Grimstaff
Explorer
Well, I've had a week or so to digest this a bit, so I figure'd I'd put up a quick review of this in case others are interested in buying it (before it becomes hard to find and the price goes up).
What: DCC35:Aereth Campaign Setting
Price: MSRP is $69.95 (FRPgames.com sells it for $55, and Amazon has it for around $45, if you're budget minded.)
What you get: A sturdy box containing 120p Gazeteer, 135p GM's Guide, 3 HUGE GM's maps, 1 Player's Map, and 2 Dungeon Crawl Classics modules (Halls of the Minotaur for 0-lvl PCs, and the Thief Lord's Vault for 4th-6th lvl PCs). Obviously, well worth the msrp, and if you get it online for cheap, you're getting a huge deal indeed.
Book-by-book:
World of Aereth Gazeteer: Gives short but suprisingly detailed overviews of the nations, peoples, and cities of the setting, broken down by 3 regions:Northlands, Southlands, and Lostlands. The Northlands are fairly standard pseudo-european medieval sword-n-sorcery with the requisite elves, dwarves, orcs hordes and such. This is really great if you want a fresh "old-school" setting but are sick to death of FR and GH. Your players will adapt easily to it, and there is enough uniqueness and flavor that the GM won't feel he is spinning his wheels with the same ol same ol or floundering hopelessly in a bizarre setting like Eberron. Its in the other 2 regions the setting stretches its legs a little more, which is cool, 'cause the PCs can come from a world they identify with easily and still wander off to more exotic realms when they get bored. A timeline of the North is also included, and most countries are just unstable enough that PCs should easily be able to step into the shoes of power should they choose to do so. Very "Hyperborean" in that respect.
World of Aereth GM's Guide: Gives you some more History and Mythology, as well as a very nice new selection of religions and deities, this really stands out. The deities have a very dark feel to them, which I think lends a great deal more originality to the setting. Also included are 26 new monsters, many of them very well doen, and would lend further flavor to the setting. There is a short section on additional skills, feats, spells, and equipment, but I wasn't very impressed with any of it. Maybe I'm just burned out on extra rule stuff, but since its not even 20 pages long, it really doesn't bother me. There's a large section of important NPCs, again with short but well done descriptions. THe book closes with suggested "Adventure Paths" using the various DCCs 1-35, which is nice, and a bit on 0-lvl characters, which I will definitely be using with my next campaign, whether or not I use this setting. THis is important, btw:
***A lot of us Grognards have been lamenting the shortness of low-level play with 3.5, and 0-lvl characters fix that problem in a way that will make DMs and Players alike happy. I highly recommend this system***
GM maps: the maps are huge, I immediately had to lay them out on the floor, and its a stunning view. That said, the maps are also my biggest complaint:they are too bloody big, in both represented and actual scale. Hex-based maps, while less realistic-looking, are imho WAY more useful in actual gameplay, and I would have preferred hex maps that focused on a smaller area than is covered here, which appears to be roughly 5000 by 10,000 miles. That's a lot of ground to cover, a smaller area with easily trackable distances would have been more useful to me. And no roads are marked on the maps, which is a peeve I've had since the glory days of GH. Goodman has said he's considering a Known-World-Trailmap-style edition of the maps for later release, though, and I'll definitely buy if he does.
Player's map: Anything you can give the players is good, it involves them in the game more. The map itself is centered on the heart of the Northlands, and kind of fades out from there. At any rate, it allows players to see at a glance where most of the cities and nations the DM is talking about are at, and will certainly acclimate them to the setting more rapidly.
Bonus modules: Both of these appear to be very nice, short and sweet folio style modules like most of the DCC line, playable in 2-4 sessions with great player handouts and cool settings and monsters. But you already know that. Out of 35 modules so far, there's only a couple I wouldn't want to run (including one intended for 22nd lvl PCs, jeez), and these 2 are no different, and look like they will be memorable adventures the players will talk about for years, like my players do about Aerie of the Crow God and Sunless Garden.
So, to wrap up:
The Good: Great value for your buck; original without being weird.
The Bad: Maps a bit too overambitious, but still fun to drool over!
The Ugly: Gamers have been complaining about hard to read gamebooks for years now, and no one's listening to us, so I don't know why I bother, but yeah, the print is hard to read sometimes with the fancy watermarked pages, blah blah blah.
I give it **** out of five stars! You will in no way regret buying this.
What: DCC35:Aereth Campaign Setting
Price: MSRP is $69.95 (FRPgames.com sells it for $55, and Amazon has it for around $45, if you're budget minded.)
What you get: A sturdy box containing 120p Gazeteer, 135p GM's Guide, 3 HUGE GM's maps, 1 Player's Map, and 2 Dungeon Crawl Classics modules (Halls of the Minotaur for 0-lvl PCs, and the Thief Lord's Vault for 4th-6th lvl PCs). Obviously, well worth the msrp, and if you get it online for cheap, you're getting a huge deal indeed.
Book-by-book:
World of Aereth Gazeteer: Gives short but suprisingly detailed overviews of the nations, peoples, and cities of the setting, broken down by 3 regions:Northlands, Southlands, and Lostlands. The Northlands are fairly standard pseudo-european medieval sword-n-sorcery with the requisite elves, dwarves, orcs hordes and such. This is really great if you want a fresh "old-school" setting but are sick to death of FR and GH. Your players will adapt easily to it, and there is enough uniqueness and flavor that the GM won't feel he is spinning his wheels with the same ol same ol or floundering hopelessly in a bizarre setting like Eberron. Its in the other 2 regions the setting stretches its legs a little more, which is cool, 'cause the PCs can come from a world they identify with easily and still wander off to more exotic realms when they get bored. A timeline of the North is also included, and most countries are just unstable enough that PCs should easily be able to step into the shoes of power should they choose to do so. Very "Hyperborean" in that respect.
World of Aereth GM's Guide: Gives you some more History and Mythology, as well as a very nice new selection of religions and deities, this really stands out. The deities have a very dark feel to them, which I think lends a great deal more originality to the setting. Also included are 26 new monsters, many of them very well doen, and would lend further flavor to the setting. There is a short section on additional skills, feats, spells, and equipment, but I wasn't very impressed with any of it. Maybe I'm just burned out on extra rule stuff, but since its not even 20 pages long, it really doesn't bother me. There's a large section of important NPCs, again with short but well done descriptions. THe book closes with suggested "Adventure Paths" using the various DCCs 1-35, which is nice, and a bit on 0-lvl characters, which I will definitely be using with my next campaign, whether or not I use this setting. THis is important, btw:
***A lot of us Grognards have been lamenting the shortness of low-level play with 3.5, and 0-lvl characters fix that problem in a way that will make DMs and Players alike happy. I highly recommend this system***
GM maps: the maps are huge, I immediately had to lay them out on the floor, and its a stunning view. That said, the maps are also my biggest complaint:they are too bloody big, in both represented and actual scale. Hex-based maps, while less realistic-looking, are imho WAY more useful in actual gameplay, and I would have preferred hex maps that focused on a smaller area than is covered here, which appears to be roughly 5000 by 10,000 miles. That's a lot of ground to cover, a smaller area with easily trackable distances would have been more useful to me. And no roads are marked on the maps, which is a peeve I've had since the glory days of GH. Goodman has said he's considering a Known-World-Trailmap-style edition of the maps for later release, though, and I'll definitely buy if he does.
Player's map: Anything you can give the players is good, it involves them in the game more. The map itself is centered on the heart of the Northlands, and kind of fades out from there. At any rate, it allows players to see at a glance where most of the cities and nations the DM is talking about are at, and will certainly acclimate them to the setting more rapidly.
Bonus modules: Both of these appear to be very nice, short and sweet folio style modules like most of the DCC line, playable in 2-4 sessions with great player handouts and cool settings and monsters. But you already know that. Out of 35 modules so far, there's only a couple I wouldn't want to run (including one intended for 22nd lvl PCs, jeez), and these 2 are no different, and look like they will be memorable adventures the players will talk about for years, like my players do about Aerie of the Crow God and Sunless Garden.
So, to wrap up:
The Good: Great value for your buck; original without being weird.
The Bad: Maps a bit too overambitious, but still fun to drool over!
The Ugly: Gamers have been complaining about hard to read gamebooks for years now, and no one's listening to us, so I don't know why I bother, but yeah, the print is hard to read sometimes with the fancy watermarked pages, blah blah blah.
I give it **** out of five stars! You will in no way regret buying this.
