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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2211730" data-attributes="member: 172">Lands of Conflict is a setting book describing the Warcraft campaign world, most specifically the Eastern continent Azeroth (the Western continent Kalindor is covered in some depth in the Warcraft RPG main book.) The book is published under White Wolf’s Sword & Sorcery logo. The book is developed by Mike Johnstone and features authorial contributions by Rob Baxter, Tim Campbell, Luke Johnson, Seth Johnson, Mar Lafferty, and Andrew J. Scott, with rules advice and material by Chris Metzen and Bob Fitch.Note that the term Azeroth is used to refer both to the setting as a whole and the south of the Eastern continent. Hereafter, I will sidestep this confusing convention by restricting my use of the term to refer to the region of the Eastern continent.A First LookLands of Conflict is a 200-page hardcover book priced at $29.99.The cover of the book has a full cover painting, which is a collage of figures from the setting, including a human and an orc, as well as some fearsome creatures. The cover art is by Samwise Didier.The interior artwork is black and white (other than the lavishly illustrated end leaves). Interior artists include the late Michel Koiter (to whom the book is dedicated), Rene Koiter, James Stowe, and the boys from UDON, Chris Stevens, Eric Kim, Greg Boychuk, Greg Brown, Jim Zubkavich, and Ray Dela Cruz. The art is well detailed and shaded, though the book is somewhat more sparsely illustrated than you might expect for a list of authors of this size.The cartography is somewhat primitive, something that has sort of become an annoying trend among White Wolf books. The overland maps mostly appear like grayscale copies of the setting map.A Deeper LookLands of Conflict contains chapters regarding history & culture, three major regions of the Eastern continent (Azeroth, Khaz Modan, and Lordaeron), and adventures, and two appendices detailing organizations and rules material, respectively.Each chapter has a short fiction section. The body text is written from the perspective of a traveler in the world, and a number of shaded sidebars throughout the book provides game related materials including NPCs, creature and unit statistics, and variant campaign ideas referring to on inspired by nearby text sections. Some of these are pertinent to a standard Warcraft campaign, but some provide ideas for games in the past of the world, though such games would obviously have much less support in terms of game material than contemporary Warcraft RPG games.The first chapter pertains to the Warcraft world as a whole, and provides more in depth history and cultural notes than the Warcraft D&D core book. In addition to a timeline and an overview of each of the ages of the world of Warcraft’s past, the chapter provides brief detail on travel, languages, and culture, though this section is inexplicably sandwiched between the history and timeline subsections.The region chapters describe a number of states and regions, each using a similar format which resembles that used in the Scarred Lands setting books. Each region/nation has a overview (with line items for population, government, rulers, major settlements, languages, faiths, resources, and affiliation, and a few paragraphs of overview), geography, sites and settlements, history, and adventure ideas. Each area receives about two pages of text, which strikes a compromise between brevity and detail, though one perhaps a little on the short side compared to other setting books.The book’s name is a reflection of the nature of the lands of Azeroth, Khaz Modan, and Lordaeron. The lands have been overrun by forces hostile to the alliance such as the burning legion, scourge (undead), and syndicate (bandits). This creates a wild and desperate feel to the setting somewhat like that of the Scarred Lands, if perhaps a bit less fantastic and a bit more grim, something a bit more like Warhammer.The adventure chapter features three adventures, covering a level ranges of 2-4, 6, and 11th level. The last two adventures are perhaps more typical of D&D adventures, being a dungeon raid and a keep assault, respectively. The first adventure seems to me the freshest of the three, putting up the characters as gladiatorial slaves in an arena run by the jungle trolls. All three adventures are competantly written, with straightforward synopses and usable plot hooks, a simple test that many d20 adventures fail.One tidbit I found interesting in this chapter was a sidebar in the Arena adventure, discussing how being a gladiator does not mean one is a member of the Gladiator prestige class. This observation stands in stark contrast to a discussion in the Kalamar Plaeyer’ Guide years back that dismissed the existence of a gladiator prestige class and justified their gladiator core class by positing that many characters who would find themselves in an arena would not qualify for the prestige class. This shows to me that the authors of Lands of Conflict “get” the d20 system whereas the authors of the Kalamar Player’s Guide did not.The first appendix introduces a variety of organizations existing in the eastern continents. The organizations run the gamut from those that can serve as allies or patrons to good players, such as the Explorer’s Guild and the Caretakers, decidedly more villainous groups like the Cult of the Damned and the skilled bandits of the Defias Brotherhood, as well as some organizations with a decidedly more complicated relationship such as the zealous Scarlet Crusade and the Dark Apothecary Society, a group of undead creatures that seek to purge the land of the Scourge. Each of the organizations receives two or three pages of details, which is a lot of depth compared to the scant two pages or less devoted to each nation or region. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however. As a GM, I find organizations with their own goals and resources convenient building blocks for campaign, and these fill the bill nicely.The second appendix provides a smattering of feats, equipment, and magic items, and a fair few prestige classes and monsters. Many of the feats refer to or require feats from the Alliance and Horde compendium, which normally would not be a great issue with me. However, that book seems to have been under-published and is not even available on the White Wolf website. That being the case, I find references to this book rather vexing.The prestige classes are primarily associated with organizations in the prior appendix. This follows the pleasant pattern of providing more thorough backgrounds for prestige classes in various official and third party d20 books. Classes include the Dark Apothecary, Defias Renegede, Dwarven Prospector, and Scarlet Crusader. These are generally competantly assembled, though one makes the classic flub of listing iterative attacks in the classes base attack bonus.Monsters include dangers such as the stranglethorn (a dangerous living tree), worgen (wolf like nocturnal humanoid), and dark iron dwarves (evil kin of the ironforge dwarves.)Conclusions(Note: I am trying a format change of a sort. Some commentators in the past have been approached me as if I am performing a hatchet job on their book because I point out weaknesses, and ignore that I point out strengths as well. As all books have strengths and weaknesses, I think that perhaps it may pay to make that point more obvious.)Weak points: All things considered, the setting material is not very deep, nor is it too ground breaking. Indeed, it seems very typical for d20 fantasy settings. As stated, I also consider some reliance of some rules on the hard-to-find Alliance & Horde Compendium a problem.Strong points: In contrast to the above, the adventures are nicely assembled and easy to use, and the organizations and situations will make creation of adventures in the eastern continent fairly convenient if you like working with such elements. Further, the rules material displays mastery of d20 rules.This book should appeal to you if: You would like an organization driven campaign in the Warcraft setting.Overall Grade: B -Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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