Author: Gunilla Jonsson and Michael Petersen with additional material by Richard Dakan. Translated into English by Olle Sahlin.
Category: game
Company/Publisher: Metropolis Ltd., Distributed by Heartbreaker, Inc.
Cost: $17.95 each
Page count: Each one is 64 pgs, perfect bound
ISBN: Heart, Mind, & Soul: 91-7898-423-8 Beyond the Boundaries: 91-7898-422-X
Capsule Review by Lisa Padol on 01/21/98. Genre tags: none

F (potentially B)

Heart, Mind, & Soul and Beyond the Boundaries expand on the magic system for the first edition of Kult. The introductory material about magic is the same for both books, but Heart, Mind, & Soul gives detailed rules and rituals for the magic of Passion, Dreams, and Madness, while Beyond the Boundaries gives the rules and rituals for the magic of Death, and Time and Space. These five types of magic were introduced in the first edition of Kult, along with a few basic spells.

However, these two books expand on the rules and give material for players and GMs who like describing the rituals cast by PCs and NPCs in great detail. In addition, there are new archetypes, descriptions of artefacts, and descriptions of the seven magical science.

The book is heavier on atmosphere than on rules, helping players and GMs alike get the feel for magic. Kult's magic is based on our world's occult theory, and, as far as I can tell, the authors get the details correct and give them the proper Kultish slant. This slant has enough of a bite to make me squirm while reading the spell descriptions, and the mature players label is well earned. Do not buy these books if you are easily offended, and I am not speaking simply of those who are offended by the presence of magic and demons in rpgs.

These two books could easily have been combined, and the price is a bit high, but they will add a great deal to any Kult campaign using first edition rules. The second edition of Kult streamlines the magic system, but the descriptive material is still useful, and there is enough material on the rules from first edition here to allow GMs to use the old system, if they wish, without needing first edition. The material is also useful to GMs and players wishing to get a sense of how to describe magical rituals.

Nevertheless, these products are the first ever to receive a grade of F from me. This is not because of anything the authors did. They created a fine and disturbing product that is true to the spirit of the game. The only reason I am giving the F grade is because of the layout.

The print is small and the background is garish, making it extremely difficult to read the text. I am told that this is probably because the company modeled these books on early issues of Wired Magazine. Now, obviously I did manage to read the books, but it took me a considerable amount of time and my eyes were not happy.

As much as I like these books, I cannot recommend that anyone spend money on them. If a second edition is released with a more readable layout, then I could recommend these books. In that case, the grade would rise to a B. Yes, the layout hurts the books that much.

Style: 1 (Unintelligible)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)