Simon Collins
Explorer
This is not a playtest review.
Beware! This review contains spoilers.
Sacred Ground is a sourcebook of holy sites from Atlas Games.
Sacred Ground is a 112-page mono softcover product costing $19.95. There is minimal wasted space and the art is used well to illustrate the text, though it is a little sparse and somewhat gloomy at times. The maps are well designed, and keyed and scaled to a 5 feet grid, though the large size of the buildings coupled with the grid size tends to lead to a lack of detail. The writing style is literate and engaging and editing seems fine.
Each of the four sites is laid out to a standard template beginning with a summary of the site's history, purpose and inner conflicts. Following is advice on the placement of the site in your campaign, description (concentrating on motivations) and full stats for NPCs, and a physical description of the site (including traps, magical protections and treasure such as magical items). The section finishes with some adventure seeds and ideas for modifying the site by altering the basic concepts of the site, from minor twists on the theme to a radical change to help suit your campaign.
The four sites described are as follows:
1. Gabriel's Aerie is a floating island dedicated to a new elemental deity, The Four Winds. The volatile patriarch of the temple and his vengeful ex-lover take centre-stage in the floating island's description but there are a wealth of sidebars providing information on The Four Winds elemental deity, a new domain (Sky), random aerial creatures that might be found in the vicinity, a couple of minor artifacts and wondrous items and new rules for piloting an airframe, a basic version of a hang-glider that the priests use for entertainment purposes.
2. Summer's Barrow is aptly named, for it houses the body of the Summer God, who dies every autumn. Come spring, a willing "Sacrifice" must enter the Underworld to bring the Summer God once more to the world. In summer the barrow is nearly deserted, whilst in winter the area is well protected by temple guards. The guards and priests serve two purposes - firstly, to keep away those that desire to use the temporarily dead god's body for arcane purposes (a sidebar lists the possibilities and are reminiscent of the uses of a dead god from Malhavoc's Requiem For A God). Secondly, they must also defend the sanctuary from incursions of undead that have emerged from The Underworld portal at the nadir of the barrow. Other sidebars give details on The Summer God, a new domain (Summer), and suggested modifiers for combat in the curving walls of the maze that lies at the centre of the barrow.
3. Necropolis is a temple to a lawful neutral god of death, known as the Judge of the Dead. At the centre of the temple lies the well-protected Well Of Souls, a portal to the realm of the Judge of the Dead, who judges souls after death. The site is a hotbed of internal politics, muddied by the existence of an infiltrator who plans to recreate the disaster that once corrupted the island on which the temple lies, by misusing the powers of the Well of Souls. The section also contains interesting sidebars on a new magical material, Grave Steel, which lessens the cost for crafting weapons with the special quality bane (undead), and a poisonous small plant, the Lich Lichen, which has a negative energy attack. Further sidebars detail the Judge of the Dead and a new domain, Judgement.
4. Retreat Of The Warrior Saint is a martial temple dedicated to reverence of a new deity, The Warrior Saint. The priests and monks are quietly renowned for their martial training and the temple could serve as a training facility for combat-oriented PCs. However, the specialty of the training school is the use of common tools, such as rakes or hoes, as weapons. These tools-as-weapons are described in a sidebar, along with a couple of new feats that improve defence when fighting with allies.
An index at the end is split into sections covering community and NPC stats, the 10 new magic items, 3 new feats, deities and domains, and other miscellany.
The High Points:
I found the first three locations to be creative and unusual. The 'site' concept, presented in sections describing the different components, along with the advice on campaign integration, makes all the locations eminently useable and some of the concepts beg to be expanded into a larger campaign setting - always a good sign to my mind. The sidebar/sectioned-index approach makes grabbing crunchy bits out of the book relatively easy for use outside the sites themselves. The NPCs are given personality and depth, and their relationships with other NPCs are importantly described, allowing options for political-style roleplaying. The NPC stats also seem solid.
The Low Points:
I just didn't find the final location as creative and interesting as the first three - a training school for using garden implements as weapons didn't quite live up to the floating island, dead god, or well of souls. I also found the hang-gliders a bit anachronistic in Gabriel's Aerie.
Conclusion:
An interesting and well-written accessory that lives up to the quality of Seven Cities and Seven Strongholds, whilst still providing a format that makes it easy to integrate the sites into a campaign, or take from them the stuff that interests you for use elsewhere in your campaign. Though the last location was a little lacklustre, and you get three less locations compared to Seven Cities and Seven Strongholds for only $1-2 less, there is still plenty to admire in the creativity, depth and solidity of the four sites in Sacred Ground.
Beware! This review contains spoilers.
Sacred Ground is a sourcebook of holy sites from Atlas Games.
Sacred Ground is a 112-page mono softcover product costing $19.95. There is minimal wasted space and the art is used well to illustrate the text, though it is a little sparse and somewhat gloomy at times. The maps are well designed, and keyed and scaled to a 5 feet grid, though the large size of the buildings coupled with the grid size tends to lead to a lack of detail. The writing style is literate and engaging and editing seems fine.
Each of the four sites is laid out to a standard template beginning with a summary of the site's history, purpose and inner conflicts. Following is advice on the placement of the site in your campaign, description (concentrating on motivations) and full stats for NPCs, and a physical description of the site (including traps, magical protections and treasure such as magical items). The section finishes with some adventure seeds and ideas for modifying the site by altering the basic concepts of the site, from minor twists on the theme to a radical change to help suit your campaign.
The four sites described are as follows:
1. Gabriel's Aerie is a floating island dedicated to a new elemental deity, The Four Winds. The volatile patriarch of the temple and his vengeful ex-lover take centre-stage in the floating island's description but there are a wealth of sidebars providing information on The Four Winds elemental deity, a new domain (Sky), random aerial creatures that might be found in the vicinity, a couple of minor artifacts and wondrous items and new rules for piloting an airframe, a basic version of a hang-glider that the priests use for entertainment purposes.
2. Summer's Barrow is aptly named, for it houses the body of the Summer God, who dies every autumn. Come spring, a willing "Sacrifice" must enter the Underworld to bring the Summer God once more to the world. In summer the barrow is nearly deserted, whilst in winter the area is well protected by temple guards. The guards and priests serve two purposes - firstly, to keep away those that desire to use the temporarily dead god's body for arcane purposes (a sidebar lists the possibilities and are reminiscent of the uses of a dead god from Malhavoc's Requiem For A God). Secondly, they must also defend the sanctuary from incursions of undead that have emerged from The Underworld portal at the nadir of the barrow. Other sidebars give details on The Summer God, a new domain (Summer), and suggested modifiers for combat in the curving walls of the maze that lies at the centre of the barrow.
3. Necropolis is a temple to a lawful neutral god of death, known as the Judge of the Dead. At the centre of the temple lies the well-protected Well Of Souls, a portal to the realm of the Judge of the Dead, who judges souls after death. The site is a hotbed of internal politics, muddied by the existence of an infiltrator who plans to recreate the disaster that once corrupted the island on which the temple lies, by misusing the powers of the Well of Souls. The section also contains interesting sidebars on a new magical material, Grave Steel, which lessens the cost for crafting weapons with the special quality bane (undead), and a poisonous small plant, the Lich Lichen, which has a negative energy attack. Further sidebars detail the Judge of the Dead and a new domain, Judgement.
4. Retreat Of The Warrior Saint is a martial temple dedicated to reverence of a new deity, The Warrior Saint. The priests and monks are quietly renowned for their martial training and the temple could serve as a training facility for combat-oriented PCs. However, the specialty of the training school is the use of common tools, such as rakes or hoes, as weapons. These tools-as-weapons are described in a sidebar, along with a couple of new feats that improve defence when fighting with allies.
An index at the end is split into sections covering community and NPC stats, the 10 new magic items, 3 new feats, deities and domains, and other miscellany.
The High Points:
I found the first three locations to be creative and unusual. The 'site' concept, presented in sections describing the different components, along with the advice on campaign integration, makes all the locations eminently useable and some of the concepts beg to be expanded into a larger campaign setting - always a good sign to my mind. The sidebar/sectioned-index approach makes grabbing crunchy bits out of the book relatively easy for use outside the sites themselves. The NPCs are given personality and depth, and their relationships with other NPCs are importantly described, allowing options for political-style roleplaying. The NPC stats also seem solid.
The Low Points:
I just didn't find the final location as creative and interesting as the first three - a training school for using garden implements as weapons didn't quite live up to the floating island, dead god, or well of souls. I also found the hang-gliders a bit anachronistic in Gabriel's Aerie.
Conclusion:
An interesting and well-written accessory that lives up to the quality of Seven Cities and Seven Strongholds, whilst still providing a format that makes it easy to integrate the sites into a campaign, or take from them the stuff that interests you for use elsewhere in your campaign. Though the last location was a little lacklustre, and you get three less locations compared to Seven Cities and Seven Strongholds for only $1-2 less, there is still plenty to admire in the creativity, depth and solidity of the four sites in Sacred Ground.
; I also liked the book very much, especially the Summer Barrow, which reminds me of several real world legends.
.
