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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ColonelHardisson" data-source="post: 2008070" data-attributes="member: 363">I just got mine yesterday, and have been voraciously devouring it since.First off, there is a section that introduces the reader to the Elric saga, and provides a quick overview of the lands and people. These descriptions of the stories and setting are generally clear and concise, if by necessity a bit bland - limited space necessitates a lack of purple prose. A neat little treat is a pronunciation guide that shows me that I've pronounced Melnibone wrong for much of my lifetime. Ah well.Next is the "Adventures" section which presents Myyrrhn and Melniboneans as PC races. Both are interesting, with the Melniboneans being the more interesting of the two, of course. The Myyrrhn have a new Feat: Pounce & Strike. An overview of Young Kingdoms adventurers comes next, detailing what skills, feats, religions, weapons, armors, and Allegiance (Law, Neutrality, Chaos) each favors. There is also a sidebar of PC classes available by region. Sections deal with prices of common items, and with armor and weapons. Two new "soldier" feats are sidebarred: Close-Order Fighting and Set Spear. In addition, there is the Sailor class, which is really an Expert sub-class.Finishing up the section are some sample beginning characters and a character sheet.A good, useful section overall.Next is the Game System section. Allegiance is detailed here, as well as Heroic Actions, new skills, a fumble chart, and a major wound (critical) effects chart. Allegiance is, of course, the equivalent of alignment in Elric's world. Wanna become a god? Well, actually, more a Champion of one of the allegiances, really. That's what Apotheosis covers. Nifty. New skills: Conceal Object, Fly, Perform (Oratory), Sailing, Scent/Taste, and Trap. Sailing really could've been more properly termed Profession (Sailing) or Knowledge (Sailing), but that's really more a minor quibble than anything. Another solid section of crunchy rules stuff.Magic & Religion is next.There are new spells, of course: Bounty of Straasha, Brazier of Power, Buzzard Eyes, Chain of Being, Chaos Warp, Cloak of Cran Liret, Curse of Chaos, Demon's Eye, Detect Balance, Detect Chaos, Detect Law, Dispel Balance, Disrupt Undead, Field of Law, Forbiddance, Four-In-One, Fury, Gift of Grome, Hell's Bulwark, Hell's Hammer, Hell's Razor, Hell's Sharp Flame, Hell's Talons, Magic Circle Against Balance, Make Fast, Make Whole, Membrane of Law, Pox, Protection From Balance, Rat Vision, Soul of Chardros, Invoke Beast Lord/Plant Lord, Summon Monster I-IX, Tread of Cran Liret, Visage of Arioch, and Wisdom of Slortar. All seem properly Moorcockian to me.There is a nice overview of religion, gods, elementals, and lords, including how to invoke these beings.Of course, the "star" of this section, if not the entire book, is the section on demons. What they can do, what you can do with them, and how to "make" a demon is the bulk of it, and seems rather thorough to me. If you have any interest in a different way to use magic, here you go.Next is the Demons, Monsters, Folk, & Heroes section. I love this stuff: basically a mini-Monster Manual/Rogue's Gallery. The monsters include just about everything that was in the Melnibonean Mythos section of the legendary old Deities and Demigods. All strange, all imaginative. Plus, a lot of critters I haven't seen before, including a small section of what I guess you could call "stock" demons.The NPC section contains stats for stock characters like City Guards, Decadent Nobles, and Innkeepers. What I liked about these is the use of the DMG's NPC classes; you'll find a lot of Commoners, Warriors, Experts, and Aristocrats here.Of course, major characters from the books appear as well: Elric chief among them, naturally, as well as Stormbringer. Man oh man is Stormbringer tough. Elric's Ring of Kings is also detailed, and is pretty potent in its own right, but not anywhere Stormbringer's league. It's also not much like its Deities and Demigods incarnation, and neither is Stormbringer, for that matter. Elric faintly echoes the stats in Deities and Demigods, though. There are two things about this section that make me uncomfortable:1. High, high level characters. Elric, for example, is a FTR8/WIZ20. There are other NPCs similarly high in level. I can see the logic, but since D&D doesn't accomodate anything above 20, yet, there are no other NPCs of such power with which to compare them.2. Skills. As Dragoth pointed out, Chaosium's welcome (to me) habit of tossing in some off-the-wall skills (such as the City Guards' Ask Annoying Questions+4) in order to help provide a bit of color is present in its first d20 offering. Whereas Dragoth felt that Chaosium might have "cheated" some of these characters out of "real" skill points for these touches of color, my first look at them seems to indicate that, in general, these pseudo-skills did not take up any skill points. In fact, a number of the NPCs seem to have too many skills even if you don't count the pseudo-skills. I'm still looking at them, though.There is a brief DM section, with some tips about DMing a Young Kingdoms campaign, the virtually nonexistent mass combat section, and a section of campaign hook rumors.All in all, this is a great book. I'm a big Elric fan, and I was not at all disappointed. However, it may not be for everyone. There isn't enough background for non-Elric fans to really get a "feel" for the setting. For fans, however, this book is just the ticket. I'd keep a close eye on the skills of the NPCs, is such stuff bother you, and of course we haven't had a chance to really try out the spells, skills, feats, demons, etc. - but they all look solid enough to me.The art is generally fantastic; all of it is black and white line art. As Chaosium notes on the publishing details page, much of the art came from out-of-print overseas editions of Elric. That gives the book a bit of extra "oomph" that other d20 publishers generally don't have the resources to provide. The map provided isn't that great, but it'll do.</blockquote>

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