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This is a Capsule Review of The Mystic World, written by Dean Shomshak, written for the Champions line of the Hero System, and published by Hero Games/DOJ.
About Me
Roleplaying has been a hobby of mine for about 13 years now, or roughly half my life. My RPG collection is fairly large and varied, I'd like to think, but most of my hands-on experience has been with D&D, Palladium, Champions/Hero, GURPS, and the WoD. I had an online presence for a time as part of the Secrets of the Kargatane website, and I've done some freelance work in the industry, writing for the 3rd Edition relaunch of Ravenloft under White Wolf/Arthaus.
As far as my history with Hero/Champions goes, it's a long way from neutral. Though Ravenloft has long been my favorite game setting, Hero is far and away my favorite game system. I've been a fan for at least ten years, and my Hero collection spans five editions and threatens to break one of my book shelves. I'll be as objective as I can in this review, but one thing you will definitely not be getting from me is an outsider's perspective.
About The Book
Mystical characters have been a part of comic-book superheroing since the earliest days of the Golden Age; the backwards-talking magician Zatara debuted alongside Superman in Action Comics #1, in a back-up story, and later additions such as Dr. Fate, the Spectre, Dr. Strange, and John Constantine have perpetuated and expanded the idea of the mystical superhero. Widenening our perspective, we find a myriad of other superheroes, though not magicians themselves, who nonetheless rely on the mystic for their origins or powers: Thor, Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, the original Green Lantern, Spawn, Hellboy, and so on ad infinitum.
Given that the superhero genre clearly has a place for the mystical, it seems natural that a superhero setting would as well, and The Mystic World aims to carve out such a place for the official 5th edition superHero setting, the Champions Universe (described in the book of the same name.)
This is a subject the previous edition of Hero covered twice, first in Allen Varney's Mystic Masters and later in The Ultimate Supermage, an e-book also written by Shomshak. Both products (now out of print) were clear influences on The Mystic World, especially the latter; those who own The Ultimate Supermage will recognize a fair amount of the material in The Mystic World.
I should probably emphasize that The Mystic World is not one of Hero's genre books; it is not a "how-to." It doesn't give you much advice on creating your own magical universes or mystic characters for your superhero campaign, at least not explicitly. There are certainly many ideas to be found within that might help in that regard, but that is not the book's primary purpose. Nor is the book part of Hero's Ultimate line; you won't find a lot of rules or sample power write-ups here, though you will find some. Think of it as a worldbook and you should have an idea of what's in-store.
The Cover
The cover, by artist Jonathan Davenport, depicts a redheaded woman in the foreground, clad in one of the short, revealing robes that are the typical uniform of the feminine super-mystic, waving one hand at a menacing tree-like figure looming in the background. Her hand scintillates with a light blue energy, suggesting that she's about to send some mojo the treeman's way. Owners of the 5th Edition Champions will recognize the redhead as Witchcraft, one of the line's signature characters, while reading The Mystic World itself will identify the tree-man as Tyrannon, one of the master villains within.
I like this cover more the more I look at it. The coloring is soft but effective, and the figures have a quirky, Sam Kieth-ish quality to them that doesn't scream "comic-book" but certainly isn't out of place. Witchcraft's somewhat revealing outfit may bother those who let themselves be bothered by that sort of thing.
Contents
Aside from the obligatory Introduction and the much-appreciated Glossary, the book has four chapters.
Chapter One describes the mystical cosmology of the Champions Universe, starting with a general overview and then taking a more detailed look at the primary dimensions heroes might visit, willingly or not. In developing the cosmology of The Mystic World, Shomshak has drawn primarily from Kabbalah, mixed it with Comic-book Metaphysick, and thrown in a dash of William Blake for flavor. The result is something that strikes an excellent balance between the familiar and the unique, and allows for "kitchen-sink" style magic without abandoning structure to the winds. Whatever bizarre mystical dimension a GM might have in mind can find a place here, but that place will be clear within the overall framework. The writing helps bring it all alive; every section is filled with ideas, and the prose is entertaining without being purple. Excellent, evocative stuff.
The specific dimensions described within include the old reliables (versions of Heaven, Hell, Faerie, and the Astral Plane are here), alongside some atypical examples like Babylon, a sort of mystical Cosmopolis where Man's Cities and Ideas of Cities are reflected, or Loezen, a doomed extradimensional world lit by a dying sun and ravaged by an astral storm. The Astral, the Land of Legends (Faerie), the Netherworld (Hell), Elysium (Heaven) and Babylon get the most detail, with overviews of geography, inhabitants, unique environmental conditions, and adventure ideas. Other dimensions are described more briefly, but are, for the most part, more interesting than the more detailed ones just by virtue of being more unusual. Still, I can't fault the decision to focus detail the more standard dimensions; they're cliches because they work.
An additional positive of note: the cosmology presented in this chapter would be very easy to separate from the Champions Universe and port into another campaign world.
Chapter Two looks at mystic people and places on Earth itself. The section on Mystic People takes a closer look at individuals mentioned in Champions Universe, while adding some more for good measure, and discusses the search for a new Archmage for Earth (whether this qualifies as a very simple metaplot or a very detailed plot-hook I can't quite say, but I lean toward the latter). Some info on mystical creatures and gods is given as well, but there's not a lot of meat here; the upcoming books Arcane Adversaries and DEMON: Servants of Darkness may prove to be better bets for GMs on the lookout for mystcial NPCs.
The section on Mystic Places describes around a dozen specific locales of magical power on Champions Earth, some drawn from the real world and others completely fictional. There are plenty of plot-hooks to be found in this section; any mystical supervillain worth his salt could hang an evil scheme on one of these sites.
Chaoter Three starts off with a brief description of the flavor of magic in the Champions Universe, and then moves on to specific spells and item builds. These are all done in the style pioneered by excellent The UNTIL Superpowers Database, with the name of the power being followed by game effects, a flavor text/special effects description, and options for customization. I'm glad to see that this format has become a staple of Hero products; these powers aren't just time-savers, they're instant idea generators. I can't get enough of 'em.
Anyway, counting the options, there are over 60 spells built here, ranging in power from Minor (The Shadows of Shaldus, a simple Darkness spell) to Plot Device (The Word of Unmaking, a truly disgusting power built on over 3000 points). Aside from that lone example, most of the spells are entirely suitable for player characters in a typical superhero campaign. The names of the spells are very "Dr. Strange," and there's not a damn thing wrong with that. Indeed, there are few better ways to inject an instant feeling of superhero mysticism than having characters casting spells with names like "The Baleful Bonds of Balthus" or "The Lightings of Larethian." The descriptions of the spells take the names and run with them; almost all the spells tell you exactly what extradimensional being or place your alliterative alchemist is allegedly alluding to.
There are far fewer sample items (only six), and half of those fall in the Plot Device category. What's here is good, but the section feels tacked on. Of course, if you need more items, pick one of the spells in the previous section, add a Focus limitation, and you're off and running.
Finally, Chapter Four describes three master villains and their resources, and they're a fearsome bunch. The first two, Skarn the Shaper and the aforementioned Tyrannon, fill the same broad niche, but in decidedly different styles. Both are mad interdimensional conquerors seeking to absorb other dimensions into their own, but Skarn is the Honorable Antagonist who enjoys a good challenge, will keep his word, and can be manipulated through those two attributes, whereas Tyrannon is the Malevolant Megalomaniac who can't be reasoned with, only opposed. Both have their home dimensions and various minions described. Both are also incredibly powerful, with Tyrannon really tipping the scales at 2,274 points.
The third villain, the Dragon, fills a very different role, that of the Manipulating Adversary. (one might say that he's the Adversary, if you catch my meaning). Besides describing and giving stats for the various forms the Dragon can take, the chapter gives stats for some of his cultists and his most persistent enemies, the Nagas.
None of the villains were new to me; Tyrannon is originally from Mystic Masters and the other two are orginally from The Ultimate Supermage; but having updated stats and somewhat reimagined descriptions was very welcome (especially in the case of Tyrannon; he's really been tinkered with to better fit the new edition). Having known these villains for some time (and used one of them in a campaign), it's hard for me to say what reaction someone just introduced to them might have, but I personally think each of them is very cool and I'm very glad to see them back.
Interior Art and Layout
Hero has never been known for art, exactly, and less so now that color interiors and glossy pages have captured the gaming public's fancy. Despite the lack of flash, though, Hero's art has always been serviceable, and certain artists in their rotating stable have stood out as quite excellent. Storn Cook, Chris Stevens, Eric Lofgren, and Andrew Cremeans come to mind as recent examples.
How unfortunate that none of those artists worked on this book.
I'm sad to say that the majority of the art in this book is simply not that good. It's not horrible; none of it made me grimace. But my eyes slid off most of it like it wasn't even there, and those few pieces that did stand out rarely seemed to enhance the mystic mood the text was trying to convey. Quite the opposite, in fact; much of it simply felt mundane. When art depicting scenes from other dimensions feels mundane, there's some stylistic problems evident. GMs who like to use gaming art to enhance their descriptions will be disappointed here.
On the positive side, the art gets a little better as you go; most of the worst examples are in the first chapter, and the art in the last chapter is a cut above the rest, except for the pic of Skarn, who doesn't look nearly as imposing as he ought. The layout of the book is universally clean and easy to read.
Summary
From a Substance standpoint, The Mystic World is an excellent book from cover to cover, though I found that the odd numbered chapters provide the most color and ideas. If you're looking for a unique context to place your mystical heroes, villains, and unnameable entities from beyond in, you could do a lot worse than the material in this book. Games using the Champions Universe setting will get a little more use out of the book than others, but not a lot; Chapter Two is the only chapter that's likely to show the seams if you tear that setting out of the book. Of course, if you're not planning on including magic in your superhero campaign, then there's nothing to see here. For those who are, The Mystic World rates a 5 out of 5.
If RPG.net did half-points, I'd dock a half for the relatively low number of fully-detailed characters, but I don't feel it's worth taking away a full point, especially since it appears Arcane Adversaries is intended to fill that role.
From a Style standpoint, The Mystic World gets a 3; two points for the clean layout, a point for the very good cover, and no points for the generally bland and uninspiring interior art.
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