Kabbalah: Mythic Judaism

From Project: Redcap
Kabbalah: Mythic Judaism
Cover illustration for Kabbalah: Mythic Judaism
Product Information
Rules Edition: Fourth
Abbreviation: KMJ
Product Type: Sourcebook
Author(s): David Honigsberg
Adam Bank
Jeremiah Genest
Publisher: Atlas Games
Product Number: AG0255
ISBN: 1-887801-65-0
Release date: 1998
Format: Paperback, 160 pages
Availability: Out of print; PDF specifically disallowed.[1]

Kabbalah: Mythic Judiasm, by David Honigsberg, Adam Bank, and Jeremiah Genest, is a Fourth Edition supplement entirely devoted to Jews in Mythic Europe. The emphasis is on Jewish mysticism and folk magic, including rules for three kinds of Jewish hedge wizard.

Player Reviews

Until about 2005, the original Ars Magica FAQ site solicited reviews of Ars Magica products from the community. The online review submission form is no longer available, but please feel free to edit this page to add your own comments. A synopsis of the survey results for this book is:

FAQ Rating: *** (12 reviews; 0 *, 2 **, 11 ***, 0 ****)

  • Excellently researched, and a beautiful work. However, it very accurately reflects the fact that Judaism's prohibitions against idolatry leave virtually no room to play a devout Jew of any stripe in a standard Saga.
  • An excellent treatment of Mythic Judaism, though the topic is inherently narrow. Profiled NPCs tend to be overpowered.
  • An overly narrow focus for a book, it presents Jewish mysticism, history and culture, but fails to open up to any broader uses.
  • Generally very good ideas, but very hard to introduce to the saga.
  • Excellent!
  • Very complete, but the Kabbalists aren't equal to magi with the rules, contrary to the background.
  • A good and interesting treatment. Great ressource!
  • A wonderful read, which I've never been able to incorporate into any of my campaigns, due to the prohibition on Jews to avoid the main PC class.
  • I have read it twice and incorporated a Jewish section into one of our sagas. The players loved fighting a Golem-gone-bad who had accidentally created an Infernal regio in one of the blocks of the Jewish slums.
  • Highly detailed, flavorful, chocked with medieval-setting stuff, but marginal to the setting.
  • Really interesting. Only flaw is limited applicability in most games.

Related Books

There is no direct equivalent in Fifth Edition that covers Judaism (including Jewish magic) as extensively. Fifth Edition's treatment of Jewish mysticism may be found in Realms of Power: The Divine and is available for free as a preview.

Related Topics

References

  1. In a Dec 29, 2009 post on the official forum, John Nephew wrote: "To be completely honest, we learned that portions of the 4th edition supplement, Kabbalah, which were reprinted in ROP:Divine, were plagiarized. This is why neither Kabbalah nor ROP:D is available in PDF. We won't reprint or sell it in any form until the offending section is rewritten from scratch."