Review: Compact Sorcerer

Summary:

A few pleasant surprises await the gamer who picks up this supplement expecting to see something on the same level as Compact Warrior. Although the general quality of the book isn’t that much better than the “prime rulebook”, and a significant portion of the content is blatantly repetitive, the substantial original material is clearly explained. But, pleasant or not, you’ll be hard-pressed to say you got your money’s worth.

Detail:

For those who’ve read my review of Compact Warrior, you’re probably wondering why I’m holding a copy of Compact Sorceror. It’s not that I don’t know when to quit, but I obtained both the game and the expansion at the same time. Hey, they were cheap *shrug*.

Truly cheap. Fully five pages of the 24-page Compact Sorcerer are repetitive in the cut-and-paste sense. Where Compact Warrior did not include even a single example of a weapon card in the rulebook, the Compact Sorceror manual replicates the textual information of every single spell card. My educated (professional) opinion is that while the producers of the Compact Combat line are motivated, inspired, and enterprising, they sorely lack the ability to organize and present their information in an user-friendly fashion.

The production values hold true to the style of Compact Warrior. No need for a print house on this job, and the ink doesn’t hold to the paper too well. The front and back covers once again have the 7x10 grid map, just as the original Compact Warrior. There are 30 spell cards on four cardstock sheets, 8 magic item cards and their “dropped item” markers on another, and17 more character tokens. The artwork on the character tokens is slightly improved over those in Compact Warrior.

Somehow, in writing this rules expansion, the designers blurred the line between tactical combat system and standard RPG. Although intended for tactical combat, many elements are introduced that only really have relevance from a roleplaying perspective. Although the designers don’t hide this fact, they waste space foreshadowing “future expansions” to cover the material in more detail.

The spellcasting process described breaks little new ground for the gaming industry. Two new skills enable characters to cast: Magic and Spell Targeting. A sorceror has a finite supply of mana that is consumed to powers spells, only when activation rolls (Magic skill tests) are successful, except in particular circumstances (of course). Missile spells require both an activation roll and a targeting roll. Non-missile spells require only an activation roll. Backlash occurs on a critically failed activation roll, and penalizes the caster both the mana cost of the spell and hit points equal to the mana cost of the spell. Ouch. You really don’t want to roll 00. Fortunately, the more skilled Sorcerors need not worry about backlash. Sorcerers are considered to be “safe from backlash” for certain difficulties of spells based on their Magic rating.

Spells are defined by their difficulty, mana cost, type, targeting, components and casting time, range, scalability, and spell effect. Spell types, for specialization purposes in “advanced” rules, are comprised of energy, manipulation, healing, perception, physical, and creation. Targeting types are general, personal, missile, focused, and area. Components are gesture, incantation, or combination that involves a short or long ritual.

Nearly two pages are devoted to clarifying the nature of illusions and creations, common areas of confusion when introducing a magic system. The sections on spell runes (rules for scrolls and other charge-based magic items), artifacts, creating low-mana zones could have easily been omitted, since they contribute no substance to the core of the magic system--especially considering the cursory manner of their coverage.

Regardless of the fact that this booklet could have been eight full pages shorter, there is some worthwhile original material. Of particular note is the scalability system for spells, which I found to be streamlined, elegant, and for once, simple. Based on your magic skill level, you can “push” the certain effects (duration, area, damage, etc.) of certain spells beyond the base levels. The tradeoff is that the spellcasting difficulty increases by one for each and every effect level you push the spell beyond base values.

The bottom line: The original content in this product enjoys a clarity of communication absent from Compact Warrior. The manual still suffers from typographical issues, as well as the problem of copious amounts of extraneous content. The rules are much more easily understood, and there are some smooth, innovative approaches worth investigating. Unfortunately, I’m not sure it’s worth the $8.95 asking price.