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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2589679" data-attributes="member: 1129">An exploring we will go.Explorer’s HandbookWritten by David Noonan, Frank Brunner, Rich BurlewPublished by Wizards of the Coast<a href="http://www.wizards.com/eberron" target="_blank">www.wizards.com/eberron</a>ISBN: 0-7869-3691-6160 full color pages$29.95The Explorer’s Handbook is the latest supplement for the Eberron campaign setting. It’s a strange beast as it’s not focused on any one particular thing and is useful for both players and GMs, aimed a little more squarely at the GM. It includes new crunch and ideas, but also comes with various devices to get the game running right away.Let me get my mini-rant out of the way first. At 160 full color pages for $29.95, the book is reasonably priced compared to the opposition. The book uses good layout, the standard Eberon, which I feel is generally second only to the Forgotten Realms series. It uses a wide variety of artists like Mark Tedin, Francis Tsai, Eric Deschamps and Steve Prescott among others. The work varies but overall, is good. The scene with the drow on page 129 is brimming with atmosphere while the Lighting Rail Station illustration on page 83, gives me a good idea about what a typical station might look like to match the map on the opposing side. The maps in the book are standard and I’m surprised, as many third party publishers tend to have maps equal if not better with some companies being devoted to making maps and selling them online.The editing is fair. I’m not getting in the stat blocks. I’ll let mastermind John Cooper hit that nail as he’s got a much better eye for it than I do and I generally don’t notice such things unless it’s way off base or I’m using the creature/NPC in combat and come to the conclusion that “hey, that’s off a point.” While there is no index, the table of contents does a good job of breaking the chapters up with subsections for each chapter and highlights in red for different maps. No, my problem is waste. We’ve got three pages of ads here. Not a biggie as many companies have ads and I’ve seen some White Wolf products with five or more pages of ads. We also have a reproduction of the cover on the inside in green with the authors name on it. It’s been done before and I don’t get it. It’s not that the authors shouldn’t have their names recognized, but it’s on the cover and also on the credits page. The cover is reproduced again in a two-page spread. Great art piece by Wayne Reynolds and also standard procedure for Eberron products, but I can’t help but wonder if they just started making the covers more friendly to begin with, that it wouldn’t be necessary. Those things are fairly standard though. No, my big pet peeve here is the near two pages wasted on telling me how to read a stat block. That’s because the stat block is using the new format. When I opened up Weapons of Legacy, that book also uses the new stat block, as does Stormwrack. Neither of them wastes time explain to me what armor class is. Perhaps Eberron is becoming the default starting line and this hand holding is necessary, but at the same time, something else that wastes space could be cut. Counting this with the ads and the green page reproduction, you’re out six pages and if you count the two-page reproduction, eight pages. When you look at the new statistic blocks, that makes this one of the thinnest Eberron books ever.Some of you may be asking, how is the book? It’s surprisingly useful.  It starts off by providing the reader, either a GM or player, with some ideas on why you’d want to travel and how do to such. Topics like exploration and assault are covered, and methods ranging from teleportation to walking are handled. Good advice for a magic rich setting that’s relatively low powered compared to Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms.Chapter two gets into the mechanics of the tools of the trade. Things like using ships in the game as well as details on how to control a bound elemental, as well as how vessels work in the game, using a short hand version from Stormrack, that works with Stormrack.  In some ways, it’s almost a trip down the Spelljammer memory lane as the airship map, along with the lightning rail, stormship, and wind galleon maps, all have that classic grid look to their layout. Each transport device comes with information on appearance, operation, suppression, history, and game stats. The second chapter also covers the different organizations that can help you move about more freely, like the Wayfinder Foundation and The Twelve. Each one comes with details on how to join, benefits, role playing notes, how the organization fits into the setting, and NPC reaction. In many ways, they’re laid out like the organizations in other recent books and include lore with different checks, how the organization works in the game in terms of use, and some sample NPCs to let the GM run the material right away.In that spirit, they’ve also included new prestige classes including the Cataclysm Mage, Thunder Guide, and Windright Captain.  The first two are ten level PrCs while the latter is a five level PrC. Each includes background, information on becoming that PrC, game stats, and other familiar traits, including many of those I just mentioned for the organizations. This is a lot of fluff per each PrC so those who enjoy a class bound into the setting should enjoy it. There are even brief notes on changing the role of the PrC in the campaign for those players who want something a little different than the standard. Chapter three gets into the GM’s toolbox with points of origin. There are four different locations mapped out for the GM to get the party started including Stormhome, a docking town for airship travel, a lighting rail station, the Crimson Ship, a galleon for hire, and probably a soon to be famous local, the Glitterdust Nightclub. Each one comes with map, notes on mapped locations, typical NPCs, and adventure ideas. It’s a great tool for the GM to have if he just wants to get the group going and needs a quick place to have the party meet, or in the case of the Glitterdust Nightclub, have new encounters that might let to other adventurers. Not satisfied with stopping there, the aid continues with chapter four, Midpoints. These are “places of mystery: lonely obelisks on blasted heaths, stone vaults overgrown with jungle creepers, and abandoned mines filled with shrieks and howls.”  With four locations, the section acts as a tool in not only providing the GM with a quick hour or three of entertainment for his group, but also as examples of what can be found in the setting.The four locations here are Katal Hazath, Msek, the Aal’drash Seals, and Shae Mordai. Each section includes background details, as well as how to get there, what the area looks like, the typical layout, at a glance information. For example, Katal Hazath has details on the town including authority figures, important characters and others, as well as details on typical encounters and adventure ideas. Encounter tables are provided for lazy people like me who might want to roll the dice and see what happens, and the tables include encounter, and average EL so the GM can determine if it’s appropriate or not for his group. So you’ve got some places for the characters to meet and move through, but where are they doing? Chapter five, destinations, answers that question with ten destinations. Due to the number of locations, the information provided is brief and will require lots of fleshing out by the GM. Some of these locations are templates that the GM can modify for his own use, like a typical Khyber Dragonshard Cavern. Others like Madwood Citadel, are specific locations. The layout of information is similar to the Midpoints, including a map, background, details on getting there, appearance, features, and adventure ideas.As if all those tools weren’t enough, the book closes with an appendix covering various types of treasures. Ideas on what might be found based on various factors. For example, “giants…claim credit for discovering arcane magic…they’re likely to have magic items in what treasure troves remain.” We have a listing of some standard items that might be found, as well as some new items. The new items are described with use, lore, description, prerequisite, activation, effect, construction, variants, weight, and price. For example, the Drake-Helm is a “receptacle for the attuned Siberys draognshards set into its crest. Each attuned Siberys dragonshard gives you an extra arcane spell known; the spell within the dragonshark is on your spell list just as if you had chosen it normally. You must still provide the spell slot, so you can’t cast a high-level spell within the dragonshard if you couldn’t cast it normally.”One of the things I enjoyed about the book, were the little extra things scattered throughout it. Some of them are there for the feel of the setting, others adding details to it. For example, if you want to know how the gith races fit into this setting with it’s different cosmology than the standard D&D settings, this is the book to get. If you want to know how characters play the boardgame Conquror or Zilargo Darts, little elements to engage your characters in, this book has those elements.Despite my annoyance at having hit points explained to me because of a format change, the book has a lot of potential for anyone whose wanted to run an Eberron campaign but didn’t know where to start or what to do. Having a place for the characters to meet, having places for them to explore, and having reasons for doing so, makes the Explorer’s Handbook a useful tool.</blockquote>

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