I picked this up on Facebook Marketplace. I had a copy in the past, but sold it when I was in grad school. I think I paid now what I sold it for back then, so I guess that is fine.
Authentic Thaumaturgy was written by a professional occultist and high druid, Isaac Bonewits (the only person to get a degree in Magic from UC Berkeley). It is...interesting.
The book is dense and suffers from a strong case of physics-envy. It tries to be a game book, particularly for GURPS, but doesn't really succeed. I get the feeling that the game material, which actually makes the most sense, was written by Steve Jackson.
Back in the early days of the Internet, I talked to Bonewits and asked a little about this book. He was kind of a jerk to be honest. But in his defense, he could have been at the early days of his cancer and that would make anyone cranky. Though I do recall this was the 1990s and he passed in 2010.
Anyway, I have the book back now and hopefully I can mine it for some ideas on my Jackson, IL game or my Occult AD&D one.
6 comments:
I knew Isaac Bonewits and spoke to him about this book on a few occasions. It wasn't a favorite topic of his which is why he likely came off as a jerk. The key to understanding Authentic Thaumaturgy is that the original version was essentially written as a supplement for Chivalry and Sorcery, Isaac's RPG of choice back in the day. Given that context, the dense rules and over reliance on simulating physics makes perfect sense. I don't know how much editing Steve Jackson did for this edition but I don't think it's fair to say that Steve Jackson wrote the game material out of whole cloth but this latest edition has much clearer rules and a cleaner presentation than the previous ones so Steve Jackson likely had a hand in that aspect of it.
Why do you say it's "particularly for GURPS"? It was written before GURPS was even a glimmer in Steve Jackson's eye. Sure, this version uses some of the trade dress of SJG at the time, and there are a few revisions and updates (mostly to reference Magic: The Gathering, actually), but the mechanics aren't related to any particular game system and are substantially the same as the original edition from (The) Chaosium.
There is still some GURPS in this. It is the only playable bits.
Looking through my copy - admittedly, I'm not reading it in-depth - I don't see much other than some minor added editorial commentary that basically just acknowledges GURPS exists. Where are you seeing GURPS-playable content?
The original Authentic Thaumaturgy was essentially written as a supplement to Chivalry and Sorcery which was Isaac Bonewits's RPG of choice back in the day. If you think of it in that context, the dense rules and obsession with simulating physics makes perfect sense. I'm sure the latest version went through an editing pass from Steve Jackson which would explain its similarity to GURPS. BTW I knew Isaac Bonewits in the early aughts and did get to speak to him about this book though it really wasn't a topic that he liked to talk about which might explain why he came off as a jerk when you asked him about it.
I am not 100% sure what we talked about to be honest. But I am willing to grant anyone a bad day. Around the same time I also talked at length to Alison Arngrim (Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie) and she was AWESOME.
Post a Comment