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The World of Khaas: The Legendary Lands of Arduin
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<blockquote data-quote="Sinjucala" data-source="post: 2011185" data-attributes="member: 18345"><p>First off, why put “prototype” on such an intriguing cover? Everyone seems so rushed to crowd the greatest and latest picture or design on their covers so they can play up the “flash” and “sparklies”. Anyway, that is not the point of this review but I wanted to say the cover gave the gigantic book a certain air of elegance. Its gutsy lack of “flair” spoke almost with as much volume as the massive amount of material inside. Why can’t more publishers do this kind of thing? I mean, the whole darn book outside of a few odd pages of charts in the back is utterly devoid of system mechanics! Not that I don’t mind a few rules or clarifications here and there in products to “spice them up”. Too many seem to be more about how new feats, skills, and powers they can cram into a book than about any kind of exciting material. Okay. Enough of the soapbox action. Let me jump right into reviewing this monstrosity.</p><p></p><p> First off, it is a bloody behemoth of a book. I have dictionaries that are smaller than this thing! It is pretty durable as well. A five year old using it as a base for his skateboard ramp put it to the test, let me tell you. I was glad to see the binding was still intact after that beating (even if the cover took a good beating…but show me a well favored game book that doesn’t). I wish they had put something on the spine, maybe more of that gold letter that is on the front. Not that I expect to mistake it for any other book anytime soon. My first impression was a mix of awe and apprehension—I mean, the darn thing was so thick and full when I leafed through it the first time, I wasn’t sure if I could finish reading the bloody thing before 2004 ended! The book is 865 pages long and about the fullest campaign setting I have ever seen in one volume (or several, for that matter). The publishers didn’t waste space by making large margins either. I measured them for kicks and it came out around ½ inch. The font looks to be about the same size you would see in a normal paperback novel, so it isn’t overlarge or anything. If I had to give a size, I would say size 10 or so.</p><p></p><p> Again, there doesn’t seem to be crap about system mechanics anywhere and it is dense with information. Just to give an example I was reading about the dozen or so constellations in the first part of the volume when I realized there was a chart of like 50 more in the back. It gave me a surge of ideas just looking at the names and thinking of all the trouble I could arrange in game just using the cool sounding names. I mean, they have this neat constellation called Yugora’s Maw that is swallowing another constellation. With that Yugora guy also being a god, whole hordes of ideas came crashing into my head about plot lines and ideas on where I could take this little gem. This is just the little stuff. There is pages and pages of sheer game info on the continents and oceans, even though a majority of the book seems to focus on just one continent.</p><p></p><p>The races section sent my mind a whirling again and there is all kinds of races ranging from the mundane to some more exotic ones like the phraint and kai-zirn or the multitude of half-everything’s that seem to be present. There is tons more of material about unique drinks, poisons, martial arts, nexus gates, and pages on things like how people handle death, birth and all those interesting things. All that stuff was interesting but I have to admit I jumped over a lot (okay, all of it) to check out the metals, unique gems, and how they explained the colleges and guilds I have always wondered about that seemed to proliferate in Arduin. The magik part was interesting, even if disagree with some of the concepts. The animals and critters section I leafed through, but have marked to come back. The history, however, wow…I have always, always, always wanted to know about Arduin’s history. I mean, its been hinted at forever but no one I know has every put together a good cohesive line of history outside of what was printed in the arduin grimoires back in the 70’s. To see it all laid out from the time of the Kthoi (and even before them!) to the present was like a dream come true. What boggled my mind when I was done goggling at the history was the fact I hadn’t even gotten one quarter of the way through the book! They took the time to talk about the different gods, expanding on a lot of the deities and demons I had seen in previous writing but hadn’t been able to find any information on. Can’t say I was impressed with all the little images next to the gods. Couldn’t they have gotten better images? Or, at least put next to all the gods? The grater demons were the same way. Still, even if they seem to have run out here and there, their was tons of info about each one.</p><p> The real goodies of the book (outside of the couple hundred pages about Arduin in the back, that is) was in the countries. There are 74 countries with pages of info on their vital stats (capitol, population, and all that jazz), socieity, customs, education, military, commerce, landmarks and history. Most are 3 pages long, though I counted one with 8 pages and several with 5-7. Only 1 or 2 had a single page entry and these were pretty minor countries it seemed. The sheer amount of info on each one and the total was pretty awe inspiring. If they had done this much work on the other nations sharing a continent with Arduin, I couldn’t wait to see that one. Can’t say I was disappointed either! Arduin starts on page 550 of the volume and goes for 200 pages more. It starts with two maps, one like the rest of the maps (crap. Forgot to say that each country had its own regional map, well done too. There was also a world and continent map too) and the other one their two-three foot map that they sell separately. Leafing through the reams of material about the geography, I would definitely want to get the bigger map as well. They give locations to a lot of geographic places in the book that are only on the bigger map. I found them all on the map they provided, but it is a heck of lot easier looking at my big map than the map sized one included. Too bad they couldn’t have put the both together, but they probably couldn’t due to cost or something. Not that I am cranking about the price tag. If anything, $60 was too cheap!</p><p> The history of Arduin was intriguing, if not down right insprining. I had seen some of it before, as the Elf-Human Wars part of it was in print way back when. The rest, though, I had never seen before and so much fell into place after reading it. There was a lot of detail afterward, more than I can keep spouting without taking tons more room. So I’ll just summarize. They spent some time on Arduin’s military (yes!), foods, calendar and holidays. It was the noble houses that I grooved on and they tell about each house, its prominent members and its origins. The politics part was interesting and detailed, even if it wasn’t quite as clearcut or what I thought. It made sense though, which was weird in a way. I liked have information on all the major and minor poltical factions…the plots it generated just reading them and their backgrounds had me scrambling for paper and pen. Religions felt a little skipped over. Still, given the amount of time they put on gods and demons previously, I can kinda see why. There was tons of Arduin related info on guilds and colleges too and a whole slew of more organizations just local to the country too. I loved the cities and actually having a description and idea of their contents. The cityscapes they had were cool too. I liked seeing them. The book ended with notes and discussion on the Arduin nexus. Or, at least its section on Arduin did. There was a list of stars and constellations that came next and following it a rogue’s gallery of npcs for Arduin. Enough to keep me in characters and names for quite a while! I didn’t count how many there were but there is a couple of pages of just named characters and paragraph blocks of info on them. Rumors followed that and there was pages of Arduin specific rumors to kick start any game that needed a few. There was a ton more other charts after that.</p><p></p><p>Some other observations. I was glad to see the binding hold up after some repeated use (and my five year old). Its glue only or so its looked but they must have used some good stuff or just a lot of it because it is holding strong. On the downside, there is some typos and grammar issues here and there. Not that I blame them. It’s a darn huge book (and a fine one at that). Nothing glaringly obvious (and considering my spelling not something I should be hollering about too loudly) or more than any other book I have on my shelf. A couple of places weren’t like the others, but again, based on the size I and the material they put out, I am not surprised or too horribly upset. I would definitely pay the money again and personally am looking at buying a second, especially since I am getting tired of everyone taking my copy to look at!</p><p></p><p>I even heard on one forum that they cut material to make the volume. ???? Who does this kind of stuff? If they are going to put out a supplement, they can count on me to buy it if it is anything even remotely close to this one! </p><p></p><p>Reviewing Note:</p><p></p><p>I wrote this and then looked at more of the reviews. I upped the score from 4* to 5* for a couple of reasons. </p><p>1. This book is huge. Its full of new material that has never seen print before. </p><p>2. Its compatable with anything or every system out there because it has no system to itself. Truly game-nuetral if such a thing was possible.</p><p>3. The info is truly interesting. I keep finding new things every time I break open the cover.</p><p>4. For its page count, price, and maps it can't be beat.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sinjucala, post: 2011185, member: 18345"] First off, why put “prototype” on such an intriguing cover? Everyone seems so rushed to crowd the greatest and latest picture or design on their covers so they can play up the “flash” and “sparklies”. Anyway, that is not the point of this review but I wanted to say the cover gave the gigantic book a certain air of elegance. Its gutsy lack of “flair” spoke almost with as much volume as the massive amount of material inside. Why can’t more publishers do this kind of thing? I mean, the whole darn book outside of a few odd pages of charts in the back is utterly devoid of system mechanics! Not that I don’t mind a few rules or clarifications here and there in products to “spice them up”. Too many seem to be more about how new feats, skills, and powers they can cram into a book than about any kind of exciting material. Okay. Enough of the soapbox action. Let me jump right into reviewing this monstrosity. First off, it is a bloody behemoth of a book. I have dictionaries that are smaller than this thing! It is pretty durable as well. A five year old using it as a base for his skateboard ramp put it to the test, let me tell you. I was glad to see the binding was still intact after that beating (even if the cover took a good beating…but show me a well favored game book that doesn’t). I wish they had put something on the spine, maybe more of that gold letter that is on the front. Not that I expect to mistake it for any other book anytime soon. My first impression was a mix of awe and apprehension—I mean, the darn thing was so thick and full when I leafed through it the first time, I wasn’t sure if I could finish reading the bloody thing before 2004 ended! The book is 865 pages long and about the fullest campaign setting I have ever seen in one volume (or several, for that matter). The publishers didn’t waste space by making large margins either. I measured them for kicks and it came out around ½ inch. The font looks to be about the same size you would see in a normal paperback novel, so it isn’t overlarge or anything. If I had to give a size, I would say size 10 or so. Again, there doesn’t seem to be crap about system mechanics anywhere and it is dense with information. Just to give an example I was reading about the dozen or so constellations in the first part of the volume when I realized there was a chart of like 50 more in the back. It gave me a surge of ideas just looking at the names and thinking of all the trouble I could arrange in game just using the cool sounding names. I mean, they have this neat constellation called Yugora’s Maw that is swallowing another constellation. With that Yugora guy also being a god, whole hordes of ideas came crashing into my head about plot lines and ideas on where I could take this little gem. This is just the little stuff. There is pages and pages of sheer game info on the continents and oceans, even though a majority of the book seems to focus on just one continent. The races section sent my mind a whirling again and there is all kinds of races ranging from the mundane to some more exotic ones like the phraint and kai-zirn or the multitude of half-everything’s that seem to be present. There is tons more of material about unique drinks, poisons, martial arts, nexus gates, and pages on things like how people handle death, birth and all those interesting things. All that stuff was interesting but I have to admit I jumped over a lot (okay, all of it) to check out the metals, unique gems, and how they explained the colleges and guilds I have always wondered about that seemed to proliferate in Arduin. The magik part was interesting, even if disagree with some of the concepts. The animals and critters section I leafed through, but have marked to come back. The history, however, wow…I have always, always, always wanted to know about Arduin’s history. I mean, its been hinted at forever but no one I know has every put together a good cohesive line of history outside of what was printed in the arduin grimoires back in the 70’s. To see it all laid out from the time of the Kthoi (and even before them!) to the present was like a dream come true. What boggled my mind when I was done goggling at the history was the fact I hadn’t even gotten one quarter of the way through the book! They took the time to talk about the different gods, expanding on a lot of the deities and demons I had seen in previous writing but hadn’t been able to find any information on. Can’t say I was impressed with all the little images next to the gods. Couldn’t they have gotten better images? Or, at least put next to all the gods? The grater demons were the same way. Still, even if they seem to have run out here and there, their was tons of info about each one. The real goodies of the book (outside of the couple hundred pages about Arduin in the back, that is) was in the countries. There are 74 countries with pages of info on their vital stats (capitol, population, and all that jazz), socieity, customs, education, military, commerce, landmarks and history. Most are 3 pages long, though I counted one with 8 pages and several with 5-7. Only 1 or 2 had a single page entry and these were pretty minor countries it seemed. The sheer amount of info on each one and the total was pretty awe inspiring. If they had done this much work on the other nations sharing a continent with Arduin, I couldn’t wait to see that one. Can’t say I was disappointed either! Arduin starts on page 550 of the volume and goes for 200 pages more. It starts with two maps, one like the rest of the maps (crap. Forgot to say that each country had its own regional map, well done too. There was also a world and continent map too) and the other one their two-three foot map that they sell separately. Leafing through the reams of material about the geography, I would definitely want to get the bigger map as well. They give locations to a lot of geographic places in the book that are only on the bigger map. I found them all on the map they provided, but it is a heck of lot easier looking at my big map than the map sized one included. Too bad they couldn’t have put the both together, but they probably couldn’t due to cost or something. Not that I am cranking about the price tag. If anything, $60 was too cheap! The history of Arduin was intriguing, if not down right insprining. I had seen some of it before, as the Elf-Human Wars part of it was in print way back when. The rest, though, I had never seen before and so much fell into place after reading it. There was a lot of detail afterward, more than I can keep spouting without taking tons more room. So I’ll just summarize. They spent some time on Arduin’s military (yes!), foods, calendar and holidays. It was the noble houses that I grooved on and they tell about each house, its prominent members and its origins. The politics part was interesting and detailed, even if it wasn’t quite as clearcut or what I thought. It made sense though, which was weird in a way. I liked have information on all the major and minor poltical factions…the plots it generated just reading them and their backgrounds had me scrambling for paper and pen. Religions felt a little skipped over. Still, given the amount of time they put on gods and demons previously, I can kinda see why. There was tons of Arduin related info on guilds and colleges too and a whole slew of more organizations just local to the country too. I loved the cities and actually having a description and idea of their contents. The cityscapes they had were cool too. I liked seeing them. The book ended with notes and discussion on the Arduin nexus. Or, at least its section on Arduin did. There was a list of stars and constellations that came next and following it a rogue’s gallery of npcs for Arduin. Enough to keep me in characters and names for quite a while! I didn’t count how many there were but there is a couple of pages of just named characters and paragraph blocks of info on them. Rumors followed that and there was pages of Arduin specific rumors to kick start any game that needed a few. There was a ton more other charts after that. Some other observations. I was glad to see the binding hold up after some repeated use (and my five year old). Its glue only or so its looked but they must have used some good stuff or just a lot of it because it is holding strong. On the downside, there is some typos and grammar issues here and there. Not that I blame them. It’s a darn huge book (and a fine one at that). Nothing glaringly obvious (and considering my spelling not something I should be hollering about too loudly) or more than any other book I have on my shelf. A couple of places weren’t like the others, but again, based on the size I and the material they put out, I am not surprised or too horribly upset. I would definitely pay the money again and personally am looking at buying a second, especially since I am getting tired of everyone taking my copy to look at! I even heard on one forum that they cut material to make the volume. ???? Who does this kind of stuff? If they are going to put out a supplement, they can count on me to buy it if it is anything even remotely close to this one! Reviewing Note: I wrote this and then looked at more of the reviews. I upped the score from 4* to 5* for a couple of reasons. 1. This book is huge. Its full of new material that has never seen print before. 2. Its compatable with anything or every system out there because it has no system to itself. Truly game-nuetral if such a thing was possible. 3. The info is truly interesting. I keep finding new things every time I break open the cover. 4. For its page count, price, and maps it can't be beat. [/QUOTE]
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