Wizards of the Coast Publications

Each of the following publications includes a rating on a scale of one to four stars, based on a given number of readers' feedback, and some comments. Please note that many of these were given before Atlas Games' acquisition of the line in 1996. If you'd like to add to the reviews, check out the new form, or email the FAQ's maintainer.

WOC1110 Faeries, by John Snead and Sarah Link
FAQ Rating: **** (11 reviews; 0 *, 1 **, 3 ***, 7 ****)

• Even better than the original. Workable rules for 'regio' are a plus.
• A must-have (different from the 1st ed.)
• Best medieval RPG supplement I have
• Wonderful, wonderful book. Can't praise it enough.
• Necessary, and a good read, but the mechanics no longer mesh properly with the later books.
• Does a pretty good job of presenting faeries as alien entities, not demi-humans. Too much and poor fiction for my taste.
• Very useful if you have a fairy element in your game.
• Footnotes in the margins a nice feature.
• Very good take on Fae, dated a little, but generally the flavour of the courts and Faerie is well presented and woven into ME.

WOC0203 Ars Magica Third Edition (see White Wolf)

WOC1120 Houses of Hermes, by Jonathan Tweet and Shannon Appel, Nicole Lindroos Frein, Geoffrey Grabowski, Peter Hentges, Marc Philipp Messner, Naomi Rivkis
FAQ Rating: *** (17 reviews; 0 *, 5 **, 8 ***, 4 ****)

• Essential background.
• Necessary, but not as good as the book it replaces.
• Another disappointing re-issue. Order of Hermes was so much better.
• Necessary if you're going to run in the Order; history, Houses, life in the Order, all the basic Hermetic background.
• Vital to any game that makes heavy use of the Order of Hermes. Why it was not incorporated into the 4th edition I don't know. Gives each House a few pages of treatment, history, concerns and important personages, a sample character and some spells. Apprenticeship and the history of the Order are also looked at. Seemed too short too me.
• I'm not sure it is worth buying if you have Order of Hermes.
• It'd be an improvement over Order of Hermes, if not for the heavy cuts made in the material, and the elimination of the Tribunal information. Older magi are interesting, and the original was of such high quality that this one is excellent, as well. Artwork is inconsistent -- there are some beautiful Liz Danforth portraits, and there are some absolutely awful other drawings whose inclusion one must really boggle at.
• Dated, but a little relevant.

WOC1150 Lion of the North: The Loch Leglean Tribunal, by Roderick Robertson
FAQ Rating: *** (17 reviews; 0 *, 3 **, 12 ***, 2 ****)

• Well-written, interesting, and informative. It's possibly of limited usefulness, though the Pictish wizards (Gruagach) are worth taking a look at. I hate the Gruagach and think the overall power level is way over the top.
• One of the better tribunal books, but has far too little information about the islands of the tribunal, and has very little connection to the local mythologies.
• Good for not presenting Scots as kilt-wearing Highlanders. Terrible organization.
• My biggest complaint about it was the exclusion of maps.
• Fine resource material, but lacking flavor somehow.
• Good look at scotland, hedge mage details.