Review of A Magical Medley

A Magical Medley
Author: Grey Ghost Games
GGG1002 ISBN 1-887154-02-7 $19.95
Two Places You Can Find It: Grey Ghost Press, Amazon.com

Introduction

This book is a supplement for the FUDGE system. The FUDGE system is available for download in a free text version, and it is also sold by Grey Ghost Games. FUDGE (Freeform, Universal, Do-it-yourself Gaming Engine) was written by Steffan O'Sullivan, with the collaboration of many people on rec.games.design.

A Magical Medley was written to add to this already rich document and will serve any gamemaster interested in enhancing the feel of a campaign setting he or she has been developing.

A primer in magical system design, A Magical Medley covers the basic considerations important to a realistic-feeling magical system. Items such as who works magic, how common is magic, and where magic comes from are just a few of the topics covered. But the real focus is on the "example" systems which form the majority of the book. I have provided a brief description of these examples below.

In addition, the book covers the basics of the FUDGE system stats and skill resolution. It also contains conversions for Steve Jackson's GURPS system.

A Magical Medley is intended to offer something to all gamemasters no matter what their favored system. (Me; I like the FUDGE system.)

FUDGE Magics and other RPGs

FUDGE is a skill-based descriptive roleplaying game. The system has been designed to provide what is the most lucid attempt at a wide-open generic roleplaying game. Stats and just about everything else are based on a scale of Terrible to Superb, and character creation can be objective or subjective or some strange combination of the two. Character stats are up to the GM and if the GM wishes, can be left entirely to the player to decide upon. With FUDGE, it takes about 15 minutes to make up any kind of character. It is this flexibility that I enjoy.

Magical design

So you want to create your own magical system? The Magical Design section of A Magical Medley gives you clues and guidelines toward defining how magic works and the skills needed to work magic in your particular world setting. Because it's FUDGE, if you don't like something, just discard it and fudge your own material in. (That's why they call it FUDGE.)

The Examples

• African Spirit Magic
  This section was my one of my favorites. I love the idea of a magic user who is remarkably similar to your average joe or josephine. The only real difference between a magic user and a non-magic user is that the spirits favor them over others (a gift called spirit empathy.) Magical skills are dance and performance oriented. The practitioner's aim is to entertain and flatter the spirits into doing the "mganga" favors or just leaving them alone.
• Bioenergetics
  This section covers a science fiction-based magic. While not really my thing, I still felt it was pretty good. I would have liked to have seen more spells geared toward enhancing technology, but the background of the system said that bioenergetics is very anti-technology in its approach. As a GM, if a player approached me wanting to run a bioenergetic, I would probably allow it. The bio-energetics have an elaborate set of social controls prohibiting them from taking over the game. The bioenergetic is honor-bound to aid others in any non-lethal fashion.
• Celtic Magic
  This section seemed to be a very carefully researched approach to the magic of old Albion.
• Chinese Magic
  This is the only section I had any problem with. My problem basically stemmed from the fact that I don't know much about how a Taoist or a Buddhist would view magic. Nor did I have a basis to extrapolate (roleplay) a viewpoint from.
• The Gramarye
  What can I say? Wow. It allows a great deal of flexibility to the caster without compromising the GM's game balance. There is nothing I could say about it that would do it justice in the small amount of space I have set aside. Read it and let me know what you think.

Occultism

This section will seem very familiar to players of Call of Cthulhu. It even says right on it: "based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft." Another fun system, it requires a high level of ability to use effectively. Magic is flexible and powerful. The amount of preparation and length of time needed to cast a spell serves to control the amount of damage a player can do. Failure means doom for the player. Instead of fatigue, the player loses sanity: a very H. P. sort of approach. (My players always seem to love acting crazy. Perhaps a little too much. :))

Magical Items

This section contained several very good examples of magical items for fantasy worlds based on the FUDGE system. I was very impressed with some of these. I could see many ways to use them to motivate a group of players. They were like little adventure seeds.

Overall Rating:

= Excellent!

A Small Example System I Whipped Up for this Article