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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Capellan" data-source="post: 2494451" data-attributes="member: 6294">Murchad's LegacyMurchad'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 nomadsGadohig - 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 <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />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.</blockquote>

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