Races of Evernor, Part II

[Messageboard Golem]

A PDF compendium featuring 12 more unique races from the Realms of Evernor setting. Full descriptions and background details are included for using each PC race in your game, as well as information on racial traits, societies, customs, unique weaponry, spells, and other goodies!

 

[GameWyrd]

Races of Evernor is a PDF collection of new fantasy races. There are plenty of similar products available and this includes another Races of Evernor. This review looks at Races of Evernor – Part 2. This version of Races of Evernor would need to do something special to stand out from the masses. It would be all too easy for this supplement to drop the ball or wobble just slightly and fall below the average mark.

Races of Evernor is actually a collection of new player character races. That’s a good start. Immediately the number of rival products has been cut down. This version of Races of Evernor does manage to produce that something special, that something extra which gives it a leg up and pushes it clear of the unwashed crowd. This winning ticket isn’t anything particularly exciting but it is an extremely important thing to get right. Okay, okay, so what is it? The Races of Evernor is wonderfully thorough. On average each race has four pages all to itself; four pages to introduce the race and it’s culture, for the crunchy stat bits, for new feats, skills and a detailed NPC as an example. There’s more. The PDF’s contents list spans two pages as it not only lists the page number that each race starts on but the page numbers for their appropriate traits and feats too. The appendixes and illustrations have a contents section of their own up front too. This level of detail might be better suited to an index but when you’re dealing with the PDF format you need to re-arrange things. You can’t open the PDF at the back as you can a book. If you click on the bookmarks tab, the actual index for a correctly designed PDF, then you’ll find everything is present in expandable lists and colour coded too. You just need to expand the index for any one race to see just how thorough everything is. As the PDF concludes there are a number of handy quick lists. If you want to find one of these fantasy races without a level adjustment, a race roughly on par with human, dwarf or elf in terms of power then there’s a table with the races indexed by level adjustment just for that sort of thing. The appendixes include charts of random heights and weights for these new races as well.

Thoroughness is one thing but the product would still be a waste of money the content was not up to standard.

Evernor is a campaign world that is being introduced to us through the intelligent races first. Evernor is made up seven continents but with this plethora of different races and mix of cultures. I find myself thinking of it as some sort of giant scale Galapagos Islands. The inclusion of notes from the journal of Frilf the gnome explorer and bard reinforce this perception. Every race has an indication of just how rare it is in Evernor too. You might not be running your game in Evernor though. There is the attempt to keep the campaign specific information down as much as possible but the introduction notes that it was impossible to do without some. I don’t think this is a serious problem. If you’re buying PDFs from Silverthorne Games then you’re not a rank amateur who needs everything presented to you in the simplest of terms.

The PDF is entirely black and white. It is without sidebar illustration and uses two columns for text. There are some large illustrations in it but the largest of them have pages all to themselves and if you’re willing to print the product out in bits and don’t want to include large illustrations then you don’t have a problem. Races of Evernor gets the thumbs up on the printer friendly check. It would have been possible to bundle a lite copy of the product without illustration along with the main copy but I think the benefits would have been negligible. Every race has an illustration and this is an important quality check too.

The Aavail are a race of spindly humanoid avians. We’re told about their society and lawful view on life. We’ve notes on their diet, their languages, the names they pick, the places they live and that they’re often perform the role of a diplomat. Since the Aavail have clawed hands, you know – birdlike, they have a penalty on any attempt to use tools and weapons not designed for their anatomy. This isn’t too much of a problem because as a race they’re excellent craftsmen and this explains the new craft skill. One of the two new feats cancels out this penalty. Much of the work here can be used for any avian race. As with all other races there’s also a few suggested adventure seeds and a completed NPC.

The Damorlinn are monstrous humanoids. Now, if you’re wondering that’s singular/adjectival – Damorlinn/Damorlinnian and plural Damorlinns. Pronunciation is DAM-ohr-lin. That’s the sort of thing I trip up on and so it’s the sort of information I like to see there. If you take a centaur as having the top of a man and a body of a horse then the Damorlinn have the top of gnome (plus horns) and the body of a gazelle. As in the pattern throughout the PDF we’ve got their full racial traits, notes on language, culture, religion, diet, names, lands and what the typical adventuring Damorlinn might be like. Let’s start a count of the non-humanoid races. One.

Ach. Flitterings. You know what the Flitterings will be like. Small. Annoying. Magical. Yes, it’s that particular stereotype’s turn to appear in Evernor. On the plus side this "not-quite-the-reviewer’s-favourite" race is given the full Evernor treatment and if it can be turned into a playable race as part of cohesive group then you’ll find the makings of a good attempt here. Besides, where would fantasy d20 be without stereotypical races?

You’ll be thankful for the pronunciation guide when it comes to the lizard-like Hrulian-Tensu but there are more strenuous tests still to come. These humandoids really are tough blighters. A number of useful special abilities like Tremorsense, Natural Armor and Multiattack to name just a few give them durable bonuses over and above the straight stat power ups. They’ve got a level adjustment of just +1. I’m not from the breed of gamers who can balance up the stats in a blink of an eye but let’s just say that the Hrulian-Tensu seem to be in the upper side of what +1 would allow.

Sharing the deserts with the Hrulian-Tensu but encountered extremely less frequently are the Jinoor. They’re a bit of a paradox. Jinoor are native to Evernor but are Outsiders too. The Jinoor inherit a +3 to their effective levels. They can fly, communicate telepathically and very firmly fall into the stylistic category of mini-genies. The effective level penalty this time round would certainly be too high if it wasn’t for the pair of Jinoori Power feats. It’s here that the race starts to flex its muscles.

Humanoid but not very human-like; the Magnars are an elemental bred race. Actually, the exact why-fors and how-comes aren’t explained. Magnars reproduce asexually by storing up their magnetic energies for a year and using it produce an adult twin. They use these same energies to produce a whole range of racial special features too. It’s noted in the text that this asexual reproduction – there’s only the need for one parent and that parent then produces a fully asexual adult child – and their long life of 300 years has led to a somewhat rapid increase in Magnar numbers. I can see the logic in that. Adventure seeds offer up ideas wherein local nobles have decided to cull the local population of this sentient race. Nevertheless, they’re marked as being rare on Evernor at the minute.

Evil halflings. Nephogg are probably more conniving than evil and certainly smaller at only one foot plus but just one look at the illustration will make you think - evil halfling. I rather like this race. It helps that they’re listed as very common too. It’s rather fun to have a race that isn’t immediately thrown into the monster or villain group and yet is one that the characters will know to watch closely. It can be hard to get this balance right and I think Silverthorne have managed.

I’m not increasing the non-humanoid count for the Pofferil. They’re small furries. They look like humanoid racoons and are actually powerful Outsiders. I remember picking on the Myrrond as being that fur covered race most likely to appeal to wives and girlfriends and I’ll tar the Pofferil with the same brush.

A "chosen race of elves" is the phrase used accurately to describe the Raellorian. Quite a few fantasy settings have elves are nearly angelic creatures, especially our lord and master Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Here the game designers stop beating about the bush and give the Raellorian a fully-fledged set of angel wings. They’ve got an appropriate pack of race powers too. It’ll not surprise you to find these elves listed under the +3 level adjustment category and that they’ve been blessed by the lawful good god.

Snakes with arms, feather covered snakes with arms for that matter. The Raziran really do reinforce my fantasy Galapagos Islands view of the continents of Evernor. They also move the non-humanoid count up from 1 to 2. This sort of snake-like race isn’t unique in Evernor since the indications suggest that the evil worshipping Dreth have a similar anatomy. We don’t have the stats for the Dreth yet so we won’t be able to exploit the racial tension between them and the Raziran.

The non-humanoid count goes up again. The count for monster rugs with gaping maws and vicious looking claws begins! The Vorl gets my vote for the most original race in the product. You might just have guessed from the presence of the new count that Vorls are, well, monster rugs with gaping maws and vicious looking claws. The poor souls aren’t actually evil, despite not having any aid from the forces of law and order and being a slave race they’ve, as a general rule, rejected the dark path. Slave race? Yes, the Vorl race is another Mind Flayer victim. You could say that the mind flayers treat them like doormats and walk all over them! Boom. Boom. I think the Vorl are a great race. It’s great to have something that looks as if it belongs in the monster manual – but doesn’t. If you’ve got a group of players who still insist on fireballing first and asking questions later then you’ve got the perfect guilt trip set up for maximum exploitation here. On the other hand, the unique shape of the Vorl makes it especially hard to arm and armour and since they look so scary they’re an unlikely choice for a diplomacy and conversation heavy game. The Vorl might just be a tad awkward to use as player characters.

The Yaal-Tensu is the last new race in the download. They’re another desert race but not as powerful as the others. They are related, somehow, to the other Tensu suffixed race mentioned previously. They look human but their healing abilities prove that they’re not.

At the conclusion we have our non-humanoid count sitting three. This is about right; any higher and there would be too many and any lower would leave Races of Evernor open to accusations of not being imaginative enough. It’s just a matter of deciding which of these races you want to use in your game – almost everything else is included, covered and thought of. I’m not convinced that you’re likely to use many of the races from here in your game unless you’re enjoying playing in a world as chock-a-block with intelligent races as Evernor is and this seems unlikely. We don’t have much of a look at Evernor itself yet although there is enough introductory text to the campaign setting in this supplement to ensure you know the basics. You’ll know which of the three gods is the evil one, which is the good one and that the goddess is neutral. As I said at the start Races of Evernor – Part 2 does pull itself up into the better than average realm but there’s only so much you can do with 64 black and white PDF pages. Some of the links in the bookmark section need to be looked at again, not every one of them work. I look forward to seeing other offerings from Silverthorne Games.

* This GameWyrd review was first published here.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Races of Evernor II is a lot like the first one. It presents twelve new races to augment your standard D20 fantasy game, but this time, the creatures are a little more unusual than the first book.

While tied into the Evernor campaign world, the ties are very lose, acting more like a guide as to how these creatures would be encountered in most standard fantasy worlds than an anchor dragging you down.

Each race starts with its name and a stat block. Following the name we get type, pronounced, singular/adjectival form, plural form, and frequency. Most of those are pretty self explanatory, but the Frequency bares note. A rating of seven means very common, while one means extremely rare. After the stat block, we get Frilf’s Notes, a look at the race through the eyes of an adventurer. These notes are usually an introductory paragraph but lead into the body of the text where we get background, personality, physical description, diet, relations, alignment, lands, religion, languages, names, adventurers, In the Realms of Evernor, Roleplaying Tips, Adventure Seeds, Racial Traits (the actual game mechanics of the race), and new materials (spells, feats, weapons and other goods).

It’s a nice set up that allows a GM to look over what each race specializes in, select a name, come up with a description, provide some new twists, grab the unique goods, and start off a new character down the path of glory. Take the Raellorian, a race of elves that live high above in the skies. You can have one hailing from the city of Silver Clouds whose wings are in need of healing after a battle with a vicious harpy. Of course, if you’re like some DMs, you may just steal their Prime Example for your own game. See, each race ends with a Prime Example, a 1st level character of the race with its own background. I mentioned it in the first book, and I’ll mention it here, having the 1st level characters with fleshed out backgrounds is nice and if the character creation process was fully laid out, could be customized for player use, but for GMs… well, at least I need more examples than a 1st level character. Show me the great villains and heroes, the lost souls who wander for redemption, not some 1st level character on his way out of the village.

Now if you want really different, there are some strange birds here. Let’s look at the Vorl. These creatures were a slave race of the mind flayers. Shaped like towels, the creatures have escaped from their masters, developing their latent psionic powers and resistance to the dreaded mind blast of their masters. Part of the nice thing here is that as you read about the Darkling Realms, it provides a bit of spark to ideas for your own Underdark Campaigns. It shows that not everything has to be humanoid.

One of them, the Pofferil, stands less than three feet tall and resembles a raccoon. The illustration shows one in a spellcaster stance and their favored class, sorcerer or bard, tends to favor that avenue. Little suckers have a few surprises though, like the fact that they don’t age and have bonuses to several charisma based skills. Add onto this a +4 bonus to Charisma, and you’ve got one smooth talking raccoon.

One of the areas where the book fails is that the creatures just aren’t that unusual or unknown. Take the Aavali. A winged humanoid race that could be from the recent sourcebook Seven Strongholds from Atlas, or way back from first edition. Sure, they have a different culture and background, but winged birdmen original and different? Hardly.

How about the Magnar? These humanoids origin is unknown as some think they’re the offspring of some elemental force and humanity and others that they’re merely gifted individuals. The point being that rare and unique of the world doesn’t really make them a rare or unique idea, just a rare one for this campaign setting.

Of the new feats, most of them improve an innate ability that the race already has. If you click over on the PDF file to the Quicklist of Feats, you’ll see a lot of improved things. You know, things every elf needs like Improved Tail Grab and Improved Burrowing.

One of the nice things about the product is that it makes it easy for you. It provides a quick listing of the races from this product and the first one, a break down of the races by ECL, random starting age, height, and weight tables.

Art is top notch for most of the product that gives it a very classy feel. I can’t tell the illustrator’s name who signs his images with a card, but he’s one of the better ones in the industry and I’m glad to see him return to Silverthrone games with this product as he wasn’t in the original Book of Templates.

Layout and white space are good for a PDF file. Now I say for a PDF file because it doesn’t crowd the races together. This means that if a race ends with two-thirds of the page empty, so be it. I can understand why this is done for printer reasons but… The PDF file is in black and white so it’s not a printer killer. The bookmarks make it easy to move around as well so most people should be able to find whatever their looking for quickly, including a compilation of the feats, spells, and other goodies.

The second Races book in the series continues the good work done by the first and continues to offer some sound choices for GMs and players looking for more. If we can get more art, better layout, different levels in the NPCs, (including perhaps some use out of the Book of Templates?) and some more solid ideas, we’ll be looking at a 5 star rating.

 

[Crothian]

Review of Races of Evernor 2 by Silverthorne Games

This is from a review copy

Races of Evernor 2 is the second book of races by Silverthorne Games. It is a 64 page pdf, 4 pages longer then the first one. This one also has 12 fully described races just like the first one. The races in this one are a little more unusual in appearance and ability. Each race has a fully described NPC to go alone with it as well. The art is the book is okay and does the job of giving the reader an idea of what the races look like. However, it really leaves much to be desired for me. The races are fully and richly described.

The book begins with a through explanation of what the book consists of, how it is used, and a little background information on the world of Evernor. It sounds like a very interesting world and the races do a good job of slowly fleshing it out for us.

The first race is the Aavali. They are a peaceful race of bird like humanoids. There are a few disadvantages in them to keep the ecl down to only +1. It’s a very interesting take on a flying race. I like that there are enough disadvantages for them to make them a low ecl race.

The Damorlinn are a race of centaur like creatures, except gnome gazelle instead of human horse. They are very good with the bow, helpful to strangers, but prefer their isolation in the wilderness. They seem like a good NPC race to me, having help come from a very mysterious race could really bring some mystery to a game.

Flitterlings are a tiny fey race. They love jokes and taunting other creatures. They are about the fun and enjoyment. I’m not sure any race that is built as practical jokers could really be an active part of an adventuring party. But again I think they would make very interesting NPCs.

The Hrulian-tensu is a reptilian desert dwelling people. Interestingly Monk is their favored class. This race seems to be one that would make a good character. They are different but playable in a group and no one should know a whole lot about them.

The Jinoor are a race of genie like people. They are more powerful then most other races but are always of a good or neutral alignment, and rarely chaotic. They live only in the deepest desserts so they are very rare creatures. This race seems to be an NPC race, they are the most powerful race in the book. Great NPC ideas here though.

The Magnar seem to be an elemental based race. They have control of electro magnetism and can do some impressive things with it. I’m not sure what to think of them. The idea is very interesting. I’d really like to see one in play first.

Nephogg is a tiny humanoid race of cheats and liars. They have there uses as information brokers and thieves, but few people trust them. Also good to have a race that is the bottom feeders. I think it could be interesting to play one for the right player.

The Pofferil is a tiny race of raccoon like creatures. They are very charming and enjoy helping people. The picture really ruined these guys for me. They just look to much like a chipmunk.

The Raellorians are a race of winged elves chosen by their goddess. They live in a city high above the lands and wait to deal with the evils of the world. The chosen part of this race is very interesting and really has huge role playing potential. I really like that concept.

Raziran area race of furry, winged serpents. They are part of a race that went in with the evil good, but the Raziran separated from them. They are an honorable race helping people when they can. Another race that seems more NPC then PC in my eyes.


The Vorl are a small race of towel like creatures. They are slave to the mind flayers and have some psionic protections. These guys are just odd. I’m not sure I could take them seriously with out forewarning in a game.

Yaal-Tensu are another race of desert dwellers. They are a religious and helpful people. A nice back story to connect them to other dessert dwellers makes them a good PC choice.

Following the races is a list of the few races mentioned but not in this book. These races are briefly described for the reader’s conveyance. Then all the races in the book are listed by ecl modifier and that is followed by age, height, and weight tables for all the races.

The book is well written, but the races themselves I find a little on the odd side. There are a few I’d allow as PC races, but most strike me as interesting NPC concepts. I do find them well balanced and I’m sure that wasn’t easy to do with such odd creatures as these.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By Glenn Dean, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack

Sizing up the Target
Races of Evernor, Part II is a 64-page PDF from Ian and Risa Johnston at Silverthorne Games. The second release in a three-part series that details the various races of the Realms of Evernor, this product is available as a $6.00 download (currently on sale for $5.00).

First Blood
Races of Evernor II introduces twelve new races for player characters to use as part of Silverthorne Games’ Realms of Evernor campaign setting. The first product in this series addressed the “standard” races; this release details more exotic and powerful races for use by players in an Evernor campaign. The races and their cultures are also suitable for a GM to import into other campaigns.

Races of Evernor II opens with a brief description of the Realms of Evernor, the setting’s deities, and the historical eras of the setting. Next follows an explanation of how to read the various race entries. There are twelve varied and unusual races for the player to choose from. These include: Aavali, an avian humanoid race; Damorlinn, a ½ gnome, ½ gazelle race; Flitterlings, a tiny sprite-like fey; Hrulian-Tensu, a race of lizard-like monks; Jinoor, a genie-like race; Magnar, humanoid electromagnetic para-elementals; Nephogg, a race of tiny goblin-halflings; Pofferil, magical raccoon-like creatures; Raellorians, winged sky elves; Razirans, a race of feathered snake people; Vorl, a race of underground cloak-like creatures; and Yaal-Tensu, a type of bluish humanoid.

Approximately four pages of text are dedicated to a detailed description of each race. The extremely thorough racial descriptions include notes on racial background, personality, physical description and diet, relations with other races, alignment and religious preferences, lands and languages, naming conventions, role as adventurers, and a description of the each race’s role in the Realms of Evernor. In addition to complete Open Content game mechanics for each race, Silverthorne also includes some excellent roleplaying tips for each race, and a set of adventure hooks that can be used to introduce the race into the campaign. A black-and-white sketch accompanies each racial description.

Each of the entries also includes new feats, spells, or weapons that are appropriate to each racial type, and a fully statted example of a low level Non-Player Character characteristic of the race. Each of these NPCs includes an entertaining vignette that gives some racial and character background to flesh out the NPC and allow the GM to drop them directly into a campaign.

Races of Evernor II also includes a full set of age, height, and weight tables for its twelve races, as well as brief descriptions of the other races of Evernor that are fully detailed in other Silverthorne Games products.

Critical Hits
Races of Evernor II is extremely effective in providing fully detailed, three-dimensional races. Each race has distinct traits and a unique outlook that makes for a fresh change from the standard fare of humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings. The races are nicely integrated and together weave a fine tapestry depicting Evernor as a high magic, high fantasy, high adventure setting. This is the level of detail every new race or class needs. It is enough that a player or GM can read a section and instantly create a flavorful, exciting character – like the NPC descriptions that provide a prime example of each race.

The new feats and other mechanics also provide useful flavor in the form of nicely-balanced game mechanics tailored to each race. Magnar players, for instance, will find the magnetic feats exciting and useful, while Raellorian Cloudsteel could see a variety of campaign uses. Pre-requisites and power levels are appropriate in relation to the core mechanics; if you find the races useful you will enjoy the other mechanics as well.

Critical Misses
If you’re considering using this product, be warned that these races are extremely powerful. Only one of them balances directly with the core races as is; Silverthorne Games provides a recommended level adjustment of one to three levels for the rest. In my opinion, though, about half of these level adjustments should be one level higher. To give two examples: in my opinion a level adjustment of +1 just isn’t enough in exchange for the Hrulian-Tensu’s natural armor, natural weapons, burrowing ability, and tremorsense, while the Flitterling’s ability penalties and +2 level adjustment don’t quite offset the benefits of tiny size, flight, innate 0- and 1st level spell ability, and complete immunity to enchantment. These are not races I would recommend for a low-level or low-fantasy campaign.

The GM should be careful in using the supplied NPCs, as well. Unlike the representative NPCs from the Dungeon Master’s Guide, the supplied characters are not generated using the default score array. Several of these characters average scores of 16 in each stat before racial modifiers; many have two or more scores over 18 after modifiers. If you’re using other pre-generated NPCs from core products, you should be prepared to make some adjustments before using them with Races of Evernor’s NPCs. At least one NPC has errors, as well – the Magnar character has the wrong number of skill points.

Coup de Grace
Overall, this is a solid product whether you are a Realms of Evernor campaigner or playing in a high-magic type of setting. The racial mechanics in this product are Open Content, though not the flavor text or any of the names, yielding an average content score. Rule compliance is fairly consistent, though I take some issues with the relative assignment of level adjustment scores. Some of the races have rough analogues in other products, but none have been developed with the level of detail and depth that Races of Evernor provides. With some careful attention to game balance, both players and GMs alike will find this a useful gaming aid.

If you’re looking for a set of unique, well-detailed, powerful races for your high-fantasy campaign, you’ll find Races of Evernor II a valuable resource.

To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.

 

[John Cooper]

Races of Evernor, Part II - A Compendium of Legendary Races
By Ian Johnston
Silverthorne Games product number STG 1003
64 pages (PDF), $6.00

As might be expected, Races of Evernor, Part II is very similar to Races of Evernor, Part I: each has a dozen new player character races available for use in Silverthorne's Evernor campaign setting or plunked down into just about any other fantasy campaign. However, while the product is still a good one, it isn't quite as good as the original, for a variety of reasons.

The cover is just as uninspired as the original, consisting of the Evernor logo on a colored background; while the first book had a blue and white background, this one is purple. Unfortunately, the logo is still in red. Red and purple does not a pleasing cover make. Moving on...

The interior artwork consists of 15 black-and-white illustrations by four different artists, and the quality is just as high as in the previous book - not surprising, as many of the artists are the same: Lance W. Card, Stephen Cook, Jeremy D. Mohler, and Chris Pepper. Each of the 12 new races gets an illustration, plus there are two generic human close-ups in the first few pages and an extra illustration of the genie-like jinoor race. For the most part, each of the racial drawings stays very close to the description of the creature in question; in that aspect, the illustrations are better even than those that appear in the Monster Manual.

This time around, there's a 2-page Table of Contents immediately following the credits page, which I found unusual in a PDF. (There's also an electronic Bookmarks section, which I'm more accustomed to.) This might help explain the fact that this PDF is three pages bigger than its predecessor when they hold about the same amount of information. Following that is several pages of introduction, both to the world of Evernor and the layout of the material on the different races. (If you've read Races of Evernor, Part I you can skip this introductory chapter, as the information is virtually word-for-word the same as in the previous book.) After that comes the details on the 12 new races, followed by the three Appendices. Here's how it's broken down:

• Introduction:
• Aavali: a winged, birdlike race, very similar to the aarakocra
• Damorlinn: gnome/gazelle centaurlike creatures, very similar to the hybsil
• Flitterling: a practical joker fey race, very similar to the sprite
• Hrulian-Tensu: a desert-dwelling reptilian race, rather like a humanoid horned lizard
• Jinoor: a desert-dwelling genie race, very similar to the janni
• Magnar: a humanoid elemental race with magnetic powers, very similar to the X-Men's foe, Magneto
• Nephogg: a Tiny, predominantly evil race, very similar to an even shorter halfling or kender
• Pofferil: what can only be described as a humanoid raccoon from the Outer Planes
• Raellorian: a winged elf, very similar to an avariel
• Raziran: a feathered serpent-man that can fly without wings
• Vorl: an intelligent, four-eyed towel (no, I'm not kidding!)
• Yaal-Tensu: a desert-dwelling humanoid race, very similar to a...human
• Appendix I - Other Races: a brief description of other races mentioned (but not detailed) in this PDF (some of whom appeared in Races of Evernor, Part I)
• Appendix II - Age, Height, and Weight Charts: similar to those in the Player's Handbook, so you can randomly roll up those aspects of a given character
• Appendix III - Licenses and Open Game Content: the fine-print legal stuff
• QuikList - Feats: an electronic link to all of the new feats scattered throughout the racial descriptions
• QuikList - New Exotic Weapons: an electronic link to all of the new weapons featured in the racial descriptions
• QuikList - New Material (Cloudsteel): not much of a "list," as there's just the one new material (a lightweight metal)
• QuikList - A Prime Example: an electronic link to all of the sample 1st-level characters, one from each new race

The layout of each new race is in the exact same format as in Races of Evernor, Part I, which was an excellent choice as I really don't think much could have been improved upon: you get the race's background, physical description, personality, languages, alignment, diet, relationships with other races, lands, religion, typical names, adventurers, place in Evernor (if you're running a campaign there), racial traits, roleplaying tips, adventure seeds (granted, those are mainly for the DM), and a "Frilf's Notes" section where the famed gnomish bard jots down his opinions on the race in question. Each race thus gets three or four pages devoted to it, which is much more than you'd get in similar products from some other companies. Plus, like I mentioned earlier, each race gets its own illustration.

However, as pleased as I am with the layout and amount of information devoted to each race, overall I was a bit disappointed with the races that appear in Races of Evernor, Part II. As you might have gathered from the brief descriptions I wrote in the bulleted chapter list above, I found quite a few of them to be very similar to other creatures that already exist in D&D. The aavali makes a perfectly fine bird-humanoid PC, and I can't deny that the description is well done, the creature well thought out, and the race perfectly suitable for PCs. However, I'm less able to explain how an aavali PC is better than, or even much different from, an aarakocra PC. (Aarakocras have been around since the 1st Edition of AD&D, and were reintroduced to the 3E rules with Monsters of Faerûn.) I also find it difficult to believe that the author was unaware of the aarakocra's existence, unless the fact that each humanoid bird race begins with a double-a is just a complete coincidence. The same follows with the damorlinn, a gnome/gazelle of centaurian build, which isn't all that different from the deer-centaurian hybsil of previous editions of the game, or the flitterling, which is little more than a renamed sprite. Again, the author did a fine job writing up these races and making them eminently playable; I was just disappointed in the overall lack of originality.

Of course, there is one exception to the above complaint, for one of the races in Races of Evernor, Part II is just about the most original I've ever seen. Let me just state that if you were ever put off about playing D&D because you didn't have the option of playing a four-eyed, intelligent towel with a hand/foot at each corner of its rectangular body, then this PDF is for you! Yes, if you've been kind of bummed up until now because you really wanted to play a character based on South Park's "Towlie," then let me reiterate: this PDF is for you! Okay, enough of that, I'll just say that I really have to scratch my head in puzzlement as to why Ian thought an intelligent towel would make a good PC race. I suppose there's a limited similarity between the vorl race and the cloakers of D&D, but even so I think that's kind of stretching it.

I was also puzzled as to how Races of Evernor, Part II, which has two editors, could have nearly twice as many editorial and proofreading mistakes in it than its predecessor, which only had one editor. (Maybe each editor, Chris Sims and Bruce R. Tillotson, though the other guy was going to fix the mistakes?) Punctuation misuse, spacing errors, improper capitalization, missing words, and typos abound in this PDF, much more so than in the first volume. (To their credit, though, there is one instance where "half-elves" is hyphenated!)

There are also a few unanswered questions about the races in this PDF:

• What exactly does the aavali's tcherka rite of passage consist of?
• Why would any aavali in his right mind take the Aavali Bowyer feat (which requires him to burn 5 ranks each in Craft (bowyer) and Craft (fletching), plus burn two other feats - Skill Focus (bowyer) and Skill Focus (fletching)) - just to get a lousy 50% reduction in the cost to make masterwork bows and arrows? It seems like an awful lot of prerequisites for such a measly payoff.
• Why do the jinoor have to burn feats to be able to cast Charisma-based cantrips and spell-like abilities, when other races gain that kind of bonus for free? (If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it's probably because jinoor already have a +3 Level Adjustment and the author didn't want to have to bump it up any higher. Still, I dislike the inconsistency.)
• How can it be unknown how pofferils reproduce, even (apparently) by the pofferils themselves? Okay, I get that they're potentially immortal, but still. Don't any pofferils have any idea about their own reproduction?
• Why is "Ahlornaic" a language of its own? (Ahlorn is the primary good deity in the Evernor setting.) More importantly, why do you need a Wisdom score of 15 or more to be able to know the language?
• If the razirans are an offshoot of the dreth race, wouldn't it have made more sense to include the dreth in Races of Evernor, Part II, rather than waiting for Races of Evernor, Part III?
• With the vorl "Social Tactician" feat, do you get two or three Charisma-based skills switched over to Intelligence every time you take the feat? Both figures are used in the feat's description. (Or do you get to choose three Charisma-based skills the first time you take Social Tactician, and then two more skills each time from then on?)
• Why does the vorl "Prime Example" PC have spider climb listed as an extraordinary ability usable once per day, when there's nothing in the racial description allowing for this?
• How can the reptilian hrulian-tensus and the mammalian yaal-tensus be offshoots of the same race?
• If both the hrulian-tensus and the yaal-tensus worship the same goddess, and each race believes that the goddess will reward them if they unite the two races as one (and furthermore that this is the goddess' wish), why in the world haven't they done it yet?
• Why would yaal-tensus "distrust wizards and their kin, believing them to be devils" when their favored class is sorcerer?

Personally, I don't think as much thought and effort were put into this PDF as was put into the original.

Still, there were some things I did notice and approve of. I see that aavali and razirans have unusual body types, but rather than requiring a special feat to create armor for them, it just states that it takes more money to craft armor for them (one and a half times normal for aavali armor, and double the normal price for raziran armor). That was a good call, and fixes one of the problems I had with the first PDF in this series (which called for a separate Craft Fezroki Armor feat).

Overall, I enjoyed Races of Evernor, Part II, but I didn't think it was as well thought out (or as original) as the previous PDF. I hope that when the third (and final, I believe) PDF in this series comes out, it can return to the higher level of quality of the first one. I give this PDF a high "3 (Average)" - it's still a good effort, just not quite high enough for a "4 (Good)."