which spell anyway. If somebody thinks Electricblade should be Air/Metal then Chaos/metal change it . And if I give Cemetary Horde to Gark the Calm instead of Humakt I dont think any one from Mongoose is going to beat down my door and drag me away to a Gulag . Spellook for a generic setting and I think people should remember that and change the Runes or Gods for the spells if it does not fit your world.
Finally I was kind of unhappy Multispell did not make the book for Divine spells. Yes it was powerful, yes it was abused, but its an old Runequest spell that I sort of miss.
Now for a few gripes. Like the above I would like to see an index that says which spells use which Runes. But it has a nice index that at least tell you where to find which spell. MRQ is though getting to the point where a master index would be real helpful with things scattered over 20+ books. But how many of us would buy a boo that nothing but a big index knowing it would be obsolete next month.
A second gripe going to be over which spell uses which rune , or for divine spells belong to which God. For example all the electric spells use the Chaos rune. And I for one think that Cemetery Horde should be for Undead Gods. But then no matter what runes where given for which spells I think some body would disagree. and you are going to have to sit down and figure out which God gets which spell anyway. If somebody thinks Electricblade should be Air/Metal then Chaos/metal change it . And if I give Cemetary Horde to Gark the Calm instead of Humakt I dont think any one from Mongoose is going to beat down my door and drag me away to a Gulag . Spellook for a generic setting and I think people should remember that and change the Runes or Gods for the spells if it does not fit your world.
Finally I was kind of unhappy Multispell did not make the book for Divine spells. Yes it was powerful, yes it was abused, but its an old Runequest spell that I sort of miss.
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That is a pretty drastic turn of opinion and a fairly ringing endorsement.
Dang it.
Now to fit this in with Dragonewts, Elfs, and Blood of Orlanth in my to buy list.
And the no list of Spells by Rune or by God Type was annoying in the core, it will probably be a real pain here as there are so many spells. I put a table of spells by rune on the wiki from the core, but if this book is not OGL (is it going to be?) then I'm not sure if an expanded list can be put on Mr. Qwiki.
Also, are there any tips or recipes for preparing or serving Fried Orc?
TRose said:
To:
TRose said:
That is a pretty drastic turn of opinion and a fairly ringing endorsement.
Dang it.
Now to fit this in with Dragonewts, Elfs, and Blood of Orlanth in my to buy list.
And the no list of Spells by Rune or by God Type was annoying in the core, it will probably be a real pain here as there are so many spells. I put a table of spells by rune on the wiki from the core, but if this book is not OGL (is it going to be?) then I'm not sure if an expanded list can be put on Mr. Qwiki.
Also, are there any tips or recipes for preparing or serving Fried Orc?
Orcs are best cooked in a beer batter, then served with more beer. Lots of beer
Well I consider my ability to change my opinion and admit I was wrong a virtue not a vice. I also dont want to get a reputation as some one who whines about everything. I hope I dont have one.
As for the wiki let me also vote I would love to see the spells listed by rune there. Also if the legendary abilities by book would also be nice. I mean if some one has bought X legendary ability and you cannot remember if its in legendary heros, the players book or spellbook , who want to stop the game to look up what it really does.
Well I consider my ability to change my opinion and admit I was wrong a virtue not a vice. I also dont want to get a reputation as some one who whines about everything. I hope I dont have one.
As for the wiki let me also vote I would love to see the spells listed by rune there. Also if the legendary abilities by book would also be nice. I mean if some one has bought X legendary ability and you cannot remember if its in legendary heros, the players book or spellbook , who want to stop the game to look up what it really does.
TRose said:
It is the fact that your a bit of a crusty old rq grognard that makes me value your opinion on this one. While obviously not an MRQ hater I too am wary of "too much D&D in my RQ".
Are their spells for removing the bones from Orcs? Beer Battered Boneless Fried Orc is sounding very good - not that I am adverse to gnawing if need be.
TRose said:
Your wish is my command.
Here are the Legendary Abilities organised alphabetically http://mrqwiki.com/wiki/index.php/LA_List and by function/group http://mrqwiki.com/wiki/index.php/LA_Organized
Host of Angels
Mongoose
Well that pretty much answers my question...
Sounds like I had best get my backside down to Mr Travelling Man as soon as I can.
And yes, updating the list of spells-by-rune on the wiki would be a "good idea". And even if it is not ogl, surely Mongoose would not mind. After all it does seem like a bit of a hole needing to be filled. In fact, given it is such a useful and vital add on, maybe Mongoose should pop one up as an official download.....
Sounds like I had best get my backside down to Mr Travelling Man as soon as I can.
And yes, updating the list of spells-by-rune on the wiki would be a "good idea". And even if it is not ogl, surely Mongoose would not mind. After all it does seem like a bit of a hole needing to be filled. In fact, given it is such a useful and vital add on, maybe Mongoose should pop one up as an official download.....
duncan_disorderly
Mongoose
1) If, as has been suggested, some of the runic associations of the spells are ones that GM's are likely to want to change when using them in officially supported (Glorantha) or home-brew worlds then it might be an advantage that there isn't an index by rune, as you'd end up having to "correct" two sources rather than one...
2) having said that, an editable, electronic index (say, something like a comma separated file that can be imported into a spreadsheet or database) would be useful, and, providing it avoided giving the description/rules of the spell would probably not cause a problem even if the book is not OGL...
2) having said that, an editable, electronic index (say, something like a comma separated file that can be imported into a spreadsheet or database) would be useful, and, providing it avoided giving the description/rules of the spell would probably not cause a problem even if the book is not OGL...
Rurik said:
Of course you can!
Spell Lists are fine.
I've done one http://mrqwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Spell_Lists but haven't added the spells from the Spellbook yet. When I buy it in a couple of weeks, I'll add the spells.
RuneQuest Spellbook
I bought this when I really shouldn't have as my darling wife did not approve, not at all. I really hoped it would be worth the aggro, but it probably wasn't. I should have left it until next month.
So, what's in it?
Introduction briefly covers magic and its theory and practise. Each type of magic is very briefly described. I suppose this would be good for a newcomer to RuneQuest.
Living a Magical Life is better as it does give guidelines on how to play magical PCs. It contains New Magical Backgrounds, New Magical Professions and Alternate Bonuses For Earlier Magical Professions. This is reasonably good, the backgrounds are OK, but a little odd. The professions are pretty good and the Alternate Bonuses are better than the ones in the RQ Rulebook.
Rune Magic contains a whole load of new Rune Magic spells. These include so-called Magnitude 0 spells, the equivalent of Cantrips, which is a good idea. As to the spells themselves, some are good, some are ordinary and some are atrocious. I won't say which is which, though, and will let people work it out for themselves. But, there are as lot of spells for people to pester their GMs with.
Divine Magic details the general types of cult, in a very generic way and has another load of Divine Magic. There are Cantrips, or Divine Voices, which give 3 Cantrips for 1 POW, which is a good idea. Once again, there are good spells, bad spells and atrocious spells. It distinguishes between Air and Storm gods, which is a bit pointless. More disappointingly, in almost all Chaos spells it refers to "Dark Gods", which flies in the face of any categorisation of Gloranthan Gods, for instance. Theer are a lot of new spells for "All" Gods, some are good, some are not so good. I wouldn't allow all the "All" spells to be available to all gods. Sever Spirit is back, but as a range touch 5 point spell that can be resisted by dodging and with a Persistence roll, making it next to useless. I expected a lot more from this, to tell the truth.
Sorcery covers a number of generic sorcery spells. As spells, these are better than the Rune Magic and Divine Magic spells as they are more balanced, on the whole. But, they are very generic, which is a shame.
Legendary Magic has new Legendary Abilities that are based on magical spells, New Legendary Rune Magic Spells that are very powerful, Miracles - New Legendary Divine Magic. These are generally good but are potentially unbalancing, although they would fit into a High Level game fairly easily.
Finally, there is an index of all the spells in the core books. This would be a useful resource.
So, all in all, this contains many spells. If you want a list of spells then this will appeal to you. However, the spells are generally without context and the book suffers for this. Some spells are very generic others are ridiculously underpowered or overpowered. I can't say I liked all the spells, but I certainly didn’t dislike them all.
Would I recommend this? I don't know. If you want a list of many spells, then it is probably worth buying. If you want a magic book with context then this isn't for you.
I'd give it a B-, slightly below good, and a Buy It of 75%. It could have been better.
Sorry.
I bought this when I really shouldn't have as my darling wife did not approve, not at all. I really hoped it would be worth the aggro, but it probably wasn't. I should have left it until next month.
So, what's in it?
Introduction briefly covers magic and its theory and practise. Each type of magic is very briefly described. I suppose this would be good for a newcomer to RuneQuest.
Living a Magical Life is better as it does give guidelines on how to play magical PCs. It contains New Magical Backgrounds, New Magical Professions and Alternate Bonuses For Earlier Magical Professions. This is reasonably good, the backgrounds are OK, but a little odd. The professions are pretty good and the Alternate Bonuses are better than the ones in the RQ Rulebook.
Rune Magic contains a whole load of new Rune Magic spells. These include so-called Magnitude 0 spells, the equivalent of Cantrips, which is a good idea. As to the spells themselves, some are good, some are ordinary and some are atrocious. I won't say which is which, though, and will let people work it out for themselves. But, there are as lot of spells for people to pester their GMs with.
Divine Magic details the general types of cult, in a very generic way and has another load of Divine Magic. There are Cantrips, or Divine Voices, which give 3 Cantrips for 1 POW, which is a good idea. Once again, there are good spells, bad spells and atrocious spells. It distinguishes between Air and Storm gods, which is a bit pointless. More disappointingly, in almost all Chaos spells it refers to "Dark Gods", which flies in the face of any categorisation of Gloranthan Gods, for instance. Theer are a lot of new spells for "All" Gods, some are good, some are not so good. I wouldn't allow all the "All" spells to be available to all gods. Sever Spirit is back, but as a range touch 5 point spell that can be resisted by dodging and with a Persistence roll, making it next to useless. I expected a lot more from this, to tell the truth.
Sorcery covers a number of generic sorcery spells. As spells, these are better than the Rune Magic and Divine Magic spells as they are more balanced, on the whole. But, they are very generic, which is a shame.
Legendary Magic has new Legendary Abilities that are based on magical spells, New Legendary Rune Magic Spells that are very powerful, Miracles - New Legendary Divine Magic. These are generally good but are potentially unbalancing, although they would fit into a High Level game fairly easily.
Finally, there is an index of all the spells in the core books. This would be a useful resource.
So, all in all, this contains many spells. If you want a list of spells then this will appeal to you. However, the spells are generally without context and the book suffers for this. Some spells are very generic others are ridiculously underpowered or overpowered. I can't say I liked all the spells, but I certainly didn’t dislike them all.
Would I recommend this? I don't know. If you want a list of many spells, then it is probably worth buying. If you want a magic book with context then this isn't for you.
I'd give it a B-, slightly below good, and a Buy It of 75%. It could have been better.
Sorry.
Simon review above is pretty good. Might point out there a common error that runs through the book. Several transformation spell list the change in statistics to same as casters, or same as casters+1d6 . I believe it should be same as target. After all if my 18 int caster cast Corpse Body on a mongrel dog he found in the alley , I dont think the Dog should suddenly get a int of 18 .
Might add I look at the book as a generic book to work from and will change things as I see fit. For example I changed Elks rack to the Bulls Horns and gave it to Urox , and then changed the horns to vary by nation. But game effects stayed the same.
And as some one else who has overspent his budget this month Good luck with the Wife :wink: I think I going to have to start doing some overtime to avoid final doom and destruction.
Might add I look at the book as a generic book to work from and will change things as I see fit. For example I changed Elks rack to the Bulls Horns and gave it to Urox , and then changed the horns to vary by nation. But game effects stayed the same.
And as some one else who has overspent his budget this month Good luck with the Wife :wink: I think I going to have to start doing some overtime to avoid final doom and destruction.
RosenMcStern
Mongoose
Understandable. Why should customers who bought PDF versions be treated better than customers who bought [more expensive] physical books?
There are a couple of flaws I could correct in a pinch in StuporMundi. But I do not do it, just to avoid creating split versions. Why should the ones who bought it at Tentacles be treated less friendly than the ones who bought it later? I have released errata for both.
They call it customer care :wink:
There are a couple of flaws I could correct in a pinch in StuporMundi. But I do not do it, just to avoid creating split versions. Why should the ones who bought it at Tentacles be treated less friendly than the ones who bought it later? I have released errata for both.
They call it customer care :wink:
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