Lucias
First Post
The Gazetteer:
This is broken up into seven chapters. The first three cover the areas of the world: The Northlands, Southlands, and Lost Lands. Chapter 4 describes the geographic features of Aerest in detail and Chapter 5 has the details on the multitude of organizations featured in the setting. Chapter 6 is a short section on lands beyond the known realms, including the Underdark. The final chapter is the histroy of the Northlands.
I'm about a third of the way through the Gazetteer, almost finished with reading about the Northlands. Each region is given a short overview followed by a section on the major settlements. The details are well written and entertaining to read. Not dry in the slightest like some setting books (I'm looking at you Kalamar.)
The setting is dripping with adventure. I could run several campaigns just based on the info of the Northlands alone, so exploring the rest of the setting should reveal a further wealth of info.
There is absolutely no crunch in this book. It is systemless (which is great!)
The GM's Guide, which I've yet to dig into, breaks down as follows:
Chapter 1: Creation and Early History
Chapter 2: Deities, Demigods, and Infernal Powers
Chapter 3: Bestiary of the Known Realms - quite a few monsters. Most have the rules for running them as PCs also.
Chapter 4: Setting Rules (new feats, equipment, weapon qualities, spells, etc.)
Chatper 5: Rogues Gallery and Hall of Heroes - descriptions and basic statline for major NPCs so you can kill anyone you want. Stats are very basic, essentially they're class/level and relevant ability scores. Tailor them to your needs, I guess.
Chapter 6: Zero Level Characters - Pretty extensive bit of rules and ideas for starting characters as NPC classes. I'm not sold on the idea, but there are those who might be, especially since one of the included adventures starts at zero level.)
Chapter 7: Paths of Adventure - Pre-built adventure paths using the current DCC modules with a running plot on how to string them together. Very cool!
Appendix 1: DCC Index - lists which DCC every NPC, moster, and location is mentioend in. Again, very cool.
Haven't done more than browse the adventures yet.
The maps are gorgeous.
This is the best 'classic' D&D setting to come out since Mystara in my opinion. There are no crazy twists like in Eberron or Dark Sun, it's just swords and sorcery done very, very well.
I'll most likely be running this with either Savage Worlds or the Rules Cyclopedia someday since I've vowed never to run 3.5 again. Even as a resource for another system I still feel like I got a good value for my money.
I'm sure there are flaws, but I've yet to notice them.
This is broken up into seven chapters. The first three cover the areas of the world: The Northlands, Southlands, and Lost Lands. Chapter 4 describes the geographic features of Aerest in detail and Chapter 5 has the details on the multitude of organizations featured in the setting. Chapter 6 is a short section on lands beyond the known realms, including the Underdark. The final chapter is the histroy of the Northlands.
I'm about a third of the way through the Gazetteer, almost finished with reading about the Northlands. Each region is given a short overview followed by a section on the major settlements. The details are well written and entertaining to read. Not dry in the slightest like some setting books (I'm looking at you Kalamar.)
The setting is dripping with adventure. I could run several campaigns just based on the info of the Northlands alone, so exploring the rest of the setting should reveal a further wealth of info.
There is absolutely no crunch in this book. It is systemless (which is great!)
The GM's Guide, which I've yet to dig into, breaks down as follows:
Chapter 1: Creation and Early History
Chapter 2: Deities, Demigods, and Infernal Powers
Chapter 3: Bestiary of the Known Realms - quite a few monsters. Most have the rules for running them as PCs also.
Chapter 4: Setting Rules (new feats, equipment, weapon qualities, spells, etc.)
Chatper 5: Rogues Gallery and Hall of Heroes - descriptions and basic statline for major NPCs so you can kill anyone you want. Stats are very basic, essentially they're class/level and relevant ability scores. Tailor them to your needs, I guess.
Chapter 6: Zero Level Characters - Pretty extensive bit of rules and ideas for starting characters as NPC classes. I'm not sold on the idea, but there are those who might be, especially since one of the included adventures starts at zero level.)
Chapter 7: Paths of Adventure - Pre-built adventure paths using the current DCC modules with a running plot on how to string them together. Very cool!
Appendix 1: DCC Index - lists which DCC every NPC, moster, and location is mentioend in. Again, very cool.
Haven't done more than browse the adventures yet.
The maps are gorgeous.
This is the best 'classic' D&D setting to come out since Mystara in my opinion. There are no crazy twists like in Eberron or Dark Sun, it's just swords and sorcery done very, very well.
I'll most likely be running this with either Savage Worlds or the Rules Cyclopedia someday since I've vowed never to run 3.5 again. Even as a resource for another system I still feel like I got a good value for my money.
I'm sure there are flaws, but I've yet to notice them.
