I found the setting to be very engaging and descriptive. It blends nicely the familiar of our own world, the eternal struggle of good vs. evil, and traditional fantasy elements into a cohesive whole. While it bears similarity to traditional fantasy worlds, Echoes of Heaven is also related to ancient and modern Christian roots, with inclusions of God, Angels, Heaven, and Hell. Overall, the flavor of the setting is highly imaginative and should serve to fill a much needed niche for those wishing to tell an epic story of Heaven against Hell along the lines of the movie "The Prophecy" or the comic book "Constantine."
Chapter One: Introduction
This Chapter gives a very high overview of the setting, the world the characters inhabit, and the cosmology. These pages should be made available to almost all new players to the setting as it gives a quick and accurate view of the world of adventure as well as key mechanical aspects such as a calendar.
Chapter Two: Races
Echoes of Heaven pulls from traditional fantasy elements that most are familiar with and adds unique elements that really tie the races to this specific setting. Each race is tied to a deadly sin (of which there are 5 instead of 7). There are subraces that are favored by the Divine and some favored by the Infernal.
One particularly nice feature is that, barring Divine or Infernal favoring, subraces all share a common set of statistics from the Player's Handbook. This makes it possible to have cosmetic differences without having ideal subraces for each class.
The only thing I found that might be an error was the statistic block on High Men - they don't seem as 'strong' as standard humans, especially compared with the High Elves. This could be easily house ruled I believe or may be adjusted in an errata. Also, some of the tables could be better labeled and referenced in the text.
Chapter Three: History
This Chapter gives a detailed history of the world from creation to present day. Sprinkled throughout are Adventure Seeds and World Threads, that give a GM guidance on creating adventures that can be used to customize the setting to his needs or to advance the overall timeline. This unique addition to the book is very helpful to new GMs and those who want to know that their campaigns will not be invalidated by official sources. Throughout this chapter and the introduction are passages that detail how certain creatures in the d20 system were created and are viewed (dragons, hobgoblins, kobolds, etc.) This helps establish Echoes as a new campaign world while maintaining familiar links to engage existing d20 players.
Chapter Four: Gazetteer
The different nations are detailed in this Chapter. Each geographic area is richly detailed with notes on religious overtones, economy, and major cities. Color Campaign Cartographer maps accompany each region, giving a good idea of its physical boundaries and layout. I would have liked to see a little more information on each of the major cities, but that could be something done in a supplement either by region or just a city book. Also, some further Adventure Seeds could have given a GM a kick start for starting or holding a campaign in each area.
Chapter Five: Power Groups
This is probably one of the most important chapters in the book, and one usually left out by other campaign worlds too easily. This chapter details the main power groups in the setting, with a good amount of background on each. The only thing that would make this chapter better is to treat each organization as an 'affiliation' (in d20 terms) that allow the characters to be more closely tied with an organization and gain benefits and incur obligations.
Chapter Six: Religion
This Chapter goes into great detail about the religion(s) of the setting. While there is one Church, there are many factions within it. There is a good deal of background material for different churches, factions, and holy beliefs. Characters will find good information here to guide their role playing, and the standard mechanics of domains and classes is included. Overall, a very thorough chapter that really hits to the heart of the Echoes setting.
Chapter Seven: Everyday Life
In this Chapter, we're presented with general campaign setting material to aid the GM in creating a thriving world that comes alive. There is not much else to say, except that the world has been well thought out and includes common terminology that should make it a good fit with existing campaigns as well.
Chapter Eight: Miscellaneous
This Chapter is the catch-all for other details of the world, including materials, equipment, and locations. Again, as with other chapters, Adventure Seeds and World Threads are scattered to help the GM in planning a campaign. Of particular note are bonded items. This items are specially crafted items that grow in power with the character. I've always found that those items that a character uses throughout their career are the most treasured, and Echoes of Heaven provides a systematic way to bring this out for GMs. Another aspect to this chapter that makes the setting flexible are Ulcers. Ulcers are on the surface rifts that destroy the standard laws of reality. Therefore, a GM can link in other settings, other genres, etc. into an Echoes campaign with little need to 'explain' it away. This opens up a lot of possibilities to incorporate the setting with others.
Appendix One:
This is really the GM Guide for the setting and gives hints at things to come and explains portions of the other material in more detail for the GM. A large number of NPC names are given with classes and levels. However, they are not really fleshed out beyond that. I would have liked to see a few have full stat blocks. In addition, a lot of the NPCs look to be very powerful, which isn't a problem in itself, except that given the nature of the setting, it was surprising to see more than 1 or 2 level 14+ NPC's in each of the major areas. I hope that future supplements or web enhancements will detail a few of the more prominent NPCs in more detail.
Appendix Two:
This discusses how Echoes relates to other settings and the base d20 system. Sections are devoted to banned classes, modifications to spellcasting, and necromancy. One thing lacking from this section and others is the addition of any new classes. While not necessary, having a few unique classes to a setting really allows players to immerse themselves. I hope that we see some classes or prestige classes specific to the setting coming with future supplements.
Index
Yes! What can I say, I really hate when a sourcebook does not have an index. Echoes of Heaven has a great index.<br><br>
<b>LIKED</b>: I particularly like the setting overall and how it blends some of our world with traditional fantasy and epic struggles of good vs. evil to create a rich , dynamic world that should engage players and GMs for quite some time. The inclusion of Adventure Seeds and World Threads are useful for GMs running campaigns as material is released. The setting has a unique take on the basic races by adding Divine and Infernal influences and offers new looks into the formation of common creatures in d20. The writing and artwork are all high quality.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The biggest missing piece to the setting is the lack of new or custom game mechanics such as classes, prestige classes, or feats. While not necessary in a new setting, they do help to frame the setting and add a bit more depth and differentiation. However, both of these can be included in future supplements and should add greatly to the overall quality of the work.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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