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World of Arkara: Gazetteer of the Known World $1.99
Average Rating:3.4 / 5
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World of Arkara: Gazetteer of the Known World
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World of Arkara: Gazetteer of the Known World
Publisher: Vigilance Press
by Pete S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/10/2010 12:28:06

If you’re looking for a living fantasy setting (i.e. one that is still being actively developed) The World of Arkara is a solid product that accommodates almost all standard fantasy tropes and still manages to inject some new ideas for inspiration. The writing could have been a bit more polished, but as an overview of the setting, it does its job well enough that I’m interested to see how these areas are further developed. Rating 3.5.

Read the full review here: http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=45736



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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World of Arkara: Gazetteer of the Known World
Publisher: Vigilance Press
by Dominique C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/06/2009 05:43:38

First of all, to be honest I must tell you that I got this PDF as a complimentary copy in exchange for a review. However, I had already thought of buying this product; it's just that I would not have done a review for it, if I had paid for it.

What we have here, is a campaign world for use with OSRIC, which means for AD&D 1e. I will add, that this setting as is, can be used just as well with AD&D 2e, Labyrinth Lord, Sword & Wizardry, BFRPG, or Castles & Crusades. For the latter, converting the few added rules (i.e.: specialty priests and new classes) will be done very easily. The PDF "World of Arkara, Gazeteer of the Know World" comes at 25 pages, and is an overview of the campaign setting. As such, to play meaningfully in it, you will have to buy the other related products. At this time only The Canterbury Isles PDF (17 pages) is available (for which I have also done a review).

Arkara is a generic fantasy setting, in the spirit of Greyhawk, and I like that. It begins with a description of its pantheons. Normally I have a strong dislike of pantheistic D&D religions, and hate when campaign settings go at length describing them. Now, pantheons are a staple of D&D, and most players seem to enjoy them. In a "generic" fantasy world there thus needs to be some pantheons I guess. Overall, I like what is proposed here (even if I am not overly enthusiast because of my dislike of pantheons per se). In any case I like these gods better than those of Greyhawk and other published or homebrew settings. The reason is simple: they are generic enough, with just the necessary information. It means for example, that one could easily change a few names, but keep the description as they are. For instance, if players have fond memories of Greyhawk it's easy to rename Atos into Pelor, Drathor into Bahamut, or Liosia into Lolth. I also much like to see the Cat Lord featured as an available deity for PCs. There is three pantheons (good, neutral, evil). As such, some DM could well establish a single religion to the worship of all the good pantheon, but with specialty priests where is needed. Lastly, to create specialty priests without creating new character classes, each gods provides its clerics with a few additional spells that are drawn from the druid, mage or illusionist lists. This is simple and elegant, doesn't break any rule. Well, I would go for it without hesitation.

Now about the world overview. There is several interesting ideas. For example, in some land the dwarves are supplying weapons and armors to goblinoids, ogres and gnolls to get rid of their human neighbors. This is an interesting chng of pace where dwarves are generally good neighbors. I don't know what the dedicated gazetteer will tell about this place, but so far, the outlined situation provides interesting starting points for a creative DM. Then, reading the overview of those lands, I guess there might be some order of wizards and some order of knights / paladins somewhat reminding of Dragonlance, which would be good with my agenda. That is, what I like most in Dragonlance is the Order of Sorcery and the Knights of Solamnia. If I could find something like this in Arkara, I would be more than satisfied. By the way, the map of Arkara, with its inner sea, vaguely reminds me of DL, which I like too.

The third part is about classes. First, there is a Crusader class, which is a warrior with Turn Undead and attack bonuses against enemy faiths (but not spells). It is rather well done, even if simple (but that fits with the spirit of 1e), and I think this is an interesting addition to OSRIC. There is also 4 variant classes: anti-paladin (where most abilities are reverse of that of a paladin), and three ranger variants. Now I have a few issues with them. Bounty Hunters get the bonus to damage against wanted creatures and people; so what if the bounty-hunter is deceived into believing someone is sought after when he isn't? I mean, if the PCs discover that Olgrod the Mighty is their next foe, some of them could forge fake "wanted bills" to give their bounty-hunter companion an undue advantage in the combat to come? Then about Poachers. The class itself is okay, but I don't like the name poacher; to me poachers are but petty zero level characters just able to take a few rabbits with traps. I would like a more appropriate name (marauder?) for this variant. Thereafter there is a description of how the core OSRIC classes fit in Arkara. I especially like what is done for magic-users; while they technically remain the same, the added flavor with them relying on constellations, astronomy and astrology is great IMO. Finally, there is guidelines to add OSRIC Unearthed classes (a PDF by the same author) into Arkara. If I were to run an SRIC campaign using this setting (or another), I would certainly allow them.

There is two sections, one about social rank and one about crime and law that are useful. Here also, just enough info to make it worthwhile, but not too much as to make it a boring read.

On the bad side now: presentation. I have read some better literacy. Often I was obliged to re-read to fully understand; it's like a matter of the style not flowing very well. I don't know exactly, and maybe it's because I am not a native English speaker. Then, about art and layout. Meh. The layout is clear and clean, but really nothing to be excited about. The art is not bad, but this is just an occasional character here and there, and not the black and white old school art I would want to see in a setting said to be for OSRIC. There is several artists on the DF forums that do great art, and even a few clipart series on RPGnow with a more old school feel. The map is well drawn, but the lettering despite using gothic letters, is ugly. The PDF cover is also ugly.

Conclusion: I have a lot of campaign settings. In printed books, I have Greyhawk for 1e and 2e, Dragonlance for 1e and 2e, and a few other things for d20. In PDF I really have a lot of settings, many of which are very well done homebrew campaign worlds. However, in each of them there is something I don't like. So far Arkara looks the one I prefer. It's not because of stunning ideas or great presentation (which it doesn't have); it's rather because of its generic simplicity, so nothing repels me. I could well see myself running or playing adventures in it.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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