Realms of Sorcery for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

[Imperial Overlord]

I got this a while back, but I neglected to put up a review.

Lets start with the eyecandy.

Cover: Good art. A bunch of wizards have summoned up a nasty daemon thing that is beyond their control and it is slaughtering everyone. It also matches the short story inside.

Interior Art: Appropriate to the subject matter and good looking. Most of it is full colour. Definitely good.

Layout: Good. It starts with a general explanaition of magic in the Old World, its history, and then gets into specifics. Rules, spell lists, and other game mechanics are towards the back of the book, which makes it easier to find. The book is organized into chapters and has an excellent table of contents.

Material: The book mostly focuses on who magic works, hedge magic, and the Colleges of Magic. Non-human, priestly and non-Imperial magic is barely covered, with the exception of Dwarven Rune Smiths who are well covered in their own chapter. It includes a short story and an adventure.

Feel: Captures the grim world of Warhammer and the high power-high risk nature of Warhammer magic and the risk of corruption quite well.

High Points: Familiars, Hegdge magicians, Witches, Warlocks, Runesmiths, the descriptions of the Colleges, expanded spell lists and the adventure friendly points dropped throughout the book.

Weakpoints: Although the book does give good suggestions and encouragement on how to make your own and gives good examples, more spells, ritual magics, and magic items (not counting rune items) would have been prefered. The book is (with the notable exception of dwarves) very much centered on the Empire. Brief sections on magic in the other major nations would have been appreciated.

Overall: Very good.

[Sharp-kun]

I remember grinning at the miscast table.

[Imperial Overlord]

I remember grinning at the miscast table.

Tzeentch's Curse? Yeah, that's loads of fun. Of course, you usually get the spell off and the strange side effects are usuallly minor, but there is always the chance of getting something worse. I've only ever had one catastrophic manifestation, but that was for an NPC chaos sorcerer and he managed to survive it. Having the elven wizard shoot him with lightning and the elven archer shoot him with arrows was rather less survivable.