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Thaumatology is an add-on book to Steve Jackson’s Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS.  Thaumatology’s purpose is to expand upon ideas and systems first covered in GURPS Magic.  I first heard about Thaumatology when I started researching ways to change how my gaming group handles magic in our games and discovered Unlimited Mana on the Steve Jackson Forums.

The system was quite different than what we had been using, and I thought it had some real potential.  After a lot of experimenting with Unlimited Mana we decided to stick with the base Magic system, but I read that GURPS would canonize Unlimited Mana in their upcoming book, calling it Threshold Limited  Magic.

I was somewhat dissapointed in the coverage Threshold Limited Magic gets in Thaumatology.  The topic gets a scant 7 pages, but it is covered thoroughly.  While Thaumatology did dissapoint me with Unlimited Mana, I was quite impressed with the breadth and completeness of its coverage of many other Magic modifications (both major and minor), rules variants, and campaign ideas.

The actual book itself is as impressive as all Fourth Edition books have been: bright colors, great artwork, and easy to understand layout.  Like many GURPS books I find myself just browsing Thaumatology casually, rather than reading it front to back, finding new and interesting ideas for our campaigns.

The price is a bit high for my tastes, 40 dollars for a physical copy and 30 dolalrs for a PDF.  You can find the physical copy for less on Amazon and occasionally Ebay though, and I generally prefer a physical copy of my books.  If you use Magic in your game, Thaumatology is a good addition to your gaming library.