Musician, Actor) Herbalist Barber-Surgeon Alchemist Servant Labourer Magic system Mages in 16th and 17th century Europe are seen as practitioners of ancient magical arts. They are not witches although the authorities often regard as such. Mages must keep their identities hidden from the Church and secular authority, and so need to also have a respectable profession. No list of spells is provided, a mage can attempt to cast any spell that is within the areas of magic understood by the character. Mages can specialise, which provides improved capability in some areas or they may choose to study only certain areas and be unable to cast spells unrelated to their area of study. When casting a spell Mages contact the "Maelstrom" to warp reality. The more that reality would need to change in order to fulfil the spell the more difficult the spell is to cast. Spells are graded by the referee on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 (representing events that are impossible) being the most difficult. Inexperienced mages will typically be only able to cast spells of grade 1 or 2 and even the most experienced mages will have difficulty with a spell of grade 5. Failure to successfully cast a spell can be dangerous with the severity of the consequences growing with the grade of the spell. With an optional rule in place, excessive use of magic, particularly in a single area, can cause instabilities in reality. The Living of mage is rare as well as it is outlawed. In Maelstrom, a campaign success is possible without a single player or non-player character mage in the party. Several game sessions might take place between an appearance of a non-player character mage. The game rules allowed the option of playing the entire campaign without any supernatural element, if desired. Reception A review by Graeme Davis Imagine magazine described the game as "overall [...] an interesting and elegantly-designed game. Players of fantasy rpgs will find a host of immensely useful information on 'real' late-Medieval life and society which could be a great help in developing campaign backgrounds, especially for city adventures." References External links Publisher Page DriveThruRPG – PDF sales site with all Maelstrom-related game modules, supplements, and accessories shown Sample images of paper miniatures depicting characters of several livings An interview with Maelstrom author Alexander Scott Fantasy role-playing games Historical role-playing games British role-playing games Role-playing games