Materia Magica is the first product in DNI's Shadow Council Archives line of products. The Shadow Council, as it is briefly described in MM, is a relatively unknown entity existing outside the boundaries of any one Material plane, any one campaign setting. It is in fact the aim of DNI that the Shadow Council Archives specifically provide resources that are cross-setting; not only capable of being dropped into any campaign, like any ship-of-the-line d20 product out there, but specifically tailored for a DM, group, or group of groups to cross campaign settings and specifically have a campaign in which the party has no home Material plane. More will be forthcoming in my interview with the folks at DNI--today I am focusing specifically on the Materia Magica book.
Materia Magica is a collection of magic items, divided into categories ranging from the standard to the completely original. There is a chapter for Weapons, for Armor, for Potions, Rings, Wands (presented as spells for which wands can be created), Staffs, Rods, Wondrous Items, Minor and Major Artifacts. However, MM transcends the typical and presents two new categories of magic items (three technically, but one is merely an enhanced variant of the first): Synergy Outfits and Magical Cultivations. Synergy Outfits are a collection of magic items, wands, armor, weapons, etc., that by use of a Synergy Ring tie the extra energies produced by these individual items together; producing an additional effect when similar magic items are worn/wielded/equipped together. Magical Cultivations are creatures, plants and the product of plants (such as bread, which is made from wheat, and pollen which is the reproductive material of a flower) to which a magical effect is bestowed--so, as one example is given in the flavor text, a Wizard's Mongoose familiar is granted a poison attack in order to kill a rival spellcaster's familiar and paralyze the rival. A leech is altered so that it drains an area (or an individual) of magical energy in the form of spell slots. Legendary Outfits are provided as artifact-level Synergy Outfits, ones which have produced their synergy effects by an extraordinary synchronization which no longer requires a Synergy Ring in order to bind them together--each one is associated with a single individual, making them unique.
With the description aside, I will now move to the critical portion of the review. I have divided it up into two parts: Presentation and Content. Presentation and Content will be rated out of 5 possible points, so a perfect rating would be 5/5. In both Presentation, I will list Strong Points as well as Weak Points. Overall will be a combination of Presentation and Content, thus being a rating out of 10 points--a perfect rating would be 10/10.
Materia Magica is a 107-page hardcover book with glossy pages. The cover mimics a tan-covered tome with cast-iron bindings, depicting an image of one of the items inside--the Gloves of the Thieving Thing.
Presentation Strong Points:
* Hardcover book—a very nice, professional touch on a first release product.
* Text size: Although initially looking very small, after you start reading you begin to get comfortable with it. The text size is actually in accordance with Wizards of the Coast's publishing standards, that being text at a size of 9 points.
* Layout: Enough space was placed between the margin and the text; pages weren't hogged with content nor was too much whitespace included.
* Colors: A single color was used for text, one for graphics and one for background. It had a very Crusades-era, Alhambran/Middle-Eastern feel for me, the faded purple-brown tones used on the background of the pages. Matches very well with the font choice used in the chapter headings.
Presentation Weak Points:
* None. Found no fault with it. In a few places I thought text style could have been changed from Italics to Regular, but it's too minor to impact on the score.
5/5 for Presentation.
Content Strong Points:
* The originality of the content, both magic items in existing categories and the new categories that were created (Synergy Outfits both mundane and Legendary, Magical Cultivations).
* The quotes and story text which gave background not only to the individual items, but which introduced the Shadow Council and the various personalities which brought the items to life.
Content Weak Points:
* I can see how the opening chapter would be useful to players who have magic items, or spellcasters who target opponents with magic items--but essentially it's a reprint of rules from the Dungeon Master's Guide (unless I'm overlooking something) and could have been spared in lieu of original material or rules—all in all, however, a minor complaint.
* 4/5 for Content.
Overall: Normally, given the individual ratings for Content and Presentation, I would combine them and give an Overall rating for a 9/10. However, there was one fairly glaring oversight that gives me cause to give an overall rating of 8/10; grammar and punctuation. A number of grammar and punctuation mistakes were overlooked, the former much moreso than the latter. The biggest violation was use of commas where semicolons should have been used, as well as run-on sentences in some cases. For the most part it didn't lessen the quality of the writing, but it seemed as though the writer(s) often let their writing run away on them.
8/10 Overall.
In closing, this is a book I would recommend not only to DMs, but to players looking to augment their arsenals of magic items and make their characters unique. Along the way of waiting for it to be released I was unsure that it would be a worthwhile product, but I found in the end that it was well worth the wait.
