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<blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2011789" data-attributes="member: 172"><p><strong>Kingdoms of Kalamar Player’s Primer</strong></p><p></p><p>The <em>Kingdoms of Kalamar Player’s Primer</em> is a reference for players providing general setting information from a PC standpoint and PC background generation tables, for characters in Kenzer & Company’s <em>Kingdoms of Kalamar</em> setting. The book is written by Doug Click, D. Andrew Ferguson, Chris McFarlane, and Mark Plemmons.</p><p></p><p><strong>A First Look</strong></p><p></p><p>The <em>Kingdoms of Kalamar Player’s Primer</em> is a 128 page perfect-bound soft cover book priced at $19.99. Though once not that unusual a price for <em>D20 System</em> books of this size, book prices are trending up and this price is rather competitive by way of comparison.</p><p></p><p>The cover illustration by Keith DeCesare is a collage of character pictures in a sepia-on-parchment colored front cover plate.</p><p></p><p>The interior is bereft of illustration other than the bog standard chapter headers. This is somewhat unfortunate, especially given the topic of the book. In many ways, this book can serve as a player version of the campaign setting book, and at the very least it would have been helpful to include the pictures of the various sample members of the various Kalamar cultures from the setting book to assist players in picturing members of their culture.</p><p></p><p><strong>A Deeper Look</strong></p><p></p><p>The <em>Kingdoms of Kalamar Player’s Primer</em> is divided into five chapters.</p><p></p><p>The first chapter is entitled <em>Reasonable Knowledge</em>, and provides in brief common character knowledge for the various nations and regions of Tellene. Each nation or region shares a similar format, with <em>an outsider’s view</em>, <em>an insider’s view</em> (reflecting common knowledge of either about the area), possibly followed by brief descriptions of other major regions, and a table of knowledge check DCs. These tables provide different DCs for insiders and outsiders for a number of snippets of information, including coinage, racial relations, legal system, languages, economy, and major NPCs.</p><p></p><p>The second chapter contains information on a number of professions and their social standing in the city, with descriptions of what they do and who they typically deal with. This information is fairly apparent to most veteran players and this is probably the least immediately useful in the book. Thankfully, the chapter is somewhat brief.</p><p></p><p>The third chapter covers religion in Tellene. Somewhat similar to the insider/outsider view covered previously, this chapter provides summaries of the dogma and attitudes of church members, including attitudes towards some specific allied and opposing churches for each. The chapter also includes references for Tellene deities, including their names among various races and cultures, game information (domains and weapons), names of orders, garb, symbols, and the like.</p><p></p><p>The fourth chapter is a selection of random name generators for major Kalamar cultures and races.</p><p></p><p>The fifth chapter is a selection of tables for detailing a character’s background, not unlike the classic <em>Central Casting</em> books by Task Force Games. These tables generate details such as family history and events in the character’s youth, adolescece, and training.</p><p></p><p>The appendices collect a variety of useful information to supplement the foregoing character concept and informational material, such as a glossary of terms and locations, a comprehensive table for place of character origins, and a selection of maps of inhabited regions.</p><p></p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong></p><p></p><p>One of the main drawbacks of the <em>Kingdoms of Kalamar</em> campaign setting book was that it was all detail and no summary. This made it problematic to use as a resource for players; not only was it difficult to digest for a player to get the gist of the setting, such a perusal could well reveal setting secrets that should reveal setting secrets that a DM may be reserving for later adventures.</p><p></p><p>The <em>Kingdoms of Kalamar Player’s Primer</em> addresses this issue nicely, by mining out the material that is most pertinent to players. This should be a good aid to character conceptualization, and the random tables should provide further information (as well as being the most easily usable by players of other settings.)</p><p></p><p>As mentioned, the least useful section is probably that of the character professions and social classes.</p><p></p><p>One minor nit, in some places the grammar in the background charts is garbled. For example, some text in the training tables includes: "you were not sure who person they were".</p><p></p><p><em>Overall Grade: B</em></p><p></p><p><em> -Alan D. Kohler</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Psion, post: 2011789, member: 172"] [b]Kingdoms of Kalamar Player’s Primer[/b] The [i]Kingdoms of Kalamar Player’s Primer[/i] is a reference for players providing general setting information from a PC standpoint and PC background generation tables, for characters in Kenzer & Company’s [i]Kingdoms of Kalamar[/i] setting. The book is written by Doug Click, D. Andrew Ferguson, Chris McFarlane, and Mark Plemmons. [b]A First Look[/b] The [i]Kingdoms of Kalamar Player’s Primer[/i] is a 128 page perfect-bound soft cover book priced at $19.99. Though once not that unusual a price for [i]D20 System[/i] books of this size, book prices are trending up and this price is rather competitive by way of comparison. The cover illustration by Keith DeCesare is a collage of character pictures in a sepia-on-parchment colored front cover plate. The interior is bereft of illustration other than the bog standard chapter headers. This is somewhat unfortunate, especially given the topic of the book. In many ways, this book can serve as a player version of the campaign setting book, and at the very least it would have been helpful to include the pictures of the various sample members of the various Kalamar cultures from the setting book to assist players in picturing members of their culture. [b]A Deeper Look[/b] The [i]Kingdoms of Kalamar Player’s Primer[/i] is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is entitled [i]Reasonable Knowledge[/i], and provides in brief common character knowledge for the various nations and regions of Tellene. Each nation or region shares a similar format, with [i]an outsider’s view[/i], [i]an insider’s view[/i] (reflecting common knowledge of either about the area), possibly followed by brief descriptions of other major regions, and a table of knowledge check DCs. These tables provide different DCs for insiders and outsiders for a number of snippets of information, including coinage, racial relations, legal system, languages, economy, and major NPCs. The second chapter contains information on a number of professions and their social standing in the city, with descriptions of what they do and who they typically deal with. This information is fairly apparent to most veteran players and this is probably the least immediately useful in the book. Thankfully, the chapter is somewhat brief. The third chapter covers religion in Tellene. Somewhat similar to the insider/outsider view covered previously, this chapter provides summaries of the dogma and attitudes of church members, including attitudes towards some specific allied and opposing churches for each. The chapter also includes references for Tellene deities, including their names among various races and cultures, game information (domains and weapons), names of orders, garb, symbols, and the like. The fourth chapter is a selection of random name generators for major Kalamar cultures and races. The fifth chapter is a selection of tables for detailing a character’s background, not unlike the classic [i]Central Casting[/i] books by Task Force Games. These tables generate details such as family history and events in the character’s youth, adolescece, and training. The appendices collect a variety of useful information to supplement the foregoing character concept and informational material, such as a glossary of terms and locations, a comprehensive table for place of character origins, and a selection of maps of inhabited regions. [b]Conclusions[/b] One of the main drawbacks of the [i]Kingdoms of Kalamar[/i] campaign setting book was that it was all detail and no summary. This made it problematic to use as a resource for players; not only was it difficult to digest for a player to get the gist of the setting, such a perusal could well reveal setting secrets that should reveal setting secrets that a DM may be reserving for later adventures. The [i]Kingdoms of Kalamar Player’s Primer[/i] addresses this issue nicely, by mining out the material that is most pertinent to players. This should be a good aid to character conceptualization, and the random tables should provide further information (as well as being the most easily usable by players of other settings.) As mentioned, the least useful section is probably that of the character professions and social classes. One minor nit, in some places the grammar in the background charts is garbled. For example, some text in the training tables includes: "you were not sure who person they were". [i]Overall Grade: B[/i] [i] -Alan D. Kohler[/i] [/QUOTE]
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