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<blockquote data-quote="Deuce Traveler" data-source="post: 3804036" data-attributes="member: 34958"><p><strong>Review</strong></p><p></p><p>Here is what I've come up with, although I did not post it yet. What is your publishing name, if I may ask? Is it Ed's Homebrew Product?</p><p></p><p>Review:</p><p></p><p>WOS1 - The World of Skybourne: Book 1</p><p></p><p>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p></p><p>WOS1 - The World of Skybourne: Book One - Mythos, by Edward Kann</p><p>An OSRIC compatible campaign setting</p><p></p><p>This is Ed Kann's free campaign setting meant to be used with the OSRIC system, and it is meant to give an overview of the fictional world from a historical, cultural, and </p><p>geographical basis. I'll use a format that will cover the quality of the scan and appearance of the artwork, organization and availability of information, connectivity of the </p><p>plot with the elements inside, imagination, and a summary.</p><p></p><p>Aesthetics</p><p></p><p>The book has a red front cover by Darryl Taylor with an image of several floating islands and winged lizard-like creatures flying among them, which instantly gives the viewer a </p><p>sense of the strange geography of Skybourne. There are little touches in this cover art that are important in the book, such as the fact that one of the flying creatures has a </p><p>rider and that there are several waterfalls pouring forth from the most prominent airborne island and into the unknown below it. My only complaint is that the front piece of </p><p>the .pdf does not have a matching back cover of equal value, but instead has a simple final page with an image of an older wizard in the lower right corner.</p><p></p><p>The artwork on the inside of the book was done by several artists, and because of this there is not much consistency in the artwork. This is not to diminish the artists, but </p><p>the style feels different from image to image. Chris Pickrell does several sketches of alien architecture in the midst of towns based on Europe of the middle ages, which I </p><p>found to be compelling. There was also some interesting art from an artist named Jonny Ledford which appeared to me as if he was influenced by a mixture of Rob Liefield and </p><p>Warhammer 40k and although it wasn't my bag he is talented and it will appeal to many. I could go on about the artwork of the other artists, also, which were all solid but </p><p>which had their own styles that were so diverse that they made it difficult to have a consistent visual feel to the campaign.</p><p></p><p>Organization</p><p></p><p>This 49-page .pdf starts off with an explanation by the author in regards to how his setting came into being. He follows this up with a mixture of geography and early </p><p>Skybourne history, which is important since Skybourne is a world covered with water in which airborne islands float above this uninhabitable surface. As you may have guessed, </p><p>the world was not like this until after a cataclysmic event that is covered by the rendition of the early history. The next few pages explain the main races such as the Tsong </p><p>(humans), the Skeld (night elves), the Midge (halflings), Dwarves, the Trolls (half-orcs), and the Silmare (half-elves). These racial descriptions also explain some of the </p><p>missing history that was not covered in the first few pages and tell of how each came to the campaign world as almost all are not native to Skybourne. There are a few more </p><p>pages that deal with arcane magic, sorcery, and divine power in the game world before the next twenty pages which are dedicated solely to the different religions of the </p><p>citizens. The last pages are dedicated to an appendix that briefly discusses the mixture of magic and technology in the world, airships being an important example.</p><p></p><p>There were some grammatical errors made in the document that could have been easily corrected, such as a word that appeared as aGMit instead of admit. You know the author must have used a spell checker to change all the 'DM's to 'GM's in his initial document, but then didn't notice this error while proofreading. Also, the artists are given copyright </p><p>protection by having their names placed over their work, but because these text boxes are sometimes poorly placed and since the text looks the same as the text in the rest of </p><p>the document this can cause problems for the reader. These are not common errors in the document, however, and the columns of text are just the right size and consistent.</p><p></p><p>Finally, the author has a conversational with the reader and uses a lot of 'I' and 'We' in the document, although this is more of an observation than a criticism.</p><p></p><p>Connectivity</p><p></p><p>Skybourne is a world whose initial races were the Trolls and then the colonizing Tsong, but their land was shattered and covered by the ocean. The gods saved these races by </p><p>ripping much of their planet out of the doomed surface, creating floating islands. Later, other races came to Skybourne by manufactured portals and brought new technology and </p><p>magic into the campaign world. The magically advanced Skeld started an empire through the use of their amazing powers which lasted for centuries. Their power would not last, </p><p>however, and a sorcerer by the name of Gavrun absorbed the power of the portals into himself and became a nearly immortal despot. This had the negative effect of also trapping </p><p>all the colonial races in Skybourne as they could no longer travel to their homeworlds. Gavrun started a new state religion and then one day disappeared, and in the chaos that </p><p>followed the empire gradually was diminished until a civil war broke out that Skybourne is still recovering from.</p><p></p><p>So now we have a planet of destroyed and forgotten underwater cities, various races each with their own important and competing religious cultures, magic that is stronger in </p><p>some areas and non-existent in others, flying lizards, airships, black powder weapons, a spirit world, floating islands in the sky, minor gods that like to travel the world and </p><p>meet their people, and unseen major gods that are so powerful and distant that they are alien to the very people who worship them. And yet in a large way it works. The </p><p>history makes sense as do the differing cultures. My only real criticism is that some things do not fit together as well as they could and that there are gaps that could be </p><p>better filled. For instance, there seem to be two religions existing without much strife among the remnants of the empire, one being the deification of ancient Imperial heroes </p><p>and the other being a militant version of the Catholic Church whose followers worship a being called the One. I didn't have the sense that these two Imperial religions could </p><p>co-exist peacefully, and even sects within the One's church seemed as if it would be more likely that they would fight amongst one another rather than cooperate. Finally, </p><p>while some of the minor deities have interesting backstories there are a number of others that simply get an organizational description which makes them less interesting. </p><p>Then again, I'm a firm Catholic so there is the possibility that my criticism for the One's Church is more personal than rational.</p><p></p><p>Imagination</p><p></p><p>The imagination that was involved in creating Skybourne makes this campaign world and I would recommend the downloading and reading of it simply because of the fantastic ideas </p><p>that can be found. I'm not a big fan of airships, pirates, or maritime adventures and yet I found enough in this work to keep me interested and wanting more. The best part of </p><p>the campaign so far was the new renderings of the major races with elves becoming more arcane city builders, half-orcs as noble warriors with a code of honor and affinity with </p><p>dragon kind, half-elves as their own unique race that just happen to look like a cross between elves and humans, dwarves as implied worshippers of fire and earth elementals, </p><p>and halflings as fawning over the missed good-old days of despotic rule under the emperor.</p><p></p><p>Overall</p><p></p><p>This first book for the campaign world was difficult to rate due to the fact that it was free and that it is an incomplete work that will only be finished when the entire </p><p>series is published. If this was to stand on its own I would have given it 3 out of 5 stars since it brings up information that is incomplete such as on the use of magical </p><p>nodes and magically dead areas, the way that a mortal can become a god through gaining worshippers, existing territories and cities, and airships. However, the author starts </p><p>this document explaining that this book is only meant to give a rundown of the races and culture of Skybourne and that more books will be forthcoming. Despite its errors </p><p>(which are less common than in many .pdfs you would actually have to pay for) I find myself compelled to read more of Skybourne and so therefore give it four out of five stars </p><p>for doing such an excellent job of sparking my imagination.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Deuce Traveler, post: 3804036, member: 34958"] [b]Review[/b] Here is what I've come up with, although I did not post it yet. What is your publishing name, if I may ask? Is it Ed's Homebrew Product? Review: WOS1 - The World of Skybourne: Book 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WOS1 - The World of Skybourne: Book One - Mythos, by Edward Kann An OSRIC compatible campaign setting This is Ed Kann's free campaign setting meant to be used with the OSRIC system, and it is meant to give an overview of the fictional world from a historical, cultural, and geographical basis. I'll use a format that will cover the quality of the scan and appearance of the artwork, organization and availability of information, connectivity of the plot with the elements inside, imagination, and a summary. Aesthetics The book has a red front cover by Darryl Taylor with an image of several floating islands and winged lizard-like creatures flying among them, which instantly gives the viewer a sense of the strange geography of Skybourne. There are little touches in this cover art that are important in the book, such as the fact that one of the flying creatures has a rider and that there are several waterfalls pouring forth from the most prominent airborne island and into the unknown below it. My only complaint is that the front piece of the .pdf does not have a matching back cover of equal value, but instead has a simple final page with an image of an older wizard in the lower right corner. The artwork on the inside of the book was done by several artists, and because of this there is not much consistency in the artwork. This is not to diminish the artists, but the style feels different from image to image. Chris Pickrell does several sketches of alien architecture in the midst of towns based on Europe of the middle ages, which I found to be compelling. There was also some interesting art from an artist named Jonny Ledford which appeared to me as if he was influenced by a mixture of Rob Liefield and Warhammer 40k and although it wasn't my bag he is talented and it will appeal to many. I could go on about the artwork of the other artists, also, which were all solid but which had their own styles that were so diverse that they made it difficult to have a consistent visual feel to the campaign. Organization This 49-page .pdf starts off with an explanation by the author in regards to how his setting came into being. He follows this up with a mixture of geography and early Skybourne history, which is important since Skybourne is a world covered with water in which airborne islands float above this uninhabitable surface. As you may have guessed, the world was not like this until after a cataclysmic event that is covered by the rendition of the early history. The next few pages explain the main races such as the Tsong (humans), the Skeld (night elves), the Midge (halflings), Dwarves, the Trolls (half-orcs), and the Silmare (half-elves). These racial descriptions also explain some of the missing history that was not covered in the first few pages and tell of how each came to the campaign world as almost all are not native to Skybourne. There are a few more pages that deal with arcane magic, sorcery, and divine power in the game world before the next twenty pages which are dedicated solely to the different religions of the citizens. The last pages are dedicated to an appendix that briefly discusses the mixture of magic and technology in the world, airships being an important example. There were some grammatical errors made in the document that could have been easily corrected, such as a word that appeared as aGMit instead of admit. You know the author must have used a spell checker to change all the 'DM's to 'GM's in his initial document, but then didn't notice this error while proofreading. Also, the artists are given copyright protection by having their names placed over their work, but because these text boxes are sometimes poorly placed and since the text looks the same as the text in the rest of the document this can cause problems for the reader. These are not common errors in the document, however, and the columns of text are just the right size and consistent. Finally, the author has a conversational with the reader and uses a lot of 'I' and 'We' in the document, although this is more of an observation than a criticism. Connectivity Skybourne is a world whose initial races were the Trolls and then the colonizing Tsong, but their land was shattered and covered by the ocean. The gods saved these races by ripping much of their planet out of the doomed surface, creating floating islands. Later, other races came to Skybourne by manufactured portals and brought new technology and magic into the campaign world. The magically advanced Skeld started an empire through the use of their amazing powers which lasted for centuries. Their power would not last, however, and a sorcerer by the name of Gavrun absorbed the power of the portals into himself and became a nearly immortal despot. This had the negative effect of also trapping all the colonial races in Skybourne as they could no longer travel to their homeworlds. Gavrun started a new state religion and then one day disappeared, and in the chaos that followed the empire gradually was diminished until a civil war broke out that Skybourne is still recovering from. So now we have a planet of destroyed and forgotten underwater cities, various races each with their own important and competing religious cultures, magic that is stronger in some areas and non-existent in others, flying lizards, airships, black powder weapons, a spirit world, floating islands in the sky, minor gods that like to travel the world and meet their people, and unseen major gods that are so powerful and distant that they are alien to the very people who worship them. And yet in a large way it works. The history makes sense as do the differing cultures. My only real criticism is that some things do not fit together as well as they could and that there are gaps that could be better filled. For instance, there seem to be two religions existing without much strife among the remnants of the empire, one being the deification of ancient Imperial heroes and the other being a militant version of the Catholic Church whose followers worship a being called the One. I didn't have the sense that these two Imperial religions could co-exist peacefully, and even sects within the One's church seemed as if it would be more likely that they would fight amongst one another rather than cooperate. Finally, while some of the minor deities have interesting backstories there are a number of others that simply get an organizational description which makes them less interesting. Then again, I'm a firm Catholic so there is the possibility that my criticism for the One's Church is more personal than rational. Imagination The imagination that was involved in creating Skybourne makes this campaign world and I would recommend the downloading and reading of it simply because of the fantastic ideas that can be found. I'm not a big fan of airships, pirates, or maritime adventures and yet I found enough in this work to keep me interested and wanting more. The best part of the campaign so far was the new renderings of the major races with elves becoming more arcane city builders, half-orcs as noble warriors with a code of honor and affinity with dragon kind, half-elves as their own unique race that just happen to look like a cross between elves and humans, dwarves as implied worshippers of fire and earth elementals, and halflings as fawning over the missed good-old days of despotic rule under the emperor. Overall This first book for the campaign world was difficult to rate due to the fact that it was free and that it is an incomplete work that will only be finished when the entire series is published. If this was to stand on its own I would have given it 3 out of 5 stars since it brings up information that is incomplete such as on the use of magical nodes and magically dead areas, the way that a mortal can become a god through gaining worshippers, existing territories and cities, and airships. However, the author starts this document explaining that this book is only meant to give a rundown of the races and culture of Skybourne and that more books will be forthcoming. Despite its errors (which are less common than in many .pdfs you would actually have to pay for) I find myself compelled to read more of Skybourne and so therefore give it four out of five stars for doing such an excellent job of sparking my imagination. [/QUOTE]
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