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Adventure and campaign modules for the Shadow World

General Info

Most of these are campaign backgrounds, not adventures - and not for D20, either. Written for Rolemaster and, in the earlier modules, Fantasy Hero, these books concentrate on world descriptions, which means they can easily be adopted to the system of your choice. The earlier adventures include a very short introduction to Kulthea (the Shadow World), but nearly all of them are pretty independent of the world background. The books by ICE in-house authors are all set on the continents of Jaiman and Emer; others are spread around the world. Unless noted otherwise, the books have a length of 64 pages plus an 8-page color map insert.

Master Atlas

The first version of this was a boxed set, including the World Guide, the Inhabitants Guide (both with 64 pages), a 32-page booklet with Fantasy Hero stats and, of course, a large poster map. The Inhabitants Guide is a rather generic monster manual for Rolemaster and pretty worthless if you've already got Creatures & Treasures or if you use a different system. The World Guide is, while being a nice read, not of much use for starting a campaign since it descibes the world top-down - you get, for example, detailed statistics for the Lords of Orhan (the pantheon of benevolent gods) but hear nothing about the abilities and worldview of their followers. The map is nice, though.

The second version of the Master Atlas is a single-volume book that incorporates the Atlas Addendum from the Emer boxed set (descibed below). This is probably a much better buy than the boxed set, but if your interested in the adventures and not in the whole setting, you can probably do fine without either of them. A third edition of the Master Atlas was published a month ago by Terry K.Amthor, the creator of Kulthea - from his other self-published work I expect it to be pretty good, but I haven't seen it yet.

Adventures and Campaigns on Emer

Emer - Boxed Set

With two 96-page books, a beautiful map of the continent of Emer and 4 small city maps, this set provided a lot of meat for Kultheas bones, perhaps more so than the original version of the Master Atlas itself. The first book, an addendum to this Atlas, provides more detail about the powers that be on the Shadow World, especially the less friendly ones. Demons, Dark Gods and, as an heritage of bygone evils, construct entities are presented, along with servants of the Lords of Orhan and some powerful artifacts of both good and evil. My major complaint about the Master Atlas still holds here - I don't need to know that the God of Death has a Seduction skill bonus of 140. I hope. But there are a lot of immediately useful ideas, too - the collection of stone circles and lonesome obelisks in the Places of Power section provides inspiration for any fantasy world, and the guide to the visuals of magic effects on the Shadow World should be required reading for any Rolemaster gamemaster. The timeline of major events on Kulthea is not exactly an exciting read, but a very useful resource nonetheless.

Emer, the second book, gives an overview of the largest continent on Kulthea. Due to a small typeset and a very good presentation, it manages to provide enough information about each of the numerous nations and cultures to make it useful as an adventure background. To set a whole campaign on Emer would mean some construction work, however. The evil conspiracy that is introduced after the gazetteer would certainly fit the end of such a campaign better than the beginning - these adversaries are, again, almost incredibly powerful. The section on other powers and the adventure ideas are good, sometimes excellent, and should be more useful for non-godlike campaigns.

On the whole, this set is highly recommended, regardless of whether you want to play on Emer or Kulthea at large or whether you are just searching for ideas to lease. It definitely beats the boxed version of the Master Atlas, both for usefulness and creativity.

Cyclops Vale and Other Tales (32 pages)

A collection of nine short adventures set on Emer, but easily transferred to any other place with mountains. Nothing here really sticks out, neither in a good sense nor in a bad one - combined with the fact that adventures have a greater dependancy on system info than campaign backgrounds do, this is only worth your while if you play either Rolemaster or Fantasy Hero.

The Orgillion Horror (32 pages)

Another scenario collection, again ostensibly set on Emer - anywhere nearby a desert will do, really. The three adventures herein are, however, less run-of-the-mill than those in Cyclops Vale and they are better connected - if you don't mind a strong horror element with your fantasy, this one's recommended.

Eidolon - City in the Sky (160 pages, 22" x 34" color map)

Eidolon, the jewel in the sky, is both commerce center and luxury residence. It floats above Sel-kai, whose waterways and convoluted politics are strongly reminiscent of the real-world Venice. In spite of the title, this book concentrates more on Sel-kai than on Eidolon - a good choice, since adventures in the Sky City would mainly revolve around shopping or theft, depending on whether the characters are rich or merely ambitious. The colored map of Sel-kai is both a beauty and useful, although the structure color-coding that ICE uses means that you should not play by candlelight, lest all your Potter/Glassblowers become Astrologer/Seers.

The city guide in the book covers 232 of the roughly 1200 buildings on the map, focusing on major structures and picking some neighbourhoods where all houses in a block are described. Four quarters of Sel-kai are depicted in detail on the back of the city map; a very efficient way of showing how bloody narrow some of the streets are. All in all, the maps and the city guide add up to the best presentation of a fantasy city I've seen yet.

And the rest of the book is quite good, too. The history and politics of Sel-kai and Eidolon are recounted, and at long last we are told about the life of those inhabitants of Kulthea whose everyday concerns are not saving or destroying the world. Eight scenarios and some more short adventure seeds round up one of my favorite books from the Shadow World line.

Gethaena - Underearth Emer (128 pages, 21" x 16" color map)

A magical prison realm under the surface of the world, surrounded by a seemingly endless desert and illuminated by a featureless brass sky. Its creator is forgotten, but the prisoners, six immortal entities, are still alive and wage endless war against each other. Men live here, too, subject to the vagaries of their inhuman rulers. Gethaena is both a description of this strange underearth world and an epic campaign that will change it forever. I find it hard to talk about this book without going on for ever and ever, so let me just say that I don´t have any better book in my RPG collection. Period.

The background is unique and has a wondrous dream-like surreality that is a world apart from most fantasy settings, the adventures are closely interwoven with this background and define it even more, the writing is fine (which means that, for a game book, it's incredibly good), the art is beautiful ... I know of one adventure, Night Floors from Delta Green: Countdown, that approaches Gethaena's I-need-to-play-this-before-I-die factor, but it does not come that close. The only nit to pick is that a projected timeline for the events in the campaign would have been nice, but that's the only thing I can think of that is less than breathtaking.

My verdict on Gethaena (which you will, by now, probably not take as an overly objective one) is this: if you'll only buy one RPG book for the rest of your life, make it this one.

The World of Vog Mur (32 pages)

Like Tanara and the Iron Wind, this is from the Loremaster Series, the predecessor of the Shadow World from the mid-eighties. Parts from it reappear in Emer Book II - The Northeast from Eidolon Studio (more of which in another review). Vog Mur is a cluster of tropical islands north of Emer, inhabited by human fishermen ruled by a family of half-elves, intelligent baboons (some ten years before Over the Edge) and some hidden powers. Unlike Tanara and the Iron Wind, the presentation is a bit cluttered and the power structures seem to be rather convoluted for such a small region. Still, this is not bad and recommended beyond any historical value it might have.

Curse of Kabis (112 pages)

The only Shadow World book for the Rolemaster Standard System, this romp across Jaiman and Emer is a campaign of the find-all-tiddly-widdly-parts-of-the-incredible-artifact style, including the completely unexpected twist at the end. With that said, there are some rather nice parts in here, but it never appealed to me as a whole. It is reapworthy enough if you can save it from a bargain bin somewhere, but as of now, there is not exactly a shortage of dungeon-crawls on the market, and there is not much in here to distinguish it from the D20 glut, except that it's not for D20.

Adventures and Campaigns on Jaiman

Jaiman - Land of Twilight (96 pages plus 8 pages map insert)

Not a lot of setting info, but instead a high-powered campaign across the whole continent - there are very good ideas in here, and if there is a place in your heart for well-done dungeon crawls, this should be a blast. It would need fleshing out a bit to feel less like a rollercoaster ride, but this is definitely a campaign I'd like to play some day.

Quellbourne - Land of the Silver Mist

A small trading outpost near a ruined metropolis that could be set anywhere - this was done by an out-of-house author and has no ties to the general setting. The ruined city is set out in excrutiating detail, but for the life of me I can't find a map of the general layout anywhere in the book. Not many new ideas, none of them well executed.

Sky Giants of the Brass Stairs

An overview of the northeastern region of Jaiman. Many petty kingdoms, skirmish-level warfare, giants, dwarves and political intrigue. I like this quite a lot, but can't exactly say why. Maybe it's because of the refreshing lack of game statistics, maybe it's the 5-page description of mayor NPCs that provides a lot of adventure ideas and makes a games of courtly politics viable. I don't know. This one would need some work to use as a whole, since it's a rather broad overview. But even as just an example for a well-done gazetteer it's a worthwhile buy.

Norek - City-State of Jaiman (78 pages plus 8 pages map insert)

Set in an independent trading city that is very reminiscent of Venezia, this book is both useful as an urban setting and as an adventure compendium - 20 pages are devoted to the description of the city, 40 pages to a set of 9 adventures that run the gamut from low to high-leveled and could be played independently or as a campaign. Some of them are a bit dungeon-crawlish, but none of them is too foreseeablem, and the ones I played were fun. Easy to use and nevertheless full of nice ideas, this one's certainly recommended.

Demons of the Burning Night

An extremely high-powered romp through the fallen island stronghold of a demon queen. I'd love it as a player because it's chockfull of wonderfully strange ideas, but I'm not sure whether I'd be up to the task as a GM. There is a great campaign somewhere in here, but its presentation is so badly organized that you'll have to invest some time to dig it out. I'd recommend it nevertheless, if only as a source of devious things to do unto your players.

Cloudlords of Tanara (50 pages plus 8 pages map insert)

The very first Shadow World campaign, back from when it wasn't even called Shadow World yet. This is from the Loremaster Series that ICE did ... when? Sometimes in the 80s, I guess. It describes the land and the people of Tanara in nearly overwhelming detail - you can feel that this was written by someone who worshipped Tolkien and had a lot of time on his hands. Strange cultural traditions, roaming mountain fortresses and flying horses. This one would stand out as a fantasy setting if it were published today, certainly not bad for an RPG product that is almost two decades old. Even if one of the NPCs looks like Billy Idol.

Independent Campaign Settings

With the exception of The Iron Wind, all of these are the work of out-house authors and more or less completely independent of the general world background. A nice thing if you want to include them into a setting of your own, but a bit sad because the potential of Kulthea as a world was never really tapped.

Islands of the Oracle (64 pages, no map insert)

A cluster of semitropical islands in the midst of the sea, inhabited by a civilization of bipedal lizards that go by the name of Saurkar. The description of the archipelago manages to be both detailed and interesting - this certainly is a nice place for adventurers to wreck their ship and go exploring. There are enough mysterious places and fog-hidden islets to run a whole campaign with a group of Saurkar, if this is to the taste of your group (scaly heroes instead of fuzzy ones). For the latter you'd have to somehow obliberate the horrible drawings of them from your memory, though.

Kingdom of the Desert Jewel

Gethyra is Fantasy Egypt with some minor deviations. Luckily, no attempt is made to hide the inspirational source for this desert kingdom, and the space that might thus have been wasted is used to good effect on the deviations. And on some indianajonesy dungeon romps through lost desert cities, buried shrines and - hey! - pyramids. For me there's a lot of appeal in a setting that doesn't take three or four game sessions to grow on your players: with pharaos, priests and pyramids everybody should be ready to go and kick bandaged butt. And if you care to look (into the NPC descriptions, for instance) there is room for intrigue and subtlety, too.

Nomads of the Nine Nations

Also a somewhat derivative setting, the lands of the Jan are a magical shadow of the Mongolia of our real world. However, since this area and culture has not seen as many uses in fantasy roleplaying as, say, Egypt, the setting feels rather fresh and unconventional. The first half of the book is given to a description of the country and its inhabitants and serves well as an entrance into a world that is quite far removed from standard pseudo-medieval Europe. Throughout reading, one can't shake the feeling that this work is derived from a very well-played and detailed campaign that could easily have filled more than 64 pages. Sadly, 13 of those pages were wasted for a set of adventures that make no discernible use of the rich background. Nevertheless, Nomads is highly recommended.

Star Crown Empire and the Sea of Fates

My first coherent fantasy campaign had taken its tumultous course in the Star Crown Empire, and when I skimmed through it for this review, I got a shock not unlike to the one you get when you, as an adult, meet some of your schoolteachers. I remembered slaver hunts in jungles that were filled to the brim with strange temples of a bygone age, a definitely uncivil civil war, deserts where mirage-like cities appeared when the stars where right, surprisingly relevant prophecies in a long-forgotten tongue ...

Well, none of this was found on the pages of this book, but a second, closer rereading gave some clues as to why it proved to be such a good springboard for ideas. The Star Crown Empire consists of seven human nations clustered around a large inland sea on the continent of G'thal. About two thirds of the 64 pages are given to a vivid description of the history, politics and everyday life in the Empire - enough, at least for me, to build a whole campaign on. The adventure section features five story seeds that make wonderful use of the background and two blandish scenarios that don't. And there is an adventure about a floating island - very nice, but again not particularly connected to the Star Crown Empire. I've spent quite a lot of wonderful time on G'thal , so don't expect me to be objective about it; my subjective hint is to get it if you have a chance to.

The Iron Wind (50 pages plus 8 pages map insert)

Another book from the nigh-ancient Loremaster series that carries its age extremely well. The islands of the Mur Fostisyr covered herein lie in arctic waters far north from other continents. In spite of the rather forbidding climate, four different cultures eke out a living here - five if you count the demonic servants of the Iron Wind. The Tale of Elor Once Dark describes the land and its people and takes up most of the book's 50 pages (in-voice descriptions are common fare today, but my guess is that this was a rather uncommon idea in 1984). There are only a few very short adventure ideas, but this book provides you with such a rich and detailed background that this should not be a problem. And there are two breathtakingly detailed and beautiful maps, one of the whole region and one of the five-spired Syclax, capital of the Syrkakar. I'd call it a classic if this were not more of a warning sign regarding RPGs.

Journey to the Magic Isle and Tales of the Loremasters (I and II)

I don't have either of those, and since they were published when I bought more or less everything that sported an ICE logo, this can safely be regarded as a bad sign. From what I remember, Journey to the Magic Isle was a ridiculously overpowered school of magic on a secluded island and Tales of the Loremasters were collections of about ten short adventures each.