The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The Dragon Reaches of Marakush is advertised as being a 'Fantasy Campaign Setting for Chivalry & Sorcery 3rd Edition' and sets out to offer an alternative setting to the 'official' Highlander Designs continent of Malvernia. Brittannia Game Designs is a British company formed to offer FRP material supplemental to both Chivalry and Sorcery and other High Fantasy games.

>From the first pages you can feel the depth of work that has gone into this volume, no less than four years from design notes to finished product. It opens with a conventional introduction written as though by an Elven scribe, Ralersin of Tatheryn. He greets the reader as a fellow traveller who is just arriving on a ship and disembarking at the port city of Cadabyrig, capital of the land of Urtind.

This introduction covers a brief history of the lands of the Dragon Reaches from the beginning of time to the present. The geography of the continent of Marakush follows with text supported by a line drawn map. This is supplemented by an excellent colour map of the northern parts of the island continent, those which comprise the Dragon Reaches. The map is printed on light paper stock and is bound into the center of the book. The only way to remove it without damage is to lift the center staples - a trifle inconvenient. The map may prove it to be fragile if used heavily. Some form of protection might be useful to prevent it from deteriorating too much.

The artwork throughout the book is adequate and generally drawn specifically for the supplement with just a few pieces showing signs of pixellation due to scaling.

The next few pages cover the races of the world of Marakush. In addition to Man these are the Tylwyth Teg, Tylwyth Du and Tylwyth Myndd (the three races of Elves), short, stout, pipeweed, smoking Haeflin, beloved of fans of JRR Tolkien, and standard C&S Dwarves. All of these are possible as player characters. Finally there are the Balankori, a race of ancient beings resembling earthly demons in their appearance and knowledgeable in magic. They are described as remaining neutral in times of war but actively trading with the dwarves. Students of Welsh or Celtic lore will recognise the derivation of the names of the Elven folk likewise fans of Dr. Who can identify the source of inspiration for the Balankori in a story featuring, I believe, Jon Pertwee as the Doctor.

A very complete section on the possible religions to be found in Marakush follows with a Creation myth, information on the Gods, and sphere of interest, their appearance and information on their worshippers. The variety of the gods and the material describing them, their attitudes and foibles gives the reader a guide to the depth of play possible in the world of Marakush.

Marakushian magic occupies only a short section, basically outlining two magic orders with guild ranks and obligations. The author is obviously a closet philologist as he offers a comprehensive section on the languages of Marakush. There are 16 current languages with a chart showing their interrelatedness and descent from older roots. Each is listed with the lands in which it is spoken and two different runic alphabets are supplied. The first is an angular script resembling Norse runes and the other a flowing script imitating perhaps Sanskrit or Persian characters. Rules are given for learning languages other than one's native tongue and the language family chart allows bonuses for learning languages from the same family as your native one.

All the lands of Marakush have different currencies and another comprehensive section describes these and their rate of exchange. An interesting concept for 'barbarian' lands is the use of 'hack' silver and gold, basically you just hack off a part of a torc or arm ring and offer it as 'money'. There are no price lists individualised by country however I presume that the upcoming 'country' volumes will have this material as part of the package.

A listing of special religious days together with a calendar of 18 lunar months and a religious calendar of 12 months occupies a couple of pages but the feel of a fantasy world is stretched a little with some awkward, maybe forced, names for the 'watches' of the day, the weeks and some of the months.

These last two features are typically offered to provide a fantasy feel to a game but I've found that moving away from everyday ratios can lead to overcomplication in play. Players spend more time working out how much wealth they have than they do using it. Weird days and months can slow the flow of a game unduly when taken to extremes.

Most of the second half of the book consists of a Gazetteer describing the individual lands of the Dragon Reaches. Each country has an entry with its location, form of government, ruler, religion, language, population, currency, capital and trade goods much as a standard modern gazetteer contains. There is a short description of the geography plus some social and political information. Besides the usual range of countries housing western European style peoples there are some based on Eastern cultures (Byzantine and Saracenic) as well as nomadic and steppe peoples. Some of the countries have large populations of goblinoid races as well as trolls and giants and one is even ruled by a dragon. The gazetteer has enough material for a GM to have a basic idea of the world allowing him/er the latitude to adjust the details to suit their own game should they wish to do so.

A more restricted area would have allowed more depth of detail for each country allowing perhaps a small sketch of the major features at a larger scale than provided on the insert map or perhaps details of the major town. Much more useful to the average GM than an extra couple of different countries.

There are no less than 5 appendices at the back of the book which is completed by a reasonable index. The first contains a timeline that covers about 12,500 years in five and a half columns of print. A little too brief for me, but sufficient as a guideline for general game background purposes. A second gives tables for character generation specifically for the Dragon Reaches, modified from the generic ones in the main Chivalry and Sorcery rulebook. These expand on the variant tables given in the GM's Handbook giving occupations and skills for PCs brought up in the Dragon Reaches. Two creatures native to Marakush, the Borali and the Gosut Lion, are given in another appendix which lists all their statistics, abilities and limitations together with the magical materials that can be gathered from them. The format follows that of the recently released C&S Bestiary which contains a complete listing of all the creatures in the C&S game.

The penultimate appendix gives a very brief introductory adventure for a minimum of three characters. This is disappointing in terms of content as little of the feel of the lands of Marakush is used in the adventure which is a fairly straightforward trek after an NPC with a fight at the end. The page and a half could have been better used in outlining more information about magic in Marakush or even a map of the city of Cadanbyrig where the introductory material deposits the new player for example.

Finally an appendix in the form of a table details which technology level in the 'Real World' matches that of the lands of The Dragon Reaches of Marakush. This ranges from Amberath with inhabitants akin to Caledonian Picts of the 2nd century AD to the Lords of Dragon Isle with the technology of 14th century Italy. Most of the lands have technology close to western Europe of the 12th or 13th centuries.

The first of a series of 'country' books is due from Brittannia shortly. This will cover the state of Anderia in the middle of the Dragon Reaches. These volumes are intended to provide the in-depth material for each country adding up to a complete FRP world suitable not only for C&S, but many other game systems as well.

Unlike the High Middle Ages medieval flavour of the main C&S rules with their Arthurian overtones, and the 'official' pseudo-European world of Malvernia, Marakush and the lands of the Dragon Reaches are truly a world of High Fantasy.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Dragon Reaches of Marakush
Author: Steve Turner Category: game Company/Publisher: Britannia Game Designs Ltd. Cost: $14.95 Page count: 62 Playtest Review by Nigel Clarke on 06/17/98. Genre tags: none	The Dragon Reaches of Marakush is advertised as being a 'Fantasy Campaign Setting for Chivalry & Sorcery 3rd Edition' and sets out to offer an alternative setting to the 'official' Highlander Designs continent of Malvernia. Brittannia Game Designs is a British company formed to offer FRP material supplemental to both Chivalry and Sorcery and other High Fantasy games. >From the first pages you can feel the depth of work that has gone into this volume, no less than four years from design notes to finished product. It opens with a conventional introduction written as though by an Elven scribe, Ralersin of Tatheryn. He greets the reader as a fellow traveller who is just arriving on a ship and disembarking at the port city of Cadabyrig, capital of the land of Urtind. This introduction covers a brief history of the lands of the Dragon Reaches from the beginning of time to the present. The geography of the continent of Marakush follows with text supported by a line drawn map. This is supplemented by an excellent colour map of the northern parts of the island continent, those which comprise the Dragon Reaches. The map is printed on light paper stock and is bound into the center of the book. The only way to remove it without damage is to lift the center staples - a trifle inconvenient. The map may prove it to be fragile if used heavily. Some form of protection might be useful to prevent it from deteriorating too much. The artwork throughout the book is adequate and generally drawn specifically for the supplement with just a few pieces showing signs of pixellation due to scaling. The next few pages cover the races of the world of Marakush. In addition to Man these are the Tylwyth Teg, Tylwyth Du and Tylwyth Myndd (the three races of Elves), short, stout, pipeweed, smoking Haeflin, beloved of fans of JRR Tolkien, and standard C&S Dwarves. All of these are possible as player characters. Finally there are the Balankori, a race of ancient beings resembling earthly demons in their appearance and knowledgeable in magic. They are described as remaining neutral in times of war but actively trading with the dwarves. Students of Welsh or Celtic lore will recognise the derivation of the names of the Elven folk likewise fans of Dr. Who can identify the source of inspiration for the Balankori in a story featuring, I believe, Jon Pertwee as the Doctor. A very complete section on the possible religions to be found in Marakush follows with a Creation myth, information on the Gods, and sphere of interest, their appearance and information on their worshippers. The variety of the gods and the material describing them, their attitudes and foibles gives the reader a guide to the depth of play possible in the world of Marakush. Marakushian magic occupies only a short section, basically outlining two magic orders with guild ranks and obligations. The author is obviously a closet philologist as he offers a comprehensive section on the languages of Marakush. There are 16 current languages with a chart showing their interrelatedness and descent from older roots. Each is listed with the lands in which it is spoken and two different runic alphabets are supplied. The first is an angular script resembling Norse runes and the other a flowing script imitating perhaps Sanskrit or Persian characters. Rules are given for learning languages other than one's native tongue and the language family chart allows bonuses for learning languages from the same family as your native one. All the lands of Marakush have different currencies and another comprehensive section describes these and their rate of exchange. An interesting concept for 'barbarian' lands is the use of 'hack' silver and gold, basically you just hack off a part of a torc or arm ring and offer it as 'money'. There are no price lists individualised by country however I presume that the upcoming 'country' volumes will have this material as part of the package. A listing of special religious days together with a calendar of 18 lunar months and a religious calendar of 12 months occupies a couple of pages but the feel of a fantasy world is stretched a little with some awkward, maybe forced, names for the 'watches' of the day, the weeks and some of the months. These last two features are typically offered to provide a fantasy feel to a game but I've found that moving away from everyday ratios can lead to overcomplication in play. Players spend more time working out how much wealth they have than they do using it. Weird days and months can slow the flow of a game unduly when taken to extremes. Most of the second half of the book consists of a Gazetteer describing the individual lands of the Dragon Reaches. Each country has an entry with its location, form of government, ruler, religion, language, population, currency, capital and trade goods much as a standard modern gazetteer contains. There is a short description of the geography plus some social and political information. Besides the usual range of countries housing western European style peoples there are some based on Eastern cultures (Byzantine and Saracenic) as well as nomadic and steppe peoples. Some of the countries have large populations of goblinoid races as well as trolls and giants and one is even ruled by a dragon. The gazetteer has enough material for a GM to have a basic idea of the world allowing him/er the latitude to adjust the details to suit their own game should they wish to do so. A more restricted area would have allowed more depth of detail for each country allowing perhaps a small sketch of the major features at a larger scale than provided on the insert map or perhaps details of the major town. Much more useful to the average GM than an extra couple of different countries. There are no less than 5 appendices at the back of the book which is completed by a reasonable index. The first contains a timeline that covers about 12,500 years in five and a half columns of print. A little too brief for me, but sufficient as a guideline for general game background purposes. A second gives tables for character generation specifically for the Dragon Reaches, modified from the generic ones in the main Chivalry and Sorcery rulebook. These expand on the variant tables given in the GM's Handbook giving occupations and skills for PCs brought up in the Dragon Reaches. Two creatures native to Marakush, the Borali and the Gosut Lion, are given in another appendix which lists all their statistics, abilities and limitations together with the magical materials that can be gathered from them. The format follows that of the recently released C&S Bestiary which contains a complete listing of all the creatures in the C&S game. The penultimate appendix gives a very brief introductory adventure for a minimum of three characters. This is disappointing in terms of content as little of the feel of the lands of Marakush is used in the adventure which is a fairly straightforward trek after an NPC with a fight at the end. The page and a half could have been better used in outlining more information about magic in Marakush or even a map of the city of Cadanbyrig where the introductory material deposits the new player for example. Finally an appendix in the form of a table details which technology level in the 'Real World' matches that of the lands of The Dragon Reaches of Marakush. This ranges from Amberath with inhabitants akin to Caledonian Picts of the 2nd century AD to the Lords of Dragon Isle with the technology of 14th century Italy. Most of the lands have technology close to western Europe of the 12th or 13th centuries. The first of a series of 'country' books is due from Brittannia shortly. This will cover the state of Anderia in the middle of the Dragon Reaches. These volumes are intended to provide the in-depth material for each country adding up to a complete FRP world suitable not only for C&S, but many other game systems as well. Unlike the High Middle Ages medieval flavour of the main C&S rules with their Arthurian overtones, and the 'official' pseudo-European world of Malvernia, Marakush and the lands of the Dragon Reaches are truly a world of High Fantasy. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)