The Conjurer's Guides are identically arranged books, each covers a
few different magical lores;
Beyond the Boundaries covers the
lores of
Death and
Time and Space, while
Heart
Mind & Soul covers the lores of
Passions, Dreams, and
Madness.
Both use the new glossy-paper format, which is visually striking.
It is also, unfortunately, a real pain to read. Heart, Mind &
Soul is the better of the two, with only about 10 of the 60-odd
pages obscured by background art. Almost half of Beyond the
Boundaries is hard to read because of background art or due to
black print on brown paper.
Once you learn the "Magic Eye" trick of reading the books, they bring
a new, somewhat terrifying, level to of power to magic. All lores
can summon, bind, exorcise and spirits; create protective circles;
and create that most necessary of places, a temple. Without a
temple the conjurer is penalized heavily, unable to work most
of their spells.
Some of the Time/Space sensory spells would be quite suited
to many campaigns. However some spells will allow characters to
travel to Metropolis, see the future, and time travel and should
stay under the realm of Gamemasters.
Death magic is almost designed towards many NPC's as it
focuses on communicating with, summoning, and controlling dead souls.
This can allow a master to live forever or create unique purgatories
for enemies or even themselves.
The magic of Passion directly affects raw emotion and instincts
but also includes some controls over the human body; focusing on
altering the reproductive system and process. Few characters
will feel compelled to learn the higher secrets of Passion
making it a safe bit of magic to let out.
Dream is the most balanced lore; it allows for communication
and travel using portals into the Dream realms as well as altering
reality to match the world of the occultist's Dreams. Only the
extremely high level rituals are worldshattering, exactly as it
should be.
The lore of Madness seems to come right from Lovecraft's
warped imagination. The lowest level spell opens a gate to
Metropolis, mid-level effects induce altered mental balance and
shake the cage of the Illusion, and high-level effects can induce
physical changes or glean information on the nature of the Illusion
itself. The drawbacks of this lore (almost guaranteeing your
immediate confrontation with your light half) are either hideously
repulsive or incredibly attractive.
All in all, the Conjurer's Guides are good references that will
advance games. The big drawback is that most spells are too
powerful to be in the possessions of characters in the world of
Kult. If you can keep your group's magic low (just enough to
get themselves into more trouble) then you'll have no problems.
However if you need to make a truly powerful NPC or get a
character to go rapidly insane this is a way to go.
Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)
