It's not a bad map. It really isn't. But it's also not a good map. And it's also a frustrating and disappointing map.

This map was designed to support the Far West role-playing game that was kickstarted in 2011. As of this writing (in September of 2020), that RPG still has not been released (and Kickstarter backers haven't received an update in more than a year).

This map is difficult to read - the yellow background and the "fold lines" add character, but drastically decrease readability. It's also not even a little bit printer-friendly (and no printer-friendly option is available).

I won't say the setting is impossibly large, because the map's area looks to be about the same size as the continent of Asia is in the real world. Only without oceans creating boundaries. If I'm reading the scale correctly, "Thousand Mesas" alone is larger than the US, much less the "Wild West" that is half of the genre this game is going to theoretically attempt to replicate the feel of once it (eventually) exists.

And yes - the map says "Back East - to the Empire" along the Eastern edge of the map. Which implies that this is a small part of a much larger setting. So maybe it is impossibly huge.

There area few plot hooks scattered here-and-there "Yaebron wood may be purchase here," it says at one point near the far North edge of the map. "Said to be a Mountain Clan stronghold," says another spot just South. A lot of the names are also somewhat evocative - "Eldaire" is marked as "City of Blades," for example. But without context, a lot of the names are just so much gibberish. And many many towns don't even have names, just anecdotes. "Marvelous saloon here," for example. Or "Very recently founded" (which I find interesting, as there is a rail line to that last one).

The fact that this was designed for a specific genre-spanning game means it's not going to be useful as a "generic" map for any other game. Unless you're running a hybrid Wuxia-Western game, in which case you probably have enough imagination that you don't need to use someone else's map. Or can find another usable map online for free.

All in all? Save your money. If you like the RPG (should it ever be published), then maybe you'll find this map worthwhile. But, without a game to support, this is just a weird little map that does no-one any good.

This book is NOT what it says on the box. In fact, the disconnect between the cover text and contents led AEG to the unusual step of offering refunds for purchasers of this book when it was first published back when it was first released in print.

People were excited about a sourcebook of gear and money and actual pricing guidelines and the like, and they were hugely angry when this failed to deliver that.

Because this is the Kolat sourcebook.

It was a total bait-and-switch, and I absolutely understand people getting upset about it.

BUT if you're planning to use the Kolat heavily in your game, I'd argue that this is a near-essential book, even for 4e (although Enemies of the Empire for 4e is good enough for a more casual overview of the conspiracy and its methods).

While it's not 100% accurate (at the time of this writing, #80 is "Kindle Fire" - and I love my Fire; somehow "The Sun" was left off of the list), this is not a bad short list of things I'm unfond of.

Poorly researched and sadly incomplete.

There are only 98 numbers between 1 and 100! Had the title been "100 Whole Numbers Between 1 and 100 [Inclusive]", I would have been more forgiving with my rating - I'd have given it a full five stars, but with this really shoddy level of research, I just can't recommend this product to anyone.

There are dozens of numbers they could have chosen - Pi, for example. The Square Root of Two (or Three or Five). And I'm not even a mathemetician! They also failed to include any decimals. 2.5 is between 1 and 100. It's not in there.

Despite the deceptive title, it is more or less useful, even if it isn't exactly revolutionary or groundbreaking.

I usually enjoy Troll in the Corner's products, but this was a significant letdown for me.