Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying - Realms of Sorcery (ISBN 1844162680)

Good starting point but could be better.:
The new RoS by Black Library I would rate a 3.5 (okay round to 4) stars. It provides some nice information on magic in the empire and the general feeling of common folk. I enjoyed the information of a college apprentice and how they progress to a Magister. Loved the new careers provide to the Hedge Mage (witch/warlock) making that a viable option. Also Happy that the spell list were expanded a bit. Was happy to see new rules on Creating Potions and Familiars. Was sort of happy with information on creating ritual magic and the dwarf runesmiths (including the careers). I was very disappointed in the lack of rituals and even more disappointed in the complete lack of lesser spells. As of now the only official lesser magic spells are those found in the core rulebook. I was hoping for some information on High Magic (since they had runesmiths), and the possibility of creating magic items and a longer magic items list. After all, there are two wizard careers (Master and Lord) that require the PC to obtain magic items. You'd think that if they don't do much magic items they would put in how one can go about making them (aside from the weapon/armor of runesmith). Instead of this informaiton, there is an adventure printed at the end of the book. I was a bit angry at this as the adventure took up very needed space on magic rules. Overall, I do recommend this book and if you plan to do any magic in V2 is a must have along the core rulebook.

It's good...but:
This is a very good book...in fact how anyone could run a Warhammer FRP campaign without it is a very good question I have to say,but despite it's exhaustive covering of sorcery and how it is seen in the Old World it has one very large glaring fault... The book repeats itself...alot...it will change the wording,but there is only so many times that one can read that people in the Old World view sorcery as evil in so many different words before it has become redundant. I truly feel that much of the room within the book could have been devoted to more spells,more information on how the various factions within the Old World view elves and other magic-users that moved about them,and far more information upon the individual colleges. Beyond this the book is quite good...the layout is good and like all other Warhmmer FRP books that have come about so far it's a treat to read it.

Not Bad, but....:
Well here is Green Ronin's source book for magic in the Warhammer world. It definitely adds to the material covered in the basic WFRP players guide but I was a bit disappointed. I have often felt that WFRP v. 1 needed some good "role-play" spells. Small spells that can make a Wizard far more useful but not devastating, like the old D & D cantrips. They're not here. Magic has, of course, become unpredictable because of the "winds of magic", so spells have become more powerful. (Like Warhammer wizards needed more powerful spells.) GM's beware; you may be snapping pencils trying to match your player group with adversaries. If your wizard makes his roles he may decimate your monsters quickly, and if he doesn't your group may be spending a lot of fate points. Still, there is some good background and a nice diversity of spells. A good addition to this vastly improved roleplay system. WFRP v.2 is far superior to ANY of the editions of D & D. Play it and you'll love it.

A flat 3 stars:
Needed for the sheer number of spells added. Spells, Runesmith careers, expanded Chaos Manifestation tables, Arcane marks, familiars give the book a 3. Cons: - Font is too large. C'mon.. The font and spacing of material reminds me of a padded research paper by a junior in high school. Actual page count is WAY lower (less than 200 pages), if you put this in context. - too much fluff. I like fluff as much as the next guy, but it gets a little "thick" at times. It's not that bad, but some of it seems contrived at times. - the adventure included. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying it doesn't belong here. It's taking up space that could have been used for more content. Put 30 page adventures (yes it's that long) in a new book akin to The Restless Dead. Please.