The Free-City of Greyhawk

Review: The City of Greyhawk.  By Douglas Niles and Carl Sargent and Rik Rose.  Published in 1989.

This boxed set details the Free-City of Greyhawk prior to the WARS, and Out of the Ashes boxed sets.  Those sets changed the Greyhawk world considerably.  When Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR, they released several new materials for Greyhawk that follow on the Out of the Ashes materials.

Like the Waterdeep, Greyhawk is a classic metropolitan adventuring center with lots of potential for urban and dungeon adventures.  (Later on this blog, I hope to compare and contrast several D&D cities).  Greyhawk has a seedier feel to than Waterdeep.  Several NPCs bearing names on 1st and 2nd edition spells like Bigby, Nystul, etc are detailed.

The boxed set also describes the surrounding area and includes several possible adventure ideas both in and out of town.  There are lots of good adventure ideas.  In terms of playing, the boxed set provides great value in this regard.  The material is also inspirational for a DM looking to design a similar city for his or her own campaign world.

Not perfect but an excellent source for great adventures and adventure ideas in an urban environment and in the City of Greyhawk.  Highly recommended, good for both collecting and using.  4 out of 5 stars.

A look at Minotaurs

Review:  Taladas: The Minotaurs.  (DLR2) By Colin McComb.  Published in 1991.

Taladas is one of my favorite settings.  It is another continent on the world of Krynn.  It has a one sentence description in the Dragonlance Adventures hardcover book.  In the future, I will review both Taladas, and Dragonlance Adventures at length.  The focus of this review is on a supplement about the minotaurs of Taladas.  Overall DLR2 provides more details about one of the significant inhabitants of Taladas- the minotaurs.  About 1/8 of Taladas is an empire (the League of Minotaurs) that resembles the later Roman Empire and many of the citizens of the League are minotaurs.  The ruling class of the League including the emperor are minotaurs.  DLR2 provides lots of good material to work with for a Taladas campaign for minotaurs including several interesting adventure ideas.  I would certainly recommend it to collectors and Dragonlance/Taladas fans.  With the cultural background that it provides, it could be used to bring minotaurs into another first or second edition D&D campaign.  A very solid product, in the good but not great category.  3 out of 5 stars.

Pirates in 2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons

Review:  Pirates of the Sea of Fallen Stars (FOR3) by Curtis Scott.  Published in 1992

 

Pirates is set in the Forgotten Realms.  It provides a solid starting point for a pirate themed campaign.  It has an overview of piracy in that region of the Forgotten Realms.  It has some commentary on how certain non-weapon proficiencies would be useful.  It describes some of the pirate isles.  It gives options for “good guy” pirate campaigns and “bad guy” pirate campaigns.  It has rules for naval combat.  The combat rules keep things strictly medieval in that there are no ship-mounted cannons.  The rules might be a bit thin in places but they are a good starting point.  There is a section on NPCs.  Overall it is a credible product.  It would provide a good start for a pirate-themed campaign.  Recommended for all.  2nd edition Forgotten Realms campaigns will get the most benefit.  3 out of 5 stars.

The Northern Reaches: A fantastic interpretation of the Vikings in D&D

Review: Northern Reaches (Gaz. 7) By Ken Rolston and Elizabeth Danforth.  Published in 1988

The Northern Reaches details three kingdoms that are loosely based on the historic Vikings.  The Kingdoms are Ostland, Vestland, and Soderfjord Jarldoms.  This is an excellent product and reading it will make you want to adventure here or if not that, play Bethesda Softwork’s Skyrim.  Gaz. 7 does a good job of making a fairly cliché idea fun.  A very intriguing idea found in Gaz. 7 is that of ancient dwarves, “Moulder Dwarves” cast out of Rockhome for pursuit of forbidden lore.  These dwarves can be sought by the player characters to construct legendary magic items.  In the present era where it seems like the rules make it far too easy to construct magic items, these dwarves are a refreshing throwback.  They are also very literary considering the mythologies where dwarves craft the hero some magical item.  Gaz. 7 is a good mix of interesting places and interesting adventure ideas.  Highly recommended for collectors, classic Dungeons and Dragons players, and players of other editions of D&D.  4 out of 5 stars.

Minrothad Guilds disappoints

Review: Minrothad Guilds (Gaz. 9) by Deborah Christian and Kim Eastland.  Published in 1988.

Minrothad Guilds is another island nation.  The brief description in Module X1- describes Minrothad as a syndicate, closely aligned with The Empire of Thyatis. Gaz. 9 has some good information about the naval trade between nations.  The back of the fold-up map that comes with the Gazetteer shows the naval trade routes.  It also has an attempt at more naval rules and naval trade rules.  Whereas some supplements are guilty of being too vague, Minrothad makes detail decisions that I don’t like.  Although it never says so directly, Minrothad is run like a large business.  Think the stereotypical 1960s corporation that had many different branches.  So there are lots of restrictions and heavy government/guild domination of many aspects of life.  I think Gaz. 9 would have been better if it had more fully embraced this corporate model.  Lots of interesting adventures could flow from that idea.  (Or in the alternative if Gaz. 9 had been comprised of several rival guilds that hate each other and are scheming against each other- that also would have been a rich source of adventure)  The description in Gaz. 9 is a bit more muddled and is not satisfying.  It is in the middle between the rival guilds that hate each other and the super-corporation model.  It comes across as illogical in places   The heavy-handed fascist-like government is obnoxious.  So in the end it has some ok ideas but the execution of those ideas could be better.  Recommended for collectors only.  2 out of 5 stars.

Gaz. 4 The Kingdom of Ierendi: Intriguing Adventures on Mysterious Islands

Review: Kingdom of Ierendi (Gaz. 4) by Anne Gray McCready (Ken Rolston is credited with development).  Published in 1987.  From a brief description of the government as actually being more of an oligarchy in X1- Isle of Dread (1981), (and that is all that is described), comes a fairly unique country.  It consists of 10 islands.  One main island that is fairly conventional and then 9 other islands of varying degrees of mysteriousness.  The main island has a bit of a Hawaiian theme which is not a conventional D&D setting.  The text of the book is full of sidebars with adventure ideas.  It also has rules for naval combat.  It also has background information about the islands and the people, culture, and economy of Ierendi.  One of the drawbacks is that the book is really written for DMs only.  Later Gazetteers divided their information into player and DM booklets.  It would have been nice if Ierendi had such separation.  It is really written from the perspective of players who come from the mainland rather than being native Ierendi.  Gaz. 4 is relatively light on rules and would be fairly easy for a DM to convert to another edition.  I would highly recommend Ierendi to not only collectors but DMs looking for interesting ideas.  4 out of 5 stars.

Ranking the Gazetteers of the Known D&D world (Mystara)

The Known D&D world (later named Mystara) is made up of a bunch of countries that were defined in 1981 in the module X1- Isle of Dread.  Each country was given a short description.  Starting in 1987, a group of publications called Gazetteers were produced based on the short description of each country.  Each Gazetteer detailed one country on the map.  The Gazetteers are between 64 and 96 pages long (each).  They provide an overview of the history, culture, geography, and special rules for each country.  They are not fully compatible with each other in that there are contradictions and continuity errors that are unresolved.  (Nothing major).  Often but not always the continuity errors relate to descriptions of Gazetteers yet-to-be-published at the time of writing.  The Gazetteers were outsourced to freelance writers although the person responsible for hiring freelance writers (Bruce Heard) wrote two of the Gazetteers (Thar and Glantri).

Ranking the Gazetteers from best to worst:

Great: Interesting Setting, Good adventure ideas, Good Execution (of ideas), Fun, Makes you want to go there

Good: 4 out of 5 of the above traits

Ok: 3 out of 5

Poor: 2 out 5

Awful: 1 out of 5

Or- Has a negative trait (or two) that cancels a positive trait

Negative traits:  Too much fluff-empty banal text that adds nothing; Weak on rules; Logical error(s)-it is fantasy but some of the rationale for why/how is suspect; Tries to accommodate all races and classes when this doesn't make sense based on the setting-Minrothad Guilds is the most flagrant violator; "My gazetteer is indestructible syndrome"-the better ones clearly aren't indestructible; too much blank canvas- too much detail in a particular area is left for the DM which somewhat defeats the purpose of buying a gazetteer in the first place.

 

GREAT

Principalities of Glantri (Gaz. 3)

Orcs of Thar (Gaz. 10)

Golden Khan of Ethengar (Gaz. 12)

Elves of Alfheim (Gaz. 5)

 

GOOD

Kingdom of Ierendi (Gaz. 4)

Dwarves of Rockhome (Gaz. 6)

Grand Duchy of Karameikos (Gaz. 1)

Northern Reaches (Gaz. 7)

Hollow World Boxed Set (an Edgar Rice Burroughs type of land underneath Mystara)

Voyage of the Princess Ark boxed set (based on the Dragon Magazine column of the same name- details an India-like setting, a sub-Saharan Africa type setting, and rules for similar ships)

 

OK

Shadow Elves (Gaz. 13)

Dawn of the Empires (Boxed Set about Thyatis and Alphatia)

Emirates of Ylaruam (Gaz. 2)

Top Ballista (Silly rules for gnomish flying city complete with magical WW1-style aircraft

Tall Tales of the Wee Folk (The Faerie Kingdom near Alfheim with rules for playing pixies and sprites, etc)

The Sea People (Rules for playing undersea characters)

Night Howlers (A valley full of werewolves)

Five Shires (Gaz. 8)

 

POOR

Minrothad Guilds (Gaz. 9)

 

AWFUL

Atruaghin Clans (Gaz. 14)

Republic of Darokin (Gaz. 11)

Note: I intend to Review each of the Gazetteers on this blog.  

The Bloodstone Lands

The Bloodstone Lands (FR9) was written by RA Salvatore (of Drizzt, et al fame) in 1989.  It details Vaasa and Damara, two cold lands in north central Faerun.  It is as far north as the Savage Frontier but east rather than west of the Great Glacier.  It builds off of the "H" series of modules that culminate in H4- The Throne of Bloodstone. 

Bloodstone Lands are Vaasa and Damara.  Vaasa is SE of Great Glacier (GG borders Anauroch Desert to east).  Damara is SE of Vaasa.  Vaasa is humanoid wilderness.  (Mostly goblins).  The Bloodstone Lands are noteworthy for their supply of their namesake mineral.

Damara is fractured human kingdom with different factions trying to unite Damara.  There are two relatively equal strength factions that each control about half of Damara.  Although as written FR9 has a preference for one faction as “good guy” and another faction as “bad guy” it is written in such way that it would be easy to reverse the two.

Bloodstone Lands is a great product if you are looking for a campaign centered around a fractured kingdom/country and attempts to reunite that country.  RA Salvatore has gone into a fair amount of detail regarding the neighbors as well so the Bloodstone lands need not be run in a vacuum.  This is in some ways how FR9 really shines.  It would be easy to run adventures there because the surrounding area is well-defined beyond just Damara.  Defining a fractured kingdom is easy, dealing with its neighbors is much harder and RA Salvatore has made that work a lot easier.

Recommendation: 4 out 5 stars.  A great product for using not just collecting the whole FR series.

The Golden Horde in Dungeons and Dragons

IDEA: Mongol Hordes- characters are on the Mongol side.

 

If you want to run a D&D campaign where the characters interact with people who are like Ghenghis or Kublai Khan, there are several options:

Mystara/Known D&D world: Gaz. 12- Golden Khan of Ethengar has a Mongol-like culture. (1989).  Also Gaz. 10 The Orcs of Thar has the Yellow Orcs who are also patterned off the Mongols.

 

In Dragonlance: Almost 1/4 of Taladas is an icy plain with a Mongol-like culture. (1989).  Noteworthy for having culturally similar elves and goblins nearby.

In the Forgotten Realms: A huge portion of the land between the European-like cultures and the Chinese/Japanese-like cultures is the land of a Mongol-like culture.  There is room within this space to have both Eastern and Western characters as well as Mongol characters.  This land is detailed in “The Horde” boxed set. (1990).  FR 12 "The Horde Campaign" (1991) offers Battlesystem statistics for playing the invasion of the Horde as chronicled in the Empires Trilogy.

Greyhawk:  The Tribes of the Paynims, are vaguely Mongol-like.  The Greyhawk boxed set does not give a lot of detail about any particular country.  The Tiger Nomads, and the Wolf Nomads are also vaguely Mongol-like.  (1983)

The Golden Khan was written by Jim Bambra.  The other two were both written by "Zeb" Cook, author of the 2nd Edition rules.   Greyhawk was written by Gary Gygax.

I will write more extended individual reviews of these Mongol-like settings later.

SPELLJAMMER SETTING

Spelljammer is an intriguing setting that explains how it is possible for characters on one D&D world like Krynn to travel to another D&D world like Greyhawk.  It is possible for the characters to travel through outer space- spelljamming!  The original Spelljammer boxed set was written by Jeff Grubb and published in 1989.

The rules for how D&D space travel works are relatively simple.  Ships for making the journey can be specially equipped ocean-going vessels or more exotic space-ship looking ones.  Each of the worlds- Krynn, Greyhawk, and the Forgotten Realms are given a couple of cities that can serve as spaceports.

Various supplements expand on other places that can be visited while traveling in space, including Rock of Bral, (by Richard Baker) a large asteroid that has a city on it.  Bral is like a classic cosmopolitan D&D city with some unique features befitting a city that is a spaceport on an asteroid.  Another place is the legendary ship “Spelljammer” this unique ship travels through space and can also be part of a Spelljammer campaign.

The two Spelljammer monstrous compendium products (MC7 and MC9) provide lots of interesting alien-type monsters to throw at players who are traveling through space.  Players of the Baldur’s Gate computer game series will be familiar with Minsc and Boo.  Minsc is a ranger from Rashemen and his companion Boo is a miniature giant space hamster from Spelljammer Monstrous Compendium MC7.  The space hamster entry was written by long-time Dragon Magazine editor Roger E. Moore.  MC7 is worth getting just to read the space hamster entry.  It is very funny!

Recommendation:  If you like the classic D&D rules and don’t mind mixing sci-fi and fantasy and D&D together, you will really like the Spelljammer setting.  I would give the Spelljammer setting 4 out of 5 stars.

Dark Sun: Tyr

(City-State of Tyr, by Walter M. Baas, 1993) One of the recurring ideas in D&D is the urban adventure.  Having the characters adventure in a teeming metropolis that is both cosmopolitan as well as dangerous.  Tyr is one of many products that fits well into that mold.

Tyr does a good job of describing a cosmopolitan city in Dark Sun terms.  There is lots to see and do in Tyr.  The supplement also updates Tyr from the original Dark Sun boxed set as Tyr was directly affected by a series of adventures based on a series of 5 novels by Troy Denning.  Hopefully without giving away too much, Tyr has undergone a regime change and that is described.

I think that Dark Sun is a lot like Spelljammer (a campaign setting with rules for D&D in outer space).  Either people really like it or really dislike it.  Dark Sun is D&D in a harsh desert environment with strange monsters that more closely resembles ancient Sumeria and Babylon than it does medieval Europe.  One area where the supplement excels is detailing the economy of Tyr.  It seems like sometimes urban areas in D&D are just there without any good reason given for their existence.  Tyr goes into detail about the local iron mines and slavery.  Like any good classic urban center, Tyr has a marketplace where “anything” can be bought or sold for the right price.  Also like any good urban D&D area, there are underground secret areas for the characters to discover.

Lots of important detail, lots of adventure ideas.  I would give Tyr 5 out 5 stars.  It is an excellent product.

LARGE SCALE BATTLE SIMULATION IN D&D

Dungeons and Dragons and wargaming have a long history together.  D&D grew out of wargaming.  Fantasy armies are very much a part of D&D and fantasy literature.  There have been multiple products to address the issue of how does a DM simulate a battle between opposing armies without using the individual combat rules which would not work right and would take far too long to resolve.

Basic D&D:  A moderately complex calculation is used to determine a number from roughly 60 to 140.  60 (or lower) tends to be really weak poor quality troops, 140 tends to be elite troops.  (Elves and dwarves are rated highly under these rules).  The two armies face off, modifiers are added or subtracted to each force's number.  (For example defending homeland gives a +10) Then each side rolls a d100 and a chart is consulted.  There are about 15 different outcomes possible in terms of battlefield results.  It has rules that tie-in to player character actions before the battle to give a role-playing option prior to the fight.  It looks simple and probably would work very well with a few adjustments to bonuses and penalties.  The rules work well if you need to quickly simulate a battle and prefer to have random results rather than a DM judgment call about who is the winner.  It also works well with the gazetteers as many but not all of the gazetteers have already determined the 60 to 140 quality number for the armies in that particular realm.

1st and 2nd Edition:  Both have versions of the Battlesystem rules.  I would describe Battlesystem as Risk meets D&D.  There is a lot more dice rolling involved than with the Basic D&D War Machine rules.  Tactical movement on the battlefield is important.  Battlesystem was also written with miniatures in mind. To properly run a Battlesystem fight, lots of miniatures are needed.
 
The 1e rules center around the Forgotten Realms "H series" of modules.  4 modules around a classic good vs evil fantasy battle.

With 2nd edition, the Dark Sun setting was written with the idea of having a significant Battlesystem tie-ins.  Many of the accessories and modules were written with Battlesystem in mind.  Other products (for example the Castles boxed set featuring campaigns against fortresses in Taladas, the Forgotten Realms, and Greyhawk) also featured the Battlesystem rules but the Dark Sun setting was written with having a significant tie-in in mind.  I am not sure that the tie-in was very successful since after a few years they moved away from the Battlesystem focus in Dark Sun products.

 
Birthright:  The Birthright setting also has rules for playing battles that are self-contained within the Birthright setting.  The self-contained rules feature a battle map and 3x5 index cards with unit information on them.  The cards and map are used to simulate battles.  These rules are less complex than Battlesystem but more complex than War Machine.

CONCLUSION: Each of these products has its strengths and weaknesses but overall I think that individually each product accomplishes its goal of simulating a battle between two armies.

Volo’s Guide to the North

Volo’s Guide to the North (1993 by Ed Greenwood) is another one of my favorite supplements.  If I were ever to make a top 10 list of favorites, this one would be included for sure.  Volo journeys from place to place in the Savage Frontier area (of the Forgotten Realms) and offers his opinions about the quality of the taverns and inns and general commentary on the towns.  It does a good job of expanding the existing material.  It provides several adventure ideas and general inspiration for the DM’s own ideas.

Some of the descriptions just describe tasty food rather than game related material.  The guide includes places like Luskan, Neverwinter, the Ten Towns, and Yartar.  (and several others)  The back of the book includes a section of NPCs that can be used.

Volo’s Guide to the North reaches that rare level of a D&D book that is also enjoyable reading and reads more like a novel than a textbook.  It is the best of the Volo’s guide books.

I would highly recommend Volo’s Guide to the North.  5/5 stars.

The Savage Frontier

FR5- The Savage Frontier (published in 1988, written by Paul Jaquays) takes a relatively blank canvas (some material in the 1987 Boxed Set and FR1- Waterdeep and the North) and expands on this material in a way that adds depth and makes it easier to run adventures there.  Many now-famous locations such as Neverwinter and the Ten Towns are detailed in FR5.

 

Although good, the material is not perfectly original.  One example is the Kraken Society found on the Purple Rocks.  (The Purple Rocks are a remote collection of islands in the northern part of the Trackless Sea)  The Krakens look to be inspired by the HP Lovecraft story "Dagon". The Savage Frontier takes an idea from Lovecraft- elder evil on remote island and puts it into D&D.  So not original but it works well.  It is also not the first time a Lovecraft-ian touch has been added to D&D.  See X1, Isle of Dread.  Also if the DM doesn't like the idea, it is easier enough to ignore without hurting information about other locations in the Savage Frontier. 

The Savage Frontier is like Gaz 1., (described in an earlier post) in that it does not really have any super original ideas but that it takes the conventional ideas that it has and does a good job of building a platform for the DM to learn more about the area and provide lots of adventure ideas.  Reading the FR5 feels like some of the work of world building and adventure planning has been done for you and that it creates a great launching point for many adventures.  I would consider FR5 to be a must-have for any Forgotten Realms collector and/or DM.

*  *  *  * (4/5 stars)

Ruins of Myth Drannor

Another interesting product that I have been looking at lately is the boxed set "Ruins of Myth Drannor" by Ed Greenwood (published by TSR in 1993) it details a "superdungeon" the ruins of an old elven city.

 

Is this a good product or a bad product?

 

It provides the outline of a sandbox to work with but leaves vast amounts of work to the DM.  The map of Myth Drannor is 4 poster size maps but in terms of detail the DM is just provided with a list of about 90 locations and detailed information for about 4 of them.  (In terms of scale, think of each location as being 1 elven ruin from the computer game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion by Bethesda Softworks).  Lots of background information is provided in terms of power struggles over the ruins and the DM can choose which faction is winning.

 

So lots of great ideas but some DMs might be better off starting from a blank piece of paper.

Value? This set has value to Forgotten Realms collectors, and like many Forgotten Realms products it is in a series of products about a particular location.

Recommendation?  I would say it is worth owning.

4/5 stars

An example of a supplement that is too vague too be useful

Currently looking at FR3 (Empires of the Sands) by Scott Haring (1988).  Scott also wrote Gaz11 (Republic of Darokin) (1989) and part of DSL1 (Otherlands) (1990)  (I don't know which part, the caverns at Krynn's south pole, the sea-elf kingdoms, or the idyllic tropical island "little Taladas"). 

 

In the introduction Scott admits to suffering severe writers block while writing Empires and clearly is less than pleased with the final product.  (He also talks about James Ward destroying part of his office and thanks his mom for letting him borrow her computer to type up Empires). 

 

Empires describes Amn, Tethyr and Calimshan.  The famous city of Baldur's Gate is close to but north of Amn.  Amn looks to be based on historic Venice (a naval superpower in the Mediterranean for a period of time).  Tethyr is based on France in chaos during the reign of terror during the French Revolution.  Calimshan is based on ancient Persia.

 

One thing that makes many of these classic materials interesting is that they were written in an era when it was ok to create fantasy works that were closely paralleling real world history or cultures.  Now that sort of writing is discouraged.  The main reason for discouraging this sort of writing is sound and a good one (avoiding being insensitive to others).  However these classic D&D materials that are loosely based on real world history and culture can offer inspiration for world building and adventure design that is often lacking from the newer more sterile writing.  However, Empires of the Sands is not one of those classic supplements that has many great ideas based on world history and cultures.

FR3 falls into the category of source material that is too thin to be of much use.  It has almost no statistics so it is not a time-saver for the DM, and the ideas presented are not very imaginative or clever, and there are few adventure hooks to use.  It also has issues with population density, for example describing medium-sized cities as having 375,000 people.  It also makes a silly error regarding FR1 (Waterdeep and the North).  In FR1 the "Lords of Waterdeep" are described as an elite, close-knit, group.  FR3 treats them like "Lords" is a synonym for noble and thus a very non-exclusive group.  So the writing and editing in FR3 are a bit lacking.

Overall it isn't very good.  It takes a relatively blank canvas and leaves that canvas relatively blank.  It has some ok (if cliche) ideas but the execution of those ideas is very poor.  The supplement doesn't move much beyond the following description- Amn is like medieval Venice, Tethyr is like 1790s France, and Calimshan is like ancient Persia.  So FR3 is good if you are looking to collect the complete FR series but otherwise has little value to the current gamer.

2 out of 5 stars

Evil Wizards in Thay

Dreams of the Red Wizards (FR6) by Steve Perrin, (published by TSR in 1988)

 

Review: Dreams of the Red Wizards describes a nation in the eastern Forgotten Realms (Thay) that is ruled by the Red Wizards.  The Red Wizards are a typical bunch of power-hungry scheming evil wizards.

The supplement covers a lot of ground and provides lots of material for the DM to get started but still leaves lots of details to be filled in.  For example the ruling oligarchy of Red Wizards is a group of 8 wizards but only 2 are described in much detail. 

FR6 does a good job of providing low, medium, and high level adventure ideas both inside and outside of Thay.  FR6 shows awareness of other published materials, which is a good thing.

Notably missing are any details about studying magic ie a college of wizardry.  The description gives the impression that such colleges exist and names the locations of a few of them but gives no other details about them.  Even two paragraphs about one college would be a big improvement.

Overall I would give it fairly high marks.  It is certainly an above-average quality supplement.  Good but not great.  It definitely gets you thinking about what a nation run by evil wizards would look like and how it would behave.

4 out of 5 stars

COMPARING GAZ 1 and GAZ 11

The Gazetteers series (published 1987-1992) for the Known D&D World (later named Mystara) is one of my favorite product lines.  These supplements each came with a handsome map, and contained a mixture of information (history, geography, politics, culture, etc) about a particular country (in some cases countries).  I find them to generally be inspiring reading for getting D&D ideas for either adventures or world-building.  Some gazetteers are more inspiring than others.  Some of the Gazetteers are much better than others.

For example:

The contrast between Gaz 1.  (Grand Duchy of Karameikos) by Aaron Allston and Gaz. 11 (Republic of Darokin) by Scott Haring.

 

Karameikos is a well-executed cliché.  It doesn't really have any major surprises to it but everything is fairly logical and satisfying.  It is a great fantasy "kingdom".  It has tension and it has interesting plot ideas.  It is the quintessential good "kingdom" with the typical problems of such a place.  Orcs in one corner, an evil duke in another, some predictable monsters here, some surprising monsters there.  Reading about it makes you want to adventure there.  It strikes a good balance of providing material for the DM to use with room to adapt that material to fit the DM’s own campaign.

In contrast...

Darokin is very bland.  This blandness comes from being a poorly executed cliché. It is supposed to resemble the merchant-prince cities of Venice or Genoa (according to published materials preceding it).  The blandness is most apparent in the 9 leading merchant families.  If Venice or Genoa (the Italian city-states) is your model, these merchant families (or their cities) are the heart of the setting.  In the hands of a good writer, these families would be very intriguing.  At least one of the families would be scheming to make a greater fortune through some illegal enterprise (or at least repressing the local peasants with usurious loans), another family would plotting something else, another family would secretly be conspiring with the Orcs of Thar (a major neighbor to the North and the subject of Gaz. 10 "The Orcs of Thar"), another family is actually all werewolves, and two or three families are actually "good guys" who embody the virtues of capitalism, etc.  However as written the 9 families are very dull and there is almost no information about them except where they are headquartered and approximately what their trade portfolio is comprised of.  (Similarly there are no great rivalries between different cities as there was and is in Italy among the city-states).  With this sort of dullness and lack of detail permeating the product- there ends up being a real shortage of adventure ideas.  Too much is left for the DM.

Both of these gazetteers had a cliché idea as their starting point.  The much better execution of that idea in Gaz. 1 makes it stand out from Gaz 11.

Gaz 1: 4 out of 5 stars
Gaz 11: 2 out of 5 stars

D&D PDFs for sale again!

As I was preparing this blog for launch, I discovered that Wizards of the Coast has begun to re-release PDF versions of older materials.  Check-out dndclassics.com for more information!

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