Author: various
Category: game
Company/Publisher: XID Creative - http://www.idcreative.com
Line: Providence
Cost: $24.95
Page count: 114
ISBN: 0-9682942-4-3
SKU: XID 004
Playtest Review by john karakash on 11/04/99.
Genre tags: Fantasy

As with most products in the Providence line, The Ecology strives to maximize the flavor of the world as well as provide useful information. Depending on one's point of view, this can either be a horrible waste of space or a wonderful opportunity to enrich a campaign. This book mixes both about equally (though it leans toward the latter).

Ursals and Silvertails and Vrolaghs, oh my!

The first 88(!) pages are composed of three 'journals' describing various animals (sans stats) along with a lot of color stuff, stories and other bits of fluff. Around fifty creatures are covered, divided into land, air and water realms. While moderately entertaining, the problem with even good gaming fiction is that it will probably only get read, at most, once.

Most of the creatures are at least moderately interesting though it may be difficult to integrate many of them into a campaign (except as color). The drawings that accompany each are skillful (especially the pretty bird art by Leah Jakusovsky) and enforce the 'journal' feeling of the book though a few don't match the written text completely.

One problem that, to be perfectly honest, most people would miss are the scientific inaccuracies in the creatues. Yes, I realize this is a work of fiction about a fantasy world, but if you are going to the trouble to put real science in your work, it's incumbent on the authors to make it accurate. The worst example is the Noblebeak writeup. If a female only can produce 1-2 eggs in her lifetime and the sex ratio is roughly equal (and text gives no indication it is otherwise), then the species will rapidly become extinct (and, indeed, probably could never have existed in the first place), even without the intervention of nobles who want hunting birds. Yes, I realize the journal could be inaccurate, but why? So that you can fool any gamemasters who want to introduce the animal in their campaign? As I said, this is a minor thing, but I found it irritating.

Tracks and traces

The next few pages gives a writeup of the occupation, the Tracker, plus rules for poisons and swarms. All three are workable, but not very exciting. The Tracker could be fun as an NPC for a wilderness-based adventure or two, but probably wouldn't attract many players.

Here's the beef!

The last sixteen pages gives the stats for the 50+ animals described in the rest of the book. This is perhaps the most disturbing statement when you realize that you could've given the same information, along with some color text and pictures, in less than half the pages.

Conclusion

After finishing The Ecology, I was left somewhat unsatisfied. It didn't quite make the cut as a big book o' creatures, and also didn't immediately jump out as any other sort of resource. With work, a lot of the story-fluff could be converted to NPCs, adventures, chance encounters and simple color as the player characters make their way through Providence. For $25, I rather expected the authors to do some of that work for me, though.

For gamemasters who want a more complete view of the world (and who are willing to do some work), this tome can be entertaining and useful. In fact, the journal format could be useful for photocopies (perhaps with some vital information missing) to hand out to players when their characters come across books or are doing research. The rest will want to pass and save their money for other purchases.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)