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The name's Davenport. I review games.
So I get this call from the boys at Eden, right? And they says they want me to review this new magic supplement for their Buffy the Vampire Slayer game. And the first thing that goes through my head is:
"Buffy supplement.
"Magic.
"That swell Willow dame's comin' to visit."
Well, I was partly right. It was a dame, anyway. Just not the one I was hopin' for.
"Hello!" she says. "I've come to present you with a copy of The Magic Box, in the hopes that your sycophantic musings will result in windfall profits from corpulent, sour-smelling fanboys!"
"Yeah, Merry Christmas to you, too, Santa," I says. "So what's the story here? Why'd Eden send you over with this one?"
"Oh," she says, rollin' her eyes. "You were expecting her, weren't you?"
I cleared my throat. The tile floor got real interestin' all of a sudden. "I dunno what you're talkin' about..."
"Right," she sighs. "Why me? Well... because! The Magic Box is my store. Mine. And all of the money in it is mine!"
"All right, all right!" I says. "Don't have kittens about it. Sheesh. So the book's a supplement about Gi-, er, about your magic shop?"
"Well... no," she confesses. "It's about magic." She rolls her eyes again and waggles her fingers all magic-y.
"Oh?" I says. "And when'd you turn into a Witch?"
"That just shows how much you know," she says, gettin' even huffier now. "You don't have to be a Witch to use magic in Buffy. I cast spells all the time! Horrible, soul-rending spells! A-and besides, the book's not just about magic magic. There's psychic powers, and invisibility, and superscience..." she says, ticking off the list on her fingers.
"And Vengeance Demon powers?" I says with a smirk.
"No, that's Monster Smackdown."
Great, I says to myself. She's got an excuse to come back.
CONTENT
Chapter One: The Witchy World
After the standard Eden intro information – chapter summaries, text conventions, etc. – the book sets out on the daunting task of writing a history of Buffyverse magic. Given the lack of canon material on the subject, the theories presented seem quite plausible. (Obviously Fox agrees, else it wouldn't be in the book.) Specifically, the chapter makes clever use of the quirks of the magic system to explain magic's history in the setting. Why does science end up becoming more accepted than magic, for example? Because on the whole, it's safer and more reliable, lacking that nasty magical side effects table.
The chapter then offers six magical organizations – one original, the rest from the series – presented as Quality package deals. The write-ups include organization type, episode source(s) (if applicable), number of members, a Quality/Drawback cost breakdown based upon the Magic Group Quality in the following chapter, occult libraries, membership requirements, and a general description.
The sample organizations:
- Delta Zeta Kappa Fraternity
- Order of Dagon
- The Knights of Byzantium
- The Technopagan Alliance
- The High Council of Witches
- Black Death (the non-series entry, a techno-industrial band that practices magic)
The section also offers ideas for using magical orders as enemies or allies of the PCs, including some delightfully insidious suggestions for orders as false allies.
The chapter concludes with fully statted write-ups of some magically oriented antagonists:
- Willow Rosenberg (as "Darth Rosenberg"/"Dark Willow")
- Warren Mears
- Rack (the magic pusher)
- Toth (the demon who split Xander in two)
In case you're wondering, Dark Willow had a Sorcery quality of 30 at the height of her power. Yikes.
Despite his nerd status, Warren scores some cool points by being the first Buffy character I've seen with a combat maneuver called "Ray Gun".
For Rack, I noticed that the author imported the Charisma Quality from "standard" Unisystem – a sensible choice, given his seductive style that, let's be honest, clearly has nothing to do with his Appearance.
I'm not really sure what Toth is doing here rather than Monster Smackdown. All I can figure is that he's included because of the Ferula-Gemina, his magic rod that's included as one of the sample enchanted items later in the book. Beyond that, he has no magical abilities.
Chapter Two: The Magical You
Chapter Three: The Art of the Arts
This chapter begins with a look at the ways in which magicians learn their trade: book learning, dark deals, family connections, friends and teachers, and Watcher status. Learning from books or friends/teachers follows the default methodology from the core rulebook, requiring the Occult Library Quality and (in the case of friends/teachers) either Contact (Occult) or Adversary (depending upon the teacher's motives). The other methods involve their own specific Qualities or Drawbacks. The Watcher Quality appears in the core rulebook, of course, but the Demonic Tutor Drawback and Magical Family Quality are introduced in this volume.
Note that the "library-free" learning methods put spell access even more firmly in the hands of GM fiat, as there is no longer a definitively limited resource involved.
Speaking of Qualities and Drawbacks, the ones included in this book are spectacularly useful. There are thirteen of them, appropriately enough:
- Demonic Tutor
- Empathy
- Enchanted or Superscientist Item
- Enchanter/Superscientist
- Invisible (as in permanently, whether from being ignored or from other sources)
- Iron Mind
- Magic Magnet (any applicable nearby magic blunder will affect this character)
- Magical Family
- Magical Group
- Psychometry
- Resistance (Mystical)
- Spirit Medium
- Telekinesis
- Telepathy
- The Sight (the ability to see magical energies, pierce illusions, etc.)
Enchanters/Superscientists are explained in "Chapter Five: Beyond Magic". Here, I just have a couple of observations about starting the game with Enchanted/Superscience items.
First, the Enchanted or Superscientist Item Quality specifies neither the success levels that went into the item's creation nor the Willpower of the creator (if not the PC himself), both of which play key roles in the power of certain items. (A response to my question about this is now available at the book's FAQ page.) And second, it seems to me that taking the Enchanter/Superscientist Quality ought to give the character access to one or more previously created items without the need to take the separate item Quality.
Playtest: I ended up taking a suggestion from a Buffy discussion group, giving the Superscientist in the group a pre-existing item of a Power Level equal to her levels in the Superscientist Quality. Given the time and effort required to create Superscience inventions, I saw this as the equivalent of giving characters with Sorcery some pre-learned spells – it let her show off her signature ability right off the bat. In retrospect, I might have let the rules for assemblages (see below) serve as her "quick fix" ability; however, I still like the idea of a Superscientist (or Enchanter) having a permanent creation to show for past efforts without having to pay for a separate Quality that's available to anyone, Superscientist or not.
I was overjoyed to see all of the shiny new psychic Qualities, including a Sorcery-independent version of Telekinesis. The latter allows psychics to perform TK a number of times up to the level of their Willpower scores without taking penalties – an advantage over Sorcery-powered TK, which begins accruing cumulative penalties after the first use.
Playtest: This delighted the player of the group's psychic as well, who, up until now, had to be satisfied playing what amounted to a Witch with the Psychic Visions Quality and no spells. She was able to trade in her levels of Sorcery for Telekinesis, Spirit Medium, and the Sight. Immediately, she found herself with a much stronger niche on the team.Do beware of the Sight's ability to see through supernatural illusions and disguises, however. Its requirement for an active Perception + Notice roll is the only thing that kept her from instantly blowing the lid off of my "supernatural body-swapping" plot twist.
* * * * * As a quick aside here, the group's Superscientist took the Magic Magnet Drawback. After an ally's literally misfiring spell sought her out in the next room over to roast her, I suspect that she'll be keeping her distance from those kooky magical types in the future.
Also included is a new rule – which, I think, would have fit better in the following chapter – allowing magicians without the Sorcery Quality to "hold" cast rituals for up to five minutes per casting success level. While this allows combat spellcasting only when such magicians have the luxury of planning attacks on a short and variable timeframe, it gives them an option they previously lacked without stepping on the toes of actual Witches and Warlocks.
Rounding out the chapter are four new Archetypes to take advantage of all these new Qualities and Drawbacks, followed by four Buffy cast updates.
The archetypes:
- Young Mystic
- Young Inventor
- AWOL Invisible Spy
- Demon-Trained Witch
And the cast updates:
- Willow Rosenberg (Magic Addicted)
- Tara Maclay
- Rupert Giles (with coven Magic Boost)
- Amy Madison (full write-up)
Another extraordinarily useful chapter, this one presents new and expanded rules for magic.
First up is a new mechanic for group spellcasting, allowing assisting magicians to add their success levels to the primary caster's roll. (Taken a step further, the rule incorporates the Technopagan's ability to use group magic via the Internet.) Keeping this new perk nicely balanced is a -2 penalty from each assisting magician's failed casting roll. So, adding a whole bunch of incompetent cultists to your ritual may be a risky proposition. Note that unlike the magic of WitchCraft, there are no numbers of power involved – a group of thirteen Witches is just one more than a group of twelve.
Telekinesis gets a needed overhaul. Among other things, there's now a reason to choose throwing small objects at a target over simply throwing the target himself – the former gives the target a chance to dodge, but the latter requires that the TK be powerful enough to lift the target.
Playtest: That's a pretty big change in my game, since previously there really wasn’t any reason for the magicians and the psychic in our group to use anything other than a telekinetic body slam – same damage as a thrown object, and the target can't see it coming. Now they have to judge the pros and cons of the two attack methods.
Because this book incorporates information from Season Six, it includes rules for both power boosting and magic addiction.
The former involves magicians gaining temporary bonuses to their Sorcery scores by patronizing magic pushers, subjecting themselves to the Boost Power spell, or draining power from magic items or other magicians. The rationale behind the application of that extra power seems a little convoluted to me, however.
Until reading this chapter, I'd missed the cap of +5 on the Sorcery Quality's spellcasting bonus. Knowledge (in the form of the Occultism skill) would seem to be more important than raw magical power (represented by Sorcery). If nothing else, this makes sense from a game balance standpoint – improving Sorcery is much cheaper than improving Occultism. But Sorcery levels gained from power boosting ignore that +5 limit. If knowledge matters more than raw power, why does gaining power from an outside source provide a bonus that inherent power does not?
And putting this power into practice looks a little confusing as well, although I haven't had reason to try it yet. For a power boosted Witch with an unboosted Sorcery score in excess of 5, it's necessary to keep track of two separate scores: (Willpower + Occultism + Sorcery + power boost) with the +5 Sorcery cap (for spellcasting) and without it (for telekinesis).
On the other hand, I do really like how the rules simulate the mental effects of power boosting as seen in the series. Any power boost requires a Willpower x 1 roll to avoid becoming temporarily affected by emotions associated with the power source – a roll that becomes much more difficult when the power boost is higher than the magician's Willpower and impossible when the boost is equal to or greater than twice the magician's Willpower. (And the effects may even be permanent in the latter case.) So, attempting to destroy a One Ring analog by draining it for a power boost is a very, very bad idea.
I'm more wholeheartedly enthusiastic about the system for magic addiction. Because the mechanic puts magicians in danger of addiction when casting more than ten spells per month with Power Levels in excess of their Willpower (rather than Sorcery or Occultism), and because the difficulty of resisting addiction increases so long as this degree of spellcasting continues, this rule may serve as the kind of break on nuclear spellslinging by highly skilled and powerful magicians that magical mishaps may not. And the rules for breaking the addiction seem to mirror the realities of real world physical addictions, based upon my (thankfully) second-hand knowledge: It's more difficult to stay "clean" the closer you are to your last "hit", recovery is painful and takes time, and falling off the wagon puts you back at square one.
And speaking of magical addiction, the rules for magic pushers are particularly fiendish. Use of a magic pusher puts a magician at much greater risk of magic addiction and gives the pusher complete control of the magician's powers if he loses control. What's more, even those without Sorcery can gain Sorcery levels, and become magic addicts, courtesy of magic pushers – a nice potential plot hook for "normal" characters desperate for a supernatural edge and willing to pay any price.
And speaking of paying a price, the chapter also introduces mechanics for sacrificing enchanted items and Life Points in exchange for one-shot casting roll bonuses. The former is marginally redundant considering the aforementioned ability to drain magic items for power boosts, but there are a couple of important differences: draining magic items is more difficult (assuming you're talking about an item that can be physically destroyed easily) and gives a smaller but longer-term boost. And destroying a magic item for a casting bonus may be used by anyone, not just those with Sorcery.
I was much more interested in the rule for sacrificing Life Points for casting bonuses, whether the caster(s) donates the LPs himself or "steals" them by harming others. This system simultaneously adds something resembling the fatigue mechanics seen in other magic systems and the rationale for human sacrifice that every good supernatural horror game needs.
Next up is a discussion of magic as it relates to good and evil, including the consequences of demonic pacts and wicked spellcasting. The former is kept pretty basic – the magician summons the demon and binds it via contract to perform a service, in return for which the magician pledges to perform some future service for the demon. The tricky part is that the contract renders the human completely unable to harm or even restrain the demon, while leaving the demon free reign over the human. This needs some rethinking in my opinion, since it seems to run directly counter to the traditional "bound demon" concept. Granted, demon summoners are bound to be risk-takers, but I'd think that demon summoning would quickly lose its appeal given these terms.
The book leaves most of the consequences of particularly good and evil spellcasting up to the GM. Nasty demons are likely to show up to recruit nasty magicians, for example, while altruistic magicians may find that demons sent to kill them may warn them of danger instead. (The latter would have to be the product of an awfully shoddy summoning contract, I'd think.) On the actual game mechanics side, thoroughly evil or good magicians may get a penalty or bonus to their rolls on the Spell Side Effect Tables (see below). I like that, although I can see the former being an incentive for GMs to boost the power of antagonist magicians just to make particularly devastating side effects less likely.
A discussion of those spell side effects follows. First up is some sage advice on the use of side effects, including times when rolling for a random effect just isn't a good idea. Then comes the nitty-gritty stuff: the original Spell Side Effect Table broken into separate tables for four spell types – Quick-Cast, Altruistic, Harmful, and Summoning – each with some unique consequences. The Harmful Spell table, for example, is the only one of the four that lacks a "no effect" outcome, and grave Harmful Spell failures can cause much more widespread carnage than can equivalent failures with other spell types.
Playtest: This, by the way, is how that Superscientist with Magic Magnet got nailed by a misfiring spell. I really enjoyed having some more specific consequences to apply to various spells mishaps, particularly in the area of attack spells. Those things get so obscenely powerful that any curb on them is okay by me.
This section also includes a useful table of modifiers to side effect results, based upon such things as the caster's emotional state, the noise level in the area, and whether he has ever attempted to cast the spell before. One could argue that such factors really ought to affect the chance for a successful casting rather than the consequences of a failed one; however, because a sufficiently low roll on all but one of the side effect tables does result in a completely successful cast, I'm willing to accept this model. And I especially like the option offered to rush a ritual at the risk of more severe side effects.
Finally, after a brief discussion regarding finding new spells, the chapter concludes with an expanded version of the core rulebook's spell creation system. This includes both new spell aspects and a "quickie" method for Power Level estimation when the GM doesn't want to deal with spell aspects at all.
Playtest: While I love having that quick-and-dirty option, I've yet to find it necessary in practice. I'm pleased to report that the expanded spell creation system has cost me no extra time to use in exchange for the extra level of detail.
Chapter Four: Magic, Light and Dark
Here's the real centerpiece of the book: 22 pages' worth of spells, magic items, and superscience devices from seasons 1-6, as well as some new spells thrown in for good measure.
All of the spells from the series spells are organized by series, except for the summoning spells. The new spells follow the series spells, then come the summoning spells (along with a discussion of summonings, including why demons make such spells so easy), then the magic items and devices from the series. The Appendix also lists the spells by Power Level.
It's an impressive selection – just over seventy spells in all, not counting the devices. And each spell includes an aspect breakdown for easy tweaking. (The devices do not get this breakdown, however.)
Playtest: Trouble is, I couldn't come up with a way to put this massive list to good use. Because spells aren't listed by effect – which, given the nature of the magic system, would be difficult to do meaningfully anyway – the only way I could find a spell on short notice was through my recollections of the series. I've yet to need a spell based on Power Level alone, so the listing by Power Level in the appendix wasn't much help.
Now, the listing by Power Level did allow me to scan the names of the spells quickly, so when I was trying to find a pyrokinesis-type spell, Ignite Fire stood out immediately. But I just got lucky there. There's no way to find a spell by "fire spells" or even "offensive spells", and not all spells have such clear-cut names. (Quick – what does Magnus Tripod do?) And some of the names only seem obvious. Transform Reality sounds terribly potent, for example, but is just a generic illusion spell.
Basically, I found that without knowing the spell I was seeking, it was just less trouble to create a spell from scratch. Those with a more thorough knowledge of the series may get a great deal of use out of this chapter, however.
Chapter Five: Beyond Magic
As the title suggests, this chapter delves into supernatural powers other than magic. Psychic powers are first, but because the rules for them have already been covered in Chapter Two under their respective Qualities, here the book simply discusses the way such powers are viewed in the Buffyverse. The chapter also takes a closer look (so to speak) at invisibility, mainly in regards to the difficulties inherent in fighting someone you can't see.
But the real meat of the chapter is something for which I've been waiting a long time: the rules for creating Enchanted and Superscience Items. Now, let me say up front that one thing annoys me here, and that's the fact that the game takes the Deadlands route on Superscience. Specifically, there is no real difference between an Enchanted item and a Superscience item – the latter just looks "scientific". This bugs me because it means that all Superscientists are fundamentally idiot savant magicians thinking that they're on the cutting edge of "real" science, while all Enchanters know the truth about what they're doing. Given the generally laid-back, anything-goes cosmology of the Buffyverse, I don't see the need to write off Superscience as just another form of magic.
That aside, I'm a big, big fan of these rules.
Enchanters and Superscientists can create two kinds of devices: items and assemblages. Items are enduring creations that have a Power Level one higher than the equivalent spell. To build them, the Enchanter or Superscientist must first make a research roll using Intelligence and Occultism or Intelligence and Science, respectively, and gain success levels equal to the item's Power Level. (If the Power Level is higher than the character's level of Enchanter/Superscientist, he cannot create the item.) Then he must acquire the ingredients, of which the chapter offers examples for each power level. (These are pretty harsh. A pendant forcing someone to fall in love, for example, might require a crystal that grows in the skull of a dangerous demon or that has been to another dimension and back.)
Construction takes two weeks per Power Level, after which the character spends experience points equal to twice the item's Power Level and rolls either (Willpower + Occultism + Enchanter) or (Intelligence + Science + Superscientist) to actually make the thing. These rolls work just like spellcasting rolls, needing to equal or exceed the item's Power Level or risk side effects determined on a special table for that purpose. Note, however, that there's no limit on the bonus from Enchanter/Superscientist as there is on the bonus from Sorcery. Also note that Enchanters use both Willpower and Intelligence during item creation, while Superscientists use only Intelligence. This makes Superscientists slightly easier to min-max, although the actual effectiveness of many items, Enchanted or Superscientific, depends upon the Willpower of the creator.
The chapter includes a list of suggested abilities for items of various Power Levels from 1-7, with 7 being both a hard ceiling on item Power Level – powerful enough to destroy the world – and a level that is forbidden to player characters, regardless of their level of Enchanter/Superscientist. I can understand the reasoning behind such a prohibition, I suppose, but it seems like an awfully big leap to go from opening dimensional gates and splitting people in two at Power Level 6 to destroying the world at Power Level 7. And why is there not a similar prohibition against magic of an equivalent Power Level?
On the other hand, this scale is much more flexible than the one used in the gadget rules for Pulp Zombies – if nothing else, it can account for truly grandiose devices while distinguishing between multiple Power Levels of lesser items. And the scale also allows GMs to make decent estimates of the appropriate Power Levels for items that don't break down easily into spell aspects.
Playtest: I wasn't able to put the item creation process through its full paces, at least insofar as there wasn't time to factor in searches for rare ingredients and so forth. However, as previously mentioned, I decided to allow the Superscientist to start the game with one device equal to her Superscientist score.
The player decided that she wanted a stun glove. At first, I thought I'd be able to come up with an appropriate Power Level from the summary in this chapter; however, I didn't see any examples that really fit. I could have made an educated guess, but I wanted to be more precise for my first attempt with the system.
Falling back to Chapter Four to use Andrew, Jonathan, and Warren's freeze ray as a starting point proved more fruitful, as it showed how to simulate an immobilization attack by reducing the target's Dexterity; however, as previously mentioned, the sample Enchanted/Superscience items don't get the same aspect breakdowns as do the spells. So, it was back to the spell aspects in Chapter Three, where I found the costs for offensive spells that reduce attributes.
To fine tune item creation, the chapter includes Power Level modifiers for size (defaulting to briefcase/rifle-sized), range (defaulting to the user), area of effect (defaulting to one person), uses (defaulting to unlimited), and duration (defaulting to one minute per success level on the creation roll for non-damage-causing items).
Playtest: Before noting these modifiers, it looked to me as though the Superscientist was going to have one kick-ass zap glove, going strictly by the effect allowable at the Power Level equal to her Superscientist score. But then I realized that making the thing glove-sized and having it affect someone other than the wearer – which would be a good thing where a weapon is concerned – would push the Power Level higher than the character's Superscientist score.
In the end, she ended up with a stun glove (Power Level +1 for smaller size) that reduced Dexterity by two per Success Level (Power Level +3) from a target (Power Level +1 for "range"), for a total Power Level of 5. Not too shabby – enough to take out a vamp with one shot, at any rate. However, if she'd wanted to build one in play, it would have required some pretty hefty components, such as the fresh brain of a certified genius. Yikes.
If these requirements seem so harsh as to keep Enchanters and Superscientists from shining during play, well, that's where assemblages come in. Enchanters and Superscientists can duplicate the effects of any spell in the form of a one-shot item, given access to a fully equipped ritual space/lab and an extra 20 minutes on top of the standard time requirement. The lab requirement means that there's no "MacGyvering" in the field. However, because the creation roll is identical to that used to create a permanent item – including the lack of a cap on the bonus from Enchanter/Superscientist – Enchanters and Superscientists can quickly overtake Witches in the Power Level of their "spells". Although I haven't seen this at work in play, it looks like a reasonable balance.
Chapter Six: Orphan Trouble
I've always been a fan of adventures in sourcebooks, simply because they make it more likely that I'll get some use out of the book. What's even better is an adventure in a sourcebook that makes direct use of the sourcebook's subject matter – that way, I get to use the adventure and some of the sourcebook material, even if I never pick up the book again. Well, I'm happy to say that the adventure in this book falls into the latter category, even if I've already found the book useful enough as it is. Specifically, this is a scenario that has magic all over the place, requiring the characters to cast at least one spell, disrupt another, and deal with powerful spellcasting adversaries.
Spoiler text time...
The story is that one PC's aunt has died from an accidental fall not long after having adopted a young boy. The PC's mother agrees to take her poor nephew in. This being Buffy, of course, the accident wasn't an accident and the boy isn't a boy – he's a demon summoned by the PC's weird black sheep uncle who's gotten word that he'll get a sizable inheritance if his two sisters die first. One down, one to go.
The really nasty part is that so long as the demon's disguised as a little boy, it's completely indestructible and it exerts a sinister influence over adults – in their eyes, he literally can do no wrong. The heroes must discover the demon's secret and use a spell to reveal its true form – thereby making it vulnerable – all the while dealing with the little bastard's ongoing Damien-esque hijinks.
Once he's finally revealed, it's a three-way battle between the heroes, the demon, and the uncle – the demon wants to kill his summoner (via some vampires, since he can't harm the magician himself) and steal his amulet, which will allow the demon to open one of those nasty apocalyptic portal thingies. In the interests of drama, the demon will get the amulet one way or the other, forcing the PCs to team up with the creepy uncle (if he's still alive) and stop the demon's ritual of opening. (Which will also require them to duke it out with some of the demon's buddies who've already made it through.)
There are three problems with this adventure.
The first, and perhaps the biggest, concerns its premise, which requires that a PC's mother have a sister who she hasn't seen in some time and a brother who is a mysterious black sheep of the family. This is workable if your players haven't already fleshed out their characters' extended families and don't object to having these relations retconned in.
The behavior of the demon is also perplexing: If it is completely invulnerable, perfectly disguised, and never, ever suspected of wrongdoing by adults, why doesn't it just kill its adoptive mother and have done with it?
Finally, on a more minor note, the rules of the summoning run directly counter to those described in Chapter Three – here, it is the demon who is completely unable to harm his summoner rather than the other way around. Now, granted, one of the attractions of the Buffyverse is its fast-and-loose metaphysics, but all else being equal, it seems to me that the adventure would have been better served illustrating the rule rather than the exception.
That aside, this is the most Buffy-like scenario I've read so far, combining one of those frustrating magical sitcom situations that are always cropping up with two good fights featuring demons, vampires, and magic. Only the current state of things in my game prevented me for using it at the moment.
(End spoilers.)
Appendix
This appendix is among the most useful I've ever read. In fact, it's hardly an appendix at all and more of a Chapter Seven.
The first section offers up lists of all manner of mystical trappings to flavor spells in your game: compass points, angels, devils, gods, candle colors, dates, signs, symbols, languages, herbs, items, and crystals, each with its corresponding mystical connotation. It's a perfect way to easily spice up what might otherwise be bland utilitarian spells.
The second section, however, is the really big bonus: a massive WitchCraft/Buffy conversion that expands the horizons of both games – especially given WitchCraft's availability for free download.
A conversion of Buffy magic to WitchCraft gives the latter game a more flavorful option for ritual magic, cleverly rationalized as a kind of "pre-packaged" Invocation complete with all necessary Essence-gathering tools. And Buffy Superscience can add some needed zip to the comparatively restrictive and bland Atlantean Arcana, not to mention providing those mysterious men in black from the Combine with just the sort of firepower they need to deal with smug Gifted PCs.
In terms of sheer quantity, Buffy gets the better end of the deal – not just Invocations, Seer powers, Necromancy, and Miracles from the core rulebook, but also Tao-Chi and the Disciplines of the Flesh from the Mystery Codex and the Keys of Solomon, Spirit Patrons, Taint powers, and Atlantean Arcana from the Abomination Codex, not to mention a conversion of the Associations from all three books into Magic Groups based on the rules in Chapter Two.
Unlike the mini-conversion from the core rulebook, the WitchCraft-to-Buffy conversions in this book don't involve importing Essence and Essence Channeling into Buffy. That's good in the sense that the converted abilities don't require complicating Unisystem Lite with the crunchier bits from its "big brother", but WitchCraft Metaphysics lose some of their flavor in the process.
For example, the Invocation conversion uses the cumulative casting penalty from Buffy rituals in place of Essence cost – a reasonable move, except that the result is an inability for WitchCraft magicians to strategically muster and spend their resources.
Also, the Gift is no longer required to use Invocations (or any other Metaphysic). Invocations themselves become Qualities that replace Occultism in the casting roll, and Sorcery works just as it does for Buffy rituals. This aspect of the conversion is mostly a wash.
In at least one respect, I find the converted Invocations to be superior to the originals. Rather than revamping every specific application of Invocations, the book simply has players create appropriate effects using the spell creation rules in Chapter Three.
Playtest: Why is that a big deal? Because an oft-neglected and easily-overlooked sentence in the WitchCraft rules mentions that magicians can come up with other effects than those listed, and that GMs should decide upon appropriate Essence costs. As I mentioned in my WitchCraft review, that's easier said than done. But applying the Buffy spell rules provides much more flexibility – basically, this gives characters access to freeform magic divided into several moderately broad categories. The result may not look exactly like WitchCraft Invocations, with their focus on more specific effects, but removing Essence creates such a fundamental change in and of itself that I think the increased freedom in effect creation simply makes the tradeoff more appealing.In fact, I may well take this method back to WitchCraft and Armageddon, using the Essence-to-Power Level conversion found in the Buffy rulebook in order to keep Essence as a factor.
* * * * *
Playtest: Ever since character creation, both the player of my group's half-demon and I have wanted to give the character some demonic powers. In lieu of reverse-engineering point values for the demon powers in Monster Smackdown or waiting for the Angel RPG to come out with its demonic PC rules, I decided to offer up the use of converted WitchCraft Invocations. (Elemental Fire, to be specific.) This worked out great, allowing the character to whip up flashy fire effects on the fly.
However, there's a rather serious problem in the cost department. In WitchCraft, Invocations are skills, and in Buffy, Occultism is a skill. But the conversion makes Invocations into Qualities. So, while the formula for standard Buffy magic adds one Attribute (Willpower), one Skill (Occultism), and one Quality with a +5 limit (Sorcery), the formula for Buffy-ized Invocations adds one Attribute (Willpower) and two Qualities, one with a +5 limit (Sorcery) and one with no limit (Invocation). This is important because in Buffy, Qualities are much cheaper than Skills (at a flat 5 points/level). I quickly realized that the combination of freeform, research-free magic and a cheap ability to use it would create a monster fit to overshadow the Slayer in no time. I decided that at the very least, Invocations should be treated as Skills, not Qualities.
In some cases, it doesn't look as though the writer gave sufficient thought to the implications of the conversion.
Playtest: Another strong candidate for improvised demon powers were the Taint powers from the Abomination Codex. Unfortunately, certain Taint powers require a variable amount of Taint to achieve certain effects, and the converted rules simply do not account for this. So, this part of the conversion, at least, was basically of no use to me at all.
In one other significant addition, the chapter introduces a spell called Energy Channeling to simulate WitchCraft's Essence Channeling. In this, it's only partially successful. Success levels from a cast translate into bonuses that may be applied to a subsequent cast of another spell. That's not a bad conversion so far. However, because the spell cannot be quick-cast, it's not applicable for combat – the precise time during which Essence Channeling is most dramatic, in my WitchCraft experience.
The rules for translating numbers, places, symbols, and times of power are likewise only partially satisfactory to me, giving a flat +1 for each one used. This washes out the particular significance of any one of them – casting a spell at midnight at Stonehenge (+2) is no more significant than casting a spell using three casters and a ritual circle (also +2). So why go to the extra effort? Still, it's better than nothing.
STYLE
The most immediately obvious difference between this book and the other Buffy books is the fact that the book is a softcover. (The time was I wouldn't have cared so much, but I've gotten a little spoiled by the line's beautiful hardbacks.) Also, John Snead doesn't seem quite as comfortable with Buffy-style humor as is C. J. Carella. It's not bad, but it just seems forced at times. In places, I could almost hear John saying to himself, "Oh, yeah – I need a joke here."
But for the most part, everything I had to say regarding the stylistic elements of the Buffy corebook applies to The Magic Box as well. The art, layout, and editing art are all up to that volume's high standards. The organization is likewise quite good, aside from my aforementioned issues with the spell list and Enchanted/Superscience creation rules.
CONCLUSION
SUBSTANCE:Maybe it's just the fact that this supplement contained more information that I was eagerly awaiting than do most, but seldom have I found a sourcebook so immediately useful. I couldn't have asked for much more information regarding magic and related powers in the Buffyverse, and the WitchCraft conversions, while imperfect, dramatically increase the book's usefulness even further. If magic, psychic powers, magic items, and/or superscience are to play an even remotely significant role in your Buffy game, I can't recommend this book highly enough.
- Setting
- Quality = 4.5
- Quantity = 4.5
- Rules
- Quality = 4.0
- Quantity = 5.0
STYLE:
- Artwork = 5.0
- Layout/Readability = 5.0
- Organization = 4.0
- Writing = 4.0
- Proofreading = 0.0
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