Scarred Lands - What one book best describes the setting?

[Henry]

I am becoming increasingly curious about the Scarred Lands campaign setting. I have seen many people recommend it, but I have a quandry.

Is there any one book that best describes the feel of the setting? Is there one book that talks about backstory, gives an overview of the world, and generally acts as a primer for new entries into the world? The only one I see is for a land called "Ghelspad" is this what I should be looking for? I would love to learn more about gods, topology, land monuments, special people and places.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Ghelspad is a quick overview of the world and should get you into the scarred lands, it gives you an history of the scarred lands, nations of Ghelspad, Topography of, organizations, and cosmos & cosmology.

Then there is the DM screen, which deals with the races.


Together they should give you enough information to find out if you want to run a game there.

 

[GypsyComet]

That is one weakness (from a purchaser's POV) to the Scarred Lands line. There really isn't *one* place to get a feel for the setting at its best. The two mentioned (the Gazeteer and the GMs Screen) are a fair start, but the two Creature Collections and Relics & Rituals go a long way to reinforcing the "ground level" feel of the setting, as every creature and every spell come with color text that adds up to "one screwed up world to live in".

Oddly, I found the Gods book ("The Divine and the Defeated") to be less useful in generating atmosphere...

The city books, and Hollowfaust in particular, do help some for their particular corners of the continent. The Ratlings book wasn't as useful for big picture stuff, and was also a bit thin in general content, though the actual game content is good stuff <insert evil laugh>.

 

[mythusmage]

Dante's Inferno.

 

[Sulimo]

That is one weakness (from a purchaser's POV) to the Scarred Lands line. There really isn't *one* place to get a feel for the setting at its best.

Yes. Although the big Ghelspad book due out next month will solve this problem. It should compete well with the main Kingdoms of Kalamar book - at least I hope so. the one thing that might be at issue is the cartography.

Another book that helps one get a feel (and is low cost) is the collection of short stories, Champions of Scarred Lands.

 

[johnnype]

I'd wait for the Ghelspad book

You can go to the Sword & Sorcery studio website here:
www.swordsorcery.com

There you can find more info on the upcoming campaign setting book.

As far as what's currently published, I've enjoyed Hollowfaust, The Wise and the Wicked and Warrens of the Ratmen. The DM screen as well as the Gazetteer are both useful but I suspect they will be less so once the setting book comes out next month.

The Wise and the Wicked contains writeups for many of the important NPC's of the the Scarred Lands. As such you can see some of the goings on behind the scenes. I don't feel it's as over the top as, say, the FR setting and it's easily ignored if you don't like it. That might be a good place to start.

Hollowfaust is good because of how different it is from your typical fantasy city. Although it doesn't represent the entire continent it does show how varied the setting can be. After all, it's not everyday that you find a city ruled by somewhat benevolent necromancers!

Warrens of the Ratmen again shows you how different the setting can be.

I almost forgot to mention Burok Torn which is also a city book of sorts. It provides great info on some of the Dwarves and Drow who live in Ghelspad.

The Creature collections are a bunch of monsters which is fine but not what you are looking for. Relics and Rituals has some great magic, magic items and some Prestige Classes but again, probably not what you are looking for.

The Divine and the Defeated gives you background on the Dieties of the setting. Good book but not what you are looking for.