Greetings to you all
I’m happy, that finally there is a thread where I can write my graces for this fine setting. So let that be done. (Warning: English is only second language from this member, so please try to look past the grammatical errors and the misspelling).
I have for some time been looking for a setting, that fits my needs and style of play. Many books are now on my shelves collecting dust and more money than my wife find healthy for our account has gone to that.
So the first star to Kyngdoms is for being able check it out, read all what you want, even test it through gaming, and all of that without getting your wallet out of your pocket. That is fair marketing in my book. I will put some weight upon that you are not just getting previews and a little taste of what this product is. You get to enjoy the whole meal. All 300 pages it is.
As said earlier, a lot of books are now on my bookshelf, and the chance for them not being opened again is huge, so I will do some comparison between them and Kyngdoms and hopefully show why I believe Kyngdoms is better than them. I am aware that we not all will agree on the following, and if that is the case, let us just agree to disagree, but I provide this to show why I think Kyngdoms is different (and better).
Unique settings?
The first book on my shelf is Dragonmech, a well-written setting with an amazing history. Many of these kinds of books have lately been published. Books that provide a very unique setting to stand out from other products out there, in the case of Dragonmech in comes in the form of huge Iron Mechs powered by steam and magic. Other examples of unique settings could be where players’ just plays angels, demons and/or dragons, or a world that rest on a turtle’s back. All interesting settings that can bring fun to the gaming table, but these kind of settings rarely keep the excitement for long. Often I find myself back on the path of “normal” fantasy ala Tolkien’s world. That is what you get with Kyngdoms, a world we with ease can imagine Gandalf or Aragon breathing in. That is the kind of fantasy, which has brought me to play RPG. So the second star to Kyngdoms is for bringing “real” fantasy back to the table.
So why not play one of the more establish fantasy settings?
The next book (in this case, a good handful of books) is the Forgotten Realms setting. That is also fantasy as how we have learnt to know and love it. So why not just play that and be able to chose from a great amount of material that has been put on the market, instead of choosing Kyngdoms?
The Forgotten Realms has been on the market for 20 years (if you included the module “Bloodstone Pass”) and in that time a lot of authors have tried to bring their style into that setting. The gain is a huge world with a ton of information, but the lost is a world that no longer hangs together, meaning; a lot of the new material has been made with out thoughts of older work. Sometimes it seems more like it’s about making as many books as possible than it does to make it fit together in an overall puzzle. The world of Kyngdoms (Arrassia) hangs tightly together, from east to west coast, from north to south. This is the work of one man, and it can surely be seen in the way every piece of the puzzle fits together. So let’s send the third star to kingdoms for making a world that feels like one world.
A mature setting
I’m also getting older and the Harry Potter style doesn’t keep my interest for long. I question a lot of things and want to be able to find an explanation for it. Even when it is a magic world, nothing comes from nothing. So another huge star to Kyngdoms comes from covering all angles as it is possible on 300 pages. Keith Robinson (the author) has not just quickly written a setting to earn a handful of money. It is clearly shown that he has been breathing this world for a long time. He seems to have an answer for everything. Honestly, try and go challenge him on his message board with questions about his world and you will receive an answer for you query. So with Mature I don’t mean that it is dark, demonical or bloody (which seem to be a trend in many new worlds), it is mature in the way of making a believable world, which can be explained.
Professional
The Conan book on my shelf was a book I looked forward to get for a long time. As a huge Robert E. Howard fan, that should have been the setting of my choice. But I was very disappointed. The book was full of errors, missing out on some key elements and in many cases I must admit I was wondering if they had an editor to look at it (sorry for the bashing, but as said, I was very disappointed). Before I looked at Kyngdoms that was also my thought. How can a game from just one man be any good? What is wrong with it, since it is free to read? I was assuming that this was just an amateur RPG. But I was in for a surprise. The text, the layout and the site are of the highest quality. Don’t let the no-pay offer push you away. In this case “You get way more than you pay for”. And is that not worth the fifth star? Certainly…the fifth out of five stars coming to Kyngdoms for being a product that shines of professionalism.
This is why this is the game of my choice. I really hope that other will find the same qualities in the Kyngdoms setting and give it a chance to bloom.
