Murchad's Legacy Campaign Setting

[Crothian]

Murchad's Legacy
A 256 page d20 fantasy campaign setting
They say it's good to be the king. Tell that to King Almagaid of Launhym. Tattooed orcs invading from the north, dwarves in the neighboring mountains lamenting their failed "gunpowder" weapons, a vast empire to the south, wealthy elitists taking control from the east, druids and clerics fighting internally, barons threatening to tear the country up, your wife of over twenty years may just well be having an affair, and all because some wizard named Murchad didn't get his way.

Murchad's Legacy is a campaign setting in the "knights and castles" tradition using the d20 ruleset where the story slowly advances with every level up and the players drive the plot.

* Nine countries presented in glorious detail.
* Poster sized area map included as PDF
* New Prestige classes that are tied to the setting, no generic stuff here!
* New feats, dozens of new spells, and lots of character hooks to get started right away!
* All text Open Game Content!

256 pages and over 18MB of whopping campaign setting that brings back that old school feel. From the front cover by Larry Elmore to the adventures in the back. This is the fantasy role-play you remember! Coming soon on rpgmall.com as print on demand!

Its time to save a kingdom!


Written by: Derek Becker, Dr. Chris Kulander, Evangeline Vandergeld
Cover by: Larry Elmore
Artwork by: Veroncia Jones, Allan Palmer, Rachel Blackburn

 

[Yair]

The Murchad's Legacy Campaign Setting is a 256 page D&D setting published by Parent's Basement Games as a pdf, available for 12$. It is an excellent setting. If you are looking for an orcish invasion campaign or just for stuff to pillage for your own game I strongly recommend it, however it is in some respects amateurish.

The setting is focused around the north-western human feudal kingdom of Launhym, which is threatened by orcs from the north. Extensive details are given on its history, politics, geography (including an excellent map, description of the weather, settlements, and so on) and major groups, organizations and NPCs that build up a rich, complex background with plenty of mysteries and hidden agendas. Part of this background is a similarly in-depth treatment of nearby kingdoms and regions. These include an elven kingdom to the west and a human kingdom to the east that greatly affect Launhym's politics, and a Roman-like empire in the south overshadowing the local powers. Other kingdoms include a buffer dwarven kingdom to the south, eastern barbarians, and drow and orc kingdoms to the north. Together they comprise a rich and interesting political landscape, set in a realistic and fitting geography.
This rich background is supported with six prestige class (one for each major culture) and background/cultural feats. I was impressed with the extent these encouraged immersion in the setting. The Steadfast Knight PrC, for example, encourages the player to invoke oaths, which is something that is common in Launhym's culture. I found some of the feats too NPC-like, focusing on enhancing skills players rarely want enhanced (for example Craft). (Note that the feats are more powerful then PH feats - this is intentional, to lure players to take them; I like it, but YMMV.) I did NOT like penalties to diplomacy checks, which are prevalent in the setting, but that is hardly a game breaker. I did NOT like the fact that some feats grant varying benefits determined randomly (when the character gains them).
The kingdom of Launhym will fall to the orcs unless the PCs do something about it. A rough timeline, detailing different stages of the orcish invasion, is given along with ideas on when and how to move along it and adventure seeds for reversing the trend. I found the information on the assault a little too spread out and sketchy at places, but overall the work gives a solid backbone for an “orc invasion” campaign that lets the PCs figure out what to do about it and provides plenty of ideas and background for a competent DM to spin a tale out of. The setting is also rich enough to provide plenty of adventures regardless of the orc-invasion metaplot.

Three adventures are included in the work. I did not thoroughly read them so I'll refrain from commenting on them. The zip file also includes a detailed (albeit crowded) regional map, a broad “global” map for context, and regional flags.

From the author's words it appears that the setting is intended as a fairly generic fantasy setting, that can be used piecemeal by any DM (just using it as the north-western corner of your homebrew, for example). That was what I was looking for, but in that respect I was somewhat disappointed. A key theme of the setting is that the orcs, goblinoids, giants, and probably other races are the results of elven handiwork, humans warped by powerful elven magic. This recurring theme simply fails to work for a generic setting, which needs to explain the existence of orcs, kobolds, giants and so on in other places and even planes of existence. It is, however, an interesting premise and leads to interesting ramifications in the setting.
The authors also found it difficult, apparently, to set aside their house rules and many got in. I especially liked the use of Spellcraft to ward off scrying. The nerfing of harm and teleport is also certainly not essential to the setting, nor were notes on generating ability scores needed. I actually liked many of the house rules, and may adopt some of them, but I think their inclusion ultimately detracts from the setting's focus. I likewise found the DMing instructions (like letting the players play whatever character they want even if the setting doesn't allow one - like a Gnome) patronizing and needless.
A part of the flavor text is the use of ley lines, but these are supported only with a few spells that I personally did not find sufficient. This is not an essential part of the setting, however, and can be discarded entirely or improved upon with other sources.
The entirety of the work is OGC, including the proper names and everything, which for me is a great bonus. In that context, however, relying on the (non-OGC) gunpowder rules in the DMG is not the best of decisions. I will probably replace them with similar OGC rules.
The cover is an excellent Elmore piece and the inner pictures are of decent to good quality (B&W), but I found the art to be generic (despite captions tying it to specific personas or setting elements). The graphic design is non-existent as the work consists of a plain two-column text interposed with badly-sized tables (where the text is cut off into segments) and an occasional character picture. I found the appearance dull and occasionally confusing (especially in how headlines “disappear” into the text), but that doesn't really detract from the excellent content.
There are also a few editorial gaffs here and there. I noticed one repeating paragraph, and the number of active Oaths a Knight of the Pure Heart can muster at once is discernable only by a majority vote (two places say two, one place says one). I probably missed some too. The level of mistakes, however, does not distract from the work (hey, it almost lives to WotC's standards, these days).

In conclusion, this is a solid product detailing a setting of a north-western human kingdom threatened by orcs along with a rich environment to support it. The overarching plot is concrete enough to provide a framework for a campaign while being open and sketchy enough to allow the PCs complete freedom. The political and geographic scene is detailed and rich enough to provide many further adventures. Despite a few amateurish hallmarks and choices I disagree with, I think this is an excellent product well worth the money. If you're looking for an orc-invasion campaign, this product is top notch. If you're looking to use this product piecemeal, perhaps as a single plane or a part of a greater setting, you will get a lot of good stuff from it but will probably want to make some exhaustive changes.

 

[Crothian]

Murchads Legacy

Settings are always a tough review. There is more information and more thought put into settings then other books. The information all has to work together unlike the toolkit books where one is expecting to pick and choose items to use. The details matter a lot in the settings and many times the details are left out. It seems that many settings are how to run adventures in this world and not play in this world, not live in this world. Lots of times these are the details that I want, the little things that can be used to make the setting come alive to players. Without them, the settings start to blur together and it no longer matters really which setting the game is being played in.

Murchade’s Legacy is a new setting by Parent’s Basement Games. It is also the first book Parent’s Basement Games has done. Starting with a two hundred and fifty six page setting is a brave endeavor in the current market. The PDF while nicely written is a bare to look out. It is very plain with no borders and very few pictures. Most of the pages are two columns of texts and a few headers. One a book on tenth this size that would be okay, but reading a couple hundred pages like that just wears one down as most books this size would have much more art and borders and other items to distract the eyes from the solid text. This is my single greatest complaint in the book. The little art that is there is really good and seeing more of it would have been a great thing and it would have greatly helped out the lay out and the white space. The book is well book marked making it very easy to find things in it.

In addition to the PDF of the book there are other files in the zip that this book comes in. There are eight files that are each a picture of a flag of one of the countries featured in the world. There is also a pair of maps. One is a nice black and white covering the area and the other is the same map but just better. It is in color, has a lot of detail of cities and topography on it and it is really big. It is the kind of a map that I would love to get a poster of to use. The map is very impressive and very well done. It is one of the best maps I have seen for a role playing game. The only bad thing that I can say is it really deserves to be in print and not just as a computer file.

The setting is well put together. There are some nice changes to some of the basic things that I like. For instance they have removed the common language replacing it with just languages of the countries. The races are pretty much standard with two additional ones. First they have Dark Elves, but this is one of the better reasons I have read for Dark Elves to be in existence. They were basically mutated by the Negative Energy Plane. The Orc is also an option to play and fitting since I never understood why half orcs were available but full orcs were not. Both the Dark Elf and the Orc have are considered evil in the setting and both have an ecl of +1 making them a little stronger as a base race.

As I continually mention it is the little details I like. Each of the core races and core classes are given a small paragraph to just explain how they fit into this setting. It is a simple yet highly effective way to bring players to understand their characters a little better. The setting does have psionic characters but they are extremely rare and it is discussed a bit in the back of the book. There is a race for psionics though other races can have them. It is nice though to see them feel like they are part of the setting even if such a small and rare piece. So many times psionics feel like add-ons. It is done in such a way that if someone is opposed to psionics in their game they can be removed with ease. The nations are greatly detailed later in the book but in this front section it gives some good summaries of them and also of some of the churches and spiritual beliefs.

The setting does have gunpowder though it is interesting to see that firearms are inferior to longbows and there is not much of a desire to improve upon them. It seems almost as if firearms were invented but then seen as inferior and so given up on by most of the countries. That is a very cool and interesting take on firearms.

There are quite a few new feats but unlike most books of feats these serve a purpose. Many of them are culture or background feats that serve to help define the character as well as give that cool mechanical benefit. There are many interesting feats that can only be taken at first level so it might be a hard chose for character to decide on one.

Prestige classes take an interesting turn. In fact the same can be said in the list of new spells. Sometimes the normal progressions are changed. For instance the base attack of some classes is different then the ones listed in the core books. This was done on purpose and makes for an interesting change of pace. The spells sometimes have different ranges and durations as well. The ones listed are just fine, but different.

The calendar is a great thing they have used here. There are many holidays that are described and holy days for the different religions. And the religions are also nicely described with plenty of options and interesting groups. The setting has always and punishments for different places and makes use of writs to grant permission to travel, wear weapons, trade, and other activities in the different countries. These are areas that are sometimes neglected in setting and they make for great details that make this place a bit more memorable.

There is a lot of information about this setting in here. But it is more about that it is a feel the book gives for playing in this campaign. One of the designers has written:

“Murchad's Legacy is basically a campaign designed around "Real Men" but with enough setting description so that a "Real Roleplayer" could join in the fun as well.”

This was a success in writing the setting. The book does have some of the usual mistakes like the layout that first time books have but the writing and ideas here are solid. This is a setting that should be fun and enjoyable to play in.

 

[Jannica Thales]

The ENnie nominated Murchad’s Legacy (ML) is a d20 fantasy campaign setting that takes a lot of the standard fantasy tropes and gives them a bit of a twist. This is hardly unusual in and of itself, but when you take into consideration that one of those little twists is that this is a setting you can actually “win” at, you realize that you’re in for a treat. The basic premise is that there is a human-orc war brewing only the humans aren’t remotely organized and there are no heroes stepping up to save everyone. The PCs are the heroes (as they are in every game) but in ML there’s a definite timeline based on in-game calendar and the PCs level progression. If the PCs spend too much time digging about in dungeons or making magic items, the orcs are going to win this war. There’s a definite sense of urgency in ML that is not present in other game settings. It’s an urgency that makes you want to roll up a character before the hordes march through human lands. So, let’s get to it!

The book begins with a prologue that has some story text. Many of the chapters start this way. This particular story clearly defines the differences between two kingdoms we haven’t met yet, Launhym and Calisia. It isn’t that long, but already from the start a cultural rift has been defined between the rustic Launhymians and the elite Calisians.

Chapter One outlines the races. Nothing terribly outlandish here. Gnomes are excluded, but we get the option for two evil races, Orcs and Dark Elves. Orcs are pretty much Orcs. Dark Elves are basically drow only slightly less powerful and slightly more evil, as in “not Drizzit”. They’ve been tainted by the Negative Energy Plane and apparently that makes them a little grumpy. We also see a rundown of how the classes are viewed in this world. Cultural background and to a lesser extent religion are more important in ML than in some game worlds. The character’s nation of origin is going to be a lot more defining than class or race. We’ll see more of this when we get to the feats.

There are no new skills (sort of), but there are uses for old ones. Alchemy can be used to make gunpowder, but as we’ll discover only fools use gunpowder in ML. The forgery skill is much more important in this setting and PCs can use it to fake the various documents they might need. There is no “common” language and the languages that do exist are far more integrated than I’ve seen in other D&D worlds. Essentially, nations that have a common linguistic root can puzzle out what the other person is trying to say. This is a welcome change and it’s this kind of cultural integration that is present throughout the entire book. Spellcraft is listed as being able to be used defensively against Scry as long as the proper ritual is followed. A fantastic addition for anyone who has played a higher level game.

The feats are very well done. They’re all a notch overpowered, but they can only be taken at first level. There are background feats (e.g. Military, Pious) and cultural feats (one for each nation). The cultural feats shine. There are plenty of social penalties against arguing nations, so if you take the Launhym feat, you’re going to have a harder time dealing with Calisians. My favorite is the Remarian feat, a bonus to Intimidate, Will Saves, and the probability of not being able to learn other languages at 1st level drive home the arrogance and pride of this culture.


There is some new equipment, gunpowder will catch everyone’s eye, but there’s some fine print: it tends to explode. Simply displaying a gun is enough to rack up social skill penalties as people back away from the crazy person with the guns.

Chapter Two is all about prestige classes. There is one for each nation. The Imperial Legionnaire and the Knight of Pure Heart stood out while I was reading them. Both give bonuses due to their relationships with other PCs or NPCs. This isn’t like some of the dynamic duos in the WotC books. If the Legionnaire is grouped with other Legionnaires they get some nice bonuses. And I certainly wouldn’t object if my SO played a Knight of Pure Heart and decided my character was his “passion”. The other prestige classes carry the feel of their nations, the Steadfast Knight is a sort of ranger-fighter who makes oaths that carry power. The Homefront Guardian is an assassin-type. And the Shadowtamer has a rather nasty pet and every level you advance threatens to damn your soul.

Chapter three features spells. There are no special rules for spellcasting in this setting. There are new domains for the Church of Light, Restoration and Light. We also are treated to some new spells. In keeping with the setting most of these spells are marked with what culture can cast them. My favorites from this list are Senses of the Hunter and Senses of the Prey for druids and rangers, they are basically self-buff spells but they also have slight penalties associated with them. There are several Wizard spells for making gunpowder blow up by itself, yet another reason why guns exist in Murchad’s Legacy but nobody uses them. The book also revisits Harm and Teleport. Both of these are essentially nerfed a bit. The change to Harm I didn’t really see the point of, but I liked the change to teleport. Basically, if you teleport, you don’t arrive at your destination until midnight. So the trick of teleporting in, zapping bad guys, and teleporting out doesn’t work in this setting. Nice.

Chapter Four is a general world chapter and it is a very dense 30 pages. Timeline, Holidays, moons, nobility, laws, technology, arcane magic, divine magic, the art of war, geography and weather patterns are packed in here. Murchad’s Legacy is light on art and it is chapters like this where it really shows. None of the above topics are skimmed over. They were all covered in sufficient detail for me. The geography and weather topics, I admit I skimmed over, but they were incredibly dense. This is very much a living world and it is clear a lot of thought went into it. My favorite part was the holidays. The setting takes place in its’ year of 994 and all of the holidays for every culture relevant to the campaign are given, with any game effects that they may have. This includes the various jousting tourneys, making this the first book I’ve come across where a DM could base a campaign around a themed set of sidequests.

Chapters five through thirteen run down the cultures that you encounter in the book. I’m not going to go into each chapter in detail. Each country chapter begins with a black and white map of the area, a one or two page story, gives the history of the country, flag, government, society, notable people, national statistics, city populations, and a rundown of the cities and towns. Launhym and Remaria are the longest, Desolati is the shortest. These chapters span from page 89 to 196. None of these nations exist alone. They all have an impact on each other and this is what I like about the setting. I have read many setting books where you could cut out one country entirely and judging from the rest of the book there would be no effect on the rest of the world. This is simply not the case with Murchad’s Legacy, with the possible exception of Desolati and even that comes up in the Calisia and Remaria chapters.

So. Let’s give a rundown.

Aeylamdyar – the good guy elves, kinda sorta. They are in a self imposed period of penance for the sins they committed a thousand years prior to the start of the game. This period is drawing to an end.

Calisia – wealthy elitists who love to joust. They also effectively own about half of Launhym and these two countries are at constant loggerheads.

Desolati – spiked chain using nomads, kinda similar to the Aiel from Robert Jordan’s books, only the Desolati have more common sense and less melodrama.

Gadohig – the orcs and other humanoids. I loved that their capitol city was captured from the Aeylamdyar.

Galkarnan – dwarves who are a bit upset that their venture into technology was a complete bust.

Home – great chapter here. These are the Halflings. They are a conquered race. Some of them have given up and serve the Remarian empire and some of them fight back. Best halfings ever. More about these guys in a bit.

Launhym – the hapless protagonists who are about to get conquered by the orcs unless the PCs do something. They are supposed to be a very rustic people, but their conflict with the Calisians can make this a very, very political chapter with lots of intrigue.

Remaria – a big empire to the south of everything else. I didn’t think they were terribly remarkable until I got to the gamemaster’s chapter.

Shintai – drow, but drow who make sense. They don’t do the whole “I am betraying my friends because my alignment says I am evil”. They are however, very xenophobic and they have a long grudge against the Aeylamdyar. They don’t use the drow rules and are technically “dark elves”. +1 ECL elves with no spell resistance and a better cantrip selection.

Phew. OK, still with me? Good, because we’re going into the gamemaster’s chapter and this is where it all gets brought together.

Chapter 14 is for the GMs, but there’ a couple of neat tricks used so that there’s nothing wrong with the player’s reading it. We are given two motivations for three major NPCs, both are consistent with how the NPCs are presented in the rest of the book and both are mutually exclusive. So if the players do read this chapter, they still won’t know who the good guys and the bad guys are. The alignment system takes a bit of a turn here, it’s a little complicated but it amounts to beings like demons and clerics having a definitive alignment that can be detected with appropriate magic, but a fighter or rogue wouldn’t get picked up at all. It’s a small passage but adds credence and ambiguity. There’s a couple of other tidbits, like the metagaming reasons behind each of the nations (they’re themed to different playstyles), and a few slightly-overpowered feats that the characters have to commit in-game actions to qualify for, the one I liked is “Peacemaker” which allows for a reward if the PCs embark on a “Gahndi” solution to ML’s problem.s

The Campaign Tracker is also in this chapter and I have to say I fell in love with it. There is a range on the tracker from 10 to -20. The lower down the tracker you slip, the more the orcs have taken over. These have very real consequences, such as loss of a barony or lowered saves through demoralization. Moving up the tracker can be done a variety of ways. Just killing orcs will hold it steady. The players choose which of the different options they want to follow to move the tracker up to 10. For example, they can build a castle near orc territory or they can recover one of a few select magic items from the orcs. It puts the PCs in charge of the direction of the game in a way that is unlike other settings. I applaud this and I want to see more of this kind of thing.

Chapter 15 is where the adventures are, we are treated to three plus an alternate campaign. The first two are pretty much straight up “find the bad guys and kill them” adventures. The third takes place at a tourney and is exceptionally role-play heavy, you could probably run it without any combat at all. The alternate campaign is about what happens if the players just decide to become merchants and wander about the various nations. The adventures all look like they could be played over the course of one game session and seem solid enough.

Chapter 16 is the monster of Murchad’s Legacy and this chapter was a bit lacking. Showing how all the monster types in the D&D Monster Manual could be used was interesting but two of the three new monsters seemed tacked on and the third, a unique vampirc dragon, seemed to exist for the sole purpose of being the biggest and the baddest thing out there.

Chapter 17 is magic items and here we’re back on firmer ground. All of the magic items are tied in to the world very strongly and have solid histories behind them. My favorite from this section was the Hide of the White Stag, which lends itself very nicely to being a mini-adventure as the players try to find the Stag in order to either gain it’s blessing to deal with any fey or kill it and use it’s skin for armor which will last one year and then the stag will appear again.

And we’re done! Oh, wait, no we’re not. There’s an appendix for psionics. I don’t use psi in my games so I can’t vouch if this is a good addition or not. The A’Zat seem like a nicely fleshed out evil psionic race and the pisonic inquisitors that the Remarian Academy employs might lend itself to a fantasy “Men in Black” organization.

The book concludes with a full index and tables in the back. There is – and this is a nice touch – a CD that has all the maps and flags as well as a PDF of the book you just bought. Very, very nice. I would have preferred an actual paper map, but then I wouldn’t have gotten the rest of the goodies.

Conclusion:

This is a very big and dense book. There are fewer cultures presented in Murchad’s Legacy than there in the Forgotten Realms or Eberron, but unlike those settings ML delves into them fully. I have no questions about how someone from Launhym would feel about the various issues of what is going on in the world. However, the writers also knew when to stop and they seem to have a very real and practical view of how a gaming group is made up. There are a lot of settings where you can have a group of 100% powergamers or 100% roleplayers, but Murchad’s Legacy allows for a combination. Actually, the book assumes that you’re going to have a powergamer min/maxer who isn’t the slightest bit interested in the setting and it provides an entire country to shove all of those players in (Desolati). That allows the rest of the group to interact with the powergamer in character, it’s a clever solution to a metagame problem.

I’m a little hesitant to bring this up, but I think it needs to be said. One of the co-writers was female (or at least has a female name) and it shows. The artwork has plenty of women who do not meet the stereotypical ideal, although the fantasy babes make an appearance as well. Also, there are clear opportunities for romantic subplots with the NPCs. Not “Book of Erotic Fantasy” romance, but real romance. As someone who enjoys reading some women’s fiction now and then, I found it to be a welcome addition. Murchad’s Legacy isn’t a 256-page bodice ripper or anything, most of it is about orcs and the slaying thereof, but there is a very human side to the writing.

The Campaign Tracker I found to be brilliant. Most campaign settings are meant to be very open and vague. ML isn’t anything like that at all. The PCs will have to weigh the consequences of their actions from the very start. Things like creating magic items or going somewhere to sell off loot aren’t no-brainer decisions with this setting. And the fact that the characters are in complete control of how they want to deal with the orcs is very cool. Honestly, this is the only setting I’ve read since Birthright where I can honestly say that there is a point to a character building a castle for strict mechanical reasons.

Tragically, this is Parent’s Basement Games’ first product and it shows. It really was unwise to begin with a 256 page book until they had figured out how they wanted to handle things like layout. But that leaves the question, do I want a book like this or a very pretty book like d20 Future that is visually appealing but has less to offer? I wouldn’t even say there’s a middle ground. If PBG had handled layout and art better this book would be more than a minor entry in the ENnie awards, it would be a bigger deal. That being said the book is only $29. Would I have really wanted to pay an extra $10? I honestly don’t know.

Murchad’s Legacy is a fine addition to anyone with a penchant for campaign settings. The production values merit a 3/5, the remainder of the book is a solid 5/5.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

A fair review.

I go back and forth on the production values decision. I could have hired professionals and really made the thing look slick, but that would have meant a significant increase in cost. As it is, we priced the book too low. I probably should have set the cost to $35 instead of $29.

Ah well. Thanks for posting your thoughts!

 

[Capellan]

Murchad's Legacy

Murchad's Legacy is a 256 page campaign setting. The zip contains a PDF of the text, two PDF maps, and several JPG images of national flags within the setting. The main PDF includes page borders that may use up a fair bit of ink.

The question of rating and reviewing a campaign setting is a thorny one. What one person loves about a setting can be the very thing that another person abhors. With that in mind, I've tried to rate Murchad's Legacy based on the job it does of presenting the kind of setting it offers, rather than in 'absolute' terms. What this means is that I think the product is a '4' for those people who are interested in a setting which sits somewhere in between the real world and a traditional D&D setting such as Greyhawk in terms of its ambience, with a focus on rivalries between different kinds of humanoids. In fact, one of the major 'selling points' of the setting is that if the PCs do nothing, the kingdom will fall to an Orcish invasion.

If you're looking for something a little more esoteric in your settings, this product probably isn't for you.

So what does Murchad's Legacy actually have inside?

The Prologue consists of a short piece of fiction involving two characters being ambushed by orcs. As an introduction to the setting, it gives some idea of the fact that there are frictions between the 'good' nations, but little more. Still, it serves to whet the appetite for the setting, and doesn't overstay its welcome. Introductory fiction in RPGs often tries to throw in too much information and becomes dense and cluttered; this piece does not fall into that trap.

Chapter 1 - Character begins the presentation of detailed information with a summary of the races. All the usual d20 PC races are represented (though gnomes and half-elves are noted as extremely rare, and recommended not to be used for NPCs) as well as dark elves and orcs. The dark elves are not-quite-Drow, and the orcs are not-quite-standard-orcs. The presentation of the information on orcs gets a little cluttered, with a mention that orcish sorcerers are albinos and have additional rules effects buried in the middle of a paragraph.

The chapter continues with classes, and again all the familiar faces are present. The dominant church for Clerics uses some unusual rules that are referenced but not described here (a cross-reference to the page where they are would have been good) and the text blithely mentions that for wizards, conjuration, evocation and necromancy are banned almost everywhere ... an injunction that seems designed to ensure their a few or no PC wizards without actually banning the class.

The setting also encourages characters to choose a nationality, granting access to special regional feats as a result of the choice. The Forgotten Realms setting book used a similar mechanic. It's one I like, as it adds an additional distinction between characters. A human fighter from Calisia (a wealthy kingdom) might be very different to one from the Forlornlands (an arid desert), to use two examples from this book.

This chapter continues with religions, languages & skills, feats and equipment. Several skills have new or modified applications within the setting. Most of these applications are logical or interesting developments of the standard rules. Unfortunately many of them are not very clearly explained. The feats vary from fairly powerful to very powerful, and are available only at 1st level. They come in two categories (background and cultural) and a character can have only one feat from each category. A nice touch is that if you have a particular cultural feat, you may get penalties against characters with a cultural feat for an area that is hostile to yours, and that people with a knowledge of a particular culture (from the knowledge (local) skill) get bonuses to interact with characters who have the matching cultural feat. These little touches give the cultural feats a resonance that goes beyond the bonuses the feat itself confers.

Chapter 2 - Prestige Classes is next. This structure of putting the mechanics before the setting itself seems to be the default these days. I'm not sure that putting the setting first and the mechanics later (so they have more context) isn't the better route. Of course, I can always skip ahead to the flavor text if I wish, but it still seems a little strange to me that this has become the common practice. Maybe publishers have found that if they put the flavor at the front, people just skip to the back to see what new crunchy bits there are, first?

The designers have explicitly included one prestige class for each culture introduced in the book, which I think is a good design choice. It not only helps to reinforce each culture's individual traits at a mechanical level, it also gives the PrCs a better connection to the setting, so they feel more like an integral part of Murchad's Legacy. Some of the concepts of the classes are interesting, too. For instance, the homefront guardian is a Halfling freedom fighter / assassin, dedicated to driving out the invading humans, while the stargazer is a druid with a focus on the stars and astrology (not astronomy, as the class description indicates).

Unfortunately, many of the Prestige Classes suffer from one or both of the same two problems: uninspiring class abilities (for instance, mechanically the homefront guardian is simply a less interesting version of the assassin) and dubious mechanics (the Knight of Pure Heart requires a successful skill check to enter the class. You can't take 10, and failure means you can't try again for a year; while the Imperial Legionnaire doesn't provide any benefits unless multiple people in the group have the same PrC.) Sometimes this latter problem stems to optional abilities within the class: Stargazers can choose between a bonus on craft checks, or the ability summon a dragon to aid them once a day. Sure, it's a small dragon, but I don't see many people going for the craft option!

Chapter 3 - Spells contains not only new spells and domains, but also notes on SRD spells that operate differently in the Murchad's Legacy setting (for instance, Harm cannot reduce a character below 20 hp). Certain spells are only available to characters with an appropriate cultural feat, which is a nice touch. In terms of their mechanics and effects, the spells vary from serviceable (a variety of spells that give skill check bonuses) to "never let your PCs have this" (such as the potentially game-breaking greater augmentation, which permanently changes a vast number of humans into creatures of another humanoid race, such as ogres or doppelgangers).

Chapter Four - The World gives an overview of the setting. It covers international considerations such as laws, climate, religion, technology and magic. The format of some of this is a little hard to read, but the information is all solid and is a good mix of both 'big picture' and 'useful details'.

Each chapter from Chapter Five through Chapter Thirteen covers a single nation of the setting. These are:

Aeylamdyar - an Elven kingdom in a fairly traditional D&D style.
Calisia - a wealthy kingdom with an order of knights much like those of Camelot. Though a 'good' realm, the Calisians look down on their equally-'good' neighbors on the frontier.
Desolati - a barren wasteland populated by nomads
Gadohig - the realm of the Orcs, where tattooed warriors roam and only the strong endure.
Galkarnan - the kingdom of the Dwarves, who are nominally under the control of the Remarian Empire, the setting's most powerful nation.
Home - the once Shire-like home of the Halflings, now conquered by the Remarian Empire. The Halflings resent the human occupation, but lack the strength to throw the invaders out in pitched battle, so they stick to guerilla tactics.
Launhym - a kingdom in peril, Launhym is the front line against the Orcs. It's a fairly typical frontier kingdom, filled with independent personalities and lone hunters who prowl the wilderness.
Remarian Empire - the strongest nation in the setting, Remaria would be pleased to use an Orcish invasion as a pretext to occupy both Calisia and Launhym.
Shintai - Dark Elves, similar to those of other settings though less absolutely evil. They are tainted with negative energy but still follow the druidic faith.

Chapter Fourteen - Gamemastering discusses some of the questions a GM will need to address before starting their campaign, as well as some changes to the mechanics for detecting alignments and some special feats that can only be earned later in the campaign. The centre piece of the chapter however are the mechanics for tracking the growth of the Orcish threat, and how it will impact the setting. Murchad's Legacy is the first setting I have seen to include such an integral and specific metaplot, and your interest in the book is likely to be affected by your interest in this theme. (other stories can be told in the setting, of course, but this is definitely the one that the setting focuses upon)

Chapter Fifteen - Adventures provides three adventures to slot into the evolving campaign: one for 1st level, one for 4th-5th and one for 10th. It also offers an alternate campaign idea based around being merchants instead of fighting the orcs. Perhaps this last is intended for those people who would really rather be playing Monopoly

Chapter Sixteen - Monsters offers guidelines on how to use the different monster types (aberrations, animals, etc) in the setting, as well as three new monsters (a variant orc, a deadly humanoid with stealth and camouflage abilities, and a unique undead dragon).

Chapter Seventeen - Magic Items provides about a dozen new items, all of which have strong ties to the setting. Some of the costs and pre-requisites for these items look a little 'hand-waved' into existence (for example an item that grants a permanent barkskin effect but does not have the barkskin spell as a requirement to craft it), but this can probably be relatively easily resolved.

Finally, an Appendix discusses the role of psionics in the campaign and provides a new psionic race.

As I stated at the beginning of the review, Murchad's Legacy is a solid campaign setting if you're interested in something that falls between a traditional d20 setting and Medieval or Renaissance Europe. It will be useful to those GMs who don't want to homebrew their own setting, or are looking for something in that line to pillage for ideas. If you already have something well developed of your own, or are interested in something a little more exotic, this will not be the product for you.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Thanks for the review!

What didn't you like about the skills?

 

[Wyvern]

The dominant church for Clerics uses some unusual rules

Which are?

the text blithely mentions that for wizards, conjuration, evocation and necromancy are banned almost everywhere ... an injunction that seems designed to ensure their a few or no PC wizards without actually banning the class.

So the restriction doesn't apply to sorcerers? Why not?

(such as the potentially game-breaking greater augmentation, which permanently changes a vast number of humans into creatures of another humanoid race, such as ogres or doppelgangers).

Are those examples yours, or the book's? Because neither ogres nor doppelgangers are classified as humanoids.

 

[Capellan]

BiggusGeekus:
My only issue with the skills were that some of the explanations were a bit jumbled or unclear. Other than that I thought they were fine.

Wyvern:
The dominant church's clerics can change their domains every level (within the list of domains allowed to them).

The laws against conjuration, evocation and necromancy spells appear to apply to all spellcasters, though it is wizards who are focused upon in the discussion of the issue. It is a bit odd since healing is a conjuration effect. I expect that only summoning, calling and attack spells are really intended to be included under 'conjuration' in this instance.

These particular laws are ones I would probably tone down or remove if I used the setting, myself.

The doppleganger and ogre examples are from the book.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Wyvern:

Capellan is on the mark, but just to be pendantic and wordy, I thought I'd go into detail.

Clerics of the Church of Light pray to four saintlike figures for guidance. Worshipping the Light directly won't get you anywhere, it's too powerful (why that makes sense is a seperate issue). Each of these saints presides over four "paragons" of a given virtue. A Cleric of the Church of Light would, for example, follow Voporix and could rotate between good, war, protection, and strength. It gives the Church of Light a bit of extra cool, which they kind of need because they're a little drab.

Conjuration, Evocation, Necromancy: Yep. They're against the law in most places for arcane casters. Launhym is likely to go a little easy on you just because they're desperate. Remaria you can get around pretty easiliy if you start as a member of the Imperial Academy. Clerics get a pass, but cult gods don't, so you'll have to belong to one of the major religions or be a druid. So if you want to be a cleric of some god you made up (totally ok within the setting) with the Death and Chaos domains or something, you don't just get a free ride. People in Murchad's Legacy have seen what magical wars can do. It isn't so much that they're superstioius (though there's some of that), it's that they're nervous.

Greater Augmentation: It's a little trickier than Capellan described, but not much. Basically its a 9th level spell that doesn't work. You have to make both a spellcraft and knowlege(nature) check of DC 40 for it to work reliably. Basically, this is a magical attempt at genetic engineering performed by people with no knowledge of genetics. It's not really a good idea. The casting time is 10 rounds, so there's plenty of time to disrupt it. All that being said, I think Capellan is right. There should be an exp cost and there should be very specific guidelines as to what can be accomplished with it. I'll address that in the future.

Happy gaming!