Mutants & Masterminds - [Review] Power Profiles #12: Magic Powers

[jameson (ST)]

Power Profiles #12: Magic Powers

Vitals: Published By Green Ronin • 12 pages • $1.99 • full color PDF

Well, I honestly can say that this review surprised me. Unfortunately I can't say that that surprise was a good one. For eleven products we had a consistent format that broke down the profile with discrete sections to detail the various aspects of the power in question. The magic profile does away with this format almost entirely, with only the Complications section remaining. Instead this double sized Profile fills its pages with twenty greater magic beings, gods and angels, demons and unspeakable evils, all of whom come with a small selection of powers within their domain and theme.

Unfortunately that means that the usual opening salvo of descriptors and features is gone, and sorely missed, in my opinion. Likewise, because effects are linked with the being or power that magicians can call on to gain it any semblance of organization as we have grown used to is gone. Finding Offensive, Defensive, or Movement powers amid the pages of this profile is difficult without knowing the source of those powers. The setting details for the twenty mystic beings are all culled from the second edition Book of Magic, and while some players will find this new, older players will have seen it before, reducing its value to them.

Getting down to brass tacks however, this book does contain over eighty (80!) spells and their effects. The "fluff" information for the various entities is nicely presented and can be useful to make magic have a more unique personality, especially in the case of a magic heavy supers game. Had these fluff/setting aspects of this profile been added as an additional section to the normal power profile format the spells could have been made to reference back to the appropriate section while maintaining a stronger layout and organization.

Two sidebars are presented as part of the profile, the first discussing the use of power stunts and improvised spells, including a suggestion to allow the occasional stunt spell to be used without the normal penalty for extra effort and instead have the entity called upon for the magic require a service of the character at a later time. I found this idea especially interesting as it could provide free story ideas to the GM. The second sidebar discusses creating and using your own entities, or entities outside of those presented. This is a useful inclusion as it should encourage players and GMs alike to think beyond the details already created and to look to other sources for inspiration.

Closing Thoughts

Unfortunately this product fails to earn its marks as a Power Profile. Despite being double the length it suffers from a non-intuitive organization, the lack of discussion for Descriptors and Features (an aspect of these products I have come to love), and reuse of setting information that many long time player will have seen before.

Despite that, it is not all bad. There are numerous useful effects here, especially for new players. Likewise the setting information from second edition's Book of Magic will be useful and new to newer players. Two sidebars also provide useful suggestions for magic games to expand on, or add to, the information presented inside.

Rating: 65%, This profile will be good for new players, and does provide some nice "game fluff", but vets will be confounded by the lack of new things and the many repeat powers, as well as the re-use of setting fluff from the second edition Book of Magic.