WotC have kindly sent me copies of Unapproachable East and Alien Anthology. I'll deal with Alien Anthology tomorrow and take a look at Unapproachable East now.
You probably already know what the book is - it's a hardcover setting supplement covering Aglorand, the Great Dale, Rashemen, Thay and Thesk, along with numerous independent cities and towns. Gaming Report has already provided scans of various pages, including the table of contents, so there is no need for me to repeat that information here. What I will do is skim through the book, pointing out things that I notice.
For a start, page 6 has a sidebar which talks about renamed skills and feats in the revised core rulebooks. Most of this we know already, but it's an interesting little summary:
Alchemy is now Craft (alchemy)
Pick Pocket is now Sleight of Hand
Wilderness Lore is now Survival
Sunder is now Improved Sunder
Two-Weapon Fighting no longer has an Ambidexterity prerequisite
Weapon Finesse is no longer aplied to a particular weapon, but to a whole list of weapons
There's also a full page dealing with changes to monsters, including types, subtypes, grapples, attacks, skills and feats.
The book is divided into two halves - the first half covers races, prestige classes, feats, spells, magic items and monsters, while the second half is devoted to the regions themselves. Also included are ranbdom encounter tables for various regions, a list of notable dungeons, and, naturally, full-oage colour maps of each of the main areas. The section on each of the main areas is divided into areas covering geographic features, people, politics, cities and heroes and monsters (this last section is about 2 paragraphs at the end of each chapter covering the types of PC heroes and monsters to be found in a given region, rather than a specific list of NPC individuals). Most major cities have a small (one-third-page) colour map which covers the basic layout of the city and lists perhaps 10 locations within the town.
The border areas get 6 pages between them, with each area getting 2-3 brief paragraphs. Areas include places like The Sea of Fallen Stars, Icerim Mountains, Damara and so on.
You can get a good idea of the general look of the book by glancing at the Gaming Report scans. The art on those scans is fairly representative, although it does vary in style slightly (at least to my untutored eye). The book feels fairly hefty (191 pages). If you have any specific questions, I'll try to answer them here over the next day or two.
You probably already know what the book is - it's a hardcover setting supplement covering Aglorand, the Great Dale, Rashemen, Thay and Thesk, along with numerous independent cities and towns. Gaming Report has already provided scans of various pages, including the table of contents, so there is no need for me to repeat that information here. What I will do is skim through the book, pointing out things that I notice.
For a start, page 6 has a sidebar which talks about renamed skills and feats in the revised core rulebooks. Most of this we know already, but it's an interesting little summary:
Alchemy is now Craft (alchemy)
Pick Pocket is now Sleight of Hand
Wilderness Lore is now Survival
Sunder is now Improved Sunder
Two-Weapon Fighting no longer has an Ambidexterity prerequisite
Weapon Finesse is no longer aplied to a particular weapon, but to a whole list of weapons
There's also a full page dealing with changes to monsters, including types, subtypes, grapples, attacks, skills and feats.
The book is divided into two halves - the first half covers races, prestige classes, feats, spells, magic items and monsters, while the second half is devoted to the regions themselves. Also included are ranbdom encounter tables for various regions, a list of notable dungeons, and, naturally, full-oage colour maps of each of the main areas. The section on each of the main areas is divided into areas covering geographic features, people, politics, cities and heroes and monsters (this last section is about 2 paragraphs at the end of each chapter covering the types of PC heroes and monsters to be found in a given region, rather than a specific list of NPC individuals). Most major cities have a small (one-third-page) colour map which covers the basic layout of the city and lists perhaps 10 locations within the town.
The border areas get 6 pages between them, with each area getting 2-3 brief paragraphs. Areas include places like The Sea of Fallen Stars, Icerim Mountains, Damara and so on.
You can get a good idea of the general look of the book by glancing at the Gaming Report scans. The art on those scans is fairly representative, although it does vary in style slightly (at least to my untutored eye). The book feels fairly hefty (191 pages). If you have any specific questions, I'll try to answer them here over the next day or two.
