This review originally appeared in The Digital Front Podcast - Episode 05 and Purple Duck Productions. http://thedigitalfront.com/2007/10/18/tdf_05/ http://purpleduckcreations.blogspot.com/2007/10/digital-front-review-corner-wizards-and.html

Review - Wizards and Wiseguys by Mark Gedak

Wizards and Wiseguys is a 23 page PDF from Rpgobjects written by Mike Lafferty. It is an alternate history setting based on the modern and fantasy SRDs. It is available from rpgobjects.com, rpgnow.com and drivethrurpg.com for $3.95. The download has both a print-friendly (portrait) and screen version (in landscape with colour elements) and both are extensively bookmarked.

This product is divided into two main section; the first 17 or so pages look at the changes to the world's history as well as providing a number of adventure hooks, and the last 6 or so pages of mechanics suggestions and non-player characters. The main premise of the product is that the 1908 Tunguska event/explosion was actually the result a magical explosion that exposed the real world to the world of Shadow (as similar in Urban Arcana). Magic is reborn into the modern world and the product looks at how it effects events during 1908-1912 (pre-WWI), 1912-1928 (WWI), 1918-1920 (the Dragon war), 1920's (roaring 20's and prohibition). The influence of magic across these times is gradual so that major events still occur but they are flavoured by the magic that now exists. Each section of time has a couple pages of history, GM notes on running that section and three or four adventure hooks.

During the emergence of magic has profound effects on the political climate of the world with China collapsing into anarchy, Britain repelled form some of its colonies and several areas that have long sought independence achieve it with magic. The use of magic is criminalized in several areas as magic is seen as the work of devils or used by criminals. During the great war, German mystics manipulate Mexican officials into invading America to keep them out of the European theatre. Allies and Axis powers are divided on the sorts of magic they wield. Griffins and wyvern are employed as mounts in the war and clay golems are used to assist the allied ground troops. As the Kaiser's army began to fall, he negotiated with 4 red dragons to lend combat support. During the dragon war era, warfare focus on man versus the creatures of shadow. With the dragons defeated, society enters the 20s and America enters prohibition. Overall the history is imaginative yet plausible so that all of history veers of the tracks.

The rule section is kind of a mixed bag. This campaign is in someways similar to Urban Arcana but instead of using the Modern SRD for magic and monsters it uses the Fantasy SRD. Much of the rules information is done in the form of a suggested list of changes. It lists classes and skills to exclude from the modern ruleset and suggests changes to some of the modern spells. I like the inclusion of rune charms (to resist magical attacks) and rune slugs (to harm creatures of magic). I really dislike that the fantasy spell list is being used instead of the modern one. I really liked the concept that all high magic could only be accomplished through ritual in modern. As this is written, a 12th level character (3rd/9th mage) has access to 9th level DnD spells; this significantly ramps up the power available in a d20 modern campaign (this also would be 5 levels before a wizard in a magic-rich fantasy world would achieve such skill). There are a number of caveats about spell level and campaign year and school availability. The product closes with npc stats for main characters from the history.

There are a couple of issues of consistency in the text such as where both the allies and axis have the upper hand when it comes to transmutation magic. The setting is really interesting but I'm not comfortable with how the mechanics are developed. By providing a short list of changes, not providing advanced classes for the many organizations listed in the history and trying to integrate the fantasy SRD it just seems like the product leaves all the heavy lifting to the GM. I think if I choose to run a Wizards and Wiseguys campaign I would drop all reference to the fantasy SRD and still with the rules for magic and magic items in the Modern Arcana book or SRD.

Wizards & Wiseguys is a Modern d20 campaign setting published by RPGObjects. The zipped file is just under three megabytes and contains both a full version of the product and a printer-friendly PDF. While there is no table of contents, both PDFs are fully bookmarked.

The full version of the file is fairly replete with graphic design. Quite a few black and white images are given to flesh out things such as the clay golem military units, or the griffon riders. More than that though, every page has the text set within a grey box, which has a red border, with fairly ornate designs on the corners. The printer-friendly version does away with the red borders and grey boxes, but retains the actual pictures, so it's not as printer-friendly as it could have been.

An Earth setting, Wizards & Wiseguys has the Tunguska blast of 1908 being the trigger that reconnects our world with Faerie, unleashing both magic and fantastic creatures back into the world. Being roughly twenty pages long, the bulk of the product gives itself over to fluff describing how history is altered by this. The book covers this in three major sections: prior to World War I, the Great War itself, and the 1920's. Naturally, the further one goes, the more things change, from how World War I ended up morphing into the Dragon War, or how the Prohibition Era in America also includes the prohibition of magic.

After the gazetteer of the world ends, the product lends itself more closely to rules mechanics. After some guidelines on what classes, skills, how magic works, and spells shouldn't be allowed, it focuses on presenting a smattering of new magic items, vehicles, and NPCs.

Altogether, Wizards & Wiseguys is a good book, but also a sparse one. Trying to squeeze almost twenty years of altered history into twenty pages means that you're given broad generalizations more than in-depth coverage of any particular time or place. Add into that the necessity of new and altered crunch, and this product just feels way too short. Between a fluff section that felt like it was desperately trying to cover at least the major points while it could, and a crunch section that felt almost like an afterthought, Wizards & Wiseguys is a good short product, but could have been a great long one. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The altered history for Earth after magic comes back is fascinating, and draws you in quite well. The presence of the practical problems magic causes is very well done, covering everything from crime, to how different religions act when all of their holiest priests are able to gain essentially the same suite of divine spells. Some of the new crunch, such as an incantation to make clay golems, is also quite well done.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: This book felt way too short! So much more could have been done, and it's obvious in how the book runs all over the place trying to cover both the history, and the feel of living in a magical Earth, and trying to squeeze in new crunch also. This is true to a degree that it seems to undermine the presentation, making it almost painfully thin. Also, the printer-friendly version could have been friendlier.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>