The Inside Scoop on Gaming

This is a rapid overview of the Flanaess, the part of the world of Oerth which forms the standard setting for Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition. It comprises a 32-page booklet and an attractive full colour poster map which unfolds to four times page size. Artwork in the book is sparse and unremarkable, but it's not that important in this kind of product anyway. It would have been nice to see portraits of major figures, examples of national dress or suchlike.

After a brief mention of the calendar and climate and a couple of pages of history comes the main part of the book - an alphabetic listing of states. Along with a couple of descriptive paragraphs these identify the ruler, the form of government and style of law, major settlements, main resources (mostly variations on "foodstuffs, copper, gems"), the percentages of the population made up by different races, and other states which are allies or enemies. The map is geographical, so you have to work out boundaries from the text, but the impression is that they're flexible anyway. The next chapter covers major geographical features by type - forests, mountains, etc. A few that appear on the map are missing from the list, and sometimes highly significant information lurks within these short entries. Finally there are a couple of pages on major power groups. Again, there's useful stuff here - it might have been better placed before the main Gazetteer to help understand some of the entries.

There are plenty of sources of conflict for the GM to use. The civil war between factions of a once-mighty empire has only been over for a few years. The half-demon demigod Iuz rules hordes of orcs, goblins and worse. The Scarlet Brotherhood seeks power through infiltration and assassination. You are also provided with five new deities.

Some of the placenames seem somewhat childish and shallow. It's clear that WOTC is trying to draw in young people with this edition of D&D, so one can imagine they might want names that the school-aged can get on with. It's just that it's hard to imagine feelings of dramatic significance or historical resonance being conjured by Dreadwood, the Good Hills or the city of Verbobonc. There's even a country called Geoff, though I'm assuming it's pronounced geh-off. There's no background given about pronunciation, history, etc.

The big question with this product is: who is it for? It shares shelves with the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, which covers the same lands in much greater detail - from memory it's 160 pages at £16.99. This shorter Gazetteer would suit people who just want a bit of background against which to run published scenarios (the reason I bought it), or who want a basic framework for a game world so they can fill in the details their own way. For those purposes it succeeds. If you want lots of "official" detail - e.g. if you're going to run a campaign involving detailed politics and intrigue, or if you're just insatiably curious - go straight for the larger book.

Another misgiving is value for money. A few more pages or a slightly lower price would have been nice, and the map is on lightweight paper which won't take much wear and tear.

Overall, then, a creditable rather than exceptional supplement for a rather narrow target group.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Dungeons and Dragons Gazetteer