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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010458" data-attributes="member: 1129">Cataclysm on Cloudholme is a sourcebook-adventure from Monkey God Publishing that's the first in their new Legendary Lands series.The book is broken up into two main portions, the history of the land of Astenthal and it's gazetteer, and then the adventure, which is broken up into four parts. The land of Asthenthal is larger than a city, but isn't so big that it'll be difficult to place into a campaign setting. The history is fairly Arthurian in that a low born man brings about a golden age of peace and that peace is broken but remembered by those of today's world.The differences though, between the general hero, in this case, King Gareth Astenthal, and his fall and this book are vast because of the effect that fall had on the land. There were issues that didn't involve the ruler but did involve those who served under him. A power play took place with the end result being the fall of the headquarters of the knights of the realm, a flying castle, and the birth of a plague of consumption that almost wiped out all of the races.Each of those races has it's own take on what happened and suffers the consequences of that long ago fall. The dwarves for example, have a new subrace, originating from the magical cataclysm while the elves feel that it was the fault of the 'lesser' races that this happened and are fairly belligerent and in a position of power, unlike many settings where the elves are in their twilight years and dying. Even the orcs aren't all evil and vile, making for a nice change of pace with some familiar elements, like the elven's haughtiness, thrown in.Now the section on the lay of the land is brief, perhaps too brief for those GMs not used to having smaller chunks of information to work with. The information is enough to start some material and GMs who have other campaign material, like the small towns often present in the Necromancer products, can easily use those to fully flesh out the material here. One of the nice things about having a miniature campaign feature is that it allows the author to present the races in different manners. Now while I touched on this under the effects of the cataclysm, it also effects the orcs who have not one, but two variants, those from the swamp and that wander the lands as nomads.The adventure itself isn't structured and this could be a huge challenge for players who aren't used to taking charge of their own destiny. GMs may need to throw in a few NPCs to keep the party moving along as they first gather information about recent events and work their way through the land, trying to get a method to Cloudholme. For instance, they can talk to the devious Raven and try and earn his help, or they can go for the big money and seek out the dragon, Merthfire who is willing to help them due to the person involved and her history with said person.Because the adventure is so open, there are whole sections, like meeting the dragon or exploring Vankor's Freehold, that the party may just pass by. This allows a high level of customization but may not be for everyone. Each section is separated into its own chapter for ease of use and reference.  Those who enjoy exploration and role playing will have ample opportunity as Cloudholme itself is home to the surviving races, orc, elf and human, of the cataclysm and wise players will seek out their assistance in overcoming obstacles.In terms of adventure, many of the encounters are almost too weak. A party of 4 7th level characters will walk through many of the encounters here and perhaps only have difficulty at the climax where they must face an ancient evil that's been stirring the plot. The good news is that the adventure mixes traps, clever encounters and role playing. The bad news is that there aren't notes on how to customize the adventure for higher level parties.Text is broken up into two columns with interior art by Fred Rawles. The weird thing about his art style is that it ranges from great, as in the the illustration of the Kelson family or the evil Raven and his comrades walking through the woods to less detailed, almost hasty work like his illustration of the red dragon which looks nothing like the one on the cover. Art is also minimal in the product with lots of pages of pure text. White space is very good in most instances with borders being less than an inch on three sides and an inch on the top. Maps, and there are pages of them, are crisp and clean.At 120 pages for $24.95, some may think that the book is slightly overpriced. This is almost made up for with the internal covers, which are used for full color maps of the campaign setting. Spelling and grammar errors aren't common, but do happen indicating that Monkey God, like most d20 companies, needs to have another round of editing before final approval. To get the five star rating, this sourcebook-adventure would have to be a little bit more of a sourcebook. For example, while we have statistics for historical characters, we have no tables for random encounters in the lands or the areas themselves. We have no adventure seeds outside of the adventures proper. We have no detailed maps of the cities. Artwork would all have to be consistant at the high level. Rawles does good work, just not with every illustration.If you're the type of GM who likes just enough information to get the ball rolling, Cataclysm on Cloudholme is perfect for you. Less experienced GMs may want to work their skill level up a notch or two before trying to tackle a book of this size and freedom.</blockquote>

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