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Although I profess to be less swayed by art than the average gamer, no review of Rough Magicks would be complete if it failed to mention the amazing artwork. Jerome Huguenin's style is just as important in maintaining the superior quality of Trail of Cthulhu products as its authors', and every piece of artwork is worth noting. The cover - which depicts a wizard summoning an immense, tentacled horror - is so impressive that using those three words diminishes its description! The other pieces in the book are suitably creepy and eye-opening.
The book is organized into an introduction, four chapters and a character sheet. There is no index, although the Table of Contents is detailed enough for such a short work. The introduction offers a list of possible explanations of what magic is, in the same way that Lovecraftian deities are described in the main book. Any, all or none of them may apply in a given Keeper's game.
The Magic ability itself is examined next. Rather than just the simple rules tweak listed above, this chapter explains how the ability is acquired, increased, and used in play. I especially like the fact that it is unavailable to starting characters, as this addresses my main objection to introducing new skills to any game: they tend to not come with a concomitant increase in skill points available at chargen. It is also possible to restrict the ability to NPCs (hostile or friendly, with rules on combining non-magic users and Magic users). Next, many monsters are listed with ideas on how high their Magic skill might be and what spells they might know.
No gaming product about magic is complete without spells, and the next chapter satisfies that rule. There are about a dozen new spells, together with some window dressing for making variations to others (names of famous wizards and ideas for customized spell requirements). The last parts of this section list how each investigative ability might be used to detect the use of magic, and other general powers that Mythos wizards display (this section might have worked better in the fourth chapter, discussed below).
Chapter Three expands the description of Idiosyncratic Magic, a concept introduced in the "Bookhounds of London" campaign frame in the rulebook. Fans of the setting book of the same name should know that this material is intended for use in this campaign and isn't reprinted there. This is a simple yet evocative way to boost skill rolls by describing an unsettling use of folksy magic. The examples (for almost all general abilities) provide a gritty Unknown Armies/Tim Powers feel, although being distinctly non-Mythos this may not fit well with Purist games.
The last section is a critical (as in literary, not harsh) look at magic in the works of Lovecraft. It is not as game-related as the rest of Rough Magicks. Given what does appear in the main book - as well as in Hite's Tour de Lovecraft - I got the feeling that this was the equivalent of deleted scenes that were cut from the main release. Still, a book about magic is an acceptable location for such material, even if I felt it was the least useful.
I suppose this leads to my only criticism of the book - the core idea being as succinct as it is, it seemed like a lot of extra bells and whistles were needed to justify printing Rough Magicks. This is not to say that what it contains is filler, especially given the attractive price point. Rather, perhaps, that it tends to lose some focus in the end.
Ultimately, there are no poor products in the Trail of Cthulhu line, and purchasers should not be disappointed with this book.
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