By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack
Sizing Up the Target
Dry Land: Empires of the Dragon Sands is a supplement for Mystic Eye Games’ Bluffside Campaign Setting, under the Thunderhead Games property license. This 144-page softcover includes an 18 x 24 pull-out map and is penned by Becky Glenn, with assistance from Matt Mosher and Charles Plemons III. The beautiful cover art is by the immensely talented Storn Cook , and the equally impressive interior artwork is by Ben McSweeney, RB Hall, Mike May, Brandt Peters, Shane Coppage, Brad McDevitt, and Tamara Pressman. The work retails for $22.99.
First Blood
The Dragon Sands are a region of desert located far south of the City of Bluffside. It is an arid, hot locale where all who live are considered to dwell beneath the banner of the Dragori Empire, who inhabit the as yet fertile river valleys far to the south, their presence maintained through powerful magic. And to the north, No Man’s Land, a dangerous land of sulfurous fumaroles, salty marshes, and boiling calderas.
Dry Land is Becky’s first foray as an author, though she has contributed to other works, including Bluffside, City on the Edge, Foul Locales: Beyond the Walls, and Interludes: Brief Expeditions to Bluffside (all from Mystic Eye Games). Charles Plemons, on the other hand, has contributed to a number of works, including authoring Mystic Eye Games’ Raw Recruits for DRAGONSTAR, Creature Collection II: Dark Menagerie (Sword & Sorcery Studios), Foul Locales: Urban Blight (Mystic Eye Games), and Forged in Magic (Paradigm Concepts). Matt Mosher has contributed to a number of Mystic Eye Games publications, as well as edited a handful of articles for Gaming Frontiers magazine.
The Dragon Sands are divided into four major geographical zones; No Man’s Land, the Granite Kingdom, the Burning Sands, and the Dragori Empire. Each of these areas is given its own chapter and these comprise the four chapters of the book. This is followed by 12 appendices, the first of which is huge, easily comprising as much space as the first four chapters combined. In all, there is a lot of material here and I’ll go into a little more detail below, to insure I don’t overlook anything.
The four chapters of the book are, as mentioned above, devoted to the geographical regions of the Dry Land. A brief overview is followed by a history of the region, some notes about the land itself, details on the inhabitants, and finally, some points of interest. This portion of the book is sure to appeal to those seeking fluff and background material. You won’t find much in the way of game mechanics here, as all of the NPCs are stated out in Appendix One. Where necessary, an NPC’s gender, class, race, level, and hit points are provided in a small block of text, but aside from that and the occasional price list or town block, there is nothing here to detract from the reading. Adventure hooks have also been thoughtfully provided at certain locales.
Appendix One provides stats for all of the NPCs mentioned elsewhere in the book. They are presented in alphabetical order by name, in conventional stat block format, and keyed to correspond to their location. The nice thing about this section is that the NPCs are fully prepared. All too often in adventures and sourcebooks, an NPC will be presented only partially complete, missing spells, equipment, or other such details. Not so here. Every NPC described in this section is fully equipped, has all prepared spells listed, and is ready to run. This is a tremendous time-saver for the GM and I’m glad it wasn’t overlooked. It should be noted that a few of the NPCs use the psionic classes from the Psionics Handbook, but they are relatively few and shouldn’t cause too much difficulty if this resource is not available (the information in the SRD can easily substitute). Likewise, a few of the NPCs have items described in other Thunderhead Game products, but these can be exchanged or ignored if these products are not available. Happily, they are indicated as to in which product they can be found.
Appendices Two and Three actually could have been lumped together. The first describes the various hazards of the Dry Land, such as dehydration, cold, sandstorms, and the like. Where some of this is repeated from the SRD (and Core Rulebook II), much of it is new material that will be very useful to DMs running campaigns set in desert environments, regardless of whether they use the rest of this material or not. I can’t recommend purchasing this sourcebook for this alone, but I could see this section made into a free PDF download. I know a lot of people who would love to have a copy of this appendix. Appendix Three provides some information on real-world and fantastic deserts and is largely flavor text that might be of use to the DM when describing some of the sights the characters witness while lost in the sands and trying to survive.
Appendix Four is chock-full of new classes, both core classes and prestige classes. There is no separation between the two, though they are not mixed together and it’s fairly easy to tell where the core classes let off and the prestige classes begin. The three optional core classes are the bisaakir zaari, the shaman, and the slave. To anyone familiar with the 2nd edition classic AL-QADIM Campaign Setting, the bisaakir zaari will be very familiar. The spells of the bisaakir zaari are granted by their relationship with a genie ally. When the character prepares his spells, he sends his ally to the elemental planes to retrieve them. The shaman, on the other hand, communes with the spirits and gain their spells through totems. Different totems provide different spells and abilities to the shaman. Finally, there is the slave, an NPC character class. The slave is essentially little more than a placeholder class and seems to serve no real purpose beyond background flavor.
The new prestige classes are the Badlands Bandit (a highwayman who makes No Man’s Land his home), the Claws of the Emperor (an elite dragori warrior), the Digger (think Indiana Jones in D&D), the Halfling Caravan Runner (a caravan scout), the Nevae Wanderer (a member of a race described in Bluffside: City on the Edge that has found their way to the Dry Land), the Priest of the Eternal Dragon (a member of a secret clerical sect), the Prophet of the Sands (a madman that wanders the sands, offering prophecy), the Sand Dancer (scout, spy, and troubleshooter for nomad tribes), the Sand Rider (a mounted warrior of the sandy desert), the Serpent Warden (guardian of the Seven Sacred Rivers of the Dragori Empire), the Wise (a communal elder whose opinion is greatly respected), and the Wyrmrider (trained to ride the dune wyrms as mounts). All are well-balanced, presented in the accepted format established in Core Rulebooks I and II, and serve to bring a lot of flavor to the setting. If I were running a campaign set in an Arabian-style setting, I could scarcely do better than to pick up a copy of this work.
Appendix Five introduces the creatures of the Dry Lands. Ten new monsters and three new templates are provided. The monsters are largely what one would expect to find in such a setting and are, for the most part, well-done. I did find the templates interesting, though, particularly the sand creature (a creature of living sand, what else?) and the true mummy template (a mummy that is very nearly equal to a lich in power). Two encounter listings (warm and temperate deserts) provide DMs with a sampling of creatures that call the desert home (drawn from this work and the SRD).
Appendix Six is a very short look at some of the unique equipment used by the people of the Dry Land. It’s so short, in fact, that I feel it really should have been either fleshed out more or else tossed in with Appendix Nine: Magical Items. Alone, it takes up barely half a page. Perhaps some of the equipment described in Interludes: Sands of Pain (also set in the Dry Land) could have been repeated here to help fluff up the section a little.
Appendix Seven presents two dozen new feats designed for the Dry Land setting. These are presented in the same style as set out in Core Rulebook I and seem to be balanced. There are a lot of Ki-related feats, drawing on the Asian concept of internal energies used to achieve amazing feats. While there’s nothing wrong with this, I find it interesting in a setting that is mostly Middle Eastern in nature.
Appendix Eight is a primer in the language of the Dry Land. There’s not a lot of detail here and I have to say that I would like to have seen an alphabet, at the very least, but there’s enough that you can give your campaign the right flavor by interjecting a few choice words from the lexicon. This is especially good is the characters are strangers to the Dry Land. Just don’t expect any lessons on grammar and sentence construction. This is a sourcebook, not a dictionary.
Appendix Nine reveals the secrets of a few of the magical items of the Dry Land. Unfortunately, most often the characters will be on the receiving end of these items, but that’s fine too. The selection is rather limited, with five new items and two artifacts described, including the fabulous diamond throne.
Appendix Ten presents the dragori race and the hukhamet race of jackal-like humanoids. The dragori have previously appeared in Bluffside: City on the Edge and the write-up is presented again and corrected here. A few of the NPCs in Appendix One are of races not described here (presumably found in Bluffside) and I felt a little slighted that they weren’t repeated, but enough information is provided in the NPC appendix that DMs shouldn’t have any problems.
Appendix Eleven gives DMs and players a handful of new spells (and two new domains: Dragon and Sand) for the setting. Not much needs to be said about this section, except to note the spell called walking on sunshine. It does exactly what it sounds like, but I can just see play grinding to a halt the first time a player uses it and the entire group breaks out in song.
Appendix Twelve is another of the short-and-sweet half-pagers that could have been tacked on to Appendix Seven or some such and given more space for something else. It describes two new Craft subskills and a new way to use the Alchemy skill (creating mummies). Following this is a map of the capitol city of Endikarr and a pretty detailed index and that rounds out the book.
Critical Hits
On the whole, there is very little not to like about Dry Land: Empires of the Dragon Sands. Most everything in the books stays right on topic and enhances the flavor and feel of the setting. The formatting of game mechanics follows the standards set by Wizards of the Coast and game balance seems to have been a major issue as everything looks to be well-balanced.
Personally, I think what I like best is they way that the NPCs are confined to a separate section rather than being interposed with the flavor text. If trouble starts, it does mean I have to look up the appropriate set of stats, but it’s not that difficult, and it doesn’t detract from the feel by having a big stat block right in the middle of the text. Beyond that, it is obvious that a lot of work went into the Dry Land setting and it really shows through. The blend of Arabic and Egyptian styles, myth, and legend comes together with a perfect touch of fantasy to provide a wonderfully diverse and exciting campaign setting for which to adventure in.
Critical Misses
If anything, I feel that it wasn’t quite detailed enough. A much as has been packed into this book, I can see places where they might have gone a bit further, especially if Dry Land describes only one small part of an entire campaign world. An sampling of the alphabet would have added immensely to the language section, and I’d like to have seen more monsters, spells, equipment, and magical items. Some of the races represented among the NPCs really should have been included, and the information on deserts in Appendix Three is really nothing I couldn’t look up on the Net for myself (though I thought Appendix Two was a great addition and really needs to be offered as a free PDF download!).
Coup de Grace
I like exotic settings for my campaign. That’s why I have a copy of Oriental Adventures, Nyambe, and nearly all of Avalanche Press’ “historical” works in my gaming library. When Al-QADIM was first released for 2nd edition, I was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to begin using it in my campaign. I’ve always been fascinated by the tales of the Arabian Nights and Dry Land has given me added appreciation for it. This is not a fantasy Arabia, in the way that Nyambe is not a fantasy Africa; this is a part of a larger whole, but easily removed and dropped into your own campaign setting (which is what I intend to do with it).
If you enjoyed AL-QADIM or if you are looking for a desert area for your campaign, you should consider Dry Land: Empires of the Dragon Sands, even if you’ve never heard of Bluffside (I hadn’t). It fits nicely into that campaign, but it also serves as a fine stand-alone. DMs will see a lot more use from it than players will, but that doesn’t mean that both can’t benefit from it, particularly if the characters hail from the Dragon Sands region. For a new realm of adventure, it’s certainly worth the price. Most everything that is not flavoring has been designated Open Game Context (about 75% of the book).
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.