So you’re a GM for a Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign and you have a new player who wants to create a character with a detailed background. At this point, you should grab the Player’s Primer, a character sourcebook that focuses on the details of characters native to the Kalamar setting. No, this isn’t a book of crunch with new feats, PrCs, spells, and magic items, but rather, a sourcebook on all information of Kalamar.
Weighing in at 128 black and white pages for $19.99, the book is competitively priced as most books of that page count are now anywhere from $21.95-$23.95. On the bad side, there is no internal art. The space is used for tables. On the plus side, there are several excellent full pages of maps of the setting
The book is not broken up into traditional chapters with each one focusing on a different aspect. The first chapter, Reasonable KNowledge, starts on page 5 and ends on page 51, as it’s broken up into regions with the sub-regions within detailed. For example, under Brandobia, we have Cosdol, Eldor, Lathlanian, Mendarn and Pel Brolenon. Under each section, we have the following details: An Outsider’s View (human and humanoid), An Insider’s View (human and humanoid), tables with DC checks for insider’s and outsiders, and major cities. The DC checks include information about government, population, prominent personalities, monetary systems, prominent languages, race relations, prominent religions, economy, legal system and other notes.
The book is very encompassing with its range. Want to know about the Kingdom of Ul-Karg? Flip to page 47 and read about it’s major cities, Burzumagh and Ronazagh. Want to know about the Free City of Bronish? Go to page 49.
Now as useful as that material is, there are still other aspects of the game that need detailing. For example, social class. Anyone remember social class from the 1st Edition of AD&D’s Unearthed Arcana? Well, here, it takes several professions like Brewer, Engineer, Merchant, Sage, and Weaponsmith, along with a ton of others, and breaks down details in terms of other people known, and social standing. The other people known is so that the GM can look at these professions and see who they know, much like the Five Steps Removed Rule. You can look at a Torch Bearer and see that they know adventurers and merchants and often come from a lower middle class. When specialties within the profession are known, they’re called out. For example, a weaponsmith has a wide list of variants like bowyers, fletches, and swordsmiths.
For those looking for a breakdown on the gods of the setting, chapter three covers the religion of Tellene. This breakdown takes the church, provides the Deity Names, an outsider’s view, a practitioner’s view, enemies and allies. Under each section is information showing the deity’s standing with others. For instance, under the Ch8urch of the Life’s Fire, we see that people often look fondly upon htem and that the practioner’s work to better the world about them. The information on other deities is often a one sentence statement like for the Face of the Free, “To bring freedom to the enslaved is a grand goal.”
Now one of the things I don’t like about the setting, but appreciate it for it’s realism, is the names for deities. See, each country worships the same deity, but under a different name. There are charts here that show you the church and the deity’s name under each country. Want to see the name for the Emperor of Scorn for the Dejy? Want to know what the Knight of the God’s name is to the Orcs? It’s covered.
Another set of tables is the Deities of Tellene Comprehensive Table. This provides the alignment & deity, spheres of influence, priesthood, church, cannon, weapon, symbol, divine focus and sacred animal. Look at the Power Master and see that his worshippers are the Seekers of the Three Strengths and that his weapon is the Greaclub and that his animal is the Ox.
Now Chapter Four, Random Names, in my opinion, should’ve just been incorporated into chapter one. The first section discusses the use of how many names a particular region has and if they use surnames, and is followed by tables of names. These are a great resource for any campaign as they’re easy to use, broken up into % roll for those who want random names (perfect for NPC’s), female, male, and surname.
Chapter Five is another great tool for those seeking to expand their character’s history. It includes tables for how many parents are living, how many siblings you have, what happened in ancient family history, recent family history, parental history, sibling relations, childhood and adolescence events, training tables for each class, including Kalamar Variants like Infiltrators and Gladiators, as well as psions and psychic warriors, but nothing for the other core classes in the Expanded Psionics Handbook. This is a d10 role and more for flavor than deep details. For example, under Wizard Training, rolling a 6 gets you a background of wandering from mentor to mentor while under ranger, rolling an 8 gets you a mentor that keep many strange creatures about him.
The appendices include a wide range of material. This includes a glossary, place of origin, maps, and a very detailed index.
The utility to other campaign settings, for the most part, is going to be in idea generating. The names and background details are easy enough to swipe to any campaign, but the details on how one country views another and how humanoids think of their home that doesn’t exist in another campaign setting, aren’t going to go very far.
For a Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign, the Player’s Primer is a perfect tool for GMs with lots of NPCs or players who want to know more than just the country they came from.
