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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2008831" data-attributes="member: 18387">As far as i recall, only one series of products tackled the issue of necromancy well enough for my taste. It was the Jakandor setting, a three-product one-shot containing a well-packed island campaign. The first book dealt with the barbarians, and from what the reader could learn, the forth-coming campaign would be a great necro hunt: the "evil" charonti were definetely the bad guys. Then the second book came out, Jakandor, island of destiny, and one learnt a lot about the necromancers' culture... And it was stupendous. In fact, the aim of the series was to show that with a simple twist you could demolish old fantasy clichés while at the same time offering solid ground for the PCs to play on. The Charonti were neutral, and even good, and their necromantic culture was great. I thought i would never find such a good alternative view of necromancy in any other product. And you guess where i'm going: i was wrong. Hollowfaust (Val-Faust in the French version i own) is a very strong setting, and as it is located in a very interesting place of Ghelspad, it can be useful for the DM who wants to scare the players with a little "to the land of the titanides and back" trip in the area. The book follows the lead of Mithril, but it has definetely a better edge on the background side. The idea behind all these city-state accessories may be to give the players really cool headquarters in this BIG DUNGEON continent that is Ghelspad. This is a great innovation. As for the content, it has a history section, which expands what is already known of the past story of the land, a fairly long city description, a good look at the NPCs, and all in all these sections of the book are well done. You may not like the art, which is far less beautiful than what Wizards does for otherwise worse products : this is too bad because with the imagination of the scarred lands designers and some colour paintings by sam wood or stephen daniele you might really find the best d20 products ever. Imagine a Lockwood-paint Bonewrack dragon... I'm dreaming.  Some goodies deserve a special mention: the adventures seeds are REALLY useful for the DM who has already used what Mithril had to offer: as they are the only real scenarii for the Scarred Lands, they must be read with attention. The Appendice are interesting, especially the prestige class part, for it contains a bard PrC which is far darker than the virtuoso of Song and Silence. The four other PrC are all interesting, and their art is evocative and beautiful. One can congratulate the editor for the versatility of the Prc: one combative class, a roguish one, and the DM is grateful!The spell section is full of average-interest spells, with a notable 9th level spell, a really awful one with deadly implications on the background: surprise!Now the Bad Aspects, because they are many: first, when i buy a city-based setting, i immediately flip through the book to find the map. Here do not hurry, it is quite bad and not practical at all. Moreover, there is no large area map, except as a back picture on the first page of each section, so it is not usable. I already said the art was awful. It is quite true. But you will definetely like the Sombrero fashion style of the necromancers! They rock. Again, it is too bad White Wolf cannot get Wizards artists, or even Dungeon ones. William O'Connor's cover saves the whole with a beautiful fight picture, where you can see the large-hat style of a skywalker fan necro... goody goooooody!In Conclusion, Hollowfaust is a bit better than Mithril, but on the average it is obvious that all the scarred lands products are of exceptional quality for non books. Gygax was right at saying Skip and the others had serious competition. Still, it is perhaps too bad that the whole line of products does not already features a valid campaign. As far as i know we will have to wait till september to put all this fantastic background to use. Till then, you may find some spare time to play Prophecies of the Dragon!!Qsad. axoneres@caramail.com</blockquote>

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