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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jollyninja" data-source="post: 2009374" data-attributes="member: 3208">the scarred lands campaign setting : ghelspad is a 250 page hardcover book publshed by sword and sorcery studios. it retails for $24.95 American which means i payed $40 because i'm canadian. This is the setting which virtually if not all of the material published by S&SS refers to. the interior art is all black and white line art with some shading and ranges fromvery detailed to cartoony. The book begins by detailing the history of the continent of Ghelspad. From the creation through several "mini apocalypses" to the recent "holy war" that nearly destroyed the people of Ghelspad and is the cause of the present state of recovery and turmoil. Old empires have fallen and new would be tyrants look to secure their position within the convoluted political landscape. Chapter two details the gods of Ghelspad. The pantheon is smaller then some with a mere 9 diefic figures given full detail in these pages and another 10 "demigods" given domains and portfolios. also listed and described are the titans. an interesting concept is given life here. due to the closeness of the dieties to their worshipers in Ghelspad (one rules his flock as king) there are actually benefits given for invoking a dieties name before undertaking certian actions depending on the nature of the diety in question. Chapter three: the nations of Ghelspad offers the DM in depth analysis of Ghelspad's major political players and behavioral patterns on which to base their future actions. in the first quarter of a page of each nation you are given the following information: The population, government type (monarchy, magocracy, council of elders ect...) current ruler (with levels but not stats and plenty of use of the aristocrat npc class), the capital city, languages commonly spoken within the nation, the nation's official religion, currency, main resources and most importantly the enemies and allies it holds among the other nations of Ghelspad. they then provide a history of the nation followed by the geographic details including places of note within the nation. flora and fauna are covered with people (who lives there) and culture (how they live) seperated into their own headings. crime and punishment are covered to the extent that the dm can probably figure out a fitting punishment for any crime that comes up. Religion is dealt with in more detail as well. the nation's armed forces are described and finally the cities that make up the nation are given short paragraphs.chapters four and five deal with city states and important locations respectively and get the same, though not as lengthly treatment as nations with details not applicable being ommited.Chapter six: other places in ghelspad gives the reader a run down of a few of the continents more interesting geographical locations and other odities that do not fit into the previous chapters.-the next section is titled Appendix: prestige classes and it delivers eight of them:The arial cavalier- a mounted warrior on a flying creatureBrother of the scarred hand- a healer not dedicated to god or titanForgemaster- craftsman extrordinaregold knight- paladin +Iron knight- craftsman/warrior/siegemasterkeeper of the eternal flame- cleric +knight of the morning sky- undead killersRenewer- nature priest trying to heal the land.i found the book to be exceptionally well written and eack of the areas and powergroups detailed seemed to fit the tone of the setting. the history is specific enough that you know what happened but leaves the DM enough leeway to detail it as he sees fit. the nation/city state descriptions give the dm a great  base upon which to build a fully fleshed out nation if he does not allready consider the provided information to be so. there are so many adventure hooks that after reading the book i sat down to plan a campaign and found myself unable to decide which to follow immediately and which to leave for later. from heavily mass combat oriented to politlcal intrigue, this setting gives you opportunity to scratch your adventuring itch in whatever manner you see fit. now here are the minor gripes i had with the book. no poster map is included. on both the inside front and back cover as well as pages 248 and 249 a full map is included but it is much easyer to pull out a large poster map then a hardcover book and the map is not particularly detailed as it could have been in poster form. also everything is listed in alphabetical order. i realise that that is standard but i much preffered the FRCS listing by region method. this is only really an issue due to the lack of detail on the map the two combined have made it a small difficulty to find everything mentioned within the book. lack of detailed maps in general could be considered the small chink in this books armor. A mall matter to me personally i just feel the need to tell you what i do not like as well as what i do. i give the book a 5 out of 5.</blockquote>

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