Mentalism has long been the most misunderstood magical realm in Rolemaster Standard System. Arguments about the relationship between mentalism and psionics has been raging on the net and in private venues for years now. Essence, being the traditional magical discipline and channeling, the traditional power of clerics and other followers of divine beings, are both firmly entrenched in the minds of players and GMs alike. They are well burned into our imaginations and into our literature, and therefore, easy to grasp, by player and gamemaster alike.

At GenCon this year, Iron Crown Enterprises debuted it's new product, Mentalism Companion. This is the forth product in their series expanding and detailing the separate realms of magic. The first, Arcane Companion, dealt with the ancient and original force of magic. Essence Companion dealt with the magic of traditional mages and illusionists. Channeling Companion expanded the way Rolemaster dealt with priests, clerics, deities and other divine forces. The final magic companion, Mentalism Companion completes this series nicely.

My first reaction upon picking up this book was, "Wow, how many pages is this thing?" The answer, 158 pages, makes this the largest companion yet. Its size is no surprise. Upon leafing through it I began to realize just how ambitious this book really was.

It starts with your typical "What is Mentalism?" section, followed by a treatment of the standard mentalist archetypes. All of this is pretty old hat, though necessary to help unmuddy the mentalism waters. It then launches into a variety of subjects, many of which only loosely connected with mentalism itself.

It seems the authors used this book as a vehicle by which to cram in every rule system they could, dealing with the mind or mental subjects. Acceptable? To me it is, though some tastes may differ. A list of the primary subjects is as follows:

New professions: Very relevant. Every companion seems to need a new slew of professions, and this one adds (or reintroduces) the Seer, Astrologer, Enchanter and Armsmaster. Of all of these, the Armsmaster is by far my favorite, though the other professions will probably appeal to players with a less chivalrous bent. Regardless of your tastes, these professions fill important niches in the spell casting professions, niches that were previously unfilled.

This is followed by training packages, another must for a Rolemaster companion. Of all the work, I found this section the most disappointing (though it reintroduced the houri, an amusing character type). I don't know what I wanted from trainin packages, but this book failed to deliver it. I think it's just that none of the training packages struck my fancy.

Next is the treatment of magical ritual, a subject that is beginning to bore me. It's necessary, however, and it was vehicle for the author's attempt to introduce rules for mental combat. A private conversation with one of the authors revealed that, the published rules are scaled down from those the author submitted, and they are skeletal at best.

The next section was included to satisfy the Internet community. For years now, debates have raged about the nature of illusion in Rolemaster, and many people aren't satisfied with the official stance. This section therefore treats both sides of the argument, allowing gamemasters to use whichever one appeals to them most. It is good that this treatment was placed into print, and I suppose that this book is as good as any.

The next section deals with insanity. Though this might seem out of place at first, mentalist lists are the only real place where insanity is inflicted. This is a necessary addition to Rolemaster. It supports the gritty realism of the game, and I'm glad it was there.

This is followed by the section on Languages and Lore. Now, out of all the sections in this book, this has the least to do with mentalism. It's a good subject, though. I've never been satisfied with the way that any game handled languages, not even Rolemaster. This new treatment of languages, though not the most accurate, is a far cry from anything I've seen. The authors strived for a balance between realism and playability, and I think they found a happy medium.

Since mentalism deals with divination (at least with the professions in this work), the next three sections are dedicated to divination of various sorts. Therefore the book treats diving the past, present and future, helping the GM deal with difficult subject like astrology and the future. These subjects can be difficult for a GM to handle, and though this doesn't set any rules in stone, it tries to give the GM enough information to make an informed decision.

Next, you'll find specific treatments of astrology and tarot. I really felt these sections did nothing to help me with my campaigns, though the information might be a good starting point for creating your own divination systems. It was just too Earth specific to help me much.

For you Robert Jordan fans, I'll bet you'll feel a certain kinship with the authors of this book. Before the final section, consisting of spell lists, you'll find a treatment of dreams and dream travel. I liked the ideas here, but I wanted a lot more. It made me wonder whether the space constraints were cracking the whip on the authors during this section. A good broad treatment of the dream world would have been very nice, even one that we throw out to create our own. The single page on dream worlds simply wasn't enough for me.

My conclusion? This was a great book. It's become a permanent facet of my campaigns. Out of all the things that Rolemaster has to call its own, mentalism is the one that makes Rolemaster the most unique. It's a good thing for the game that this book was written. It takes that aspect of Rolemaster which is most unique and explains it, expands it and helps us make ours. It patches several holes that were left open in the Rolemaster system and does it with style and quality.

If I had to recommend a game, it would always be Rolemaster, and although there have been products in the past that I've felt have fallen short of the quality we've come to expect from ICE, this is not one of them. I couldn't necessarily recommend this book to most people playing other game systems (this isn't true for all Rolemaster books), but if your play Rolemaster, this book is a must.

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