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Review Summary: A solid product giving many new ideas concerning the creation and function of magical systems while partially suffering from the weakness of all generic systems: it needs work from the GM.
What you get: For your hard cash you get a soft-cover, 128-page book called ‘A Magical Medley, a Magic Rich Supplement for FUDGE and other RPGS’, published by Grey Ghost Press. No typos were noticed in the text. The fonts used are standard (probably ‘12’) but the information is presented in a thick manner. The copyright notice reads 1997 but I have the feeling that this book is slightly newer than that. In any case, it retails at US$19.95 and allows GMs to create different magical systems for use in their own campaign. The book is written for FUDGE but provides half a page of conversion tables for both D&D and CoC although they are not expressedly named. GURPS conversion tables and instructions take two and a half pages of the book.
Six different magical systems are presented: African spirit magic, Bioenergetics, Celtic magic, Chinese magic, The Gramarye (pseudomedieval magic), and Occultism. The entries range from ten to twenty four pages and provide a plethora of information on the subject. There is historic information about the systems, the way magic (or even religion, in the case of Chinese magic) works, what powers or spells the magicians possess etc. There is discussion on what are the beliefs behind magic, where it comes from, how the power manifests in the world. Sample characters are provided along with sample spells to get the feel of each system. Following the systems there are a small chapter on magical items, mainly providing sample magical items, as well as a chapter with one 9-page adventure (your classical dungeon crawl) and almost a dozen of adventure seeds for all systems (that is twelve in total, not twelve for each system).
The strong points: This is mainly a book of ideas. Even if your campaign doesn’t have a Chinese civilization equivalent, the Chinese model can be adopted as a mindset for the type of magic you want to use. This is valid for all the systems presented. After the historical background (if one exists at all) is removed, these systems can probably work anywhere.
I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the ‘real-world’ information presented (if what they say on African spirit magic for example is what followers of this kind of magic truly believe). It is stated in the chapter for Chinese magic that some simplifications were made, something that is both expected and acceptable. The text reads fluidly, with short stories every now and then in order to make the examples more vivid. In that the game succeeds. The systems are really different and invoke a different kind of feeling when one reads them one after another. Quote off the book: ‘The game master’s design of how magic works doesn’t need to correlate to the character’s understanding of how magic works (or, for that matter, the player’s understanding)’. That is just brilliant!
The weak points: This is mainly a book of ideas. In that sense, many players will find this book being concerned more with the background and theoretical constructs of magic than hard statistics and game rules. In the case your game is FUDGE, you can take advantage of all the information presented in the book, both background and statistics, almost without any work. Otherwise loads of rules clarifications and game terms will be needed and especially if your average co-player is a rules-lawyer or a power-gamer. This means time, and time is not something every GM has these days. But then I suppose one wouldn’t be playing FUDGE. Well, I made my point.
Conclusion: I was very sceptical of the book when I first read it, but reading it again and again I consolidated my opinion: this can be a very useful product when it comes to flavour and background. It is recommended for people who enjoy ideas over statistics and who game worrying about the magic system in the game world and not the game system of magic in the real world. If you enjoy enriching your role-playing experiences and think magic in your game gets the short end of the stick, this might be the product you need. This, and loads of time.
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The 2011 re-examination: This item has remained fresh and inspiring, forcing me to effectively improve the initial grading. I don't know whether it is due to my tastes changing through the years or whether the value of the product was initially understated, however the Magical Medley is a solid purchase.
