Witches and Pagans Review
The latest (and possibly the last, see Subjective Thoughts) book for the Sorcerer's Crusade game line was recently released as an E-Book (PDF file actually). It's available via download from the White-Wolf website. Here is my review.
Physicality
It's a PDF. Seriously, ever since the Order of Reason debacle, I've been paying a lot more attention to layout and things of that nature. I'm happy to say the layout and margins of this book are par for the course, though some of the text spacing (especially in the last chapter) seems to take up a large amount of space. Oh well, it's a PDF, so this doesn't really matter. Just a quibble.
Art
All the art, save the cover, is done by Richard Kane Ferguson. If memory serves he's done some other projects for White-Wolf (don't remember what exactly) and some Magic back in the day (the day being 1995). The art, while not necessarily historically or cultural accurate, serves to convey the feel of the book to a large extent. While I will admit that some pieces are cartoony and others mediocre, there are a few that are just damn cool. The presence of nubile young women in various states of undress is also a plus, if one is interested in such things.
As for the cover, it is another acceptable piece by the now Ubiquitous Christopher Shy.
A Special Note
The first text worth mentioning is "A Special Note" on the credits pages. Its been eons since I've seen one of these things. This note does two things.
First it clearly states that this is a gaming book and not a treasure trove of occult lore. The authors have taken some major liberties on the subject (duh). All you kids who hate your parents and hope to learn how to be a Witch need not apply.
After that it goes out of it way to explain that this book isn't about the New Agers, Wicca or Neo-Pagans, its about historical pagans and witches. They did some pretty violent, chauvanistic and carnal things. You modern witches shouldn't get offended by this book becuse its not about you, for once.
When I read this special note, a large grin spread across my face and the scene from American Gods where Odin berates a Wicca came to mind. :)
Prelude: Spring, Samhain 1550, Interlude: Summer and Fall, Postlude/Epilogue: Winter
There is a surprising amount of fiction in this book. It's divided into 4 sections and spread around, so I'll take care of it all here. I'm no fan of game fiction and was quite surprised that it managed to hold my interest. Call me a Philistine if you must. Deals with a male pagan (!) named Jonathon and his awakening and further adventures. The font is actually legible for once.
Introduction: Red River
Written by the Sorcerer's Crusade creator, Phil Brucato, the Introduction discusses a small handful of things. A section, "What is a Pagan anyway?" sets out how Paganism is defined in the context of the work and the Sorcerer's Crusade game line in general. The definition is an adequete one (it covers the Pre-Christian polytheistic religions of Europe, with a focus on rural and agrarian practices), though I'm sure some people will have their quibbles. I've got mine, but I'll save 'em for later. The next section discusses the Pagan mindset while the "Historical Note" sidebar covers the difference between paganism in the real Renaissance (there is none, at least not openly) with the Paganism in the Dark Fantastic World (a magickally, if not culturally, unified front on par with any of the monotheisms). The government issue "How to Use this Book" and chapter breakdown rounds out the Introduction. It is claimed that the authors are taking a bold new approach in this book and writing portions of it as if they were a witch's Book of Shadows. We'll see how this goes.
Chapter One: History
We are introduced to our narrator and informed that the book is supposed to be written around 1550, a good century after the Council of Nine has formed. The history section gives us an alledged pan-Pagan history, dealing with the Pure Ones, Wyck and Aeduna. Weird hallucinations and flashbacks to M1st and the original Verbena tradbook accompany this history.
A revisionist tale of Eden, Lilith and Lucifer is next, as the narrator stumbles across the Bahari. More flashbacks, this time to Revelations of the Dark Mother. A brief note about the Seasonal Realms (from the old Book of Worlds) finished off the history section. If you haven't been a White-Wolf groupie for nearly a decade, as I have, most of this material will be brand spanking new.
The rest of the chapter discusses Pagans of Note. Some are interesting, like Sir Garland of Baerwald and Signy Hammarvind. Others have been beaten to death, like Nightshade of Harrowgate, who gets a rather extensive biography. Nightshade (along with the Daedalean Wolfgang von Reisman) probably has more written about her than any other of the period NPCs. When do the interesting and nearly unknown ones (such as Ali-beh-Shaar, Wu Jin, Chalech, or Baldric Le Salle) get more than a few meager paragraphs? Fans of the Fragile Path, such as myself, will note a section dedicated to Eloine and the search for her missing children. NPCs are always a mixed bag, and the ones here are no different. I do plan on using Sir Garland in my Fall of Baerwald chronicle next Spring, he's just damn cool (and seems like a refugee from Pendragon).
Chapter Two: Knowledge
This chapter covers Pagan magicks, Sphere by Sphere. The spells and weavings themselves vary between blatantly obvious (most of the Rank 1 effects) and rather clever (Voice of the Goddess), with a few duds (just what the hell is Deadly Fruit supposed to do anyway).
There are a few other things to comment on.
First off, is the language used by the narrator. As this is ostensibly a Book of Shadows from the late Renaissance, one would think the narrator would use period terms for things but instead uses the generic terminology that's been a part of Mage since time immemorial. This pretty much ruins the intended effect of the writing style.
Don't get me wrong however, this chapter arguably has some of the best bits in the book. Each of the spells has a little anecdote about it. These anecdotes don't necessarily explain what the spell does in some cases (Deadly Fruit again) but do something much more useful, describe what the Pagan paradigm looks like on a ground level. This has always been a problem in Mage; you can write hundreds of words on the philosophy and beliefs of a paradigm but its all meaningless if we don't have examples of its application. Witches and Pagans delivers on this aspect.
The rules mechanics for the various rotes are acceptable, though if you're a rules lawyer you'll definately have some complaints. The casting rules get mutilated, again, but if you want rules with ironclad consistency, go play GURPS.
Finally, there are some rotes that un-Awakened folk can utilize. These rotes are all first level effects and require a Perception Awareness or Rituals roll. This is an interesting take on the hedge magic sidebar in the main rulebook and something you should think about before putting into your campaign.
Chapter Three: Wise Craft
As I said earlier, providing examples of a Mage's paradigm at work is essential. That is pretty much the sole reason for this chapter's existance. Chapter Three covers common tools, foci and implements of the Pagan Paradigm. The pentagram, elements and correspondences are discussed followed by in depth look at altars, wands, vestments and other ritual implements. The chapter continues with a look at Witches Potions. It also includes a few recipes for baking bread. This rather short chapter concludes with a section on flying broomsticks, which includes a rather.... Daedalean explanation for the phenonmenon.
This chapter also comes closest to approximating what an actual Book of Shadows should include and feel like. As such its a good thing to toss at a player and say "This is what your character's BoS should be like, go blue book it. You may even get XP out of it"
Chapter Four: Weavings
Alledgedly reverting back to regular sourcebook mode, Weavings covers rules, mechanics and character concerns. A series of character ideas, in the vein of Crusade Lore, Infernalism and other books, opens the chapter. There aren't many, but most of them are intriguing and suitable for most campaigns (I'd give good money to see an experienced player try a Muse in an intrigue chronicle).
Merits and Flaws come next. As usual, some rock (like Death Haunted, which is essentially Jhor written up as a flaw) and other are an excuse for munchkinism (like Berserker, which is written up as a Merit with no discernable drawbacks). There is a page sized sidebar on Merits & Flaws from the other books at are especially suitable for Pagans. This will come in handy during character generation, if one uses Merits and Flaws.
New Traits follow. Three new Knowledges (Craft Lore, Rituals and Pagan Culture) are described. They pretty much waste a page, since you could use Hearth Wisdom and Occult instead. A revised version of Familiar is presented here as well. This is actualy useful, as the one given in the rulebook is rather generic and not everyone has the really detailed rules from Bygone Bestiary. Now everyone can write up a witch's black cat.
A Bibliography and Filmography round out the book. Some old friends like Arkon Daraul, Ahmed Rollo and Bill Shakespere are back, along with some newcomers (this is the first time I have seen a Crichton novel in a gaming bibliography since the orignal Progenitors book). The Filmography has the distinction of not listing Dangerous Beauty but ruins it by including Gladiator.
One major quibble. Back in the chapter breakdown, we were promised a brief summary of important Pagan deities. Now its omission isn't that much of a flaw, as I'm sure most Mage players and gamers in general could recite some pantheons backwards from memory but it would have been a nice reference. Besides, one never knows where inspiration for a character can com from.....
Analysis
I'm fairly divided on this book. On the one hand, the Introduction makes a big deal of including all the diverse cultures and religion of pre-Christian Europe as Pagans but the rest of the book fails to take advantage of this, portraying them as a vague naturalistic magickal tradition (see Subjective Opinions for more on this). On the other, I'm hell bent on writing up an Athenist or other some other Pagan as my next signature NPC. I'm going to give it a passing grade, because it passed the minimal criteria (convincing the reader to want to play that type of character) and provided something that, in my opinion, is always welcome in a Mage supplement, a ground level view of a paradigm, the nuts and bolts if you will. Besides, some of the anecdotes in the Knowledge chapter gave me some really good ideas.
I really do think this book was missing a least one chapter however. Since they gave a generic overview of what Paganism was in the Intro, a chapter on how the various cultures and religions express their Pagan heritage would have been much appreciated. For example what is the difference between a Celtic Pagan and a Germanic one? On a less extreme level what seperates a Pagan who adheres to the old state religion of Imperial Rome from a rural Italian strega? Even a brief section that addressed these issues would have been nice.
Lastly, the style of writing that the first three chapters is very hit or miss. Chapters one and two don't seem like a BoS at all, while the third chapter could have been lifted from my sister's. The problem is that any White-Wolf sourcebooks are written with the conceit that they are actually a person's journal or a offical dossier or anything other than a gaming book. It wasn;t necessary to tell us that it was supposed to be a BoS, we probably could have figured that out on our own.
Objective Grade: 6/10 (Aside from one or two omissions, this book is quite useful. It's not exactly earth-shattering, but its not dreadful either).
Where I'm coming from (personal opinions of prior works): Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade 8/10, Crusade Lore 5/10, Castles & Covenents 7/10, Artisan's Handbook 9/10, Crusade Companion 8/10, Infernalism: Path of Screams 10/10, Swashbuckler's Handbook 10/10, Order of Reason 4/10 This all just my opinion and I'm probably wrong.
Subjective Opinions aka Ranting and Raving
1) I hate game fiction. The less of it the better. It has to be damn good, even if by a favored author, or actually relevant to the sourcebook for me to even read it. Game books should not be a forum to work out literary pretensions (thats what writing gaming reviews is for). There were 10 pages of fiction in Witches and Pagans. About 8 of it could have been used for something useful, like expanding the history section. Which leads me to....
2) Where is the rest of Pagan history? Where are the tales of majestic Pagan Empires or the songs of glorious deeds performed by Pagan heroes? Where is Cuchulain? Where is Caesar? Where is Achilles? Where is Bouadicca? Where is Sigmund? Where are the Russian Boyateri? All we have are some fictional tales taken directly from the World of Darkness mythos. Surely there is more to Pagan history than Lilith getting mistreated.
3) If you are going to define Pagans as all pre-Christian European religions, then include the urban and humanistic aspects not just the naturalistic ones. There were deities of civilization and human culture, such as Athena, Apollo and Hephesteus, to name a few from Greek culture. By focussing solely on the naturalistic aspects, you ignore at least half of Paganism.
4) On a similar note, the following equation needs to be stricken from the record:
Pagan = Verbena
There are more Pagans in Sorcerer's Crusade than just the 'Bena, although the authors seem to assume that most, if not all Pagans, will end up in this Tradition. I can think of a few examples:
- Mithratics and Solar cults in the Chouer Celeste.
- Greek Chthonists of the Pomegranite Deme in the Euthanatos. For those of you who don't know, a Chthonist worships underworld deities such as Demeter, Persephone, Hecate and Hades.
- Greco-Roman holdovers in the Hermetic Order, it was the Cult of Mercury for frick's sake.
- Bacchants, Orphics, Sibyls, Oracles, and other likeminded Pagans who make up part of the Seers of Chronos.
- The devotion that a good portion of Hippocratic Circle (the most shafted Daedalean Convention in terms of hard data) has for the old Pagan deities of medicine and healing, Asclepeous in particular.
If memory serves, at the time of the Sorcerer's Crusade, the Verbena are composed primarily of Celtic, Germanic, Norse and Slavic Pagans.
The reason I'm a little ticked this is as follows. The Artisans Handbook, while focussing on the Craftmasons and Artificers, managed to slip in a little information on Hermetic and Batini Artisans. Surely they could have snuck a little bit about Pagans in other Traditions into this book.
5) It was damn exciting to see Phil Brucato in the credits. As Derek Burrow on the Sorcerer's Crusade mailing list said, a book written by the Big B and illustrated by Guy Davis would be a dream come true.
6) This may be the last Sorcerer's Crusade book, period. There are some disturbing rumours about the fate of Arthaus and its various gamelines. The best way to show your support for a gameline isn't empty words or cynical reviews, but with your wallet. I urge anyone who cares, even in the slightest, about Sorcerer's Crusade to show White-Wolf their support by purchasing Witches & Pagans or other SC books. Its too good a game to let die.
That's enough ranting and raving for now, I'm off to right up a few Pagan characters. :)
~Remington Amadeus Nobles, Hermes bani Fortunae
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