Dry Land: Empires of the Dragon Sands

Our talons grasp the sands tightly, letting the grains flow and leaving behind only the stones-the precious stones. Diamonds founded the Empire and diamonds rule the Empire. Through wealth and strength we hold fast all that we claim. No other has ever forced us out, and none ever will. As is our right, we hold what is precious in our grasp.

The Dragon Sands--a large desert far south of Bluffside-holds the ruins of empires dating back from before the Age of Ice. Ruled by a god-like emperor from the Diamond Throne, the Dragori Empire holds most of the Dragon Sands in its grasping talons. Adventurous, independent tribes live as nomads in the deepest wastes. Isolated settlements eke out marginal existences just out of reach of the Empire. Badlands border the Dragon Sands to the north, a desolate refuge for criminals from the north and south.

Dry Land, Empires of the Dragon Sands, goes a bit farther than Bluffside did and perhaps suffers a little for it.

The book is broken up into four main chapters, No Man's Land, Granite Kingdom, Burning Sands, and Dragori Empire. The first section is a strip of badlands where a few locations thrive in the harsh extremes. The local detailed here, Deep End, has several POI (Places of Interest) noted with the characters and ideas on how to use this section in a campaign. One of the best things about it is that it's supposed to be a place where you go when you need to get away from civilization. Perfect setup for getting characters to go there as either the hunters of bandits and other criminals, or the hunted, fleeing from Bluffside or another local.

The second chapter, Granite Kingdom, takes the dwarves and makes them masters of ceramics. Now this struck me as a really cool idea. They still have some strange inventions like water canons that are powered by tanks filled during rainy days and aren't tied into the survival of the dwarves. The whole concept takes the metal working heritage of dwarves and puts it in a new light. Not as impressive as the Granite Kingdoms though are the Clay Fortress, the humans who've fled from the Dragori and emulate the dwarves through the mastery of clay.

Burning Sands, the third chapter, gives us a little more history of the land. Once field with “heavy heads of grain”, the land was destroyed in a war when members of the genie race fought back the Dragori invaders. During said war, they destroyed the land, leaving it tied to the elemental planes of fire and air. This has some game effects too. For example, you don't want to summon a water elemental to this place. Like the previous chapters, POIs are noted and some game ideas sprint right to mind with the Diamond Springs Oasis. Could players be smart enough to rob such a heavily armed and fortified place or would they seek to find their own diamond mind in this harsh terrain? What about the ruins of Tashmenir, former stronghold of the Dragori?

One of the largest chapters in the book, Dragori Empire, provides details on the history and heritage of the Dragori. Endikarr, the capital of the Dragori Empire and home to the Diamond Throne, is mapped and detailed with over thirty POIs. One of the things that sets the Dragori from other races in most standard campaigns isn't really their dragonic heritage, but rather, their lifestyle. While they are a race of conquerors, they do know how to use diplomacy. They have secrets, but many of them, like the Claws of the Emperor, are well known. They have slaves, but no one is born a slave and you don't stay a slave. It makes an interesting contrast to a race like the drow that's basically evil to the core and provides the GM with a model of how to use them as both players, as well as heroic or villainous NPCs

Much like Freeport, there are a ton of Appendix listings here. The first one gives the stat blocks for all the NPCs. NO background here mind you, but you do get full stats and the location so when looking over say Boroc Hammerfist, you see GK2, which means Granite Kingdom 2 POI.

Appendix Two covers the hazards of the Dry Sands and includes rules for pits, the cold weather of the desert at night, dehydration, tainted water, quicksand and other hazards. GMs now have a ton of options to insure that any trip to a desert isn't the same old same old. Tying into this is Appendix Three, Arid Regions, that showcases the differences between sandy deserts, cactus deserts, and chemical deserts.

Those who've been reading through the review and were excited by the mention of genies in a desert setting may be wondering, is that nod towards Arabian Adventures taken any further? Yes. Appendix Four covers Classes and the first one is the Bisaakir Zaari, a spellcaster who gets spells from his Genie Ally. They don't get as many spells as a standard spellcaster and have to make spellcaster level check when requesting spells. It's a neat little subsystem and should be easy to integrate into almost any setting where the GM
wants to add some spice or variety to his campaign.

Those not interested in the Bisaakir may want to review the Shaman, a spellcaster who allies with Spirits, while others may want to check out the prestige classes like the Badlands Bandit and the Claws of the Emperor. The Digger reminds me a little too much of the other PrCs that specialize in finding out loot like the Explorer or Seeker but hey, I know others who always want another option, another variant. Other PrCs help round out the culture of the area like the Halfling Caravan Runner, Nevae Wanderer, Priest of the Eternal Dragon, Prophet of the Sands, Sand Dancer, Sand Rider, Serpent Wardens, Wise and Wyrmrider.

Other game mechanics come into play in Appendix 5, Creatures. The Granite Kingdom specializes in crafting Clay Soldiers to help augment their military force while in the deserts, Sand Elementals stalk the dunes even as true Mummies guard their ancient homes.

Remember the Water Cannons? They're statted out in Appendix Six with other equipment that can help a character survive the Dry Lands.

Appendix Seven covers Feats. The feats range from effecting the classes and races here like Spirit Affinity, allowing the user to bind more hit dice in spirits, perfect for the Shaman Class, to more general like Channel Ki Skin where you spend a stunning attack and get damage resistance of 1.

A quick run down of Appendix eight provides terms from the Dragon Sands. Useful for getting the flavor of the setting down. A few examples of how people speak in normal words and then with the material here would've been helpful. Then again, I'd kill to avoid overuse of language such as with Planescape.

Appendix nine covers the magic items in the setting. The most powerful of these of course is the Diamond Throne. It grants the user a lot of abilities like +10 deflection bonus to AC, Spell Resistance 30, and many, many other cool abilities. The bad thing is that if the Dragon Emperor dies, he becomes one with the throne and the hundreds of previous Emperors and can't be raised by any method.

The Dragori finally get their racial stats written out in Appendix ten, Races. There are three subraces, the Sah, Nen, and Fehr, (Sorcerer, Fighter, and Monk based on racial modifiers and culture). The Hukhamet, humanoid canids, are also statted out.

I know, you're still reading this review going, “Man, what else is there?” How about spells and skills? Neither one takes up a lot of space, but both are useful for the setting. You get two new domains, Dragon and Sand, and a whole new list of Summoning Lists for sand creatures.

A nice index and bibliography helps wrap up the book. One thing I thought was missing was a reference to Al Qadim under the Bibliography and some movies and other good stuff to get a feel for the setting. The bibliography is more of a resource style listing of books.

One thing I didn't like was having the new races at the back of the book. They're mentioned in the setting. They're mentioned in the prestige classes. In short, they're all over and having them be done last is a little aggravating as I've got to flip to the back of the book whenever I want to reference them.

The main problem people will have with the book though is that this is a huge area. It's not a single city or a village or something you can just add to a setting without too much rework. It's a vast desert with a lot of material in it that'll need some time and thought to integrate into a campaign.

I myself find that while the Empire was cool and the race fills some niches, I actually wanted more information on the Granite Kingdoms. I wanted Maps, specialized weapons, and all sorts of material focused on those dwarves who've forsaken iron and replaced it with ceramics.

The layout is standard, two columns. Art ranges from okay to great. Map quality is good, but there aren't enough maps. The separation of NPCs from the main body makes it easy to find what you're looking for, but adds the task of having to look in the first place. NPC's of a certain race have racial traits that are repeated each time the character is written up, making for some wasted space but complete entries. One thing I was disappointed in, is that there was no pull out map.

All in all, the Dry Land will present the GM with a lot of options and will require several readings to decide how best to integrate it into their own campaigns. Some may want to take the classes whole cloth while others may wish to introduce the new races, spells, magic items or feats. No matter what you're looking for, chances are Dry Land has something for you.

"Special Thanks to: My mother and brother, for making fun of my stories early in life and thus instilling a bitter determination to one day see my writing in print just so I could stuff the hardcopy down their throats."

Dry Land: Empires of the Dragon Sands has plenty of bite in it – and not just in the opening remarks above either. Dry Land supplements the Bluffside Campaign setting, specifically it covers the dragon sands that dominate the southern part of the Great Northern Continent. The Dragori have an embassy in the city of Bluffside.

A great thing about Dry Land is that it doesn’t have to be in the Bluffside setting. You certainly don’t need any Bluffside book. This is because of the desert; it’s a geographical barrier, a natural separator and it could be anywhere in any campaign world. The Dragori Empire is penned in on the southern edge of the continent and so that could be anywhere too – it could be any strange empire on the wrong side of the desert. The book is full of generic desert rules as well, useful appendices which contain the likes of "Hazards of the Dry Land" in the form of bad water, dust, sandstorms, geysers and sinkholes.

Another great thing about Dry Land is that it’s a valuable addition to the Bluffside setting. If you’re playing in the campaign world then there are some really useful bits and pieces; not just the Dragori Empire but also the likes of an important Dwarven creation myth and a two-page glossary of in-game translations.

The 144-paged book ends at page 52; that is to say that after page 52 the appendices (and a usefully long index) rule. There’s a lot crammed into the book, the text density is good, the text size is small and most of the book is in a three-column layout (jumping back to two columns when there’s sit-down-and-read reading to be done). Dry Land manages to do three-columns without running into the unsightly mess that can occur when two columns try and wrap around the same illustration. The illustration quality is generally good but there are one or two pictures with a chunkier feel than suits my tastes.

There are four main sections to the Dragon Sands: No Man’s Land, the Granite Kingdom, the Burning Sands and the Dragori Empire. These four geographical regions are the subjects of the book’s four chapters. The chapters all use a similar format. We get going with a history of the area (dating back to before the last Ice Age in some cases) and then move on to look at the land and the people. I suspect the Places of Interest section in each chapter is the reason why the three-column formatting was picked, here the book tours through places of interest, offering up a quick paragraph of information, a reference key and the names of any notable NPCs. The key ties the place of interest to the NPCs in the first appendix. The appendix in question isn’t ordered by key though and it is much easier to just look for the NPCs by name.

It’s really use to bring "Foul Locales" another Mystic Eye series to mind while reading through the Places of Interest in Dry Land. While the locations suit Bluffside well enough, or rather the Dragon Lands, they’re just as good in almost any other desert. Quite a few of the places of interest have a couple of plot hooks to entertain and inspire GMs.

If I had to pick a black spot in the Dry Land it would be Appendix One. The first appendix is the dumping ground for all the NPC stat blocks. Stat blocks are the sort of thing that I like to see in a dumping ground because it makes them easy to flick past. The appendix is order by (first) name and not location key, although it does mention the location key. NPCs relegated to stat blocks rarely need their stats in the games I play in – but if I were prone to playing with a bunch of rogue characters always on the look out for pockets to pick then perhaps that would be different.

Whereas I don’t think I’ll use Appendix One much I think I’ll use Appendix Two often. Becky Glenn, author, has put together three pages (and this is in the small print, three column, tightly packed text) of desert hazards and they’re the sort of hazards that are good for deserts around the megaverse. Unstable surfaces, sunblinding and dehydration are some non-magical hazards and the likes of native elementals and singing sands are magical ones.

Way back when I was still at school I chopped up a second hand atlas to cut out colour pictures of different types of deserts. I wanted to show my players that there’s much more to a desert than just rolling sand dunes. Arid Regions, the third appendix, stirs those memories. In fact, for all I know, the black and white photographs of different types of desert in this appendix came from a chopped up atlas.

Appendix Four has the book return to roads travelled more often by D&D books - new Classes. The Bisaakir Zaari are characters who serve genies or demons. They’re a fully-fledged 20 level core class. It’s actually a rather good idea for a core class, an arcane version of the cleric. At least, I think they’re arcane, they use the Wizard / Sorcerer table. I’m not so sure as to whether the spirit blessed Shaman cast arcane or divine spells. The Shaman is another 20 level core class. There’s a 5 level Slave NPC class. Prestige classes include the Badlands Bandit, Claws of the Emperor, Digger, Halfling Caravan Runner, Nevae Wanderer, Priest of the Eternal Dragon, Prophet of the Sands, Sand Dancer, Sand Rider, Serpent Wardens, The Wise and Wyrmrider. That’s twelve prestige classes, many of which are fully 10 levels. Dry Land has as many PrCs as some Prestige Class only specialist supplements have.

There are new creatures too; creatures suited to the desert and therefore creatures that are particularly hard to find in almost any other supplement. The Sand Creature template enables GMs to expand their desert suited creature lists as far as they like. The Spirit template is a real asset if you’re using the spirit needy Shaman class. There’s a True Mummy template. Heh. Every culture thinks their mummies are the true mummies.

Equipment and new feats (about 24 of them) each have a chapter to themselves. As do new magic items, races (such as the dragori – which Bluffside players will lap up) and new spells. Tucked in the middle of these last few appendices is a glossary translation of in-game language and I love things like that. GMs should be able to enhance the flavour of their game by dipping into obscure jargon and phrases for exotic NPCs and players should be allowed to build up a folder full of notes, translations and runes.

Dry Land: Empires of the Dragon Sands is just great value for money. At $22.99 for 144 pages it would be doing well but I’d compare the content to a 180-paged or even 200-paged book. Deserts should be truly terrifying places, characters should try and steer clear of deserts out of respect and rightful fear and not because the GM doesn’t have any material (or clue) for the region. Dry Land ensures deserts are the geographical monster that they should be and the book serves as a strong addition to the Bluffside campaign.

* This Empires of the Dragon Sands review was first published at GameWyrd.

By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack

Sizing Up the Target
Dry Land: Empires of the Dragon Sands is a supplement for Mystic Eye Games’ Bluffside Campaign Setting, under the Thunderhead Games property license. This 144-page softcover includes an 18 x 24 pull-out map and is penned by Becky Glenn, with assistance from Matt Mosher and Charles Plemons III. The beautiful cover art is by the immensely talented Storn Cook , and the equally impressive interior artwork is by Ben McSweeney, RB Hall, Mike May, Brandt Peters, Shane Coppage, Brad McDevitt, and Tamara Pressman. The work retails for $22.99.

First Blood
The Dragon Sands are a region of desert located far south of the City of Bluffside. It is an arid, hot locale where all who live are considered to dwell beneath the banner of the Dragori Empire, who inhabit the as yet fertile river valleys far to the south, their presence maintained through powerful magic. And to the north, No Man’s Land, a dangerous land of sulfurous fumaroles, salty marshes, and boiling calderas.

Dry Land is Becky’s first foray as an author, though she has contributed to other works, including Bluffside, City on the Edge, Foul Locales: Beyond the Walls, and Interludes: Brief Expeditions to Bluffside (all from Mystic Eye Games). Charles Plemons, on the other hand, has contributed to a number of works, including authoring Mystic Eye Games’ Raw Recruits for DRAGONSTAR, Creature Collection II: Dark Menagerie (Sword & Sorcery Studios), Foul Locales: Urban Blight (Mystic Eye Games), and Forged in Magic (Paradigm Concepts). Matt Mosher has contributed to a number of Mystic Eye Games publications, as well as edited a handful of articles for Gaming Frontiers magazine.

The Dragon Sands are divided into four major geographical zones; No Man’s Land, the Granite Kingdom, the Burning Sands, and the Dragori Empire. Each of these areas is given its own chapter and these comprise the four chapters of the book. This is followed by 12 appendices, the first of which is huge, easily comprising as much space as the first four chapters combined. In all, there is a lot of material here and I’ll go into a little more detail below, to insure I don’t overlook anything.

The four chapters of the book are, as mentioned above, devoted to the geographical regions of the Dry Land. A brief overview is followed by a history of the region, some notes about the land itself, details on the inhabitants, and finally, some points of interest. This portion of the book is sure to appeal to those seeking fluff and background material. You won’t find much in the way of game mechanics here, as all of the NPCs are stated out in Appendix One. Where necessary, an NPC’s gender, class, race, level, and hit points are provided in a small block of text, but aside from that and the occasional price list or town block, there is nothing here to detract from the reading. Adventure hooks have also been thoughtfully provided at certain locales.

Appendix One provides stats for all of the NPCs mentioned elsewhere in the book. They are presented in alphabetical order by name, in conventional stat block format, and keyed to correspond to their location. The nice thing about this section is that the NPCs are fully prepared. All too often in adventures and sourcebooks, an NPC will be presented only partially complete, missing spells, equipment, or other such details. Not so here. Every NPC described in this section is fully equipped, has all prepared spells listed, and is ready to run. This is a tremendous time-saver for the GM and I’m glad it wasn’t overlooked. It should be noted that a few of the NPCs use the psionic classes from the Psionics Handbook, but they are relatively few and shouldn’t cause too much difficulty if this resource is not available (the information in the SRD can easily substitute). Likewise, a few of the NPCs have items described in other Thunderhead Game products, but these can be exchanged or ignored if these products are not available. Happily, they are indicated as to in which product they can be found.

Appendices Two and Three actually could have been lumped together. The first describes the various hazards of the Dry Land, such as dehydration, cold, sandstorms, and the like. Where some of this is repeated from the SRD (and Core Rulebook II), much of it is new material that will be very useful to DMs running campaigns set in desert environments, regardless of whether they use the rest of this material or not. I can’t recommend purchasing this sourcebook for this alone, but I could see this section made into a free PDF download. I know a lot of people who would love to have a copy of this appendix. Appendix Three provides some information on real-world and fantastic deserts and is largely flavor text that might be of use to the DM when describing some of the sights the characters witness while lost in the sands and trying to survive.

Appendix Four is chock-full of new classes, both core classes and prestige classes. There is no separation between the two, though they are not mixed together and it’s fairly easy to tell where the core classes let off and the prestige classes begin. The three optional core classes are the bisaakir zaari, the shaman, and the slave. To anyone familiar with the 2nd edition classic AL-QADIM Campaign Setting, the bisaakir zaari will be very familiar. The spells of the bisaakir zaari are granted by their relationship with a genie ally. When the character prepares his spells, he sends his ally to the elemental planes to retrieve them. The shaman, on the other hand, communes with the spirits and gain their spells through totems. Different totems provide different spells and abilities to the shaman. Finally, there is the slave, an NPC character class. The slave is essentially little more than a placeholder class and seems to serve no real purpose beyond background flavor.

The new prestige classes are the Badlands Bandit (a highwayman who makes No Man’s Land his home), the Claws of the Emperor (an elite dragori warrior), the Digger (think Indiana Jones in D&D), the Halfling Caravan Runner (a caravan scout), the Nevae Wanderer (a member of a race described in Bluffside: City on the Edge that has found their way to the Dry Land), the Priest of the Eternal Dragon (a member of a secret clerical sect), the Prophet of the Sands (a madman that wanders the sands, offering prophecy), the Sand Dancer (scout, spy, and troubleshooter for nomad tribes), the Sand Rider (a mounted warrior of the sandy desert), the Serpent Warden (guardian of the Seven Sacred Rivers of the Dragori Empire), the Wise (a communal elder whose opinion is greatly respected), and the Wyrmrider (trained to ride the dune wyrms as mounts). All are well-balanced, presented in the accepted format established in Core Rulebooks I and II, and serve to bring a lot of flavor to the setting. If I were running a campaign set in an Arabian-style setting, I could scarcely do better than to pick up a copy of this work.

Appendix Five introduces the creatures of the Dry Lands. Ten new monsters and three new templates are provided. The monsters are largely what one would expect to find in such a setting and are, for the most part, well-done. I did find the templates interesting, though, particularly the sand creature (a creature of living sand, what else?) and the true mummy template (a mummy that is very nearly equal to a lich in power). Two encounter listings (warm and temperate deserts) provide DMs with a sampling of creatures that call the desert home (drawn from this work and the SRD).

Appendix Six is a very short look at some of the unique equipment used by the people of the Dry Land. It’s so short, in fact, that I feel it really should have been either fleshed out more or else tossed in with Appendix Nine: Magical Items. Alone, it takes up barely half a page. Perhaps some of the equipment described in Interludes: Sands of Pain (also set in the Dry Land) could have been repeated here to help fluff up the section a little.

Appendix Seven presents two dozen new feats designed for the Dry Land setting. These are presented in the same style as set out in Core Rulebook I and seem to be balanced. There are a lot of Ki-related feats, drawing on the Asian concept of internal energies used to achieve amazing feats. While there’s nothing wrong with this, I find it interesting in a setting that is mostly Middle Eastern in nature.

Appendix Eight is a primer in the language of the Dry Land. There’s not a lot of detail here and I have to say that I would like to have seen an alphabet, at the very least, but there’s enough that you can give your campaign the right flavor by interjecting a few choice words from the lexicon. This is especially good is the characters are strangers to the Dry Land. Just don’t expect any lessons on grammar and sentence construction. This is a sourcebook, not a dictionary.

Appendix Nine reveals the secrets of a few of the magical items of the Dry Land. Unfortunately, most often the characters will be on the receiving end of these items, but that’s fine too. The selection is rather limited, with five new items and two artifacts described, including the fabulous diamond throne.

Appendix Ten presents the dragori race and the hukhamet race of jackal-like humanoids. The dragori have previously appeared in Bluffside: City on the Edge and the write-up is presented again and corrected here. A few of the NPCs in Appendix One are of races not described here (presumably found in Bluffside) and I felt a little slighted that they weren’t repeated, but enough information is provided in the NPC appendix that DMs shouldn’t have any problems.

Appendix Eleven gives DMs and players a handful of new spells (and two new domains: Dragon and Sand) for the setting. Not much needs to be said about this section, except to note the spell called walking on sunshine. It does exactly what it sounds like, but I can just see play grinding to a halt the first time a player uses it and the entire group breaks out in song.

Appendix Twelve is another of the short-and-sweet half-pagers that could have been tacked on to Appendix Seven or some such and given more space for something else. It describes two new Craft subskills and a new way to use the Alchemy skill (creating mummies). Following this is a map of the capitol city of Endikarr and a pretty detailed index and that rounds out the book.

Critical Hits
On the whole, there is very little not to like about Dry Land: Empires of the Dragon Sands. Most everything in the books stays right on topic and enhances the flavor and feel of the setting. The formatting of game mechanics follows the standards set by Wizards of the Coast and game balance seems to have been a major issue as everything looks to be well-balanced.

Personally, I think what I like best is they way that the NPCs are confined to a separate section rather than being interposed with the flavor text. If trouble starts, it does mean I have to look up the appropriate set of stats, but it’s not that difficult, and it doesn’t detract from the feel by having a big stat block right in the middle of the text. Beyond that, it is obvious that a lot of work went into the Dry Land setting and it really shows through. The blend of Arabic and Egyptian styles, myth, and legend comes together with a perfect touch of fantasy to provide a wonderfully diverse and exciting campaign setting for which to adventure in.

Critical Misses
If anything, I feel that it wasn’t quite detailed enough. A much as has been packed into this book, I can see places where they might have gone a bit further, especially if Dry Land describes only one small part of an entire campaign world. An sampling of the alphabet would have added immensely to the language section, and I’d like to have seen more monsters, spells, equipment, and magical items. Some of the races represented among the NPCs really should have been included, and the information on deserts in Appendix Three is really nothing I couldn’t look up on the Net for myself (though I thought Appendix Two was a great addition and really needs to be offered as a free PDF download!).

Coup de Grace
I like exotic settings for my campaign. That’s why I have a copy of Oriental Adventures, Nyambe, and nearly all of Avalanche Press’ “historical” works in my gaming library. When Al-QADIM was first released for 2nd edition, I was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to begin using it in my campaign. I’ve always been fascinated by the tales of the Arabian Nights and Dry Land has given me added appreciation for it. This is not a fantasy Arabia, in the way that Nyambe is not a fantasy Africa; this is a part of a larger whole, but easily removed and dropped into your own campaign setting (which is what I intend to do with it).

If you enjoyed AL-QADIM or if you are looking for a desert area for your campaign, you should consider Dry Land: Empires of the Dragon Sands, even if you’ve never heard of Bluffside (I hadn’t). It fits nicely into that campaign, but it also serves as a fine stand-alone. DMs will see a lot more use from it than players will, but that doesn’t mean that both can’t benefit from it, particularly if the characters hail from the Dragon Sands region. For a new realm of adventure, it’s certainly worth the price. Most everything that is not flavoring has been designated Open Game Context (about 75% of the book).

To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.

Dry Lands: Empire of the Dragon Sands

Dry Lands: Empire of the Dragon Sands is a setting supplement for the Bluffside campaign setting. The book describes the desert region of the Bluffside "northern continent" setting, which is controlled primarily by the reptilian/draconic humanoid race called the dragori, first introduced in the Bluffside city sourcebook.

Dry Lands: Empire of the Dragon Sands is written by Becky Glenn (who is a major contributor to the Fantasy Netbook Community Council in addition to previous Bluffside material) and published by Mystic Eye Games.

A First Look

Dry Lands: Empire of the Dragon Sands is a 144-page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $22.99. This is about the competitive norm for d20 book of this size and format.

The cover has an illustration by Storn Cook, depicting some dragori defending themselves against some scimitar wielding raiders in a desolate ruin.

The interior is black-and-white, and includes illustrations by Ben McSweeny, RB Hall, Mike May, Brandt Peters, Shane Coppage, Brad McDevitt, and Tamara Pressman. Maps are done by Tamara Pressman. Overall, the interior illustrations are of good quality, though some of the Dragori illustrations gave me sort of an uncomfortably kiddish "Dragonball Z" vibe.

The book uses the typical format of Thunderhead Games/Bluffside style books: three columns, small (but readable) serif font, and single spaced lines and paragraphs. Overall, the book has a high text density and good value for the money based on content quantity.

A Deeper Look

Dry Lands: Empire of the Dragon Sands is divided into four chapters and twelve appendices. The four chapters describe the political and geographic divisions on the Dragon Sands region, and take up less than half of the book. The twelve appendices cover more rules related material such as NPC statistics and new races, classes, feats, and spells.

The dragon sands is divided roughly into three regions (each of which has a chapter devoted to it). The no man's land is a region to the north marked by rough terrain and volcanic activity. The burning sands are an inhospitable desert regions to the south of the no man's land and north of the Dragori empire. The Dragori empire itself is dominated by the Dragori, and has severally magically maintained river valleys that make life possible.

In addition to these major regions, there is one other region of note. The granite kingdom is a dwarven settlement carved into the mountains in the west end of the Dragon Sands.

Each chapter describes some major sites in the region. Each chapter is addressed in a fashion similar to Bluffside. Each has a number of described "points of interest", with a description of the establishment, owner or residents, regulars, and adventure hooks, and references to the NPC appendix for NPC mechanical details. Each chapter also has sidebars with historical and cultural details of the region.

The No Man's Land is a dangerous and lawless region, home to many refugees fleeing the influence of the Dragori Empire. The described points of interest are spread throughout the no man's land, and includes sites in the isolated village of Deep End, as well as others sites elsewhere such as the Alchemical Institute (which studies several chemical pools in the No Man's Land) and the Cavern of Souls (which is said to have the echoes of the voices of the dead.)

The Granite Kingdom is the central point of dwarven activity in the Great Northern Continent. It was established before the receding of the ice-age that brought the other races back to the region, and is a reminder of a much more vital times among the dwarves. A majority of this chapter is devoted to the unassailable Granite Fortress, though some entries are devoted to the Clay Fortress, a nearby primitive human settlement that hopes to emulate to security of the Granite Kingdom.

The Burning Sands region is a harsh and inhospitable desert. It is inhabited by the Rahihn, a nomadic race of desert dwelling humans. The Rahihn are descended from the former inhabitants of the region, who charged genies to repel the invading Dragori from the south, but in doing so blighted the land and made it into the desert that it is today.

The Burning Sands region is home to eight major tribes. Like the No Man's Land, the Burning Sands region's places of interest are scattered about the region. Places of interest include things like oases and caravans, as well as unusual sites like the graveyard of the giants and the roving dunes.

Some of the more interesting and unusual features of this chapter include the halfling caravans and the Rahihn legends. The halfling caravans are unusual in that the halflings build their homes into the shells of giant tortoises, which they then use to roam the desert.

The Dragori Empire is the remnant of an ancient empire that once covered the region. The dragori are a humanoid race with very reptilian features that believe that they are descended from dragons. The empire was forced to retreat from the onslaught of the genies brought forth by the humans to the north, and the Dragori erected a magical barrier to protect what was left of their empire from the burning heat of the burning sands.

The Dragori Empire is nearing civil war. The empire is sharply divided into two camps over how to treat the threat posed by semi-intelligent dragons in the north. One camp thinks that the dune wyrms are abominations and should be dealt with, while another thinks that they are true dragons and should be revered.

The first appendix provides statistics for major NPCs at points of interest in the rest of the book. The appendix is large, taking up 36 pages. Much like Bluffside, this makes a great resource for campaigning in the setting. The stat blocks appear solid and consistent with the d20 rules.

The second and third appendix provides details on the terrain. The first of these appendices provides d20 rules for handling various terrain hazards, and the second provides some informational detail about real world and fantasy desert terrain.

Appendix four provides new classes; there are two core classes, one npc class, and 12 prestige classes.

The bisaakir zaari is a core class; it is a sorcerer or wizard variant with a special affinity for geniekind. The bisaakir zaari gains spells more slowly than a wizard, but has easier access to spells (which are acquired through their genie servant), and can task elemental creatures to do their bidding.

Shamans are another core class. The shaman is a spellcaster with an affinity to spirits. The shaman depicted here is similar to the one in Mongoose's Shamans in that it use charisma as a casting statistic and its spells are determined by totem spirits. The shaman here gets fewer totem spirit than the Mongoose shaman, but has the ability to bind spirits to get access to more spells.

The NPC class is the slave, and as listed it only has five levels. It has all poor saves and a limited skill selection. I am unconvinced that a slave class is needed; it seems that the commoner class fills this role just fine.

The twelve prestige classes are as follows:
-Badlands Bandit: The badlands bandit is a villainous resident of the No Man's Land who has made the area more than a temporary residence. The bandits are good fighters with some rogue-like abilities.
-Claws of the Emperor: These are elite guards dedicated to the Dragori emperor. They have several monk and assassin-like abilities, in addition to physical conditioning that gives them sharps scales, letting them do unarmed slashing attacks.
-Digger: The digger is a specialist in recovering archaeological treasures. They receive class abilities that let them deal with threats present in tombs, as well as bonuses to history knowledge and languages.
-Halfling Caravan Runners: This class represents talented scouts used by the halfling caravans in the burning sands. The caravan runner has capabilities that increase their mobility and observation abilities.
-Nevae Wanderer: The nevae is a race introduced in Bluffside. The nevae wanderer is a traveller with class abilities that aid in movement and diplomacy.
-Priest of the Eternal Dragons: Dragori revere "the Eternal Dragon." This prestige class is a divine prestige class with slowed spellcasting ability, but which receives dragon like abilities, such are breath weapon and improved natural armor.
-Prophet of the Sands: These are men who wander the desert and prophecy. The have their own spellcasting progression and spell lists, as well as divination-related class abilities.
-Sand Dancer: These are spies and scouts of the desert tribes. The have stealth and ambush related abilities.
-Sand Riders: These are the mounted warriors of the desert tribes, with mounted combat and desert survival abilities.
-Serpent Warden: The serpent warden is named for the major river in the Dragori Empire; they are guardians of these precious resources, with water-related abilities
-The Wise: The wise are elders of the tribal communities. They have their own spell list and progression, and class abilities that protect them and others and divination abilities.
-Wyrmriders: The wyrmrider is a character (usually dragori) who has learned to ride the dune wyrm as a mount. The class abilities enhance the combat capabilities of the mount.

The fifth appendix includes many creatures of the settings, including genie allies, sand elementals, the giant tortoises used by the halfling caravans, and templates for sprits, sand creatures, and greater mummies.

New feats are mostly related to new character options in the book. Many feats revolve around dragori racial traits, or the new core classes in the book.

The dragori are a humanoid reptilian race with three subraces: the dragori-nen, -fehr, and -sah. The nen are large and slow (favored class fighter), the fehr are small and quick (favored class monk), and the sah are charismatic (favored class sorcerer). As a race they are dispassionate and logical, and they have a prehensile tail and dragonlike characteristics (like resistance to fire and natural armor.)

Other items tucked away in the appendices include new domains, spells, equipment, and magic items.

Conclusion

Dry Lands: Empire of the Dragon Sands is a fairly simple and detail-light setting supplement. If you are looking for a desert style setting to drop into your game, this makes a good drop-in in the same way that Bluffside does. It uses a lot of commonly referred to tropes in desert oriented fantasy settings, so should fit well if you already have existing concepts of this type.

For a change, I actually found the mechanical content a little heavy, and many of the prestige classes didn't seem to add much to the game. The two new core classes are passable, but of course less detailed than similar classes presented in their own products elsewhere.

Overall Grade: B-

-Alan D. Kohler