(For the first time, I have had two of my reviewers turn a review of the same product in at the same time. In the interest of letting you see the differences between the styles of two different reviewers, I am posting both of them. -Steve)
By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack
Welcome to The Critic's Corner. Races of Evernor, Part I is the first of a two-part d20 System supplement from Silverthorne Games. This 60-page PDF is written by Ian Johnston and can be downloaded from the Silverthorne Games website for $7.00.
Like most Silverthorne Games releases, and as the title implies, Races of Evernor is a sourcebook designed for use with Silverthorne Games’ Realms of Evernor modular campaign setting. That said, their works are versatile enough to fit into nearly any campaign setting with little or no extra effort. This particular product describes some of the strange and exotic peoples that populate the world of Evernor.
The introduction serves to provide the reader with some basic information about Evernor, as well as a few suggestions on utilizing the races in this book both within that campaign setting and in other campaigns. A brief history, a paragraph on each of the deities, and a very brief geography lesson are enough to get a feel for the campaign. Since very little information about Evernor has yet been released, this provides GMs with some essential background data and a valuable point of reference.
Each race is given its own entry of three to four pages in length. The name of the race is followed by a phonetic pronunciation, as well as singular, adjectival, and plural forms. The racial type is also given (monstrous humanoid, fey, etc.). Each entry is accompanied by a picture of a typical individual.
Frequency is a new addition to this sourcebook and is used to define how common a particular race is within Evernor. A race with a Frequency of 7 (extremely common), for example, if known within almost every human community within the campaign, while a race with a frequency of 1 (extremely rare) have never been encountered by humans. This is a nice touch and I can see where it could be very useful in other campaigns.
Following this, every race is presented in glorious detail, including background, personality, physical description, diet, relations to other races, alignment, religion, language, notes about the race’s homeland, naming conventions, favored classes, information specific to Evernor, tips on role-playing the race, adventure seeds, racial traits (in the format of the Player’s Handbook), feats, spells, or weapons specific to the race, and finally, an NPC example of the race. That’s a whole lot of information and that’s what makes the book so darned valuable. Too often, when someone creates a new race for a fantasy game, the race seems to exist in a void, lacking anything other than game mechanics. It’s a refreshing change to see someone produce a race that is so very detailed that you feel as though you’ve been living next to them for years, and that’s what Silverthorne has done here.
From the moment you open this file and begin perusing it, you find yourself immersed in the culture that is Evernor. The races are brought to life so vividly through the descriptions and artwork that you come to know them, not as an imaginary fantasy race, but as distant neighbors of some far-off land. Trust me, this is a good thing.
The races themselves are well thought-out and actually make sense. The fezroki, for example, inhabitants of arctic wilderness, have thick hides that provide extra armor and a bonus to Hide checks. Where some creators would be tempted to balance a race by tacking on a few ECLs, Johnston has tried to avoid overusing this technique, working to balance the race through other means where possible. Thus the fezroki, who could easily have an ECL rating of +6 or +7, instead have only a +2, meaning that they are still viable as a player character race in a campaign with characters as low as 3rd level.
The work covers a dozen of the more unusual races of Evernor. Future books are promised and if they are anything like this one, I look forward to them gladly. Even if you don’t have room for all of these races in your campaign world, you’re bound to find something in here that you can use. With over two dozen new feats, spells, and equipment in addition to the races themselves, how can you go wrong?
Open Game Content is respectable, limited to the game mechanics for the races, feats, spells, and weapons. The races seem to be well-balanced and none of the feats or spells struck me as overpowering. I award high marks for originality. You won’t find anything typical in this book!
Playability is high, as both GMs and players will no doubt make considerable use of this volume. There really is something here for everyone but not every DM will be willing to make room for everything in here. At $7.00, the price is right, so don’t miss the opportunity to add this one to your gaming library. I recommend springing for the cost to print it out and have it bound. You’ll likely find yourself referencing in that much.
To see the graded evaluation of this product, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.
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By Chris Sims, Staff Editor and Reviewer, d20 Magazine Rack
Races of Evernor is the freshman e-book effort for the team at Silverthorne Games. Evernor itself is a world in which Silverthorne's products are set, and this collection of beings from that imaginary place is not short on creativity. The execution is another matter.
While I think Races of Evernor's cover is a waste of bandwidth, despite the nicely stylized fairy design (which gets better exposure on the title page), the art in the book is virtually unparalleled in the small PDF press community. I don't just mean that it's exceptional for a PDF publisher, for some of the work is competitive with high-caliber entities in the d20 market. The real kudos must go to Chris Pepper's art; his renditions of several of the races really brought them to life, my favorite being the Fjurnian Gnome. The only thing that bothered me was, despite his fine work, Lance Card's method of signing each piece (using an ace of spades) leaves a lot to be desired. Still, I hope to see more of these artists in future products.
Many of the races are as colorful as the art, and Ian Johnston, the book's author, definitely made some good choices about what to include with each entry. I like the frequency rating, which lets the DM know how often to use such a creature. Every race has something to add to the campaign, such as new feats, spells, or even a weapon. This is definitely excellent scheme, making each one all the more unique—distinct in a world. Moreover, each creature has an iconic character included, which is what many other race products leave out. The character example allows a DM or player to see an adventurer from the people in question, and thus gain more insight to the race itself.
Yet, the entries themselves fail to deliver much insight, revealing the poor choices made about the design of Races of Evernor. Contrary to the advertised "complete details", I felt there simply wasn't enough in each entry to clearly show what the culture of the race in question was like. What do Baelstrith's like to wear? What did the Glimjarans do that caused others to accept them, despite their goblinoid ancestry? Did the god of goodness strip the outsider Celedhriels of some power, thus allowing one to start as a 1st-level character? What's distinctive about Fjurnian gnomes as barbarians that separates them from the plethora of other generic barbarian groups in publication? None of these questions are really answered in Races, and I for one would like to know the author's vision.
History and culture is a starting point for racial abilities, and essential to play. For example, one adventure hook in the race Cabaran suggests that a nomad tells the heroes about his people. Unfortunately, the text within the race did little to enlighten me as to what the Cabarans were exactly like, besides desert nomads that eschew magic and comfort because it makes them soft. (Note also that similar people on Earth, like the Bedouin, don't eschew comfort.) The work also includes strange statements like a reference to eye color being a basis for choosing leaders among Orusks, since it's a sign from "their deity". The religion section of the same race indicates the Orusks have no preferred deity. In these cases, I'd have to make up the details I wanted my players to know. (Perhaps I'm such a stickler for cultural details because I was weaned on GURPS race books.)
Lack of rigidly defined culture is a virtue, if one wants to add one of the races to another campaign. Unfortunately, some of the crunchy bits may make this a little difficult to do without working at it. I wondered, at times, if the author made this world for 2e D&D, since the text occasionally refers to things that seem to come from that edition. For example, Intelligence is consistently referred to as "academic learning", when the PHB describes that ability as "reasoning power and ability to learn". The character for the feline Myrrond has strange "Rogue Abilities" that don't come from her race, or the rogue class. Other mechanics problems are strictly design specific and 3e.
The racial trait entries are inconsistent at times, and leave some questions unanswered. A primary problem here is that Races doesn't define "level adjustment" for those who may not get it from the "Monsters as Races" section of the DMG. The level adjustments themselves, when compared to things like the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, seem low, or absent when a race should have one. The latter tome devotes an entire page to explaining level adjustments. I recommend the DM scrutinize the races for the power level of his or her own campaign.
Other problems with the races include the likes of the fact that Baelstriths speak Common in their description, but automatically get Sylvan and Common in the racial traits section. Some of the alignment passages seemed to directly contradict themselves in a matter of a few words. ("Kroy can be of any alignment along the good-evil spectrum. They are never a neutral alignment....") The iconic characters are interesting, but most of their backgrounds would seem to place them well beyond their indicated 1st level (one has been an adventurer for years). The value added materials in the racial entries have some glitches as well.
For one thing, many of the spells introduced are not well thought out. The spell falgell's harmonium, as written, grants +1 to save DCs of bard spells, but a +2 to save against "hostile" bard magic to everyone within the spell's area. This can be interpreted to mean the spell more than negates itself against enemy creatures within the spell's effect. While I liked the idea behind the kroy spell shatterwill, I didn't understand why divine spellcasters have a harder time saving against it. The rule seems arbitrary. The lack of solid mechanics limits the usefulness of these spells, and most of the feats are no different.
In Races, the author changed the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat for specific weapons. The feat already requires one have a +1 base attack bonus, which precludes all but 1st-level fighter-type classes before 3rd level. Other feats are just plain strange, like Craft Fezroki Armor that states one cannot craft specialized armor for the large, horned critters without the feat. I'd understand a higher Craft DC, but a whole feat without which one can't make the armor at all? Come on! Breaking the trend, however, the Orusk feat, Improved Dodge, is quite interesting. Why such a feat would be limited to Orusks is another question. I'd use it in my campaign in general, but maybe Evernor is more restrictive.
As for the world of Evernor, the primer in the Races book isn't necessarily needed for the other contents to be useful. It spends a great deal of space talking about the gods, which is fine, even though Evernor's cosmology doesn't impress me. However, over half of the presented races don't worship one of the gods; they're animistic, which the primer describes as ancestor worship. In our world animism is the belief that all aspects of nature are imbued with living spirits, kind of like the garou religion of White Wolf's Werewolf the Apocolypse. Further, the book makes reference to things that are not described in the primer, like thossmurgs. (Though I can guess these are nasty servants of the divinity of evil and chaos, Thoss.)
Now that I've picked Races apart (and, yes, I'm very picky), let me put it in perspective for you. Despite everything I've said is wrong with races, I think you'll be pleased with it if you buy it nonetheless. Why?
The ideas are good. The races are fun, and might have a place in many campaigns. The vagaries of the culture then, as I said before, become a virtue as the DM can make the race wholly his or her own. I can even see a world in which the oppressive Kroy rule as decadent overlords over the other races. The Fjurnian Gnomes, Fezroki, and Cabarans are rebels and outcasts in that world, while the greedy Glimjarans are servile sycophants the lazy and hidebound Kroy. The monstrous Lissk are the overlords' shock troops. Any piece of work that can spark this kind of imagination has to be good enough to be worth a look.
I really like the thought behind barbarian gnomes. Feringi-like goblins suit me too (I even use a similar type of thing in my world). Lizard men the size of small trees are scary, especially coupled with their infant tendency to imprint on their first caretaker. All this and more you'll find inside Races of Evernor, Part I.
Further, even though some of the mechanics don't work so well as written, some tweaking will give you what you want with minimal time investment. Other things can simply be eliminated in favor of already existing rules, like Exotic Weapon Proficiency. I also recommend taking the background you're given with each prime example character, and raising that character's level to match the story.
There's enough Open Game Content in Races of Evernor, Part I to make your own work with the races possible. I can’t decide, reading the license and the Open Game Content Section in the primer, whether spell names are OGC, but the racial traits certainly are. Silverthorne even made the racial names OGC, which is unusual, but very welcome. Hopefully, they'll read this review, and comment on the spell names for us.
The fact that most of the review points out a fairly comprehensive list of what I saw as flaws not withstanding, Races of Evernor, Part I is an impressive work for a first-showing. The campaign setting shows some promise, even if it should have, perhaps, come first. The art is great, the writing serves even if it is a bit repetitive at times, and the ideas in the book are innovative. I think you'll find something you can use, regardless of your preferred setting. Every world is big enough for a little something new.
To see the graded evaluation of this product (and Chris' comments regarding those scores), go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.
