Emerging Forms Volume One
Books of races are always interesting. It does seem that a few companies take a more conservative look at them and they produce new race books that are more just alterations of the core race. There are all sorts of new elves and new dwarves. Then there are companies that take the other extreme and really have some races that are out there. Races that are strange and alien. A few of the races here might be considered a little too far from the norm but I do like the creativity that comes with that.
Emerging Forms is a new PDF by Primal Urge Games. It is their first book and shows a good writing style and creativity. The book comes in a zip file that about three and half megs in size and the book comes in two different PDF. One is for viewing on the screen and the other is for printing. The big different between the two is a colored cover page and some shading. Printing out the on screen version actually is not as bad on a printer as a lot of PDFs. In designing the book they could have had more frills like borders and color in the on screen version. The layout is a little below average with large white spaces and wasted space a problem. The art as well I really did not like, though there really is not a lot of it. As Rodney West is the only name on the product it is possible that one person did all the writing, layout and art.
The races here are all swamp oriented and that is a nice start. Swamp races are not something that I have seen and it is cool to see races of places people would rarely want to from. The book starts with the Aegire race. They are a human water strider combination. A water strider is a small bug that literally walks on water. The race is a bit bigger then a bug is normally being medium sized but still light for their size. They can walk on water and one nice thing is that there are two new spells they can have access to that allows walking on water easier for other beings. The race is nicely described covering five pages. There are few books that give that level of detail to anything.
The D’ah Rien are a race of flying bug like humanoids. The culture though took an interesting turn in its past to become teachers instead of conquers. That is something one rarely if ever sees in a race. Again there is a great level of detail and these guys have some new psionic powers that fit them. The race though might need a level adjustment. Flying is a very strong ability and I think it should have some cost.
The Grizimilak are a race of well meaning annoyances. They almost seem like a race that would have been wiped out by other races by now as they are clinging and tend to disrupt other civilizations. They are small goblin or gnomish like beings that have a long life span and fast birth rate.
The Rin are a race of xenophobic barbarians. They are smart and brutal but prefer other believing they are simpletons. They are hunters and trappers preferring to not deal with others and sticking tom their swamp homes.
Each race also has a three level racial class like what was introduced in Unearthed Arcana, a book of optional rules by Wizards of the Coast. The classes also serve to enhance the races and make them a bit more interesting.
While the level of detail is really good I found the races themselves to be less then inspiring. I like that they are very different from the traditional races of halfings and orcs and others, but things like a half water strider human and small annoying creatures just do not get my creative juices going. The great details are just not enough to over come bad layout and art and uninteresting creatures.
