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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2011810" data-attributes="member: 1129">Reading over Ancient Kingdoms Mesopotamia took me a while. The sourcebook side of it is so weak that I had to force myself to continue reading. Now I’m not saying I’m all crunched out and not looking for new game mechanics, but when a sourcebook on an ancient empire comes out and it has more information of the setting in terms of PrCs, feats and spells, I’m bored.The book comes in at 176 black and white pages for $23.99. It’s an odd page number and not in hardcover and updates some material to 3.5 standards but seems to be a low price for the page count. Written by Morten Braten and published by Necromancer Games, the back cover proclaims it as a huge sourcebook with new crunch and short adventures. If you’re doing a ‘themed’ setting like the Relics & Rituals setting, go for it! Provide all the d20 crunch you want with some extra bits on the side to show how to run that type of themed campaign. If you’re doing a magical d20 version of the setting like Hamunaptra or Nyambe with maps and new core classes, go for it! If you’re slapping the name Mesopotamia on a map and throwing a bunch of feats and PrCs at me with a reduced equipment list and no changes in the magic of the setting, mark me down as pass.When I did move on though, I discovered some great adventures that weren’t linear and could be used in any setting that has a desert. We have the Red Waste proper, a desert with several locations within it. Each location has adventure seeds that the GM can link together to form one long campaign, or not. Want to put an ancient temple into your game? Check. Want to include some ancient tribes in your game? Check. In Chapter Five, The Red Waste, we have the Sons of Saram and the Brotherhood of Kalab.Want cultist who worship a demon-purple worm? Check. You just flip to Chapter Nine, the Pit of Yhath.Some of these can be used as tools in and of themselves. Do you have areas in your campaign world where massive battles have taken place and the bones of the dead are still around? (Well, we all know that wouldn’t happen in any d20 game as a necromancer would be around sooner of latter…) Check out the table for Looting the Battlefield. This is a collection of three tables, mound size, unit type, and items of interest, that can generate some quick items for those in a hurry. What about other utilities like the Dream Table? While the characters are at an oasis, the lake water has some effects on the mind of the sleeper and we get a table with different ideas like the character being a foot soldier in a great battle or having the character gain the gift of flight in his dreams. Little things like this make the adventures more than just a wandering monster encounter table.In long term use, the book also includes some appendixes that have some toys for the GM in the form of new monsters. The first appendix includes creatures like the Denizen of Ong, a humanoid with tentacles spilling form it’s gut to Gallu Demons, shape shifters who use claws and teeth to claim their prey. Perhaps more impressive is appendix two, revised monsters from the Tome of Horrors. These are most of the creatures that are mentioned in the book but not all of them. We have a lot to choose from including monstrous frogs and variant gargoyles, to obsidian minotaurs and lead skeletons.I like the feel of the adventurers. Either the author is a big fan of the Mythos or he’s accidentally captured the feel of the genre. Ancient empires where men struggle in vain against terrible entities from beyond time and space even as other men gladly sacrifice their humanity in exchange for dark powers.In terms of utility, some may question my feeling of easy adaptation. Well, Greyhawk has the Sea of Dust and Forgotten Realms has it’s own desert land. Dark Sun is in essence a huge desert while Planescape and Ravenloft can easily have such an area introduced with little muss or fuss. Heck, in the latter it fits easiest as there are elements of horror and madness that would be easy to tweak for those rules.So why is this a three star product instead of a four star product?I counted roughly sixteen references to the Tome of Horrors. This doesn’t count the references to Necropolis. Tome of Horrors referenced over and over and over again in bold print instead of just ToH or the page number in the appendix where the 3.5 stats might’ve been found just made me scratch my head. The use of white space. Most of the chapter endings had huge amounts of white space and the start of each chapter had a fair amount of white space too. While a minor thing, an easy way to navigate the book is missing. No table of contents and no index is a bad thing. Now I can see the latter, not a lot of use for an index that doesn’t cover a lot of ground but no table of contents? I can understand page constraints but since there’s two pages of advertisements, I think a table of contents could’ve been squeezed somewhere into this book.The lack of any actual information on Mesopotamia. As an adventure anthology, this book does a great job. It captures a lot of elements that would make it great for Conan or other ‘gritty’ settings but as a sourcebook, it fails completely. Timeline? Bibliography? Important NPC’s? Maps with some level of utility to them of the region?  Anything not dealing with game mechanics? Less than 10 pages in the first part and a mediocre section on gods does not a regional sourcebook make.The art captures the feel of the setting well. It has a ‘dirty’ feeling to it but does show bare breast so it’s not going to be appropriate for all groups. It didn’t bother me, but much like with Mongoose Products, I just don’t see the need for it. It looks like most of the art from Tome of Horrors returns though and some of that brings down the overall feel of the product. Most of the maps are great. My only problem is with the first one, an overland view of Mesopotamia, about a fourth  of it is in essence blank . Other maps, especially those in dungeon like environments, are well done and have functionality to them. I hate pretty maps that can’t be used in the game.Game stats are fair for the most part, but in some cases, they’re incomplete. Many of the creatures from the Monster Manual have a reference to see the MM, short for Monster Manual. Many of the rogues have less than 8 skills and no note on even a generic, (add three skills at x ranks plus stat modifier.) Not a big deal, but something I’d like to see addressed in future NPC blocks.Ancient Kindgoms Mesopotamia shines when it’s doing when Necromancer does best, adventurers. If you’re looking for a wide range of adventures adaptable for a wide variety of campaign settings, this is your book.</blockquote>

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