Before we begin I'd like to point out the following:
1) Prior to purchasing and reading this book I had no exposure to the Sovereign Stone game in its non-d20 incarnation.
2) This is my first review. Adjust your expectations accordingly.
The Sovereign Stone Campaign Sourcebook includes game world and rules information pertaining to play in the world of Loerem. The book is hardbound 224-page volume printed on matte (non-glossy) paper. The cover features a full-color painting of a mounted dark knight charging a red dragon. The interior art is black and white. The lack of color in the interior of the book is a bit of a let down as this game was conceptualized by Larry Elmore. It would have been nice to seem some of his work included in full-color. The map on pages four and five would look much better in color. In fact, the map would have been better presented as a glued-in poster the way the Living Greyhawk, Kingdoms of Kalamar, and Forgotten Realms maps were presented. Overall the look and feel of the book is very good but could've been better.
The book is split into 11 chapters. The layout of each chapter is clean featuring two-column text intermixed with applicable tables and artwork. Sometimes the artwork is obviously related to the accompanying text. At other times the artwork seems placed solely to add interest to the page. The text is mostly free of errors and is easy to follow.
Chapter 1: Introduction
This chapter gives a brief introduction to the game and the d20 system. Following that are slightly more expansive descriptions of the nations of the world of Loerem (in which the Sovereign Stone game is set). Six human-centric lands are covered as well as the habitats of the Pecwae, Elves, Clan Dwarves, Unhorsed Dwarves, and Orks. A brief overview of the continent on which the game world takes place is given. Magical Portals are covered next. The portals allow fast and safe travel to other parts of Loerem. Some portals are known and documented. Other "rogue portals" are known to exist. Rogue portals vary in the distance that they allow one to travel. The Gods of Loerem are mentioned briefly. Although this section states that each race holds a different view of the gods and different religious practices, none of the gods or religions is described in the book. The last section in this chapter covers the history of the Sovereign Stone. It covers the creation of the portals and the Dominion Lords, the original guardians of the portals. Also covered is how the Sovereign Stone was created to share the power to create Dominion Lords across all races.
The historical information as given is open-ended enough to allow the referee to customize the campaign as it suits her without losing the flavor of the Sovereign Stone setting. Unfortunately the lack of pantheon information means that the referee will have to do a lot of work in defining the cultures of various nations (more on this subject to follow). This is a stumbling block to overcome in making Loerem a fully realized game world.
Chapter 2: Races of Loerem
This chapter details the races available to the players in the Sovereign Stone setting. There are six human nationalities, Pecwae, Elf, two Dwarf nationalities, and an Ork race to choose from. The human races look to be derived from ancient and mythical Arabian, Egyptian, African, and European prototypes. Five of the six human nationalities are described as being very religious yet no pantheon information is included. The Pecwae are a short, pointy-eared, race with long, sloped features. They appear to dress in an American Indian fashion. The elves are tall and slender and strongly resemble mythic Asians. Clan Dwarves resemble Mongol horsemen. This is a welcome relief from the live-in-the-ground and wear-a-beard dwarf stereotype. Unhorsed Dwarves are those that have been banished from the horse clans they wear beards like just about every other fantasy dwarf ever seen. Orks are excellent sailors. In fact they believe that their race originated from the sea.
The races are presented well and are adequately illustrated. All races are pretty standard fantasy fair with a few variations thrown in to add flavor. There are no "half" races and no "monster" races described in this rulebook.
Chapter 3: Classes in Loerem
This chapter details the classes available in the Sovereign Stone game setting. Three classes from the D&D PHB, the barbarian, fighter, and rogue, are included in the class list. Eight classes particular to the Sovereign Stone world are also detailed. The new classes are the archer, elemental mage, mounted warrior, noble, sailor, soldier, stalker, and void mage. The archer is basically a fighter-type with excellent bow abilities. This class seems to lend itself more to outdoor adventure and large-scale combat and less to dungeon crawling. The elemental mage is the Sovereign Stone version of the wizard. Each race is advantaged in casting magic relating to one of the four elements (air, earth, fire, and water). The Sovereign Stone features a unique spell casting system that will be discussed later in this review. The mounted warrior is another fighter-type distinguished, this time, with excellent animal handling skills. Like the archer, the mounted warrior class does not lend itself to classic dungeon crawls. The noble is a class intended for political intrigue but given some combat abilities to make more traditional adventuring possible. The noble could make for many interesting role-playing possibilities. The sailor is another interesting character class possibility to choose from. Skilled in traveling by sea and improvised brawling, the sailor is yet another class that extends itself beyond the usual dungeon adventure. The soldier is a class for enlisted or previously enlisted men. The soldier specializes in coordinated battle tactics. The soldier is an interesting class but its place in a mixed party is questionable. The stalker is a ranger-like class skilled in tracking and subduing prey. The void mage specializes in the use of dark magic. The void mage may sacrifice hit points to complete casting a spell more quickly.
The character classes presented offer a nice change of pace from the usual fare presented in the PHB. A party of mounted warriors, soldiers, or archers could lead to interesting commando-like adventures. A party engaged in political maneuvering will benefit from the presence of a noble and maybe an elemental mage skilled in the use of air magic. Thankfully the book contains no prestige classes. In my opinion the prestige class has gone from being a way for a referee to create campaign-specific roles and positions as classes to a class-for-every-little-variation free for all. Given all of the class books, adventures, campaign sourcebooks, web sites, and magazines that produce prestige classes ad-nausea, it was a welcome relief to find none in this book.
Chapter 4: Skills & Feats
This chapter outlines three new skills (literacy, sign language, and spell craft) and 20 feats. This chapter outlines skill points available for each class and skills available to each race as class skills regardless of what class the player chooses.
Having class skills made available by race is an interesting idea. The close order fighting and set spear feats are open game content originally published by Chaosium. It's good to see someone take advantage of open game content other than what is in the system reference document.
Chapter 5: Money & Equipment
This chapter is very similar to the seventh chapter of the 3e Player's Handbook. Instead of the usual gold, silver, platinum, etc. coins the Sovereign Stone uses the conent, argent, domargent, and the orgent. Starting money is given in argents. Goods are described and all applicable statistics are given for each item.
Chapter 6: Magic
The magic system is the biggest departure from the standard D&D/d20 rules. Magic is based on one of the four elements (air, earth, fire, and water) or the void. Each race is considered advantaged in one of the four natural elements. Each spell has a casting threshold (CT). Each round the spell caster rolls a d20 and adds any casting modifiers. If the roll is equal to or greater than the CT the spell takes effect. If the roll is less than the CT the caster rolls again the next round and adds the roll to the previous total. This continues until the spell is cast, botched, or the mage falls unconscious. A spell is botched if a roll of one is made while attempting to cast the spell. If this occurs the caster makes a concentration check. The DC of the concentration check depends on whether or not the mage has an advantage in element related to the spell. If the mage fails the concentration check the spell is botched. Otherwise the casting continues with the roll of one being added toward the CT. Spell casting is not without it's drawbacks. Each round spent casting after the first requires a fortitude save. If the save is failed the mage takes 1d4 points of subdual damage. If the mage falls unconscious, the spell is lost. Void magic is more dangerous in that it causes 1d4 points of normal damage. A void mage may also sacrifice hit points to cast a spell. The CT also determines the save and helps the mage decide if the spell is intimately known, a quick reference spell, or a full reference spell.
This is an interesting variation on spell casting. It allows for the mage to cast multiple spells multiple times per day rather than using the "fire and forget" method described in the PHB.
Chapter 7: Spells
Chapter 7 contains a list of the roughly 200 spells available in the game. Spells are more or less the same as D&D spells from the core rules and other 3e rulebooks. Examples of spells include Animal Tongue, Blinding Light, Detoxify Poison, and Fire Bolt. Most experienced D&D players will recognize similar spells from the core rulebook. If these spells are not enough for avid gamers, Sovereign Press is advertising a forthcoming supplement containing more spells.
Chapter 8: Adventuring in Loerem
Chapter 8 opens with thirteen and a one half pages outlining the lands and current events in Loerem. The relatively brief descriptions give the prospective referee a lot of leeway in shaping the campaign world to meet his or her needs.
Approximately six pages are devoted to explaining concepts such as adventures, plot, encounters, and campaigns. This is pretty standard RPG-type stuff. I'm guessing that this would come in handy for the beginning game referee.
Chapter 9: Creatures of Loerem
This chapter contains over 20 one-page monster descriptions. These pages follow the format set forth in the second edition AD&D rulebooks. I'm guessing that Sovereign Press decided that a page-per-monster was the way to go after WOTC received flack over the condensed listings in the 3e Monster Manual. Not all of the creatures on these pages are original. The book serves up the Sovereign Stone versions of giants, hobgoblins, and ogres. It is interesting to note that none of the creatures has an alignment listed. For those people that don't like alignments, this is a boon. For those people that do like alignments this will need to be filled in.
Two creatures, the bahk and dragons, are listed out of alphabetical order. These creatures are given write-ups of more than one page. From the extra attention paid to them it's easy to see that these were meant to be important creatures in the Sovereign Stone world. The bahk are a sort of magic-addicted alien being while the dragons are, well, dragons. The problem with both these creatures is that each seems to have powers and abilities that vary by the age of the creature in question (similar to 3e dragons), however, each is only given one statistics block. There is a statistics block for an average adult bahk and a statistics block for a particular dragon named Kulgroth. I felt that it would have been better to include more rules information for each type of these special creatures. As it is, I don't feel that either are fleshed out enough to make them truly special.
Chapter 10: Champions of Good and Evil
Several key players in the world of Loerem are outlined here. The chapter begins by discussing the Dominion Lords, "champions of honor and truth on Loerem". Seven human Dominion Lords are listed by name but only one is fleshed out with a detailed description and statistics. Dominion Lords of other races are mentioned but only one, an elven Dominion Lord, is given a detailed description. This affords the DM a lot of leeway in defining the remaining dominion lords. It also begs the question: If the dominion lords were so important as to list them by name, why were no statistics supplied for six out of seven of them?
Since there cannot be great good without great evil the Vrykyl are listed next. Vrykyl are vampiric undead creatures that are the polar opposite of the Dominion Lords. The fact that they are vampiric undead is somewhat of a problem as no Vrykyl monster entry nor template is presented. There are two detailed descriptions of particular Vrykyl that can be used as a basis for creating more Vrykyl.
Next up is the race known as the Taan. Taan are the foot soldiers in the army of evil. This entry seems misplaced in this chapter. It would be better placed as a creature entry in chapter nine with the possible option of allowing PC Taan. The Taan are being given a book of their own so maybe things such as PC Taan will be covered there.
Chapter 11: Flesh and Bone
This chapter presents an introductory adventure to get the campaign rolling. I was a little let down by this adventure. I was hoping for something that would show off the abilities of the new classes presented in chapter three. This adventure is a pretty standard dungeon-type of affair.
The Rest of the Book
The four pages following chapter 11 present two copies of the Sovereign Stone character record sheet. They are designed to be photocopied by laying the book flat on the copy machine. I'm not sure why 2 copies of the sheet were included.
The Open Game License follows. While just about every other d20 product I've seen puts the OGL in a smaller font on one page, Sovereign Press presents it in the standard font size on two pages.
Following the OGL are two full-page illustrations that would've looked a lot better in color. The pictures give no indication of what they are related to. Presumably they are areas within Loerem. At this point I began to think that they were trying to pad the page count. Cutting the character sheet down to 2 pages, cutting the OGL down to 1 page, and removing the illustrations would have freed up 5 pages that could have been used to improve chapters nine and ten.
The final page in the book is an advertisement for a Sovereign Stone novel.
Overall I'd have to say that I found the book to be average. I was very excited about the prospect of a new D&D world but I felt a little disappointed after reading this. The book does have strong class, feats, and magic system components but becomes a little sketchy on game world information. Information closer to the end of the book seems much weaker than that presented in the first seven chapters. My overall rating for this book is a 3.5 out of a possible 5.
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