Advanced Sorcery for Magic World is in the Wild

With no particular announcement (yet), Magic World's first sourcebook Advanced Sorcery has arrived on scene. You can find it in print here and in PDF at a nice discount here. I just ordered the physical book (along with a bunch of other stuff from Chaosium....hoping they have gotten their order turn-around times and customer service problems I was subjected to last year straightened out) and nabbed the PDF as well for good measure. First impressions: it doesn't look like a lot of retooled older content (though if you're in the "I don't like old Chaosium art" this book will live up to your expectations), but based on the front page credits most of this comes from other older sources, some as far back as Runequest 3rd edition's Vikings (Runes), The Bronze Grimorie, and others.

Advanced Sorcery has sections on:

Advanced Sorcery - more new spells for the core sorcery system from Magic World.

Deep Magic - this looks like a freeform sort of "combine elements to create spells" magic system...must read more on it to see what it is and how it works.

The Summoner's Arts - lots of new stuff on summoning demons.  Lots and lots of content on summoning the weirdest randomly generated demons you could ever hope for, as well as elementals.

Rune Magic - using magical transcriptions to create spell effects. A familiar concept handled a tiny bit differently here than in other BRP systems. A typo? The summary calls them glyphs, but the ToC and chapter label them runes. Hmmm.

Necromancy - my favorite topic, and a look at the nitty gritty of making the undead, as well as details on the undead themselves. This will get a lot of attention in my games.

Arete - a convergence of mystical superhumanism and incredible skill scores; when you get 100 or better in skills, your arete lets you do fantastical things. A really interesting idea and alternative to what has only been touched on in Legend's legendary abilities, previously.

Herbalism - a system for adding herbal concoctions to the game.

I just got this book, so what is above is based on a quick once-through. A formal review to come! I can safely say that it's time to pull out Magic World for a new campaign...just in time, too, since I've got some serious burnout going on in my Wednesday Pathfinder games. Pathfinder is a hard game to play when other, better systems like Magic World and 13th Age beckon....