By Glenn Dean, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack
Sizing Up the Target
Silver Marches is a
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® FORGOTTEN REALMS® accessory written by Ed Greenwood (creator of the Forgotten Realms) and Jason Carl, published by Wizards of the Coast. This full-color softcover regional sourcebook has a cover painting depicting an orc assault, and includes a full-color 20 x 30 inch poster map of the region and its major cities. The 160-page product retails for $27.95.
First Blood
Silver Marches is the first of the regional sourcebooks designed as an expansion for the 3rd Edition
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. It is devoted to coverage of the northwestern part of Faerun, in the area north of Waterdeep, south of the Spine of the World, and west of the Great Desert. Portions of this material previously appeared in
The Savage Frontier and
The North boxed sets of the 1st and 2d Edition D&D game; the material has been revised, consolidated, and updated to 3rd edition rules, and there is one very significant political change – the consolidation of much of the North as a confederation, now known as the Silver Marches under the leadership of Alustriel of Silverymoon.
Approximately two-thirds of the book is dedicated to providing the background to the region, with detailed descriptions of the geography, people, cities, and politics of the Silver Marches.
The first chapter, “The Lay of the Land”, focuses on geography, detailing each of the major geographic regions and features within the Silver Marches. These include the major forested areas (Arn Forest, Cold Wood, Druarwood, Moonwood), the different mountain ranges (Nether Mountains, Rauvin Mountains, Ice Mountains), as well as the major border areas (Evermoors, High Forest, Spine of the World, Great Desert). Major features of the Underdark below the Silver Marches also receive coverage. Each geographic section receives a description, details on major geographic features within the region, and where appropriate descriptions and statistics for the various towns, villages, and hamlets. Major non-player characters have statistics presented as sidebars.
Chapter Two, “Exploring the Wilds”, describes the major flora and fauna found in this part of Faerun, along with very complete wilderness encounter tables for all types of terrain, as well as almost five pages on information on weather and the effects of local weather and terrain on adventuring. The Silver Marches is a rough frontier region; this chapter captures that feel quite well.
Chapter Three, “Cities of the Silver Marches”, provides details on the major cities of the region. Each of the cities detailed – Silverymoon, Sundabar, Citadel Felbarr, Citadel Adbar, Deadsnows, Everlund, Mthral Hall, Quaervarr, and Newfort – has basic population statistics, a history, descriptions of important sites, details useful for adventurers visiting (such as noted taverns and major inns), as well as adventure hooks and statistics for a couple of the notable NPCs that may be encountered there. Realms fans will recognize most of these characters –Bruenor Battlehammer and King Harbromm, for example. Maps for the largest cities are included on the poster map.
The fourth chapter, “People of the Silver Marches” provides an excellent overview of life on the frontier. Topics of law, trade, defense, the status of adventurers, and the organization of military organizations are all discussed in this chapter. The various tribes of Uthgardt Barbarians also get a five-page treatment, including game statistics for the barbarian Wulfgar from the
Forgotten Realms novels.
“Politics and Power”, chapter five, provides some recent history (since 1367 DR) and describes the founding of the confederation of the Silver Marches, along with the political machinations that really govern the realm – a section ripe for mining for adventures based on political maneuvering and intrigue. The major threats to the Silver Marches get a cursory treatment in this chapter – non-human raiders, worshippers of Malar, the Arcane Brotherhood, and the orcs of King Obould Many-Arrows are some of the topics. While not providing a great deal of detail on each group, this section does serve to provide a number of good plot hooks for continuing adventures in the region.
The remaining sections of the book provide game mechanics appropriate to the region and some ready-to-run adventures. “Heroes of the North” provides six prestige classes for the region. The Giant Killer and Hordebreaker are specialized fighting classes, each with their own style, while the Knight-Errant of Silverymoon provides a type of frontier knight in the service of the confederation. The Orc Scout and Wild Scout are two great wilderness prestige classes with nice flavor and appropriate abilities, but the Peerless Archer is about the most overpowered prestige class I’ve seen – ranged sneak attacks, a ranged power attack, enchanted arrows, the ability to threaten an area with a bow, and the ability to ignore cover and concealment being his major abilities.
Another chapter presents a number of frontier animals along with four monsters, of which the Snowcloak is the most unique and bizarre entry – a weird two headed, magic wielding flying beast out of a snow-blinded nightmare.
The book concludes with a number of adventures. “Black Fury” is a short encounter with a were-creature hold appropriate for 6th level characters; “Dead Orc Pass” provides a short mountain adventure for 5th level characters; and “Telkoun’s Tower” provides a broken-down wizards tower for 7th level characters to explore. The last adventure, “Blood and Gold”, is really a mini campaign set around the town of Deadsnows, and links a series of small adventures appropriate for a party of 5th level or higher characters.
Silver Marches has a detailed table of contents, but lacks an index. It is nicely illustrated; the page work is similar to the
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, with some very nicely done color artwork every couple of pages – in keeping with the other books in the series, this is a very nice looking product.
Critical Hits
Silver Marches does a great job of capturing the flavor of a wild, barely controlled region ready for exploration by a party of intrepid frontiersmen. There is a tremendous amount of background material here for a wide range of adventures – political, wilderness exploration, traditional dungeon delving, from the mundane to the fantastic.
I particularly like the range of geographic and wilderness information – the “Exploring the Wild” chapter is useful material for almost any outdoor campaign in a temperate or cooler region. And though this area has been visited before in previous products, the new political boundaries add some fresh features to a landscape ready for classic adventuring.
Forgotten Realms fans in particular will find the information in
Silver Marches to be interesting and useful (though be prepared for a few changes and inconsistencies from previous material).
Critical Misses
Gamers looking to mine this product for game mechanics for other settings will be a bit disappointed. There aren’t any new feats, spells, or magic items; of the six prestige classes one is questionable at best. The background material is heavily tied to the setting and occupies a majority of the book, and while the adventures are useful (“Blood and Gold” is actually a great little mini-campaign), they aren’t by themselves worth the price of admission.
Now, I personally like the ratio of background flavor to game mechanics in this product – this is clearly a work where the background came first, and then mechanics were built as appropriate, rather than the other way around – but gamers who do not use this setting will not find the ratio of material to their advantage. For them, while the background material will be interesting reading, they may not find the content quite worth the cost.
Coup de Grace
As a
Forgotten Realms® product, none of the material in
Silver Marches is open content, and the limited mechanics, some of which are potentially unbalanced, mar the d20 compliance score slightly. The material has been treated at least twice before, so while the updates are original, the base material is not. Players and GMs using the
Forgotten Realms setting will get their money’s worth out of this product; other gamers may wish to consider carefully before picking this up at full price. It’s a nicely constructed, beautifully presented gaming sourcebook, but he content balance may not be right for everyone.
To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.