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When I picked up Mount Nimro Kingdom of Giants at my local game store (Attactix) I found myself having mixed emotions about it. I am a fan of Bill Coffin's writing from his previous efforts with Palladium and I enjoy their fantasy world a great deal. However in the pit of my stomach I had this feeling that this was edging towards power gaming in a subject matter I was not interested in. How did it turn out? Read ahead.

The basic premise of Mount Nimro after digesting the book is actually fairly interesting. A kingdom of giants trying to carve their own kingdom in the southern half of the Palladium world. They know they are in a precarious position, as giants are not highly regarded by the neighboring human nations. Expanding intelligently while managing resources carefully seems to be the balancing act King Blackrock (your typical aberrant villain/hero) is trying to do. The kingdom has its strong leaders, weak links and other sundry challenges and boons. Part of this plot toes in well with the previous supplement the Baalgor Wastelands, especially in regard to the Gromek.

This interesting premise, unfortunately is almost unplayable. Anyone who is not a giant in the setting will likely be eaten, enslaved or simply crushed like a bug. It is not helpful that the giants really dislike the shorter, fairer races who abused, hunted and enslave giants for many years. The adventures presented in the book are about the best I could think of for drawing in players to Mount Nimro. Most are in the Hook, Line and Sinker format. The adventures are mostly serviceable, but a couple are a stretch. There is enough there to lure players in, though they might regret it. Its tough…unless they are giants.

As a source book for giants in the Palladium Fantasy setting there are a few new character classes (OCC and RCC) presented in the book. But unless you are rolling up a giant character or NPC, their usefulness is limited to how often you use giants that fit into these niches. In fact existing classes in the original and second edition rules could probably have been used without the addition of new mechanics into the Palladium Fantasy system (i.e. druid for were-shaman, original conjurer for the conjuror, priest for the blade priest, etc.). This is a personal pet peeve of mine with the Palladium systems, other gamers might like this variety.

The overview of the lands and clan leaders of Moutn Nimro was a tad long and short all at the same time. I would have liked to see more information about the various regions on the kingdom and some highlights or hooks within them. The statistics for the giant clan leaders were not needed, as there is not much of a chance for players to ever meet them. The details on the clans themselves were pretty good and did flesh out the clan structure of the kingdom.

The art inside Mount Nimro is good. I especially liked the pieces by Mike Dubish, they were all very interesting and well drawn. The other artists did a serviceable job in portraying the setting. The cover art fell short of Palladium's usually high standards. The formatting of Mount Nimro was ,as usual, up to Palladium Book'shigh standards.

From the look of things there will be a couple more monster-oriented supplements before Palladium Fantasy returns to the lands of men. This might be a taste of things to come for a while, but it has been like that for a while (Yin-Sloth Jungles, Baalgor Wastelands and Mount Nimro thus far). It would be good to have some more setting resources for normal sized characters (or shorties). Otherwise this like many Palladium Fantasy supplements are just places to go, not come from.

A Rifter dedicated to a cut down version of the subject matter might have been just as good as Mount Nimro Kingdom of Giants. However there is little wasted space in the book and at a 160 pages it is providing a lot of bang for the buck. Even if you do not use the supplement as a whole, there is enough that could be useful for any Palladium Fantasy campaign.

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Mount Nimro: Kingdom of Giants
Author: Bill Coffin Category: game Company/Publisher: Palladium Books Line: Palladium Fantasy Cost: 16.95 Page count: 160 ISBN: 157457-028-5 SKU: 464 Capsule Review by Wes Johnson on 10/27/99. Genre tags: Fantasy	When I picked up Mount Nimro Kingdom of Giants at my local game store (Attactix) I found myself having mixed emotions about it. I am a fan of Bill Coffin's writing from his previous efforts with Palladium and I enjoy their fantasy world a great deal. However in the pit of my stomach I had this feeling that this was edging towards power gaming in a subject matter I was not interested in. How did it turn out? Read ahead. The basic premise of Mount Nimro after digesting the book is actually fairly interesting. A kingdom of giants trying to carve their own kingdom in the southern half of the Palladium world. They know they are in a precarious position, as giants are not highly regarded by the neighboring human nations. Expanding intelligently while managing resources carefully seems to be the balancing act King Blackrock (your typical aberrant villain/hero) is trying to do. The kingdom has its strong leaders, weak links and other sundry challenges and boons. Part of this plot toes in well with the previous supplement the Baalgor Wastelands, especially in regard to the Gromek. This interesting premise, unfortunately is almost unplayable. Anyone who is not a giant in the setting will likely be eaten, enslaved or simply crushed like a bug. It is not helpful that the giants really dislike the shorter, fairer races who abused, hunted and enslave giants for many years. The adventures presented in the book are about the best I could think of for drawing in players to Mount Nimro. Most are in the Hook, Line and Sinker format. The adventures are mostly serviceable, but a couple are a stretch. There is enough there to lure players in, though they might regret it. Its tough…unless they are giants. As a source book for giants in the Palladium Fantasy setting there are a few new character classes (OCC and RCC) presented in the book. But unless you are rolling up a giant character or NPC, their usefulness is limited to how often you use giants that fit into these niches. In fact existing classes in the original and second edition rules could probably have been used without the addition of new mechanics into the Palladium Fantasy system (i.e. druid for were-shaman, original conjurer for the conjuror, priest for the blade priest, etc.). This is a personal pet peeve of mine with the Palladium systems, other gamers might like this variety. The overview of the lands and clan leaders of Moutn Nimro was a tad long and short all at the same time. I would have liked to see more information about the various regions on the kingdom and some highlights or hooks within them. The statistics for the giant clan leaders were not needed, as there is not much of a chance for players to ever meet them. The details on the clans themselves were pretty good and did flesh out the clan structure of the kingdom. The art inside Mount Nimro is good. I especially liked the pieces by Mike Dubish, they were all very interesting and well drawn. The other artists did a serviceable job in portraying the setting. The cover art fell short of Palladium's usually high standards. The formatting of Mount Nimro was ,as usual, up to Palladium Book'shigh standards. From the look of things there will be a couple more monster-oriented supplements before Palladium Fantasy returns to the lands of men. This might be a taste of things to come for a while, but it has been like that for a while (Yin-Sloth Jungles, Baalgor Wastelands and Mount Nimro thus far). It would be good to have some more setting resources for normal sized characters (or shorties). Otherwise this like many Palladium Fantasy supplements are just places to go, not come from. A Rifter dedicated to a cut down version of the subject matter might have been just as good as Mount Nimro Kingdom of Giants. However there is little wasted space in the book and at a 160 pages it is providing a lot of bang for the buck. Even if you do not use the supplement as a whole, there is enough that could be useful for any Palladium Fantasy campaign. Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 3 (Average)

Mount Nimro: Kingdom of Giants