A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Weekly Wonders – Gem Magic

Weekly Wonders – Gem Magic by Alex Riggs and Joshua Zaback is a role playing game supplement published by Necromancers of the Northwest for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.

This is a seven page PDF which is available from RPGNow for $1.49 but which was purchased at a greatly reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the colour front and rear covers, one page is the front matter and one page is the Open Game License.

The Introduction is a couple of paragraphs long and talk about gems, how in the real world they capture human imagination and how in Pathfinder they are a source of treasure and the occasional wondrous item. However, it also says that, apart from magic items, the primary difference between gems and gold coins is weight. This supplement is intended to make the gem more interesting by creating new spells based around them.

The spells then follow in alphabetical order and there are eleven in total. The lowest spell is first level, the highest ninth, but they tend towards the upper range of spell levels.

Emerald Eyes uses an emerald (although at one point in the description it says ruby) as a scrying method. The caster can see perfectly through the emerald, as long as both are on the same plane.

Gem of Lost Souls uses a black sapphire and fills it with what looks like a soul.

Gem of Sight allows the caster to see the world more clearly through it, including true forms and X-ray vision.

Illuminated Gem causes a gem to emit light. Different gems have different properties to the light; diamonds dispel darkness, emeralds unnerve animals and magical beasts with low intelligence, rubies raise the surrounding temperature and sapphires lower it.

Life Receptacle turns a gem into a storage place for the caster’s soul if they are killed, and means they suffer no negative levels if brought back to life.

Pearl of Desire causes a pearl to emit a light that makes viewers want to possess it.

Prismatic Reflection uses a diamond to create coloured beams like colour spray.

Ruby Lips allows you to hear and speak, including spells with only verbal components, through a ruby.

Sapphire Prison draws a creature into the sapphire.

Transmute Gem transforms one gem into another of the same value, but different type and perhaps appearance.

Treasure Scrying allows the caster to look through it and find treasure.

Weekly Wonders – Gem Magic in Review

The PDF is bookmarked with all the spells and Introduction linked. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two column format and some minor errors were noticed. The layout is colour but there are no illustrations. Presentation is okay.

The supplement, perhaps indirectly, seeks to get around one of the problems with treasure in Pathfinder (and other systems for that matter); namely that most items of treasure are effectively just oddly-shaped and sized gold coins. By directly linking spells to specific gems, these gems will become more valuable to casters with such spells. As the gem components of the spells can often be reused, this saves the spells from being really expensive to cast.

There are some interesting new spells here, although the range in a couple of the spells looks like it might be on the high side. Still, that is unlikely to be a problem in most cases. Weekly Wonders – Gem Magic can be found by clicking here.