The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The Book of Wird, a supplement for the Providence RPG is a smallish book being 6"x9", however it's not the size that counts, it's how one uses it. The Book of Wird is packed with information on most notably Magic and its relatives in the Providence setting (wird being the term for "magic"). Being that Providence is a hybrid of super heroism and fantasy it also covers more than just Spellcaster but also provides some additional Shard abilities (superpowers) as well since Wird is also the source for those traits.

Layout: The layout of the book is fantastic; several chapters begin with setting narratives and then go into more detail. The pages are designed to look like parchment paper (grayscale) that has then been bound to normal paper, and fortunately unlike some attempts at this it doesn't fail, it looks nice, but isn't so dark as to detract from the typeface. The art is some of the best of Providence, although having multiple artists with multiples styles sometimes affects the "flavor" of the game. The book is soft cover and is square/glue bound. The only major flaws in the layout is the "BOOK OF WIRD" in huge letters on every page in the margin, and the fact that so far the Book of Wird is the best organized of the Providence books that I have seen.

Rules: The rules are nice clean and consistent mainly clarifying points and errata fixes to powers and spells in the main books as well as addition of quite a few new ones, including a new type of Spellcaster and the suggestion of another (Bright Orioles, and Faithsingers respectively. One of the best things I have seen is the addition of Mental powers even though they are not "official" and won't be used in Providence's later published works the fact that they provide rules for them for those of us who might wish to sue them is a huge point in their favor. XID Creative is one of the best companies I have seen for saying: "Yes we wrote the game, but you can add to it and make it better, or remove things you don't like" many games say this but Xidcreative seems to be more supportive of diversity in play styles than others. in addition to this they also provide some "traits" for magic wielders that expand their abilities, changing the way spells can work for each individual caster, providing specialized benefits to some, and even some rather interesting things such as "Second Path" previously they had indicated that each spellcaster was stuck using that one form/philosophy of Magic, but hinted that it was possible to change that slightly (someone can change from any distinction to a Blight Crow). But now we have rules for more than that, which I myself as a GM was planning on adding anyway as some distinctions seem to lend themselves being a part of another. In addition to this they have a fantastic appendix which list all the spells in a table with level/cost/etc.

All in this entire book is fantastic. A Good addition to the Providence line, if it weren't so expensive I'd have given it a higher rating but it is a relatively small book for the price. It is packed with your money's worth of information, but when on a limited gaming budget it kind of hurts the pocketbook a little.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Book of Wird
Author: Stephen S. Long Category: game Company/Publisher: XID Creative Line: Providence Cost: 24.95 Page count: 223 ISBN: 0-9685369-0-5 Capsule Review by Tim Kirk on 02/04/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Superhero	The Book of Wird, a supplement for the Providence RPG is a smallish book being 6"x9", however it's not the size that counts, it's how one uses it. The Book of Wird is packed with information on most notably Magic and its relatives in the Providence setting (wird being the term for "magic"). Being that Providence is a hybrid of super heroism and fantasy it also covers more than just Spellcaster but also provides some additional Shard abilities (superpowers) as well since Wird is also the source for those traits. Layout: The layout of the book is fantastic; several chapters begin with setting narratives and then go into more detail. The pages are designed to look like parchment paper (grayscale) that has then been bound to normal paper, and fortunately unlike some attempts at this it doesn't fail, it looks nice, but isn't so dark as to detract from the typeface. The art is some of the best of Providence, although having multiple artists with multiples styles sometimes affects the "flavor" of the game. The book is soft cover and is square/glue bound. The only major flaws in the layout is the "BOOK OF WIRD" in huge letters on every page in the margin, and the fact that so far the Book of Wird is the best organized of the Providence books that I have seen. Rules: The rules are nice clean and consistent mainly clarifying points and errata fixes to powers and spells in the main books as well as addition of quite a few new ones, including a new type of Spellcaster and the suggestion of another (Bright Orioles, and Faithsingers respectively. One of the best things I have seen is the addition of Mental powers even though they are not "official" and won't be used in Providence's later published works the fact that they provide rules for them for those of us who might wish to sue them is a huge point in their favor. XID Creative is one of the best companies I have seen for saying: "Yes we wrote the game, but you can add to it and make it better, or remove things you don't like" many games say this but Xidcreative seems to be more supportive of diversity in play styles than others. in addition to this they also provide some "traits" for magic wielders that expand their abilities, changing the way spells can work for each individual caster, providing specialized benefits to some, and even some rather interesting things such as "Second Path" previously they had indicated that each spellcaster was stuck using that one form/philosophy of Magic, but hinted that it was possible to change that slightly (someone can change from any distinction to a Blight Crow). But now we have rules for more than that, which I myself as a GM was planning on adding anyway as some distinctions seem to lend themselves being a part of another. In addition to this they have a fantastic appendix which list all the spells in a table with level/cost/etc. All in this entire book is fantastic. A Good addition to the Providence line, if it weren't so expensive I'd have given it a higher rating but it is a relatively small book for the price. It is packed with your money's worth of information, but when on a limited gaming budget it kind of hurts the pocketbook a little. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)