John Cooper
Explorer
Races of Evernor, Part III
By Ian Johnston, with contributing authors Risa Johnston and Chris Sims
Silverthorne Games product number STG1007
69-page PDF, $6.00
The third and final PDF in the Races of Evernor series (besides another, upcoming free one detailing another 5 races), Races of Evernor, Part III continues on the excellent trend of its two predecessors. This PDF offers 12 new fantasy races (or 14, depending upon how you look at it, as one insectoid race has three separate castes) suitable for use as PCs or NPCs in any fantasy campaign.
The cover is similar to the other two in the series, although I like the color scheme used here best of the three. Yellow lettering and a yellow Evernor emblem are superimposed upon a red textured background, giving it a very "regal" look.
The interior artwork consists of 14 black-and-white illustrations by three different artists: Lance W. Card, Stephen Cook, and Cara Mitten. It's easy to differentiate between the three, as Lance uses an Ace of Spades as his signature and Stephen signs his with an "SC" made with straight lines; anything else is obviously then by Cara. I've remarked how I've enjoyed Lance's work in previous entries in this series, and he does a great job here as well (although I have to admit I didn't really like his quolmaryn, as it really came across looking like a man in a costume - the ears looked sewn on and the eyes looked like they were looking out of holes in a mask), but I have to say I was very impressed with Cara's work here as well: she has a nice, flowing style, a good grasp on shading and textures, and her proportions seem very natural and realistic, even when illustrating a creature that could only exist in a fantasy setting (like the xorn-like baturgahlas on page 12). Stephen doesn't do bad work, but he always seems to draw his characters either straight on or (most often) exactly from the side, making them rather like a mug-shot. I appreciate the fact that he's chosen to do his illustrations to look like sketches in a notebook, just as Frilf the gnome (the "narrator" of the Evernor series, and I gather the guy in the same role as Elminster is to the Forgotten Realms, only not quite so omnipotent) is said to have done. It's a clever idea, but his handwritten notes - while accurately done as "handwritten" - could stand to be a bit more legible. Also, he's not as accurate as the others as far as depictions of the creatures go: his sloorgol, for example, is not hunchbacked, which is one of their distinguishing features.
I should point out that two of the pieces of artwork - the first two, as a matter of fact - are close-ups of faces that appear elsewhere in the PDF, so there's really only 12 pieces of art, one for each of the new races provided.
Races of Evernor, Part III is laid out as follows:
Okay, now let's get to the meat of the review: the creatures themselves. Two "negatives" initially jumped out at me with this PDF, although in further consideration neither "negative" was as bad as I had originally thought. The first: of the 12 races presented, a full fourth of them are aquatic. Of these, two of them (the freshwater ammidar and the saltwater selûth) are very similar in nature, save that one dislikes being in saltwater and one dislikes being in freshwater. Each has similarly-worded feats (freshwater tolerance, saltwater tolerance), racial traits (saltwater sensitivity, freshwater sensitivity), and water requirements to stay healthy. It really seems like after writing up the one race, most of the work was already done with the other. To diminish this "negative," though, the author gave the races very different cultures and each race has some uniqueness about it that keeps them from being simple mirror images of each other. (I was particularly impressed with the fact that ammidars have no lungs, breathing through their skin instead. Ian came up with some very logical and consistent consequences of such a unique physical ability, such as being difficult to smother and having an extra vulnerability to contact poisons, smoke, and cloudlike spell effects.)
The other "negative" I saw was that many of the races provided here are simply humanoid (or more human than normal) versions of creatures from the Monster Manual. The zamrul is nothing but a humanoid griffon, right down to which half is lionlike and which half is like an eagle. The baturgahla is very obviously patterned after the xorn, right down to the number of limbs and the odd mouth placement. There's little doubt that the ilzari shares many similarities with the doppelganger (as, indeed, does the wilmandren, although to a much lesser extent). The vorathi is pretty much just a half-human, half-troll. Similarly, while not a more-human Monster Manual monster, the urstak is a barbaric Fjurnian dwarf, which I thought was a bit too similar to the barbaric Fjurnian gnome from the first PDF. (I did, however, like the fact that urstaks live in the branches of enormous trees - talk about turning the dwarf stereotype on its head!) Each of these creatures was well fleshed-out, though, so despite my initial feelings of "hmm, not a whole lot of thought went into the design of this creature," while the design might have been simplistic, the follow-on detail work was superb. Again, each of these creatures ends up as a unique race with some odds and ends traits that have nothing to do with the Monster Manual inspiration.
In fact, I'd say my favorite race overall in this dozen is the baturgahla. After having read through the entry fully and digesting it a bit, it only makes perfect sense that a humanoid race might have evolved from the ancestors of the trilaterally-symmetrical xorn. I actually like the fact that it has six limbs, although I applaud the fact that the baturgahla uses only two of them for legs and four for arms. The oddball, non-xorn-based trait that really makes this creature unique is the fact that all of its joints are reversible: it can be walking north to south (and thus "facing" south), then immediately switch directions and start walking south to north without turning around. Its knees just bend the other way, as do its elbows, and even fingers! That's a really imaginative spin on things, and one that I find intriguing enough to want to use baturgahlas in my own campaign at once. (I also like their unusual naming conventions: baturgahlas can pick just about anything for a personal name, including common nouns. Some of the sample names include Buckler, Orb, Spindle, Tower, and Waterskin!)
I also noticed that this time around several of the sample NPCs are of higher than 1st level. There's a baturgahla Ranger 1/Rogue 1, dreth and xixitha 3rd-level fighters, an ilzari Wizard 2, even an 8th-level wilmandren monk. Also, each sample NPC has a short piece of fiction (as did the other PDFs in this series), and I liked the fact that two of them - the selûth and the sloorgol - showed a battle between the two NPCs from the points of view of each.
As usual, the QuikLists are a handy way to find all of the odds and ends goodies scattered all over the place. I did have a couple of problems with some of them, though, as the Limited Regeneration feat and the Vorathi NPC links didn't work, and both the Ammidar and Baturgahla NPCs linked to the Zamrul NPC instead. Furthermore, the "New Spells" QuikList only links to two of the new spells, ignoring aquatic sheath, deepwater ward, and water bolt. Hopefully these small problems can be fixed up.
All in all, I found Races of Evernor, Part III to be a pleasurable read, bursting full of interesting races (despite some rather transparent inspirations) suitable for use in any fantasy campaign, not just Evernor. I could see most of these races fitting in just fine among the standard races of the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, or Eberron. I give Races of Evernor, Part III a high "4 (Good)."
By Ian Johnston, with contributing authors Risa Johnston and Chris Sims
Silverthorne Games product number STG1007
69-page PDF, $6.00
The third and final PDF in the Races of Evernor series (besides another, upcoming free one detailing another 5 races), Races of Evernor, Part III continues on the excellent trend of its two predecessors. This PDF offers 12 new fantasy races (or 14, depending upon how you look at it, as one insectoid race has three separate castes) suitable for use as PCs or NPCs in any fantasy campaign.
The cover is similar to the other two in the series, although I like the color scheme used here best of the three. Yellow lettering and a yellow Evernor emblem are superimposed upon a red textured background, giving it a very "regal" look.
The interior artwork consists of 14 black-and-white illustrations by three different artists: Lance W. Card, Stephen Cook, and Cara Mitten. It's easy to differentiate between the three, as Lance uses an Ace of Spades as his signature and Stephen signs his with an "SC" made with straight lines; anything else is obviously then by Cara. I've remarked how I've enjoyed Lance's work in previous entries in this series, and he does a great job here as well (although I have to admit I didn't really like his quolmaryn, as it really came across looking like a man in a costume - the ears looked sewn on and the eyes looked like they were looking out of holes in a mask), but I have to say I was very impressed with Cara's work here as well: she has a nice, flowing style, a good grasp on shading and textures, and her proportions seem very natural and realistic, even when illustrating a creature that could only exist in a fantasy setting (like the xorn-like baturgahlas on page 12). Stephen doesn't do bad work, but he always seems to draw his characters either straight on or (most often) exactly from the side, making them rather like a mug-shot. I appreciate the fact that he's chosen to do his illustrations to look like sketches in a notebook, just as Frilf the gnome (the "narrator" of the Evernor series, and I gather the guy in the same role as Elminster is to the Forgotten Realms, only not quite so omnipotent) is said to have done. It's a clever idea, but his handwritten notes - while accurately done as "handwritten" - could stand to be a bit more legible. Also, he's not as accurate as the others as far as depictions of the creatures go: his sloorgol, for example, is not hunchbacked, which is one of their distinguishing features.
I should point out that two of the pieces of artwork - the first two, as a matter of fact - are close-ups of faces that appear elsewhere in the PDF, so there's really only 12 pieces of art, one for each of the new races provided.
Races of Evernor, Part III is laid out as follows:
- Introduction: A quick overview on the Lands of Evernor (the default campaign world for the creatures in this PDF) and the format of each of the race entries that follow
- Ammidar: an aquatic humanoid race that dwells in freshwater lakes and inland seas
- Baturgahla: a xorn-like race with two legs, four arms, four eyes ringing the mouth on top of its head, and a penchant for eating rocks and minerals
- Dreth: an evil serpent race, basically a giant snake with a humanoid torso (including two arms)
- Ilzari: featureless, asexual humanoids capable of using alter self at will to appear as a member of another race
- Quolmaryn: a Small, humanoid lemur race
- Selûth: an aquatic humanoid race that dwells in the oceans
- Sloorgol: an evil, aquatic (monstrous) humanoid race with hunched backs and froglike features that dwells in the oceans
- Urstak: barbaric dwarves from the rugged lands of Fjurn
- Vorathi: troll-kin
- Wilmandren: humanoid shapechangers capable of assuming a fixed number of alternate humanoid forms (one form per level, normally)
- Xixitha: lawful insectoids that come in three distinct castes
- Zamrul: humanoid griffons
- Appendix I - Other Races: a quick description of other Evernor races (from Parts I and II of this series, and the "Five Free Races" supplements)
- Appendix II - Age, Height, & Weight Charts: details on all Evernor races from the various sources, organized by alphabetical race name, by age, and by average height
- Appendix III - Licenses & Legal : the OGL required to be part of any d20 product
- QuikList - New Feats: an electronic shortcut to the new feats scattered through several of the race entries
- QuikList - New Spells: an electronic shortcut to the new spells scattered through several of the race entries
- QuikList - A Prime Example: an electronic shortcut to the sample NPC stats for each race
Okay, now let's get to the meat of the review: the creatures themselves. Two "negatives" initially jumped out at me with this PDF, although in further consideration neither "negative" was as bad as I had originally thought. The first: of the 12 races presented, a full fourth of them are aquatic. Of these, two of them (the freshwater ammidar and the saltwater selûth) are very similar in nature, save that one dislikes being in saltwater and one dislikes being in freshwater. Each has similarly-worded feats (freshwater tolerance, saltwater tolerance), racial traits (saltwater sensitivity, freshwater sensitivity), and water requirements to stay healthy. It really seems like after writing up the one race, most of the work was already done with the other. To diminish this "negative," though, the author gave the races very different cultures and each race has some uniqueness about it that keeps them from being simple mirror images of each other. (I was particularly impressed with the fact that ammidars have no lungs, breathing through their skin instead. Ian came up with some very logical and consistent consequences of such a unique physical ability, such as being difficult to smother and having an extra vulnerability to contact poisons, smoke, and cloudlike spell effects.)
The other "negative" I saw was that many of the races provided here are simply humanoid (or more human than normal) versions of creatures from the Monster Manual. The zamrul is nothing but a humanoid griffon, right down to which half is lionlike and which half is like an eagle. The baturgahla is very obviously patterned after the xorn, right down to the number of limbs and the odd mouth placement. There's little doubt that the ilzari shares many similarities with the doppelganger (as, indeed, does the wilmandren, although to a much lesser extent). The vorathi is pretty much just a half-human, half-troll. Similarly, while not a more-human Monster Manual monster, the urstak is a barbaric Fjurnian dwarf, which I thought was a bit too similar to the barbaric Fjurnian gnome from the first PDF. (I did, however, like the fact that urstaks live in the branches of enormous trees - talk about turning the dwarf stereotype on its head!) Each of these creatures was well fleshed-out, though, so despite my initial feelings of "hmm, not a whole lot of thought went into the design of this creature," while the design might have been simplistic, the follow-on detail work was superb. Again, each of these creatures ends up as a unique race with some odds and ends traits that have nothing to do with the Monster Manual inspiration.
In fact, I'd say my favorite race overall in this dozen is the baturgahla. After having read through the entry fully and digesting it a bit, it only makes perfect sense that a humanoid race might have evolved from the ancestors of the trilaterally-symmetrical xorn. I actually like the fact that it has six limbs, although I applaud the fact that the baturgahla uses only two of them for legs and four for arms. The oddball, non-xorn-based trait that really makes this creature unique is the fact that all of its joints are reversible: it can be walking north to south (and thus "facing" south), then immediately switch directions and start walking south to north without turning around. Its knees just bend the other way, as do its elbows, and even fingers! That's a really imaginative spin on things, and one that I find intriguing enough to want to use baturgahlas in my own campaign at once. (I also like their unusual naming conventions: baturgahlas can pick just about anything for a personal name, including common nouns. Some of the sample names include Buckler, Orb, Spindle, Tower, and Waterskin!)
I also noticed that this time around several of the sample NPCs are of higher than 1st level. There's a baturgahla Ranger 1/Rogue 1, dreth and xixitha 3rd-level fighters, an ilzari Wizard 2, even an 8th-level wilmandren monk. Also, each sample NPC has a short piece of fiction (as did the other PDFs in this series), and I liked the fact that two of them - the selûth and the sloorgol - showed a battle between the two NPCs from the points of view of each.
As usual, the QuikLists are a handy way to find all of the odds and ends goodies scattered all over the place. I did have a couple of problems with some of them, though, as the Limited Regeneration feat and the Vorathi NPC links didn't work, and both the Ammidar and Baturgahla NPCs linked to the Zamrul NPC instead. Furthermore, the "New Spells" QuikList only links to two of the new spells, ignoring aquatic sheath, deepwater ward, and water bolt. Hopefully these small problems can be fixed up.
All in all, I found Races of Evernor, Part III to be a pleasurable read, bursting full of interesting races (despite some rather transparent inspirations) suitable for use in any fantasy campaign, not just Evernor. I could see most of these races fitting in just fine among the standard races of the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, or Eberron. I give Races of Evernor, Part III a high "4 (Good)."
