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Culture Clash, Volume 1: Elves

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Culture Clash, Volume 1: Elves
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Culture Clash, Volume 1: Elves
Publisher: Dungeon Dwellers' Guild Games
by Gregory H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/31/2005 00:00:00

The game mechanics were fine, but the majority of this lacked imagination. The history and style material was sorely lacking, so the result was nothing more than a handful of statistical variants on standard races, much like you used to see in the old 1st edition D&D Monster Manuals. I expected cultural detail and history. What I got could be compared to "They're dwarves, but they live in a swamp. So instead of tunneling and smithing, they are good at foraging and swimming."

There were a few good ones, but most of them just lacked imagination, and all of them lacked depth. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Statistically well-defined.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not enough to work with. It was just some numbers to toss in a few subraces, but in order to make them actually functional for a campaign world, the DM is going to have to add pretty much all of the 'flavor' on their own time.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
On the flip side, in-depth campaign setting detail for the races would make them unusable for anyone that does not use a campaign that matches ours. The beauty of an "encapsulated" race without a lot of historical details is intended to be versatility. We're truly sorry that this product did not meet your needs and encourage you to contact us at 'contact@ddggames.com' to discuss options for making sure you're satisfied with your purchase in the end.
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Culture Clash, Volume 1: Elves
Publisher: Dungeon Dwellers&#039; Guild Games
by I. P. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 10/08/2005 00:00:00

The ?Culture Clash? series aims to help folks that are interested in spicing up their racial choices. It is an attempt to provide optional subcultures for the core fantasy races, in this case Elves. Each volume presents six such subcultures. This volume contains the Arcane Elves, Highborn Elves, Nomadic Elves, Spartan Elves, Subterranean Elves, and Wilderness Elves. Each culture has a very short flavor introduction, two paragraphs each usually containing two sentences. In addition, each subculture contains an entry for Environment, Appearance, Social, Political, and d20 statistics.

While this product claims to provide a ?good deal of flavor text?, it provides the minimal amount of flavor text that could possibly be expected. In the future the author should expand the amount of flavor that is provided so as to deliver on the promise.

This volume contains no discussion of balance issues or concerns that the author may have had, or simply wanted to identify. Such a discussion would be invaluable to dungeon masters considering making use of these subcultures, or considering whether to allow their use at player request. For example, one of the subcultures has a base movement speed of 40' despite being a medium creature. The statistics plainly set out that should a player of this race take barbarian levels, no bonus to the movement rate would be applied. Another of the subcultures is a small sized race and their base movement speed is 15'. If there was a section discussing balance concerns, both those stats could have been addressed and readers would have some insight into the whys; such as why the restriction if taking a barbarian level and whether other options exist for a balancing mechanism.

?Culture Clash, Volume 1: Elves? provides the minimal amount of information required to deliver six subraces of Elves. The problem with this minimalist approach is that many subraces of the core races are available for free over the internet. To make this product outstanding, and by definition more attractive to buyers, some more discussion should have been included on balance and the flavor text should have been more extensive. What better place to learn about the ties that bind the elves together than in a text that outlines the subcultural elements within the elven race.

To rousing gaming and ample rewards, I. Perez<br><br><b>LIKED</b>:

  1. Short, focused product.
  2. Economical price.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>:
  3. Insufficient discussion of game mechanics.
  4. Insufficient development of underlying cultural differences. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>


Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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Culture Clash, Volume 1: Elves
Publisher: Dungeon Dwellers&#039; Guild Games
by Josh B. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 10/06/2005 00:00:00

Do you have a favorite PC race, but are tired of every character of that race having identical characteristics? Or maybe you have on of those people in your group that always plays characters of the same race in every campaign. Either way, putting a new twist on a familiar race can prove interesting.

The Culture Clash series each provide six subtypes for one of the standard d20 Fantasy races. Each entry includes provides brief flavor text, followed by brief mention of the race's environmental, social and political information, along with their common appearance. Volume one features new variations on elves.

First up is the Arcane Elf. These are similar to your standard D&D elf, with worse eyes and a bit more focus on arcane magic. Among the skills they receive a racial bonus to is Scry, which was removed from 3.5.

Second come the Highborn Elves. These elves are apparently those who have Celestial, or perhaps even divine heritage. The favored class for these rare beings is Clerics.

The Nomadic Elf is hardier than other sorts of elf, but doesn't tend to be as well spoken as his cousins. The favored class for these rugged and stubble-chinned elves is Ranger.

Spartan Elves apparently felt that their Greek forebears simply weren't tough enough. Taking their business quite seriously, all these elves have to take at least one level in a martial class; probably to ensure that they have a shield to come on.

Thankfully, Subterranean Elves don't manage to retain a tan. Slow and halfling-sized, these rude little buggers like to hit you where the sun don't shine. They like to take Rogue levels to make sure it hurts extra.

Tribal in nature, Wilderness Elves aren't the best dinner companions; it's almost impossible to get woad stains out of the carpet. Barbarian is the favored class for this type of elf.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Interesting variations like the focused Arcane elves, or the militant Spartans, along with Subterranean elves that aren't the Drow.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Only brief information is provided about each group, and there is no supporting material such as feats, equipment etc.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Culture Clash, Volume 1: Elves
Publisher: Dungeon Dwellers&#039; Guild Games
by Sean H. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 09/29/2005 00:00:00

This product provides six sub-races of elves from the militant Spartan elves to the cerebral Arcane elves. Each one is given a short background followed by the standard racial template. The concepts are interesting starting points for adding a new sort of elves into your campaign but they are only the beginning, all of them need to be fleshed out to fit into a campaign world (which is a feature, not a flaw of the design).

Still, I would have liked a little more flesh on these bones. Maybe a few racial feats or other ideas to expand on the material presented would fulfil that? But this product is a useful starting place for ideas for new elves (or similar) races in a campaign. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Interesting ideas.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Just wanted a little more . . .<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Culture Clash, Volume 1: Elves
Publisher: Dungeon Dwellers&#039; Guild Games
by Duncan D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/23/2005 00:00:00

Good concept for a product line. If I was still doing D&D I'd be excited about it. As it is, it has some idea sparking qualities for me as a d20 Future GM even.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Great Concept<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not Much<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thanks for the kind words... Idea sparking is exactly what we try to do. I'm a little confused why the review was good and the rating was mediocre. If you could provide more detail to help us improve the product, please email: contact@ddggames.com Thanks!
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