Whimsical said:
Dang it, I don't want egyptian dwarves and elves. I want dog and cat headed PC races.
Will be buying it anyway. I'm trying to persuade my ancient Egypt loving friend to run a Egyptian themed D&D game.
I felt this way too. I kind of imagined being able to use the miniatures from the Aegyptus mini game ( Beak headed men, Cat headed men, Dog headed men, Antler headed men etc... ) to represent the races here. That would have been so cool!
I did pick it up yesterday though, and these are my initial impressions. Brace yourself, as they are mostly negative so far.
-If this is a "cultural" setting product and not a historical one, then why is the geography basically lifted from the the World Atlas?
-This product does not really take advantage of the boxed format like it could have. Besdies the three booklets, there was only one other thing in the box, a small ( 4 page ) map, which easily could have been attached to a single book somehow. Also, there is not a book that has only PC info, and all the PC info, including PrC's etc... Some adventure MAP handouts would have been nice...
- No adventure. Show me how the setting is different by having different themes in a detailed example beyond a 100 adventure seeds idea table
- Way too much space and detail on new core classes that are basically 95% similar to the PHB classes.
WHAT I Liked ( so far - I'm sure I'll appreciate more in time with absorbtion )
-The art & Layout are upto the usual GR standards. I was less fond of some of the "softer" pieces
-The setting history is rich and flavorful, allowing detailed characther creation and plot hooks
-The attempt to cover the full pantheon of 27 dieties is appreciated
If I were to ever use this product to run a campaign I would definitely look to my copy of Necropolis to help fill the region with themed monsters.