Just got Wilderlands 3.5 boxed set...

[Sammael]

...for $25! One of the local stores was having a clearance sale because of ownership changes. Unfortunately, I didn't have much money to spend, so I only got the boxed set and FR Champions of Ruin (worth it at half its cover price).

Now, I know next to nothing about Wilderlands. Well, that's not entirely true, but let's pretend it is. My first question is, do I need the Player's Guide to Wilderlands as well, or does the boxed set incorporate that information?

I mostly got the set because it was dirt-cheap, but I also remember hearing some poitive things about it here. What are the setting's key strengths? How suitable is it for mining ideas and using them in other settings (e.g. FR)?

 

[trancejeremy]

Am I missing something? If you bought it, why can't you just read it to find our yourself?


Anyway, the only really useful thing in the Player's Guide are some new core classes. Like the Amazong and Sage. But you probably aren't missing much without it.


I have it, but was kind of disappointed. It's a very shallow setting. That is, covers a lot of ground, but not in depth. And a lot of the material feels like random gibberish that was rolled up on random tables or are pop culture references from the 70s...

 

[Sammael]

Of course I can read it. But I have three other RPG books on the stack, waiting to be read, so I'd like to know how usable the boxed set would be in my current FR game.

 

[Crothian]

THe Players Guide has different info and it is made for players. The Box Set is the world described with encounters and things for the DM.

 

[Mystery Man]

The players guide has the gods in it as well, the boxed set does not. The box goes into the very origins of the history of the world then for the most recent developements the player's guide takes over.

It you want the gods that go with the world the players guide is kind of a big deal.

 

[Treebore]

Yeah, it isn't anywhere near as "in depth" as FR stuff is. It is more like a bunch of adventure hooks with a little info that may help spark ideas off in imagination.

WL is some detail with a lot of broad brush strokes for the DM to add detail too as the DM wishes.

So if you like that the FR setting tells you a lot of the who, what, when, and where you probably won't like WL.

Now if you would like a setting that lays out the "bones" of a setting and lets you add the flesh, then WL is probably a setting your going to like a lot.

Me? I like both, but I like WL better because I like my ideas better than someone elses.

 

[Shadowslayer]

Nice score on the Box Set. I use that set as the basis for my campaign.

1. You don't need the Player's guide. It's nice to have, but not necessary. The PG does have the gods, but really, the gods are such a hodgepodge that you can use gods from anywhere else without disrupting anything.

The main thing is that the box set and the Player's Guide don't reference each other, as far as I've noticed. So you're not getting "so and so is a member of X group, see pg 32 of the Player's guide"

2. The diffs between Wilderlands and FR are many. FR is a little more cohesive in ways. I guess the big difference is that FR is a game world that does double duty as a setting for fiction. In fact FR was used for written fiction first and adapted to D&D later. Wilderlands is pure game world. Its sorta meant for the sort of dungeon/wilderness campaign where not every adventure is linked together by overarching plots involving large power groups etc. SO you won't find any large scale stories or far reaching power groups like the Harpers or the Red Wizards or what have you. Wilderlands assumes you're making up your own.

WHat it DOES do is give you an amazing amount of detail on all sorts of oddities your PCs can come across. It gives you brief overviews of a lot of small towns, castles, citadels and cities. There's adventure seeds all over the place, and if store bought dungeon modules are your thing, there's lots of reasonable spots to just plunk them down. (Necromancer Games stuff, and the Dungeon Crawl Classics line will both find good homes here.)

Wilderlands is also a lower level world. The number of named NPCs above 10th level are few. Its assumed that the PCs are going to be the prime movers and shakers of the world.

Anyway, thats it from me. Hope this helps.

 

[Odhanan]

The Player's Guide to the Wilderlands is a good addition as a resource for the players during character creation and during the game. The mechanics involved are quite cool. That's a really nice PG.
And the gods indeed. You'd probably need the gods for the campaign.

 

[der_kluge]

I agree with everything thus far (except what TranceJeremy says - he's on crack). The Wilderlands is awesome. So much detail, so many ideas. I just read it and get inspired. I see visions of places far away and it just really gets my juices flowing.

I love it because it doesn't really have any baggage to it. There's no overarching plots I have to deal with or complex organizations or things like that. It's just there, at face value, and it screams "adventure!". I love it. I'm currently using it, and I doubt I'll ever use another campaign setting.

The Player's Guide is handy, but not required, especially if you did what I did, and replace the gods with Forgotten Realms gods. I love the FR gods because they have so much detail, and can be extracted from the setting with relative ease. I own the Player's Guide, but use it little.

 

[ssampier]

Rock on.

I love the bare-bones approach. You can literally throw anything in without disrupting too much. New module? Plop it down somewhere. Dragon magazine has a new God of Whatiznis; he's always been around, you just haven't heard of him yet.

I've flipped through the Player's Guide and while it's not really required, it does detail the Wilderlands races nicely. I'm 50/50 on the classes, though.

My advice: Skip the PgW and use the FR gods (that's what der_kluge does, I think). For classes, use Core and anything supplements you want. Enjoy reading the books, get ideas, change stuff around to fit FR, blend to taste, and enjoy!