Secrets & Societies from Sword & Sorcery

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

I am not a Scarred Lands setting fan but I must say that Secrets & Societies from Sword & Sorcery is an excellent sourcebook for organizations (assassins to military to courtesans) and cults. Almost all of these can be easily ported to a non-Scarred Lands setting simply by changing the name of the deity worshipped or whatever. The Black Dragoons could then become Bane or Hextor worshippers rather than Chardun worshippers in an FR or GH game, for example.

There are lots of NPCs, some PrCs, feats and magic items, too. I bought a copy with little hesitation and gladly recommend it, not only to Scarred Lands fans but to any DM looking for new heroic and villainous organizations for their world.

Here are the groups covered in the book:

THE ACCURSED
BLACK DRAGOONS
COURTESANS OF IDRA
CULT AND ORDER OF ANCIENTS
HORSEMEN OF VANGAL
HOUSE ASURAS
INCARNATES
LEGION OF ASH
LEGION OF CRIMSON
ORDER OF THE MORNING SKY
PALADINS OF COREAN
THE SCALED
VIGILS OF VESH

An interesting note is that the 96 page book retails for $13.95, has better cover and paper stock than WoTC's classbooks, and all for the same page count. It even has some great art! This seems to imply to me that WoTC is price gouging us on their classbooks, which sell for $6 more. Otherwise, why wouldn't S&S be selling Secrets & Societies for $20 too and on crappier paper to boot?

 

[Crothian]

How much detail goes into each orginization? Does it list numbers, places of influences, headquarters etc?

 

[Nightfall]

Glad you asked Croth! *figures he better jump in* Fortunately I have the book in front of me. The opening sections does give a listing of the number of members, their alignment in general, Regions of Influence, and Primary activities. Then it gives a very thorough description followed by how it is organized, the group's history, their locations and some of their members as well as their leaders.

My personal favorites have to be the Horsemen of Vangal Pr-class, (as well as their history very interesting there too!), which isn't very powerful BUT has a lot to offer those that enjoy fighting on horseback, ESPECIALLY with two axes. The Silver Knight is the second of the Swords/Orders of Corean's Knights. It's more focused on dealing with outsiders and elementals BUT also has some summoning ability too. Organization wise, the Black Dragoons (who I feel are even SCARIER than anything Bane could think up! ) and the Cult of the Ancients are pretty sweet. (Spoiler: There's actually THREE separate oraganizations for the cult, one is the Order which house a LOT of information from before the Divine War, the Cult of the Ancients, which is a gentlemenly club of assasions AND the Belsamites, who follow Talina Som, the Whisper of Belsameth. Incidently the Cult and the Belsamites HATE each other, and are pretty much on the verge of open war.)

 

[Bhadrak]

An interesting note is that the 96 page book retails for $13.95, has better cover and paper stock than WoTC's classbooks, and all for the same page count. It even has some great art! This seems to imply to me that WoTC is price gouging us on their classbooks, which sell for $6 more. Otherwise, why wouldn't S&S be selling Secrets & Societies for $20 too and on crappier paper to boot?

You need to think it through a bit more. If S&S thought they could get away with $19.95, they would be more than happy to charge that much. But the fact of the matter is, WotC products sell much better than any of the d20 company's products. Also, the classbooks have greater appeal. Both DMs and Players want them and will pick them up.

But Secrets and Societies? Only DMs will pick it up, and of them, mostly it will just be DMs interested in the Scarred Lands. So to encourage people to buy the product, they have to price it lower.

It's not price gouging, it's capitalism.

 

[Nightfall]

Obviously you'll miss out on the great power of the Silver Knight. Heck between that AND Mithril Knight I dunno WHICH I like better.

If you want something of more interest to players, try Warren of the Ratmen. Might help them out if they want to try their hand at a DIFFERENT kind of PC. It's the same price AND just as nice.

 

[Crothian]

Thanks for the info Nightfall. How much is Scared lands specific? Okay, dumb question as it all is, but how easily are the groups moved out of the scar lands? Could you see these in Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, or even Dragonlance? What about the more out their setting like Dark Sun, Planscape, or Rokugan?

 

[Nightfall]

No problem Croth! Well it's not as SL specific as say...the Divine and the Defeated stuff. There are elements of SL but believe me it's about 95% portable, like most SL supplements. (With the SLCS being the slight exception you understand! ) I don't see why there couldn't be an Accursed, a goodly aligned lycanthropes living in Faerun or, a black band of orderly raiders in the form of the Black Dragoon in Greyhawk.

I guess for me it's pretty fun to just use them in SL.

Btw, they've also revised the Incarnate, and that's incluced for this book. They've managed to fix it so that there's no concern about losing druidic powers AFTER you finish out the class at 10th level.

 

[Crothian]

It sounds good, I just don't use the scarred lands. It's one of those things I'd like to do, but at the same time I've put so much effort into my own world (4 campaigns so far worth) that it just seems like a waste not to use it.

 

[Nightfall]

It's your call Croth. I'd just suggest PERUSING it first to see if it's for you. Then you can figure out if you want it or not. I only say I like for two reasons 1) It enriches my favorite setting. 2) There's some REALLY cool stuff to mine IF you feel you want to use for other worlds.

I hope that I've been helpful at least Croth. Any more questions about this and any other Scarred Lands/S&SS products, I'll do my best to answer.