Product Review

Here we have a book about the role and methods available to explorers in the Eberron world, the chapters in this book are set out in fashion that follows the steps involved in traveling.

To begin with is an introduction (no surprise) with an extremely comical prologue by a half-orc bard, trying to inspire everyone to get out there and explore, explore, explore. In his attempts to inspire we have appeals to a sense of adventure, appeals to greed (my groups preferred incentive), appeals to vanity and down right taunting.

The first chapter of the book discusses why your group would want to head into possibly hostile territory in the first place, with options being exploration, assault or numerous others. Then it goes on to discuss mode of transport in a general fashion, giving the pro’s and con’s of the most common methods. With the biggest decider most likely being cost, definitely true of lower level party’s. This chapter is very short but does manage to get across a good deal of information, if in a slightly dull way (to the point where we get a Lightning Rail time table).

The second chapter contains some of best parts of the book. We are treated to a more in depth guide to the various elemental vessels seen in use. In this portion we have some very useful information about such things as controlling a vessel without proper powers and disabling other people’s vessels, both topics that I’ve found useful in the past.

Then the section that’s always first read by buyers of new D&D books, the Prestige Classes. Here we only get three but each is flavored with the correct style for this book.

The Cataclysm Mage unlocks arcane secrets by studying the events which ended each era, such as the Couatls sacrifice at end of Age of Demon. Some of powers are amazing, without the loss in extra spells seen in some magic prestige classes. Next is the Thunder Guide, the ultimate expedition leader who has learnt secret techniques from the inhabitants of the farther reaches. More importantly though is the fact that these heroes are the role models for every child in Khorvaire, so with this comes money and invites to all the best parties whenever your party ventures back to civilization.

The last one could be a real pain for a DM if taken by a player, as a Windwright Captain, the pride of House Lyrandar, you gain an elemental vessel at second level (with a small tithe payable, unless you buy it outright). This also means a crew that the player is responsible for and could need to pay if their Leadership Feat not high enough. This class in particular could be the center of a very cool campaign perhaps based on Terry Brooks’ “Voyage of the Jerle Shannara” trilogy, but I can see all sorts of really nice adventure ideas flowing from all three of these.

The next chapter covers some “points of origin” which on the whole are fairly mundane, apart from the very cool Crimson Ship. The Crimson Ship is the ultimate method of moving the party, the extraplaner captain of this ship mysteriously appears and offers to take the party wherever it wants to go in exchange for them fighting a single combat. In addition to the transport they are paid, which just seems a little unfair (may not give my own players anything if this idea used) (EDIT: damn you Martin… you’re nearly as stingy as Gareth – Jon). This gives you the chance to throw in a creature you’ve found that is uber cool, but that just wont fit your campaign.

Next we move onto “Midpoints” which are several locations that would be used as stepping stone destinations, such as the ‘serene village’ on route to Argonesse or to Shae Mordal, Elven city of the dead, in search of answer to ancient enigmas. This section is generally interesting, but slightly lacking any real meaty content.

The penultimate chapter covers “Destinations” which gives a brief view of ten locations scattered across Khorvaire, and it’s all laid our in a really good format for adventure intro ideas. But, and it is a big but, a lot of the information in this section seems to be there to keep us busy while WOTC are writing the proper sourcebooks, however even this doesn’t detract from what is still a very good book.

The art work is once again top notch with nice full pagers at the start of each of chapter, and the layout is better than many of the sourcebooks I own for Eberron.

In closing this is a book that provides a lot of nice information on the Eberron setting, but much of this information has since been expanded on by the sourcebooks that followed. This won’t stop me recommending this book though, and if you like Eberron I’d buy it… in fact, I did.

Reviewed By Martin Dye