Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="wocky" data-source="post: 2011718" data-attributes="member: 11408">Before the Martians came to earth and taught us how to build the pyramids the earth was still hot, saber-tooth riding savage monkey men escaped from fierce erupting volcanoes (everywhere!) and valiantly fought huge T-Rex dinosaurs. If you disagree then you haven't learned history from comics and pulp stories. Fear not, Lost Prehistorica caters to both those that want a mysterious valley where time stood still, or a more faithful depiction of prehistory. The authors describe it as "a toolkit for introducing exotic lands with a prehistoric flair into campaigns", as it's a very modular product which provides various elements (both the crunchy and the fluffy) that can be brought over to any other campaign. The "Lost Lands" you should be able to create with the book range from the time men lived in caves, to the first city states.The first chapter deals mostly with different ways in which prehistoric elements can be introduced in a campaign. Not completely exhaustive, it's more like a brainstorm that works as a good source of ideas. Locations,  from prehistoric islands to entire planes, are suggested, as well as many geographical elements (ruins, petrified woods, climate, etc.) which can be used for flavor-infusing encounters. More encounters can be designed using chapter two, which deals with survival in a hostile environment. "Hazards", which could be described as "natural traps", are introduced; CR, DCs, effects and all other formal stats are given for quicksand, geysers, gas bubbles and some others. New diseases are also described, with rich descriptions and interesting effects (from deafness or a lower speed to the cannibalistic urges created by the Cannibal Fever). Descriptions of a few plants and fungus complete the chapter.Chapter three, titled "Cultures" reminded me in its treatment of the prehistorical world to what "Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe" did for the medieval age. It discusses various cultural aspects of a prehistorical society (subsistence patterns, social structures, politics, technology, trade, warfare, food, rituals, etc.) based on actual scientific sources. Nothing is taken for granted here, which is good, since even trivial details like prehistoric diets or family organization are completely unknown to most of us. Using this chapter is not easy, however, since bare information is given with not enough examples. Designing a culture would certainly be a time consuming task that might not be reflected enough in game time, so it might not be for every DM or every campaign. However, every DM would do well in reading this section at least once, to get some general notions of what life was like in prehistoric times. "It should have some example tribes!", I thought while I read the third chapter... I was gladly surprised by chapter four, which includes five ready to use tribes, and some guidelines to create some more. However, all tribes provided are mostly oriented towards a "Grim and gritty" campaign style, and I would also have liked a more modular approach, with examples of each cultural aspect for fast lego-style tribe design.The fifth chapter is about items. It begins with a large list of standard equipment  that includes clothing, decoration, masks, pipes, totems, plants and more. I found it odd that these items all had their price listed in gp. Actually, it makes sense for balance purposes and as a reference for fair trading deals, but I think more should be said here about primitive forms of commerce, and item availability; nobody should expect to be able to buy 'war paints' off the counter. Even stranger, there's a section on stonework and art that includes idols, altars and standing stones, and every one of them also has a price in gp. The flavor text at the beginning of the chapter hints at the rationale behind this, with a tale of explorers trading with inhabitants of the Lost Lands. What would be missing there, is a second column that allows for comparison between the value of the item in the Lost Lands and the value in the explorers' nation, since that difference is one of the defining characteristic of commerce with newfound lands. This chapter also includes prices and stats for primitive weapons (made out of rock or bone), some exotic weapons, and fantasy armors like "Dino Hide" or "Carapace Plate".The sixth chapter covers characters. It starts with ten new feats, most of them with a "hunter" theme giving various abilities similar to the Favored Enemy of Rangers. Next comes an analysis of what the place of every class  (both PC and NPC classes) would be in the roles of either explorer, or native to the Lost Lands. There's even a rationale given for native aristrocrats or monks, which might not be reasonable enough for everyone, but at least tries to keep every option available.The section on races is the only part of the book I actually disliked. Besides some new gnome, elf and halfling subraces we get nine new races, most of which are based on anthropomorphic animals. These seemed slightly unbalanced (in either direction, depending on which race) in respect to the core races. I found no interesting concepts in their outlooks or societies, plus they seem to be victim of odd mixing of personality traits. For example, the feline Felklaws are described as aggressive, friendly, curious and proud, not the most usual mix, and not the easiest to roleplay. If you happen to appreciate these races, however, you get full stats and descriptions, plus advantages and disadvantages of combining each core class with the race. Three "ancient" races, which could have reigned over the Lost Lands before they got lost, are also provided. The Guzi are planar headhunters which could be called the "fathers of cannibalism". Oolori are called a "race of humans" (a sorry departure from the concept of "race" in D&D) who were seafaring people with great knowledge of science. Finally, Paletyhne were very smart, graceful and well manered goblinoids with a great desire for knowledge.Chapter seven has four greater gods and seven lesser and intermediate ones designed specifically for a campaign of this kind. Each has a full description plus alignment, portfolio, domains, symbol and favored weapon, plus a number of different denominations.The final chapter is the bestiary. The thirty seven new monsters include the monster entries for the new races and some new dinosaurs and prehistoric-like creatures like saber tooth tigers. A very nice touch is that each of these monsters includes a "Future history" entry describing whatever will eventually happen to the monster. A useful section I was glad to see deals with the presence of standard monsters in the Lost Lands. This chapter also introduces "critters", creatures that don't justify a full stat block but are relevant in game terms for economic reasons or some other use. This is a good idea, but the departure from full stat blocks was taken as far as not including even the size and type of the creatures, which would be important to see how they're affected by some spells and abilities."Lost Prehistorica" has a very clean, uniform and pleasant layout. The format of the core manuals was respected for all stats and rule elements. There are many images throughout; I'm no big fan of them, but I think that they're good enough as to justify their presence. Not all, but many of the new monsters and races are illustrated. The organization of the book is good, though the PDF has some errors with the bookmark hierarchy (some sections seem to be within other sections at the same level). There's a detailed and hyperlinked index, but no glossary (as usual, actually, so no surprise here).No matter what campaign you're playing, if there's a place for a "Lost Land" then this book will probably be useful to you. No matter the type of campaign you're aiming at, you'll probably find a good source of ideas or knowledge. However, due to varied nature of the material (some chapters more realistic, some leaning towards certain types of fantasy) chances are you won't be able to take advantage of all of it; its modularity, however, allows for a selective approach.Score: 3.5</blockquote>

Verification