Age of Legend is the first Dawnroge supplement to come out. The cover proclaims, “A Player’s Companion For Dawnforge.”
At 128 black and white pages, the book is priced at industry average at $21.95. The interior artwork is some of the best in the industry. Chapters are broken up with full-page maps of the region being covered. This maps, while in black and white, are easy to read and include a Legend, showing where cities, towns, and villages are, in addition to other important markers like guard towers. The layout is standard two-column style. Chapters start off with notes about the area, recorded by another viewer, giving each section a bit of a different perspective.
The book is broken into eight chapters. Each chapter covering a different section. For example, we have Chapter One, Dwarves of Aradath, while in Chapter Four, we have Humanoids of the North. This groups races by area and allows a GM whose focusing on one particular part to point out useful bits to his players or for a player looking for a specific race, like say Tiefling, to quickly find what she’s looking for.
The book also introduces Cultural Feats. These are similar to Regional Feats in official books, but they’re a little easier to gain. See, you don’t have to take one at first level, and you don’t have to come from the reigion, but if you don’t, you have to have immersion in the culture during gameplay by spending at least six months in the culture.
Each section includes these cultural feats, as well as racial talents and transformations. Something different, standard prestige clases, are also included. These are not throw away prestige classes either as they’re tied into an organization which is described immediately following the PrC. Take for example the Diamond Guardsman, a caste of warriors that arose after the Last War where dwarves and fire giants battled one another. These individuals belong to the Diamond Guard.
The good thing about the PrCs here, is that unlike the Legendary PrCs in the core book, they are more compatible with a standard campaign, so if you wanted to yank a Brother of the Panthic Order into your own setting, it’s a littler easier as they don’t rely only on things native to the setting like Path Mastery.
The organizations are detailed with purpose, leader, current activities, and campaign integration. This allows a player to get an interesting PrC, tied directly to the world, and any GM worth his salt, to start using the organizations right away and pull the campaign in directions that he favors. This is especially true of organizations mentioned in the core book like the Griffin Company or the members of the Knights Adamant.
Now this isn’t just an expansion of existing material. We have new directions. Some of these seem familiar to those exposed to a variety of fantasy materials. For example, on the Outskirts of Sildaynyr, we have elves who master combat through different dance styles like Dance of the Pince Needle, where the user gains a bonus to dodge and initiative when wearing light armor and fighting with certain weapons.
Included in these new mechanics are things that add to the setting overall, but at the same time, drain some of the unique factor. Take Ghost Elves. A race of elves that have branched out to the north and have ties to the spiritual energy of the land there. Good enough in and of itself. On the other hand, we have our old friends, the self-isolated Wood Elves.
These new races include starting traits, as well as racial talents and transformation information, allowing these races to be used alongside those of the core book, expanding a player’s starting options substantially.
Another nice touch is that it seems no race is left untouched. Looking for information for a Yuan Ti or a Tiefling? How about a Lizardfolk or even Halfling? By covering all of the races, the book almost serves double duty. For example, if the players are taken with the idea of playing Dawn Elves and the GM with the idea of pitting them against the Night Elves, both will have further options to indulge in. If the GM wants to show how the orcs are moving along different lines of culture, exploration and warfare, he has tools to do so.
The information here isn’t like that found in a world book or other setting material as its aimed at players, but the organizations and background material for each region is solid. Player’s and GMs looking for more options for their campaigns should enjoy the depth of material here.
