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1. Tagle says

   I believe this is the first novel by the author. At the start of the book this certainly shows, it feels clunkily written and not well put together.
   However, it did improve after about 100 pages, but there is nothing outstanding here. The Blurb tell us Chris is a long time Games Workshop fan, and this does feel like fan writing.

   If you’re a Warhammer Fantasy fan there are some enjoyable politics between the Magic Colleges, if you aren’t a Warhammer fan this is not a good place to start.

   February 27, 2010, 2:40 pm
2. Hacker says

   The human Empire maintains mighty armies to protect itself from its enemies. The Imperial battle wizards are untrusted, but crucial, to these defenses. Magic stems from various sources and those able to manipulate it train for years as acolytes (apprentices) to their chosen masters. Colleges are set up, each for a different variation and source of magic. The Grey Wizards draw from shadows and mostly deal with illusions. The Gold Wizards draw from minerals, such as within the earth, and may change the forms. The Amethyst Wizards are weakest, until death begins. They draw from chaos and deal with mainly shadows, deception, and death. The Amber Wizards draw from nature, its various beasts and forests.

   The orcs, once again, are invading. This time they have a shaman unlike any before. Even Master Wizards have fallen before its power. Grey wizard Lothar Auerbach is there from the beginning. Lothar is devastated when he sees his master fall. Soon others, for various reasons, join the battle. Katerina is Amethyst. Ambrosius is Gold. The infamous Marius is Amber. These powerful wizards ride to war as individual weapons from their chosen Orders. But can they control their rivalry, ambition, and greed long enough to defeat the most powerful shaman ever and the orc army?

   ***** It has been a long time since I have read a book with wizards being the main characters. Author Chris Wraight has done a fantastic job in showing the rivalry between the various Orders of magic, not to mention between those with magic and those without, such as soldiers and commanders. Sub plots run within the colleges and their wizard acolytes, which may continue in future stories, and hold readers’ attentions as the main plot unfolds. Brilliant and desperate strategies are formed throughout the many battles. An engrossing story, set among the violent Warhammer universe. *****

   Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

   February 27, 2010, 8:36 pm
3. Tellis says

   Masters of Magic is a strong first novel and an excellent addition to the Warhammer mythos. I, for one, have been waiting for a book that fleshes out the working of the College of Wizards and Chris Wraight has made a valiant foray into that shadowy world by successfully delineating the differences between the colleges and the various wizard types. I found all of his characters full bodied and well rounded. In particular, two subsidiary characters cry out for their own stories: Katarina Lautermann and Marius Joachim. If there is any problem with the novel, it is that Mr. Wraight covers too much. The novel begins with an attack against Helmgart, which reminded me of David Gemmell’s excellent novel, Legend. From there he takes us to an intrigue between two colleges in Altdorf and then back to the invasion of the orks. Soon, an amber wizard appears-Joachim-that almost steals the show from the protagonist Lothar. In addition to invasions and wizardly and sexual intrigues, there are two Empire generals and their armies chewing up the landscape. He achieves his panoramic view through a multitude of points of view. In summary, Wraight has a robust prose style, a penchant for adverbs, and a thorough understanding of the Warhammer universe. He deserves another book Black Library.

   February 28, 2010, 2:30 am
4. Valiquette says

   While I am a big RPG fan, this was my first regional sourcebook for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) and I was very impressed. The writing was clear as well as fun and gave a great overview of the kingdom and its history (~30 pages), regional profiles complete with a detailed sample inhabitant (~45 pages), as well as career information (~15 pages) and a short adventure (~13 pages). Consistent with WFRP being a “grim” world, Bretonnia is far from an idyllic place. The peasants are oppressed, women are treated as second class citizens, and even when well meaning, the nobles leave a lot to be desired as administrators.

   The supplement includes a good selection of Bretonnian careers, e.g. Battle Pilgrims, as well as detailed starting racial features by Dukedom. However, its main focus is adding a lot to the knight career path for those choosing to be from Bretonnia. Many might find this career path – Knight Errant, Knight of the Realm, Questing Knight, and Grail Knight – more satisfying than the existing – Squire, Knight, Knight of the Inner Circle career path. I liked the various “knightly virtues” the supplement included and the overview of the grail quest.

   One thing I always need is a good map and there is a nice one present for the whole realm as well as the individual provinces or dukedoms when they are discussed. My only complaint is that there isn’t a scale of miles so it’s impossible to calculate distances with any precision. This seems to be a common issue in the WFRP universe.

   The supplement included an adventure introducing characters to all levels of Bretonnian society and the best and worst of its nobility. I especially liked how the adventure included statistics for both starting and experienced characters. While an experienced GM could easily make adjustments, as someone just starting out this was very helpful.

   Printed in the EU.

   February 28, 2010, 8:39 am
5. Neil says

   A solid book detailing Bretonia. A must have if you plan to run a game in Bretonia, or you want to play Questing/Grail Knight. (Think French + Arthurian) Buy it if you’ve got the money, and enjoy these types of books. It’s good, but not a must have.

   February 28, 2010, 2:53 pm
6. Haas says

   This is arguably one of the better WFRP written supplements. Like lots of of WFRP products the type fonts are bold and colorful with heraldry symbols and such woven around the border of each page.

   The concept behind Bretonia?

   Throw in the Arthurian Mythology but make a it all about a twisted quest for something like the Holy Grail, and, oh yeah, there are all these problems happening in the petty kingdoms of Bretonia. Problems like the nobility trampling down upon the peasantry and other such non nobility, non human problems (i.e. Specially designed orcs, beasts, mutant types, etc), Fay stealing children, well, you get the idea. It seems to be a pretty place but look under the well swept rug and you find all these hideous bugs.

   The chapter sections of this well written book break as such:

   THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE: There’s some nice details about the geography including a well created map of the petty kingdoms within Bretonia. Then we get to meet the typical Bretonnians and discover that they tend to talk in future tense rather than present tense. It sounds weird, I know, but there are some examples of how it’s done so that players can learn. Oh, and let’s not forget the Truffle Hound and what it sometimes does to its keeper. Sorry. That part is censored. Heh. There are are pages here and there about the food, clothing, architecture and social structure as well. When in doubt,think of it as as an Anglo-French setting with much more of the emphasis on the French side.

   HISTORY OF BRETONNIA: This is a nice section of before the Lady of the Lake arrived to help the lands get over their problems. Even after she came there were plenty of problems, especially battle after battle with details about notable historical figures. Gilles and Louis the Rash stand out.

   POLITICS AND FOREIGN RELATIONS: How the feudal system works. Inheritance laws. Several adventuring ideas of about a paragraph each that the GM can flesh out if he wants the PCs to deal with noble intrigues and the like. More on the civil strife of the peasantry and the like as well as more colorful clubs. We get some introductions to the power of the merchant guilds and short interviews with various Bretonnians in regards to how they see the other lands.

   LAW AND JUSTICE: As you can imagine there are certain laws for the nobility but they’re quite different for the commoners. There are dressing laws and locals laws. The former basically telling the peasants they can’t dress too well or they’ll be punished. Sucks to be them, huh? Then there’s a couple of pages about outlaws and how they operate against the standard norms in Bretonnia.

   RELIGION AND CUSTOM: Grail Chapels about in these lands and many of the knights worship the Lady of the Lake as something of a goddess, though, the book leaves it open to who or what the Lady of the Lake is, leaning towards her just being an elven sorceress. That’s a bit too tame for my tastes so I’ll certainly make her more impressive. Anyway, we’ve got details of the Grail Damsels who are something of the priests of this religion and then there’s a nice section of the Gifts of the Lady which explains the powers she gives to her knights. If you know WFRP you will soon realize that Grail Knights are some of the best careers to enter. The talents bestowed upon Grail Knights make them most puissant warriors. Onward . . . there’s more on peasant religions, holidays and then more details about stolen children and how some of them become servants of the Lady.

   A TOUR OF BRETONNIA: this is a sizable chapter that breaks into subsections, detailing the many petty kingdoms within Bretonnia. Each subsection has the significant people and ruler/rulers, as well as the significant locations in each petty kingdom. And, I suppose I should not be loose with the term “kingdom” because some are called duchies and lower. But anyway, there’s also a section on popular sayings for each territory which gives a nice edge to the roleplaying types. Each subsection also has a blowup, giving more map detail. At the end of each subsection is a small bit about adventuring ideas. There are also special monsters to some of the petty kingdoms like Derelich (haunts that haunt mines), Artois Boars (really big), Chasm Spawn (yep, more Chaos), Iron Orcs (tougher than Black Orcs), Dracoleech (something of a lake/sea monster), Lakemen (reptilian men who don’t like humans), Hagranyms (an evil type of horse mount that is allied with the orcs) and Knockers (more undead dudes haunting mines and miners).

   CHARACTER AND CAREERS: So for a group that wants to start in this setting it breaks down the starting skils and suggested talents for each petty kingdom. There’s a nice list of suggested names which are very Northern French in pronunciation. And then we get to the many careers, like battle pilgrims and shepherds and peasant mediators but the real focus is upon all the different knightly careers from knight errants to super duper grail knights.

   KNIGHTHOOD: This is a nice section detailing how knights are supposed to act. If you read through the whole book you’ll soon realize a lot of knights do not act this way. There’s also a good section about the knights who are questing for the grail and some adventuring ideas that tie into the whole Grail Mythology of this realm. Then we get to a knight’s steed and there are even suggestions on how to get a pegasi or hippogriff as a mount. Incidentally, there is a really nice two page piece of art detailing a huge battle with several knights on their flying steeds. Oh, and let’s not forget Virtues of Knighthood. These are like talents but better and knights are limited in selecting from the list. This is far from D20, people, and that’s a good thing since most people playing this game want something different, right?

   ILL TIDINGS: this is a nice little adventure with a colorful inn that has water flowing into it because the tides are high. There’s some nice getting to know the nobility and in the tradition of WFRP some chaos things to deal with but you can tone this down, as I have done, if you don’t chaos everywhere in your setting. Four pregenerated characters are includes so that your group can jump into things right away.

   Again, this is probably one of the better detailed setting supplements and should be considered if you like the idea of an Arthurian setting of knights who are in a twisted setting where the grail may never be found.

   P.S. At the time of this writing the book is out of stock but Fantasy Flight Games should hopefully be getting in a new batch soon.

   February 28, 2010, 8:22 pm

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