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Earthdawn
Barsaive
The Explorers Guide to Barsaive, The Gamemaster Book, A poster-size map, sextant, and 36 treasure and creature cards.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 3, 2018
Re-read this after a good seven or eight years since going through it the first time.
I remember it as being a mixed bag, and yup, that opinion still holds up. The main sell for this one is a guide to Barsaive, and it's alright, but nothing special. It has a few annoying issues, like spending a lot of space and detail on very specific stuff - like t'skrangs or orc marauders - but not on others. The Throal and Thera sections are particularly lackluster, and there's barely anything on Barsaive's pre-Scourge history or races such as Windlings or Obsidimen. I assume that other sourcebooks cover those topics - I own Namegivers of Barsaive and have just recently acquired The Theran Empire - but it's still weird that for a book released pretty early in the game's cycle, the information within is at times barely anything more than what's already been found in the corebook.
Annoyingly, many of the in-world quotes from travellers and adventurers only reiterate what's already been said in the very same section, but in storytelling-like prose instead of the somewhat dry encyclopedic descriptions. In general, the style in which the book has been written doesn't really give you the impression of this guide being an in-world encyclopedia. Perhaps that's down to the translation, but it's just not very good language-wise.
The other part of the equation is the Game Master's Guide and that's almost a total waste of time. Again, information is cherry-picked, as you get insight into some random legends and facts, but not others. The bestiary is laughable, and includes a few creatures that the player's would only encounter in very specific places around Barsaive, instead of providing some broader ideas for monsters. It feels like one of those booklets that come packed with game master screens nowadays - yes, you can definitely find *something* of value there, but don't expect much.
And then there's the map, which is cool, and the Shantai's whatever that's used for measurements and is so extremely flimsy that only the ruler part of it seems like it has any actual use.
So yeah, not the strongest sourcebook. Still worth having, I guess, but you get around the same amount of hard info on the world by reading Namegivers, and it'll give you some additional, actually useful, stuff in addition.
I remember it as being a mixed bag, and yup, that opinion still holds up. The main sell for this one is a guide to Barsaive, and it's alright, but nothing special. It has a few annoying issues, like spending a lot of space and detail on very specific stuff - like t'skrangs or orc marauders - but not on others. The Throal and Thera sections are particularly lackluster, and there's barely anything on Barsaive's pre-Scourge history or races such as Windlings or Obsidimen. I assume that other sourcebooks cover those topics - I own Namegivers of Barsaive and have just recently acquired The Theran Empire - but it's still weird that for a book released pretty early in the game's cycle, the information within is at times barely anything more than what's already been found in the corebook.
Annoyingly, many of the in-world quotes from travellers and adventurers only reiterate what's already been said in the very same section, but in storytelling-like prose instead of the somewhat dry encyclopedic descriptions. In general, the style in which the book has been written doesn't really give you the impression of this guide being an in-world encyclopedia. Perhaps that's down to the translation, but it's just not very good language-wise.
The other part of the equation is the Game Master's Guide and that's almost a total waste of time. Again, information is cherry-picked, as you get insight into some random legends and facts, but not others. The bestiary is laughable, and includes a few creatures that the player's would only encounter in very specific places around Barsaive, instead of providing some broader ideas for monsters. It feels like one of those booklets that come packed with game master screens nowadays - yes, you can definitely find *something* of value there, but don't expect much.
And then there's the map, which is cool, and the Shantai's whatever that's used for measurements and is so extremely flimsy that only the ruler part of it seems like it has any actual use.
So yeah, not the strongest sourcebook. Still worth having, I guess, but you get around the same amount of hard info on the world by reading Namegivers, and it'll give you some additional, actually useful, stuff in addition.
Displaying 1 of 1 review