This is really not a "capsule" (as in I read the whole damn thing), nor "playtest" (as in I read it and played it) review, but more of a "cursory" one (as in I got it today in the mail from Uncle Jed's and spent a couple hours browsing through it while enjoy the mid-80s weather).
A disclaimer: I don't know a flea's bite about Rolemaster, which Shadow World was designed for (I believe Terry Amthor was one of the main designers of that old edifice of charts and tables). While there are some system notes, they are not too distracting for the non-Rolemasterian. It is mainly a setting sourcebook--which is why I bought it (I used to own the 10-year old box set, but must have sold it while in a personal ebb of RPG interest).
Some good and bad; most of the "substance" of the book is Good, some of the "style" is Bad.
The Bad first: This book is obviously home published (on a Macintosh), a spiral notebook with thin cardstock covers. OK, fine--$30 for 222 pages of a small press, while not a Great Bargain, isn't Truly Bad, no worse than Tribe 8, which is worth every penny.
My main beef with the book is the artwork. There are a sprinkling of pen-and-ink drawings, decent but not remarkable. However, the majority of the "art" is computer images done by Mr. Amthor himself. From the credits: 3D Renders & Photo-illustrations: TKA
The "3D Renders" look like "Bryce Quickees", with funny-looking figures imported in, looking like poor mid-90s computer game still-shots--plus they are black-and-white reproductions of color, which is never too pretty. The "Photo-illustrations" look like pictures scanned out of National Geographic or GQ, played around with Photoshop so that they look blurry or sketched over. OK, some of them aren't too awful, but for the most part...well, I can't wait for Talislanta 4th edition to come out.
Now the most embarassing part is that on page 129, a photo-illustration entitled "Sketch of a Linaer Elf" LOOKS SUSPICIOUSLY LIKE MARK WAHLBERG FROM HIS FUNKY BUNCH DAYS. No kidding, check it out.
OK, enough of that.
The Good: There are some great ideas in this book--I've always liked Kulthea, the Shadow World--from its history spanning hundreds of millenia, to its varied races and novel take on gods, magic, dragons and more. The "power groups", which seem to be an RPG regular these days, are good as well.
An example of a Shadow Worldian idea, the beginning of history, a quote from page 164:
"A group of inter-dimensional travelers (later to become known as the Lords of Orhan) arrive through a rift between this and another space-time. Their transit has unexpected destructive side-effects, however, and in order to prevent the collapse of both dimensions, they are forced to close the rift from this side, trapping themselves here. The interphase is not sealed completely, in effect allowing energies from the other dimension to seep through. This is the Essænce.
Requiring a physical anchor for their primarily non-corporeal spirits, they make their home on the barren moon Orhan. Utilizing powers beyond even the Althans at the peak of their skill, they cloak the moon in a barrier which causes all to look upon it to believe that it is unapproachable and inviolate."
A quality I like about Shadow World is that it often gives its highly fantastical notions a "science fiction rationale," but one that is so fantastical that it doesn't take away from the fantasy (In other words, it doesn't merely write off the gods as aspects of the primitive psyche, for example).
Like most--no, ALL--RPG settings, there are traces of numerous influences--Amthor blends them well together. Shadow World captures an atmosphere that I wish there was more of--a vast fantasy setting that holds together despite its diversity, and moreso, that mixes elements of science fiction (mainly from the history) in with the fantastic--without giving me bad memories of toting laser pistols in the Barrier Peaks of Greyhawk (remember that one?)
Other than the illustrations, the book is nicely laid out--while the chapters commence in a somewhat odd fashion, the typeface is pleasing to look at, not too small (ala the Compact Oxford English Dictionary or Swords & Glory Vol 1: Tekumel Source Book), or too big (ala any given TSR product in the slummin' days of the mid-90s). There is also a PDF version avaible on-line for $10 less--supposedly with hyperlinked table of contents and color computer illustrations, but I haven't seen it first hand.
Overall I would say that Shadow World rates among the better fantasy RPG settings available today--whether you want to run a campaign in it, or pillage it for tasty morsels (and there are more in this book than on Martha Stewart's kitchen table-top).
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