Messageboard Golem
First Post
Rules and encounters for various terrain types, including badlands, deserts, forests, mountains, and swamps; plus random encounter charts for the continent of Ghelspad.
Wilderness & Wastelands: Scarred Lands Encounters
Simon Collins
Explorer
Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is not a playtest review.
Wilderness & Wasteland is an accessory for Sword & Sorcery's Scarred Lands setting. Though it includes some short encounters designed for levels 5-10, it is really a tollkit for designing encounters in challenging environments for PCs of any level.
At $12.95 for 64 pages this is fairly good value for money in terms of volume of content. There is very little wasted space, with good margins and font size, and very few chunks of white space and only 3 pages holding credits, contents and OGL.The front cover art (showing adventurers readying themselves for battle with creatures resembing a cross between dire wolves and bats) is very atmospheric though slightly lacking texture. The slightly cartoony internal mono art is average at best. The encounters are accompanied by maps, which are scaled and keyed but have no compass directions - they are fairly basic in design but clear enough. The writing style is superb, very atmospheric environmental descriptions and clear rules explanations. Editing is also good.
The short preface that begins the book introduces the major concept of Wilderness & Wasteland - a toolkit to design encounters with a focus on challenging terrain - specifically environmental hazards, plants, and creatures of badlands, deserts, forest, mountains and swamps. When discussing plants and creatures in the book, advice is given on how these opponents use the terrain to their advantage, making the most of their adaptation to these environments.
The three-page introduction is essentially a guide to building random encounter tables for different terrains or general locations with an example plus a quick guide on how to use the book.
Each chapter introduces one of the five terrains - badlands, deserts, forest, mountains and swamps. There are sections on plants, weather (with random weather generation chart), hazards (with CRs used in a similar manner to traps), survival information (including Wilderness Lore DCs, some alternate uses for the Wilderness Lore skill, and a random 'hunting and foraging' chart), creatures (including animals, monsters and humanoids) and a short encounter (with advice on scaling the encounter for parties of lesser or greater power).
The encounters cover:
* A race down a ravine from a flash flood in the badlands
* Sand traps in a desert leading to an underground lair and a hidden resource
* An insane fire elemental in a forest
* A hag's mutated offspring attacking in a storm on the side of a mountain
* A swamp hag and her awakened crocodile
Needless to say, these are all set in the Scarred Lands, but are adaptable for use in other campaign settings.
Throughout the text there are sidebars on such issues as vermin swarms, bog mummies, and examples of terrain-related diseases. The Appendix gives various random encounter tables for locations within the Scarred Lands that comprise large areas of the terrain covered in the accessory including the Bleak Savannah, the Ukrudan Desert, the Bloodrain Woods, the Khelder Mountains, and the Swamps of Kan-Thet.
Conclusion:
This is much more than just an accessory for the Scarred Lands. It is a useful toolkit for designing encounters for challenging wilderness terrain in any campaign setting. It has the added use of a decent set of rules for determining random encounter tables, new diseases, new uses for the Wilderness Lore skill, and some useful weather generation charts.
It will be of particular interest to those running adventures in the Scarred Lands campaign setting, since the encounters and random encounter tables in the appendix are designed for Ghelspad. However, the encounters should be relatively easy to adapt to other campaign settings.
This is not a playtest review.
Wilderness & Wasteland is an accessory for Sword & Sorcery's Scarred Lands setting. Though it includes some short encounters designed for levels 5-10, it is really a tollkit for designing encounters in challenging environments for PCs of any level.
At $12.95 for 64 pages this is fairly good value for money in terms of volume of content. There is very little wasted space, with good margins and font size, and very few chunks of white space and only 3 pages holding credits, contents and OGL.The front cover art (showing adventurers readying themselves for battle with creatures resembing a cross between dire wolves and bats) is very atmospheric though slightly lacking texture. The slightly cartoony internal mono art is average at best. The encounters are accompanied by maps, which are scaled and keyed but have no compass directions - they are fairly basic in design but clear enough. The writing style is superb, very atmospheric environmental descriptions and clear rules explanations. Editing is also good.
The short preface that begins the book introduces the major concept of Wilderness & Wasteland - a toolkit to design encounters with a focus on challenging terrain - specifically environmental hazards, plants, and creatures of badlands, deserts, forest, mountains and swamps. When discussing plants and creatures in the book, advice is given on how these opponents use the terrain to their advantage, making the most of their adaptation to these environments.
The three-page introduction is essentially a guide to building random encounter tables for different terrains or general locations with an example plus a quick guide on how to use the book.
Each chapter introduces one of the five terrains - badlands, deserts, forest, mountains and swamps. There are sections on plants, weather (with random weather generation chart), hazards (with CRs used in a similar manner to traps), survival information (including Wilderness Lore DCs, some alternate uses for the Wilderness Lore skill, and a random 'hunting and foraging' chart), creatures (including animals, monsters and humanoids) and a short encounter (with advice on scaling the encounter for parties of lesser or greater power).
The encounters cover:
* A race down a ravine from a flash flood in the badlands
* Sand traps in a desert leading to an underground lair and a hidden resource
* An insane fire elemental in a forest
* A hag's mutated offspring attacking in a storm on the side of a mountain
* A swamp hag and her awakened crocodile
Needless to say, these are all set in the Scarred Lands, but are adaptable for use in other campaign settings.
Throughout the text there are sidebars on such issues as vermin swarms, bog mummies, and examples of terrain-related diseases. The Appendix gives various random encounter tables for locations within the Scarred Lands that comprise large areas of the terrain covered in the accessory including the Bleak Savannah, the Ukrudan Desert, the Bloodrain Woods, the Khelder Mountains, and the Swamps of Kan-Thet.
Conclusion:
This is much more than just an accessory for the Scarred Lands. It is a useful toolkit for designing encounters for challenging wilderness terrain in any campaign setting. It has the added use of a decent set of rules for determining random encounter tables, new diseases, new uses for the Wilderness Lore skill, and some useful weather generation charts.
It will be of particular interest to those running adventures in the Scarred Lands campaign setting, since the encounters and random encounter tables in the appendix are designed for Ghelspad. However, the encounters should be relatively easy to adapt to other campaign settings.
DISCLAIMER: This product was won in a trivia contest. No review was solicited by anyone affiliated with Sword and Sorcery Studios, its parent company, its subsidiaries, or shareholders.
Overview:
Wilderness and Wastelands is a sourcebook that provides encounter tables and survival information for five different types of terrain. It is published by Sword and Sorcery Studios for their Scarred Lands campaign setting.
Wilderness and Wastelands is 64 pages of black and white text, with various interior illustrations that seem to go along well with the text. The particular style of illustration may not be to everyone's liking but I found that it helped enhance the flavor of the page.
It is organized into an introduction, five chapters detailing a different terrain type, and a twelve page appendix with encounter tables for the Scarred Lands campaign setting.
In Detail:
The Introduction chapter (three pages) deals mostly with advice for creating your own encounter charts and demonstrates through a sample chart. The ideas presented are simple but effective for creating a new chart or modifying an existing one.
The terrain chapters cover badlands, deserts, forests, mountains, and swamps. Each contains a description of the terrain, some information on the common plants, animals, other creatures, hazards, weather information, survival information, and a sample adventure. Each chapter also gives you tables for determining the weather, difficulty checks associated with the Wilderness Lore skill, and the results of hunting and foraging for supplies.
The first chapter deals with "badlands", rocky wastelands that remind me of the opening scene of almost every Western movie. The badlands invoke the image of sand and rocks on the ground, the occasional scrub brush here and there, a jutting mesa or canyon in the horizon, and the hero slowly riding across the screen. The badlands contain many hazards, such as flash floods (doubly dangerous if you are in the bottom of a dried river bed), rock slides, and blood moths.
Chapter Two discusses a common campaign terrain, deserts. Hazards include the mundane, such as dehydration and freezing, to the more exotic Carnivorous Beetles (one of my favorites). There doesn't tend to be much wildlife (fantasy or otherwise) native to the desert, aside from small mammals and lizards so information on them is fairly brief. There is some mention of plants in the desert, but for the most part they are encountered around an oasis or after a rain, so there are limited chances to encounter them.
Forests are the focus of Chapter Three and this one is rife with enough dangers to make your player characters stay indoors with a blanket over their head. The forest, unlike the desert, derives most of its danger from its inhabitants instead of the weather. Staying true to this, you'll find information on poisonous and carnivorous flora, diseases, as well as more natural dangers such as deadfall trees, and of course fire.
Next up in Chapter Four is mountains, a fun bit of terrain that brings you hazards such as avalanches, oxygen deprivation, hags, trolls, giants, dwarves, goblins, and more mundane creatures. This terrain spans the four major height zones, with appropriate notes for each. There is a variety of plant and animal life, as well as an abundance of monster inhabitation. These are reflected in the Weather Table as well as Hunting and Foraging Table.
Swamps are detailed in the final chapter. This terrain is perhaps the deadliest, as you have a various diseases, hostile fauna, dangerous weather, hungry critters, unpleasant-sounding swamp gas, various pitfalls, people and monsters looking to hide in the refuge offered by swamps, dragons, lizardmen, and a host of other things that find adventurers to be less challenging to eat.
The Appendix covers twelve pages of encounter charts, organized by terrain type and Challenge Rating (CR). Each encounter chart uses creatures from a variety of sources, typically the Monster Manual and Sword and Sorcery's own Creature Collection 1 & 2. Of note is that some additional Scarred Lands products also contribute creatures for the encounter tables.
What I liked about Wilderness and Wastelands:
It's a Scarred Lands product. If you own Scarred Lands products (especially CC 1&2), then this material will be easily inserted into your campaign.
The adventures at the end of each terrain chapter do a good job of introducing a few of the terrain hazards. The first adventure, for example, gives an example of how flash flooding can be deadly to an unprepared party.
The suggestions for creating your own personal encounter tables are simple but well thought out. They are especially useful if you do not own the Scarred Lands products and need to modify or make your own.
The Wilderness Lore tables for each terrain were a nice feature that should make it easier to run adventures in the appropriate terrain.
The terrain types covered are the most likely ones to be encountered by adventuring parties.
What I didn't like about Wilderness and Wastelands:
It's a Scarred Lands product. If you don't own Scarred Lands products (especially CC 1&2), then you may have some work inserting this material into your campaign. That said, I don't believe it would be too difficult as the guidelines for creating your own encounter tables are straightforward and virtually all of the terrain features and notes can be inserted into your campaign as-is.
I would have preferred greater detail on the terrain types, along with some additional ones such as tundra or artic terrain.
Summary:
This product is somewhat difficult to review, because it is aimed at one audience (Scarred Lands participants) while at the same time being useful to non-Scarred Lands purchasers. On the whole the terrain notes and weather information will likely be the most valuable parts used should you decide to use it in a generic campaign setting.
The encounter charts are another example of the same difficulty. If you use them in a Scarred Lands campaign, you will get a great deal of value out of this product because half the work is done for you. If you don't use the Scarred Lands, or wish to incorporate creatures from other sources, then the encounter tables range from still useful to not useful at all. The saving grace is the guidelines for creating your own encounter tables. Not only do they work, but they are simple and quick to use in any campaign setting.
I think this product can help flesh out some of the terrains seen in non-fantasy games such as Pulp Heroes (Polyhedron Magazine) or Sidewinder (Citizen Games ). I can easily imagine an intrepid band of Pulp Heroes adventurers hacking through a slightly fantastic jungle in search of Mayan ruins or a saddle-sore Sidewinder cowboy trekking through the merciless badlands.
With Wilderness and Wastelands you have a product that can provide some flavor to a mundane romp through a forest or have the source of adventure. Many of the adaptability concerns are really minor for an mildly experienced GM. The encounter tables are a mixed bag, but again, if you have some experience, you should be able to make your own fairly quickly.
Open Content Used:
SRD and virtually the entire Scarred Lands product line existing at the time of publication.
Reviewer's Notes:
Aside from a few incidental books, I don't have any Scarred Lands products, such as Creature Collection 1 & 2. Most of my reading of this was geared towards figuring out how to adapt it to a generic campaign. As noted, I don't think I'd have any trouble doing so but inexperienced GMs may.
Overview:
Wilderness and Wastelands is a sourcebook that provides encounter tables and survival information for five different types of terrain. It is published by Sword and Sorcery Studios for their Scarred Lands campaign setting.
Wilderness and Wastelands is 64 pages of black and white text, with various interior illustrations that seem to go along well with the text. The particular style of illustration may not be to everyone's liking but I found that it helped enhance the flavor of the page.
It is organized into an introduction, five chapters detailing a different terrain type, and a twelve page appendix with encounter tables for the Scarred Lands campaign setting.
In Detail:
The Introduction chapter (three pages) deals mostly with advice for creating your own encounter charts and demonstrates through a sample chart. The ideas presented are simple but effective for creating a new chart or modifying an existing one.
The terrain chapters cover badlands, deserts, forests, mountains, and swamps. Each contains a description of the terrain, some information on the common plants, animals, other creatures, hazards, weather information, survival information, and a sample adventure. Each chapter also gives you tables for determining the weather, difficulty checks associated with the Wilderness Lore skill, and the results of hunting and foraging for supplies.
The first chapter deals with "badlands", rocky wastelands that remind me of the opening scene of almost every Western movie. The badlands invoke the image of sand and rocks on the ground, the occasional scrub brush here and there, a jutting mesa or canyon in the horizon, and the hero slowly riding across the screen. The badlands contain many hazards, such as flash floods (doubly dangerous if you are in the bottom of a dried river bed), rock slides, and blood moths.
Chapter Two discusses a common campaign terrain, deserts. Hazards include the mundane, such as dehydration and freezing, to the more exotic Carnivorous Beetles (one of my favorites). There doesn't tend to be much wildlife (fantasy or otherwise) native to the desert, aside from small mammals and lizards so information on them is fairly brief. There is some mention of plants in the desert, but for the most part they are encountered around an oasis or after a rain, so there are limited chances to encounter them.
Forests are the focus of Chapter Three and this one is rife with enough dangers to make your player characters stay indoors with a blanket over their head. The forest, unlike the desert, derives most of its danger from its inhabitants instead of the weather. Staying true to this, you'll find information on poisonous and carnivorous flora, diseases, as well as more natural dangers such as deadfall trees, and of course fire.
Next up in Chapter Four is mountains, a fun bit of terrain that brings you hazards such as avalanches, oxygen deprivation, hags, trolls, giants, dwarves, goblins, and more mundane creatures. This terrain spans the four major height zones, with appropriate notes for each. There is a variety of plant and animal life, as well as an abundance of monster inhabitation. These are reflected in the Weather Table as well as Hunting and Foraging Table.
Swamps are detailed in the final chapter. This terrain is perhaps the deadliest, as you have a various diseases, hostile fauna, dangerous weather, hungry critters, unpleasant-sounding swamp gas, various pitfalls, people and monsters looking to hide in the refuge offered by swamps, dragons, lizardmen, and a host of other things that find adventurers to be less challenging to eat.
The Appendix covers twelve pages of encounter charts, organized by terrain type and Challenge Rating (CR). Each encounter chart uses creatures from a variety of sources, typically the Monster Manual and Sword and Sorcery's own Creature Collection 1 & 2. Of note is that some additional Scarred Lands products also contribute creatures for the encounter tables.
What I liked about Wilderness and Wastelands:
It's a Scarred Lands product. If you own Scarred Lands products (especially CC 1&2), then this material will be easily inserted into your campaign.
The adventures at the end of each terrain chapter do a good job of introducing a few of the terrain hazards. The first adventure, for example, gives an example of how flash flooding can be deadly to an unprepared party.
The suggestions for creating your own personal encounter tables are simple but well thought out. They are especially useful if you do not own the Scarred Lands products and need to modify or make your own.
The Wilderness Lore tables for each terrain were a nice feature that should make it easier to run adventures in the appropriate terrain.
The terrain types covered are the most likely ones to be encountered by adventuring parties.
What I didn't like about Wilderness and Wastelands:
It's a Scarred Lands product. If you don't own Scarred Lands products (especially CC 1&2), then you may have some work inserting this material into your campaign. That said, I don't believe it would be too difficult as the guidelines for creating your own encounter tables are straightforward and virtually all of the terrain features and notes can be inserted into your campaign as-is.
I would have preferred greater detail on the terrain types, along with some additional ones such as tundra or artic terrain.
Summary:
This product is somewhat difficult to review, because it is aimed at one audience (Scarred Lands participants) while at the same time being useful to non-Scarred Lands purchasers. On the whole the terrain notes and weather information will likely be the most valuable parts used should you decide to use it in a generic campaign setting.
The encounter charts are another example of the same difficulty. If you use them in a Scarred Lands campaign, you will get a great deal of value out of this product because half the work is done for you. If you don't use the Scarred Lands, or wish to incorporate creatures from other sources, then the encounter tables range from still useful to not useful at all. The saving grace is the guidelines for creating your own encounter tables. Not only do they work, but they are simple and quick to use in any campaign setting.
I think this product can help flesh out some of the terrains seen in non-fantasy games such as Pulp Heroes (Polyhedron Magazine) or Sidewinder (Citizen Games ). I can easily imagine an intrepid band of Pulp Heroes adventurers hacking through a slightly fantastic jungle in search of Mayan ruins or a saddle-sore Sidewinder cowboy trekking through the merciless badlands.
With Wilderness and Wastelands you have a product that can provide some flavor to a mundane romp through a forest or have the source of adventure. Many of the adaptability concerns are really minor for an mildly experienced GM. The encounter tables are a mixed bag, but again, if you have some experience, you should be able to make your own fairly quickly.
Open Content Used:
SRD and virtually the entire Scarred Lands product line existing at the time of publication.
Reviewer's Notes:
Aside from a few incidental books, I don't have any Scarred Lands products, such as Creature Collection 1 & 2. Most of my reading of this was geared towards figuring out how to adapt it to a generic campaign. As noted, I don't think I'd have any trouble doing so but inexperienced GMs may.
Messageboard Golem
First Post
As many a Dm/Gm can commisserate, there seems to be a lack of good wilderness encounter charts or ideas for dealing with wilderness hazards/terrains for 3rd edition/d20. Thankfully, I can firmly say, this is now a thing of the past. With this book, S&SS has successfully come up with a way of making random wilderness encounters not only easier but also gives ideas on uses for skills like Wilderness Lore, Knowledge (nature) and the Track feat. But I digress.
The cover of the book feats a lone party of four surrounded by a pack of Blight Wolves. (I have to say this is a GREAT rendition of them. The version in the Creature Collection 1 is okay but poor by comparsion, in terms of the vehemence and evil displayed by this pack.)
The interior art has much in the way of good pics, my favorites including the large one in the forest section (page 25) and the picture in the Hag's Lair in the Mountain section (page 38). There isn't much other art, but at 64 pages, you don't really expect much.
The cartography in the book is truly excellent as Ed Bournelle (of Sketelon Key's Design AND one of the authors of this book) shows a great flair and understanding of textures and degrees in mapping. Probably the best sign for people wanting better maps.
The book is divided into five chapters, with an introduction and appendix at the end of the book.
The preface opens with Joseph Carriker giving us a head up on what this book is about. While not as useful as what comes after, it serves as a nice opening.
The Introduction I think will interest a LOT of people, both for those using the book and for those wanting to create their own charts. Here you get to see the design process as well as ideas on how to build your own random wilderness enounters depending on how dangerous you believe a place to be. While based on CR, I think this offers the DM a FINE way of making so that his encounters, while random, have a specific pattern as well as making sure one forgets an encounter in say a place like "The Forbidden Lands" or say "The Bleak Savannah"
Chapter one offers us a look at the dangers of "badlands". Here we get to see more closely the perils of such places. While obviously meant for the Scarred Lands, the insertion of a badland shouldn't be that hard for any DM worth his salt. Just use a place where a powerful event happened that altered the landscape. It can be anything from magic gone awry, to a natural disaster, to anything in between. The encounter offered here is one of a flash flood in a canyon.
Chapter two deals with deserts and the troubles you find here. Obviously deserts are a classic terrian and features many things people expect, heat exhaustion rules and other ideas for wilderness uses. The encounter here is for a desert twister/sandstorm. Certainly a common occurrance.
Chapter three deals with another perninnal fantasy staple, travel in a forest. This one probably needs even less exploration but there are some wonderful ideas for making druids and rangers a much more valued member of the team in such situations. In this one, the players must deal with a fire elemental gone amok.
Chapter four deals with mountains. Here we have rules dealing with high attitidute, slipperly slopes, climb checks in certain places, along with various flora and fauna info that was present in the other chapters. Here we see the dangers of climbing via a cavern hag and her brood of haglings.
Chapter five deals with swamps. Here we get to see rules on movement, various diseases and even more dangerous, the various fungi and slimes that often live here. In this encounter, the party finds itself in the middle of a swamp hag's garden. Not exactly eden folks.
The best parts of the book are the charts used for bad weather, DCs for using certain skills in the wild, and even ideas for a specific terrian encounter in the wild. My major gripe is, as a Scarred Lands fan, there is not a chart for some of the more prominent ills such as the Blood Steppes or the Titanshome Mountains. Even so, it's a minor gripe but one I feel worthy noting. If they had included such a chart, I think my rating would have been a perfect score for this book. Overall I strongly recommend this book for those DMs wanting ideas for random wilderness encounters or even just as a means for a rule set to create their own.
The cover of the book feats a lone party of four surrounded by a pack of Blight Wolves. (I have to say this is a GREAT rendition of them. The version in the Creature Collection 1 is okay but poor by comparsion, in terms of the vehemence and evil displayed by this pack.)
The interior art has much in the way of good pics, my favorites including the large one in the forest section (page 25) and the picture in the Hag's Lair in the Mountain section (page 38). There isn't much other art, but at 64 pages, you don't really expect much.
The cartography in the book is truly excellent as Ed Bournelle (of Sketelon Key's Design AND one of the authors of this book) shows a great flair and understanding of textures and degrees in mapping. Probably the best sign for people wanting better maps.
The book is divided into five chapters, with an introduction and appendix at the end of the book.
The preface opens with Joseph Carriker giving us a head up on what this book is about. While not as useful as what comes after, it serves as a nice opening.
The Introduction I think will interest a LOT of people, both for those using the book and for those wanting to create their own charts. Here you get to see the design process as well as ideas on how to build your own random wilderness enounters depending on how dangerous you believe a place to be. While based on CR, I think this offers the DM a FINE way of making so that his encounters, while random, have a specific pattern as well as making sure one forgets an encounter in say a place like "The Forbidden Lands" or say "The Bleak Savannah"
Chapter one offers us a look at the dangers of "badlands". Here we get to see more closely the perils of such places. While obviously meant for the Scarred Lands, the insertion of a badland shouldn't be that hard for any DM worth his salt. Just use a place where a powerful event happened that altered the landscape. It can be anything from magic gone awry, to a natural disaster, to anything in between. The encounter offered here is one of a flash flood in a canyon.
Chapter two deals with deserts and the troubles you find here. Obviously deserts are a classic terrian and features many things people expect, heat exhaustion rules and other ideas for wilderness uses. The encounter here is for a desert twister/sandstorm. Certainly a common occurrance.
Chapter three deals with another perninnal fantasy staple, travel in a forest. This one probably needs even less exploration but there are some wonderful ideas for making druids and rangers a much more valued member of the team in such situations. In this one, the players must deal with a fire elemental gone amok.
Chapter four deals with mountains. Here we have rules dealing with high attitidute, slipperly slopes, climb checks in certain places, along with various flora and fauna info that was present in the other chapters. Here we see the dangers of climbing via a cavern hag and her brood of haglings.
Chapter five deals with swamps. Here we get to see rules on movement, various diseases and even more dangerous, the various fungi and slimes that often live here. In this encounter, the party finds itself in the middle of a swamp hag's garden. Not exactly eden folks.
The best parts of the book are the charts used for bad weather, DCs for using certain skills in the wild, and even ideas for a specific terrian encounter in the wild. My major gripe is, as a Scarred Lands fan, there is not a chart for some of the more prominent ills such as the Blood Steppes or the Titanshome Mountains. Even so, it's a minor gripe but one I feel worthy noting. If they had included such a chart, I think my rating would have been a perfect score for this book. Overall I strongly recommend this book for those DMs wanting ideas for random wilderness encounters or even just as a means for a rule set to create their own.
Messageboard Golem
First Post
By Steven Creech, Exec. Chairman d20 Magazine Rack
Sizing Up the Target
This review is for Wilderness and Wasteland by Sword & Sorcery Studios, a division of White Wolf. Wilderness and Wasteland is a 64-page book of encounters for the Scarred Lands setting. The book retails for $12.95.
First Blood
Five different terrain types are covered: badlands, desert, forest, mountain, and swamp. The listed encounter levels range from EL 5 to EL 10. While there are monster encounters in every scenario, the real challenges are the hazards appropriate to the setting. There are environmental hazards such as storms, rockslides, sand traps (not the kind you see on a golf course either), forest deadfalls, disease, and quicksand. Each chapter ends with a brief encounter scenario/mini-adventure that utilizes the natural hazards along with a monster or two.
Critical Hits
Encounter books are something that has been in short supply with the massive outpouring of d20 products by companies. With the exception of En Route by Atlas Games, I cannot recall another book devoted to encounters in a varied climate setting. The variety of terrains offers something for nearly every campaign world and GM. The challenge ratings assigned to the hazards are appropriate and each chapter comes with suggestions to scale the encounter to different ELs.
Critical Misses
The only real complaint about the book stems from the fact that it does require some work on the part of the GM to make the encounters fit worlds other than Scarred Lands. (Obviously, this is a minor complaint.)
Coup de Grace
Wilderness and Wasteland is a good book for mid-level encounters for journeys between adventures or to insert in an adventure if the terrain fits. As the book claims, this is definitely a GM toolkit for encounters set up in much the same vein as the dungeon encounters in the DMG. Even though it is geared towards the Scarred Lands, a GM willing to put in some elbow grease can easily modify it for almost any setting. The price is a tad high, but I feel it is worth it given the content.
To see the graded evaluation of this product, go to Fast Tracks at www.d20zines.com.
Sizing Up the Target
This review is for Wilderness and Wasteland by Sword & Sorcery Studios, a division of White Wolf. Wilderness and Wasteland is a 64-page book of encounters for the Scarred Lands setting. The book retails for $12.95.
First Blood
Five different terrain types are covered: badlands, desert, forest, mountain, and swamp. The listed encounter levels range from EL 5 to EL 10. While there are monster encounters in every scenario, the real challenges are the hazards appropriate to the setting. There are environmental hazards such as storms, rockslides, sand traps (not the kind you see on a golf course either), forest deadfalls, disease, and quicksand. Each chapter ends with a brief encounter scenario/mini-adventure that utilizes the natural hazards along with a monster or two.
Critical Hits
Encounter books are something that has been in short supply with the massive outpouring of d20 products by companies. With the exception of En Route by Atlas Games, I cannot recall another book devoted to encounters in a varied climate setting. The variety of terrains offers something for nearly every campaign world and GM. The challenge ratings assigned to the hazards are appropriate and each chapter comes with suggestions to scale the encounter to different ELs.
Critical Misses
The only real complaint about the book stems from the fact that it does require some work on the part of the GM to make the encounters fit worlds other than Scarred Lands. (Obviously, this is a minor complaint.)
Coup de Grace
Wilderness and Wasteland is a good book for mid-level encounters for journeys between adventures or to insert in an adventure if the terrain fits. As the book claims, this is definitely a GM toolkit for encounters set up in much the same vein as the dungeon encounters in the DMG. Even though it is geared towards the Scarred Lands, a GM willing to put in some elbow grease can easily modify it for almost any setting. The price is a tad high, but I feel it is worth it given the content.
To see the graded evaluation of this product, go to Fast Tracks at www.d20zines.com.
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