Scarred Lands Gazetteer: Ghelspad

[Rockrattled]

I might be jaded by the products Sword and Sorcery has been putting out, but I like their stuff. Ghelspad is no different. I like that their map and their book format. It reminds me of one other classic setting... It was a quick and straight forward read, with a few subtle twists along the way to peak anyone's interest. I read it thinking how I could set up a campaign there? Where would I base my characters? The center of the continent is the most dangerous huh? Could my characters resist? It lends itself to DM's filling in the details, and answering those unanswered questions. Which brings me to the other aspects of this product...

Details are painted with a fairly large brush. I'm not saying that it lacks detail or completeness, its a new setting afterall, and that may be a plus rather than a short coming.
Some of the ideas are a little too goofy for me? Blood sea? Inferno gulf? Yeah yeah, neat idea but way WAY over the top.
There are some ideas that make it a little difficult to get used to, Good Necromancers? An entire nation of Hollow Knights? Hmmm...
It also hints at another continent located somewhere south of Ghelspad, Termana. I really hope S&S doesn't start throwing more and more world products at us just because they can. This one's big enough.


But let me stop the nit picking. Good product. Good map. Good campaign format. Different gaming world, but similar in all the right ways.

 

[KDLadage]

updated on 22-NOV-02

OK... First the skinny on this book. What do you get?

• A very nice full color map (paper is a bit thin, but seems to be holding up)
• A nice quality staple bound volume with a thick cover (has the shields for the nations on the inside, much like I remember the old Greyhawk book)
• A two-page history of the Scarred Lands (pretty much a reprint of the stuff found in every S&SS product)
• A three page history of Ghelspad written in a nice, conversational tone.
• A two-page b/w map of the Scarred Lands -- oddly, sans scale
• A fifteen page look at the nations and city-states
• A nine-page look at the topography
• A seven-page look at the organizations
• A seven page look at the cosmology

Overall, a very good value for the money. Now, first I will cover what I liked about the product, and then dive into the negatives.

GOOD
The book is high quality. For a staple-bound, 48 page book, the pages are good quality paper, the cover is sturdy and the typeface is one that is easy on my eyes. Very well done. The writing is generally high quality and, as has become a S&SS tradition, does not answer nearly as many questions as it asks. This means that the product provides a lot of plot hooks, without telling you what the outcomes have to be. I really like this. This is the canvas, not the painting. Much of what you find here integrates very well with the hints that have been thrown about in the earlier S&SS products (Creature Collection, Relics and Rituals). The books is filled with ideas. A very good product for the money. The artwork, although simple and fairly (well...) non-descript, does not detract from the value of the book, and seems to fit into the text being presented. Not too bad.

BAD
The book made a few poor choices in layout. For example, the shields are watermarked under the national description and are so faint as to appear to be simple gray shield-shaped blobs. Some things are left completely unanswered. For example, there is a valley listed in the Creature Collection under Forsaken Elves known as "Virduk's Promise" and after reading through this book and examining the map rather closely, I still do not know where it is. This is not necessarily a bad thing -- as a DM, I will put it where I need it, I suppose, but it seems rather strange. (In the end, I have discovered that this area is not even on this continent).

The nations have population breakdowns by percentage, but no figures. I know, therefor, that Ankila has a 79% human population, but have no idea how many people this is. I supposed I can fudge these numbers too, but it seems like a rather glaring omission. Some of the cities listed in the book, do not appear on the map. A minor nit, but I'd like to have a feel for where these places are as I read about them in the other books. Overall, I say that this is a good product, I did not waste my money by any means at all and I would gladly buy it again (in fact, I may -- I am thinking about having the map matted...)

HARDBACK?
The Ghelspad Hardback book is coming in 2002... so this is just a taste... sort of like the Greyhawk Gaz and the Living Greyhawk Gaz... I just hope that the jump in material is as great.

 

[rbowman]

Good product at a great price. It would have been better if it was more available, but that might be a symptom of popularity.

If was very well put together. After reading it I had a very good idea of what kind of world I was dealing with, motivations of the movers and shakers, the state the lands are in at this moment, and through that, a plethora of campaign ideas.

The one small problem I had with it is that even though it is put forth as a dynamic world, which is good, it could also work against them in future products. If I were to start a game and progress forward, using the details set before me as current, when a future book is released I have to worry about whether the actions of my players and my plot will contradict the cannonical game world.

Overall, I think it is a great product, but could do with a little less detail.

 

[Liquide]

Thanks for helping us out to test the systems. And a nice, but compact, review aswell!

 

[KDLadage]

S&SS has said that they do not plan to forward the timeline in thier products at all.... so, all of the details shouldn't ever have a trouble with fitting into your world...

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Since the release of Creature Collection™, fantasy fans have demanded more information on the Scarred Lands campaign world, the setting for the Creature Collection. Wait no longer! King Virduk's Calastia, the depths of the Hornsaw Forest and the coast of the Blood Sea are in your hands! The Scarred Lands Gazetteer presents an overview of the kingdoms, famous and infamous personalities, and the desecrated geography of the Ghelspad continent. Complete with a full-color, fold-out map, this gazetteer provides the setting material players need to kick-off a Scarred Lands campaign.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

While I could go in deep detail about this book, I think it's just fair to say the reviews given here pretty much sum up with accuracy the contents of this book. I will however give a brief overview of each chapter.

Chapter 1 Details the History of the Scarred Lands.

Chapter 2 Discusses the events on Ghelspad before the Divine War and also the events afterwards.

Chapter 3 discusses the nations and city states in Ghelspad

Chapter 4 discusses the topography/geography of Ghelspad, including many features such as the Keldars, the Gascars, the Blood Sea and others.

Chapter 5 discusses the major organizations that have influence here in Ghelspad

Chapter 6 gives us an over view of the Eight Victors, the 12 defeated titans, the calendar and also a little of the cosmology/planes of Scarn/Ghelspad.

Overall, I think the book does a fine job at giving an uninitated person, such as a player, some very GOOD information about the various facets here in Ghelspad. Certainly while the SLCS: Ghelspad helps to go into great detail, the Gaz is fine way for DMs to give their players something to go on WITHOUT completely spoiling the continent.