Scarred Lands: Best Books?

[Hussar]

SL was a victim of the d20 bubble. When they switched to 3.5, SL went into tailspin and was discontinued. At least, that's what I took from reading the situation surrounding the end of things.

On the original question:

Blood Sea: The Crimson Abyss

This book is hit and miss really. The cartography in it is abysmal. As in pretty much unusable and there are some points that I found very jarring - hugely anachronistic ship depicitions (one ship actually includes gunports!) - for example.

Now, the bit on the piceans was fantastic. Very interesting take on things. And the "pirate island" in the middle of the Blood Sea was well done too except for the fact that it wouldn't work as written since it's also stated that trade lines go around the Blood Sea, not through it, making the island too far from sea lanes to actually work.

I'd give the book about 2.5 out of 5 in all honesty. Some great ideas, but desperately in need of an editor or someone higher above to have made sure that the elements in the book ACTUALLY work.

Kinda like Shelzar IMO. I'm still not sure how a city cut off from the rest of the continent by slaver pirate nations on one side and Calastia on the other survives as a trade hub, but, hey, it's fantasy.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Hollowfaust is up there. Just make your mindless undead Neutral (3E) or Unaligned (4E), though, or Hollowfaust as presented can't exist. (Everybody would be evil!) But that's not a problem, because making mindless undead NE was one of the stupidest changes between 3E and 3.5.

Calastia is my favorite example ever of a LE society, but many people consider it a little dry. It's just such a good illustration of how a monarch can truly love his nation and his people, and be himself beloved in turn, yet be evil as hell.

Divine and the Defeated is my favorite book on 3E gods and religion, with the possible exception of Book of the Righteous. The Scarred Lands take on religion in general I like, but I'm a sucker for Greek mythology.

I didn't enjoy any of the Slarecian stuff, but I'm heavily biased against psionics in my D&D, so I wouldn't.

 

[Knightfall]

I am a big SL fan, but not as much the newer books. I would say that, for me, the best books were Hollowfaust, Burok Torn, Calastia, Hornsaw, and the two Vigil Watch books.

I have the option of getting several of the Scarred Lands books at a good price, since most of the FLGSs in Edmonton don't consider them to be worth anything. I'll likely be able to get Hollowfaust for under $15 [CAN] (I think) and I know I can get the Mithril book for $10.

Shelzar was good too, but I need to tweak a few things to make it work.

I like Shelzar. So much so that I've added it to my homebrewed world (Kulan). However, I'm thinking that I'll be changing the city's name (and background) to better fit it into Kulan. (It's going to be near my version of the Land of Fate.)

The Ghelspad Campaign book is good, so you have a good start.

What do you think of the Termana campaign setting book?

 

[Knightfall]

Oh... jeez.

I can't believe I forgot to add in Divine and Defeated. That is a key Scarred Lands book. Moreso than the players' guides that came out.

Divine and the Defeated is my favorite book on 3E gods and religion, with the possible exception of Book of the Righteous. The Scarred Lands take on religion in general I like, but I'm a sucker for Greek mythology.

Hmm, I know that Divine and the Defeated is a v.3.0 book. That's a big turn off for me.

 

[Hussar]

Divine and Defeated, while 3.0, is mostly useful for the source material anyway. Sure, they stat out the avatars of the gods and a few of the other big hitters, but, most of the book is flavour. Definitely a great sourcebook for background into setting canon.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Hmm, I know that Divine and the Defeated is a v.3.0 book. That's a big turn off for me.

A good 80% of the book is pure fluff and needed background material. Unless you are really itching for the god's avatar's stats the crunch stuff can be ignored (I know I never needed it in the 4+ years i ran 2 SL campaigns but i couldn't imagine missing out on the Divine & Defeated background & history stuff).

You mentioned the Termana setting book and I have to recommend it. I actually like it better than the Ghelspad book as I feel Ghelspad was better presented in the various city books (Calastia and Hollowfaust top the list but I would not miss out on Burok Torn, Mithral and Shelzar either). If you do get the Termana book do not get Faithful & Forsaken. It is pure crap and invalidates much of the info on the elven nations given in the Termana book.

 

[catsclaw227]

Hmm, I know that Divine and the Defeated is a v.3.0 book. That's a big turn off for me.

If you can get the PDF cheap, I'd still get it. It has good flavor of the pantheon and gets to the heart of how worship and religion works in the SL.

 

[catsclaw227]

If you do get the Termana book do not get Faithful & Forsaken. It is pure crap and invalidates much of the info on the elven nations given in the Termana book.

I liked Termana too, but I didn't get a chance to give it a good look. It mostly sat on the shelf because the PCs were deep in the Hornsaw.

I agree that Faithful & Forsaken is bad. Another to avoid (as far as I am concerned) is the Penumbral Pentagon.

 

[Knightfall]

Divine and Defeated, while 3.0, is mostly useful for the source material anyway. Sure, they stat out the avatars of the gods and a few of the other big hitters, but, most of the book is flavour. Definitely a great sourcebook for background into setting canon.

A good 80% of the book is pure fluff and needed background material. Unless you are really itching for the god's avatar's stats the crunch stuff can be ignored (I know I never needed it in the 4+ years i ran 2 SL campaigns but i couldn't imagine missing out on the Divine & Defeated background & history stuff).

It sounds like the Divine and the Defeated is the Scarred Lands version of Deities & Demigods but with more fluff and less crunch. Interesting...

If you can get the PDF cheap, I'd still get it. It has good flavor of the pantheon and gets to the heart of how worship and religion works in the SL.

I prefer actual books to PDFs, so If I can find the book, I'll give it a once over. Like I said before, there are a lot of unused SL books sitting on shelves at several of my FLGS for 50% off or more.

 

[catsclaw227]

I prefer actual books to PDFs, so If I can find the book, I'll give it a once over. Like I said before, there are a lot of unused SL books sitting on shelves at several of my FLGS for 50% off or more.

Fair enough.

I recall a couple of times SSS had a $5 sale on all Scarred Lands books. I got a bunch at the time. You should also scour ebay, you could find a fair share of these books on sale.