Beyond The Walls

[Messageboard Golem]

In the First Foul Locales book we explored in detail locations for an urban setting in Urban Blight. In this, second book in the series we will move to the country side. These highly detailed locales will feature monster encampments, Mountain Fortresses, Haunted places, and other places of superstition and rumor.Like Urban Blight, these locales are meant to be used repeatedly as places for PCs to visit and seek adventure. Some are down right evil while others will be there to support the PCs endeavors.This d20 sourcebook will be a fantastic tool for game masters to add unusual locations to their highways and byways. The locales are designed to be ongoing sources of intrigue and adventure and can be plugged into any d20 fantasy setting with ease.

 

[GameWyrd]

Beyond the Walls is the next in Mystic Eye’s Foul Locales series. The title of the book says it all; in this issue we’re looking at foul places outside of the city. Actually, if we want to nitpick (and I often do) then we’re looking at interesting places outside of walls. The absence of walls is often the tricky bit in a wilderness encounter; players and NPCs can go anywhere, combat can spiral out in all directions and chance encounters are all the more unlikely. One of the first things I looked for in Beyond the Walls was to see whether the book had genuinely managed to step outside and stay outside. No. Quite a few of Beyond the Wall’s locales are set in or based around buildings. That’s not too bad, that means a fair number of them are honestly and actually beyond the walls. Those interesting places that do feature walls are countryside buildings; out of the way towers, isolated trading posts, farms, etc. These are all entirely acceptable locations for a book with a countryside bias.

I tend to think of the Foul Locales as an "oh crap! I need a location," aid. They’re the sort of book that saves GMs when the players do something unexpected or when the flow of the game has been focusing on only one player and the GM needs a handy spanner to throw in the works to shake things up and share the attention around. Previous Foul Locale books have made use of a quick key to describe how suited the location is for different parties and places; in Beyond the Walls the key covers the Encounter Level for the locale, the climate and the terrain. This is a step in the right direction but fairly useless unless there is a handy table somewhere to summarise this and let a busy GM find what he’s looking for quickly. Beyond the Walls has such a table. The summary finds space for more than just the location codes, it describes the matching conditions in full and even includes a reminder of all the sidebar entries. A nearby table gives you the page number for each sidebar. If you want to dig up that encounter with spellnotes in it, or that marsh encounter or grab the page number for the standing stones then its easy to do quickly in this book. Not to put too fine a point on it; this indexing is a great success. It makes the book worthwhile. Oh, you’ll not find the page numbers for these locales in the summary. No table is that wonderful. However it is all too simple to find the contents page at the very start.

Spellnotes? If they sound familiar then that’s because you’re well read. Spellnotes are a creation of Monte Cook and can be found the Eldritch Might series. They’re not Open Content, they’re still not Open Content and their presence here must be testament to Mystic Eye’s growing reputation and "finger in many pies status". This particular encounter sees a strategic pass that’s protected by sentient weapons, powered the souls of slain bards and which use the magic singing techniques that are spellnotes and spellsongs to help hack down any unlucky traveller. You don’t need to have the appropriate Book of Eldritch Might to use Beyond the Walls, what needs to be explained, is. One of the unexpected plus points to the book is this usable snippet of spell magic rules.

On the other hand, I think it might be a bit strange to have animated weapons (without real vocal chords, right?) introduce sound magic to your game. I think many GMs will want to introduce the likes of Bloodiron and Draconic Horses, foreshadow them at least, before their players stumble into the Bloodiron forge or the Draconic Horse ranch. This doesn’t adversely effect the locations as such but does lessen Beyond the Walls’ strength as an emergency location provider. It’s hard to foreshadow locations that have been pulled out of a book when the GM was in a squeeze. Other locations enjoy their best plot hooks and adventure seeds if they enjoy a bit of a run-up. If the players enter the location with a specific goal, for example, then they will be able to use more of the book’s text.

Beyond the Walls does well in finding the right mix of encounter levels. The average EL is 7 and the range covers EL 2 to EL 14. The very first locale as an encounter level of "Any" and so even if you treat the EL as canon you’ll find something that you can use in the book. There are enough low level encounters, these seem to be the ones that are most often over looked but that’s not the case in Beyond the Walls. There are two 2 EL locales. Beyond the Walls doesn’t do so well in mixing around the terrain types; the vast majority of the locations work best in a forested area. Although there are some locales that will do in any sort of terrain, the Stones of Legend for example, none of them really strike me as particularly good for desert, artic or even river encounters. I know, these terrain types are more rare than forests in most scenarios but they’re rarer because they are harder to manage, harder to come up with encounters for. On that note I would have especially liked to see Beyond the Walls take a bite at the more exotic. Viperwood, one of my favourite locations, might just edge up ahead of other locations because it can be used as a marsh locale.

The Stones of Legend deserve a special look at. These standing stones offer up another possible set of game mechanics for standing stones and arcane magic. Different patterns of standing stones favour different schools of magic and also drain the opposing school. These stones have an EL of 8 because things can get nasty if the characters end up suffering badly from the ill effects of the opposing school. The EL 8 is a bit of a shame really; it seems to take what could well have been an excellent campaign world idea and shoehorns it into a narrow character level band. The Stones of Legend really could give a weaker character party the chance to punch above their weight as the peak of plot piece but not with these rules. The backlash could undo the whole game. Higher level character parties can still benefit from the spell enhancement and they’re in a position to laugh off any come back. Still, this doesn’t so much reflect badly on the Stones of Legend as a Foul Locale in Beyond the Walls, it only represents a missed chance at coming up with something more substantial.

The cartography in Beyond the Walls is at the same superb quality which saw the previous Foul Locales, Urban Blight, nominated for an Ennie award in 2002. The maps have a clean, crisp style and manage to convey the wilderness and the countryside when they need to. Unfortunately the maps are only really for the GMs benefit since they’re always share the page with spoiler text and are likely to be too small for standard miniature use too. As a GM aid the cartography is a strong success and one of the reasons to buy the book.

In some ways Beyond the Walls is better than the previous successes in the Foul Locales series. It has a solid professional feel to it and is a satisfying book to flick through. This is the same strong direction that all the major players in the d20 publishing business are going, Mystic Eye has done well to establish itself as such but a good looking book is no longer much of a trump card. All new d20 books are expected to look good. Beyond the Walls has plenty of locales that greet me as entirely suitable for inclusion in any game I might run but there’s no single entry that grabs me as a "must have". Beyond the Walls isn’t quite the essential purchase that Urban Blight is. Beyond the Walls is a buy it if you think you’ll need it and you won’t regret doing so.

* This review of Beyond the Walls was first posted at GameWyrd.

 

[Simon Collins]

Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is not a playtest review.

Foul Locales: Beyond The Walls is a sourcebook from Mystic Eye Games detailing wilderness locations designed to easily integrate into a campaign.

Beyond The Walls is a 128-page mono softcover product costing $19.99. Font size and margins are average, there are a couple of chunks of white space, two pages of ads, and a blank page entitled notes (as if no-one had blank paper, and people wanted to write in their book). Art is average to good - whilst the front cover (showing two adventurers overlooking a desert tent village) is still pretty good, I didn't think it was up to the standard of other Jason Engle work I've seen recently (notably Allies & Adversaries). Maps are quite iconically detailed though some are a bit bland overall. All are scaled, but lack compass direction. The writing style is atmospheric if a little clumsy at times - e.g. "And then his mother had drug him out to this godforsaken wilderness". Editing is average, with both spelling and grammatical mistakes scattered through the text.

The book comprises thirteen locations. Each location begins with a key code giving a shorthand showing EL, climate, and terrain of the location (this information is also located in the table of contents at the front of the book, but might have been better in a separate table with page references, and the keycodes exlained next to them). Each location begins with a brief description, followed by greater details keyed to a map. There are also NPCs and/or creatures, adventure ideas/plot hooks, some additional rules such as a new spell, item, or feat, and some advice for campaign integration. Sidebars detail extraneous features not covered by the main text, where appropriate.

Am'Elvat (EL Any) is an elven fair in a forest location. The fair is in fact a cover for a ritual to renew the bindings on an imprisoned demon in the area, but also provides a time for trade between the elves and the world beyond the forest. Various tents and their products/services are described, none of which are particularly interesting (clothing, woodwork, drink, food, privies). The only interesting aspect is the nearby lake island on which the demonic prison is set. The various NPCs who provide the products are then listed separately with full stats, motives, and tactics - again, these tend to be fairly bland: the cook likes cooking, the bard likes performing, etc. The problem is, there are 13 pages of NPCs for this location. The adventure hooks don't just tie in with the demonic prison, and do provide some imaginative ideas for using the fair - but for something a bit more interesting in this line, check out Airweaver Games' 'The Goblin Fair'. Perhaps mixing ideas from the two could work quite well.

The Bloodforge (EL 10) ties in quite strongly with Bastion Press' 'Alchemy & Herbalists'. Though enough information is provided to run it standalone, there is benefit in owning A&H. The forge is run by an orc and his humanoid helpers. The orc forges magical items from iron and blood to create mainly weapons and armour that do extra damage to certain races specified by the blood used in the creation process. The smithy, orc and workers, and the process of creation of the items are all detailed, and some adventure hooks given that take into account that the PCs may want to kill the orc and ask questions later.

Boared (EL 4) describes an enchanted forest grove which, through a set of bizarrely synchronous circumstances, has become the centre of a stupid orc's wereboar 'factory', as he infects all-comers with his disease in a misguided ritual. Unlike the previous two locations, the location is more interesting than the adventure hooks.

Colony Of The Afflicted (EL 8) is an island sanctuary for sufferers of a disease known as Relbenar's Curse, similar to leprosy. In times past, a code of behaviour was enforced upon sufferes exiled to the island, which has been integrated into the island residents' consciousness, allowing for some interesting roleplaying opportunities. Evil has insinuated itself within the diseased community, and several adventure hooks look at the possibilities of getting the PCs involved. The disease is also detailed.

Dead Bards' Run (EL 9/14) is a mountain pass inhabited by sentient animated weapons. The situation is complicated by a drow wizard who uses the weapons as cover for his secret hideout. The sentient weapons contain the souls of bards, and use spellsongs (from Monte Cook's Eldritch Might II - again, enough information (including a variety of spells) is reproduced to run the location, but ownership of the Malhvoc product will enhance things). There is also a rumour table provided regarding the pass, along with some fairly obvious adventure hooks.

Knightwatch (EL 2) is an ancient forest keep, guarded by good- and neutral-aligned undead. The straightforward plot hooks involves the PCs exploring the keep and solving the mystery of why the undead are restless. The keep is designed to be used by the PCs as a base once the mystery is solved.

Larin's Point (EL 7) is a wilderness waystation stocking supplies for travellers. The waystation is actually a front for a slave trade born of an agreement between the owner of the waystation and an aboleth that lairs in the river the waystation spans. There is a sidebar with advice for scaling the location up and down, along with adventure hooks leading to the waystation or away from it into the Underdark.

The Light Of Home (EL 8) is a house set in the wilderness, and disguised by illusions cast by the werewolf illusionist (presented in all 3 forms) who lives in the house along with her son. The simple plot hooks lead into a mystery regarding why the woman and her son live so far out in the wilderness...

The Mournes Farm (EL 2) is an odd farmhouse and farm run by the Mournes and their odd ethereal helper. The adventure hooks include the threat of an undead scarecrow (new type of undead with full stats and writeup) and there is also a rumour table regarding the farm and its strange inhabitants. Creepy schlock horror movie stuff.

Shadowgloom Ranch (EL 10) is a horse ranch that acts as a front for a bizarre breeding program devised by an arrogant psionic blue dragon. Sidebars include information on the monster trade that is going on via the ranch, a new creature - draconic horses, and some advice for running the location if you don't own the Psionics Handbook. The ranch has some weird and wonderful guardians created by the dragon.

Stones Of Legend (EL 8) is a circle of standing stones with two unfortunate powers - the first is to boost a school of magic whilst later causing a retributive reaction from its opposing school; the other is that it draws dark nagas to it. Rules for creating similar stone circles with different effects are given, with maps showing the various alignments of the stones to create these effects. There is a rumour table for the stone circle and various adventure ideas related to the retributive effect and the dark nagas.

Viperwood Potions (EL 14) is a shop selling potions run by wild elves. The shop is situated on the edge of a jungle, the actual jungle being fiercely protected by incursion from non-wild-elves. There is a table giving various random encounters for day and night should the PCs investigate the jungle. The jungle holds a dire secret involving breeding between wild elves and mariliths. The Half-fiend Telmaroth template is given emulating the offspring of this union. There is also a Spitter template, providing a creature variant with a poisonous bite that can spit poison like some snakes.

Zander's Brigand Patrol (EL 7) is a tribe of hobgoblins apparently turned to good, since they have rid a dangerous forest of creatures that interfered with the important trade route that ran through it. All they ask in return for keeping the forest clear of threat is a toll to be paid by merchants passing through. Though the funds made from this unusual venture are being used to arm a humanoid army ready to take the nearby civilised lands, the hobgoblin leader is now torn between greed and bloodlust, since the tolls have proved so lucrative. The location provided is one of the checkpoints charging the toll, and there are various stats for members of the 'brigand patrol'. One particular adventure hook involving an enemy nation and the hobgoblins could prove a great adventure.

Conclusion
A mixture of hit and miss wilderness locations. Whilst none were outstanding, none were truly dreadful. The writing style and editing left something to be desired and, whilst the concept of EL, climate and terrain codes was good, the splitting of location and NPCs did not work for me. This was particularly noticeable in the first location where the large number of PCs would be hard to link with the correct tent whilst running an adventure, but was a feature of all the locations to a lesser degree. There are some interesting ideas scattered throughout the book - some good adventure hooks, interesting monsters, and unusual locations. But there is also a lot of unnecessary location information, bland NPCs, and weak plot hooks.

 

[Psion]

Foul Locales: Beyond the Walls

Foul Locales is a series of "location books" by Mystic Eye Games designed to be dropped directly (and quickly) into a game. Beyond the Walls is the second book in this series. The first, Urban Blight detailed encounter locations within a city, whereas this book covers more rural locations.

Beyond the Walls is written by Bret Boyd, Charles Plemons III, and John White, with additional material by Becky Glen and IanThompson.

A First Look

Beyond the Walls is a 128 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $19.99. This is a competitive price for a d20 System product of this format and size.

The cover of the book depicts a pair of armed adventurers with some mountains and buildings in the distance. The cover art is by Jason Engle, perhaps best known for his work in Dugneon magazine.

The interior is black-and-white and includes work by Scott Purdy, Marcio Fiorito, Chad Sergesketter, and Brad McDivitt. The art is of average to good quality.

The cartography is by Ed Bourelle, and as with the work in the previous volume, his maps are very high quality, both usable and attractive.

The interior font is a bit larger than perhaps necessary, and double paragraph spacing is use. Futher, a sans serif font is used for body text, which impairs the readability of the book.

A Deeper Look

Beyond the Walls contains 13 different rural locations for you to drop into your game. To ease dropping such locations into your game, each is defined by a brief list of statistics including encounter level as well as the climate and terrain appropriate to the encounter.

Each encounter includes an introductory description of the location, deeper details of the location, NPCs and monster statistics, and adventure and plot hook ideas, maps, as well as a short description of how to best fit the location into your campaign. Some locations also have sidebars with background or rules material and other notes.

The book both provides new rules material as well as using third party OGC. Rules from other third party publishers include spellchords from Malhavoc's Book of Eldritch Might II and alchemy rules from Bastion's Alchemy & Herbalists. As the reader may well know, I am not a big fan of BoEM II's bard rules, so that section did not impress me, but there are new spellchords for those who do. However, I find it odd that there is a section that uses psionics that provides alternatives if you do not use psionics, but do not provide alternatives if you do not use the much less widespread spellsong rules.

Some rules are specific to locations such as the stones of legend, which provide a boon to one school of magic, but cause a backlash in the form of another school of magic. Other new rules include the telmaroth template, a variation of the half-fiend template that retains more the qualities of a marilith demon.

The locations vary in uniqueness, adaptability, and difficulty. Some of the ones with more potential include the dead bard's run (a mountain pass haunted by weapons possessed by deceased bards), the stones of legend (which has enchanted stones that provide character with both benefits and curese), and Zander's brigand patrol (in which a hobgoblin turns over a new leaf and starts protecting people, but this may be only a temporary state of affairs.)

Conclusion

I don't think I liked the concepts in Beyond the Walls as much as the ones in Urban Blight or in the similarly themed En Route by Atlas. However, it does seem to live up to its promise of providing locations that can be dropped in flexibly, so in a way it meets its core goal a bit better than those books.

Overall Grade: B-

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By Brad Mix, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack

Sizing Up the Target
This review is for Beyond the Walls, the second installment of the Foul Locales series by Mystic Eye Games. Written by Bret Boyd, Charles Plemons III, and John White this is a book of small adventures that can be placed into almost any campaign setting. It is 128 pages and retails for $19.99.

First Blood
Beyond the Walls is the follow up to Urban Blight, which detailed adventures inside the city. This books steps past the walls and into the great wide open. 13 different short adventures are included. A couple of these adventures are good and the rest are average. If the group has a tendency to wander and not stay on the beaten path then these will come in handy as they can be placed into any setting. Adventure hooks are offered as a separate means to get the party involved in the events. The encounter levels range from 2 to 14. The maps included are generally good. No color is used in the book at all so shades of gray are used to show contrast.

Dead Bards Run is an interesting little encounter. The area is guarded by animated weapons. The interesting part of this chapter is the inclusion of Spell Songs from Monte Cook and used with permission from Malhavoc Press. This could be a great way to introduce spell songs to the party and want them to learn more.

Critical Hits
Am’Elvat is the first adventure of the book and probably the best written and original. This is an annual fair that the Elves hold during the autumnal equinox. Recently non-elves have been allowed to participate and this has turned it into a fair like atmosphere. The week long celebration is growing in popularity each year. A long time ago a demon was imprisoned on this spot. During the equinox the magic power holding the demon weakens. The elves decided that the more people there would discourage anyone trying to free the demon. 13 pages on NPC’s allow for all kinds of interaction and the week long timeframe sets up some pressure for adventures to finish any mission.

Critical Misses
Boared is a small (3 page) event more than an adventure. An orc has been afflicted with lycanthropy. Adventure hooks offer a couple of different reasons for the characters to go hunt down this wereboar orc.

The beginning information has symbols that tell you each type of terrain and experience level that is recommended. With as much space as the chapter heading has, it would have been nice just to spell it out instead of making us flip to the back to get the symbol information.

Most of the locations are listed as a forest region. With the book promising outdoor adventure it would have been nice to see a wider array of locales; such as tundra, steppes, jungle, desert, or even underwater would have been nice.

Coup de Grace
These types of mini adventure books are good to have around. They are great for a quick adventure when the party does something unexpected or if the whole group cannot attend the play session. This allows the other players to keep playing and shouldn’t interfere with the rest of the campaign the GM has set up.

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.