What's A Forge?

Many modpacks include all but the kitchen sink. While the maximalist approach is fun, it overwhelms players new to the community by bombarding them with dozens of mods each with their own progression and utilization. It also tends to inadvertently make the game much easier for experienced players by giving them so many ways to solve any problem (looking at you, All The Mods!).

'What's A Forge?' is for players who have some experience with Minecraft and want to see how modding can change the game without transforming it beyond all recognition. It has three core content mods: 

Thaumcraft by Azanor13

Unlike your grandaddy's enchanting table, Thaumcraft magic allows you to design and cast custom magic spells, build golems to do your bidding, and become warped by your own lust for knowledge. It's a great time! To get started, go mining for some crystals.

Tinker's Construct by mDiyo

Pickaxes are so 2011. Tinker's Construct (often referred to as TCon) comes with all the materials, processing, and workbenches to build your own modular tools. Want to make a rapier with an iron handle and a paper blade? I legally can't stop you! To get started, read the book you spawn with.

Mekanism (and Mekanism Generators) by bradyaidanc

Look out, machines! Mekanism allows you to automate and optimize processes you didn't even know you wanted to. Imagine if hoppers worked in any direction, or if you could (almost) fully automate mining. (Unlike the others, Mekanism does not include a guidebook, but it has a wiki here.)

WAF also includes Just Enough Items (aka JEI, by mezz) so you can find out how to make all this stuff in-game, as well as Mouse Tweaks (YaLTeR) to smooth out inventory management and BetterFps (Guichaguri) to improve performance, and some dependencies. 

I'm working on a wiki with some basic first steps and explanations specifically for this pack; I'll link it here when it's in a less incomplete state.