INTRODUCTION
Before I get into this review, I have to offer a couple of disclaimers:
- I haven’t read the Exalted rulebook. When this supplement came up on the RPGnet reviews queue, I requested it along with the main rulebook but received only the supplement. My subsequent direct request to White Wolf for a review copy never received a reply. While I do now have a copy of the rulebook, I can't possibly read it and Scavenger Sons and still get out a review of the latter in the requested timeframe. Furthermore, I have other review copies to read and review.
- That said, I have played Exalted as a player. In fact, our current campaign so far has dealt exclusively with the regions detailed in Scavenger Sons, which is why I’m tagging this as a playtest review. In addition, I’ll be referring to the rulebook where necessary to put information in this book in proper perspective.
Now, down to business: Scavenger Sons is the Exalted sourcebook for those regions between the order of the Realm of the Dragon-Blooded and the chaos of the Wyld. That's a lot of territory for one book to cover. How well does Scavenger Sons handle it? Let's find out...
CONTENT
In topics covered, the book resembles a great spiral that sweeps around the four corners of Creation, circles over the Scavenger Lands, and finally zeroes in on the magnificently diverse city of Nexus. Each area description handily includes 1-4 career suggestions for members of each of the five Solar Exalted Castes originating there.
Chapter 1: The North
A frigid land approaching the Elemental Pole of Air, this sparsely populated area nevertheless features its share of wondrous cities.
Gethamane
A re-occupied city whose First Age builders are a mystery, Gethamane consists of great halls and tunnels bored into the depths of a snow-capped mountain. The halls eventually descend into the Underways, benighted monster- and treasure-filled tunnels that make Gethamane a base of exploration and a new take on an old-school dungeon all in one. Three dream-inspiring temples of unknown purpose also occupy the city, although the facts behind them are left to the GM.
Whitewall
If Gethamane is an ideal setting for dungeon crawling Exalted style, then Whitewall is its companion for wilderness and urban adventure. The city’s rulers -- a trio of powerful spirits known as the Syndics -- made treaties with the nearby Deathlords and Fair Folk to keep their city safe. The road to the city is an inviolate neutral zone for humans, faeries, and the undead, and the latter two can only enter the city if invited -- which does happen on occasion. As a result, there's plenty of danger waiting just outside of the city, and room for some smaller-scale monster stalking inside the city as well.
(As an aside, my character is a Dawn Caste monster-hunter from Whitewall. It was the only suggested profession for a Dawn Caste from the North not strongly tied to his place of origin.)
The Haslanti League
Imagine the Renaissance-era Italian city-states moved into the Arctic. Now give them technology worthy of Leonardo da Vinci -- ice ships (on giant skates), air boats (a.k.a. dirigibles), gliders (and glider commandoes!), etc. In other words, serious coolness.
The Shadowlands
Creepy little villages in the frozen wastes, populated by cannibalistic freaks lead by the cold-immune favored servants of the Deathlords. You might have a hard time giving the PCs a reason to go to one of these places, but the atmosphere would be worth the trip. And speaking of atmosphere...
The Frozen Fog
It's a frosty mist that coats unprotected travelers in ice within minutes. And as if that weren't bad enough, Wyld-mutated barbarians and beasts use the fog as cover for their raids. And as if that weren't bad enough, the fog sometimes inexplicably teleports hapless victims thousands of miles away. You’ve got your (super)natural disaster, you’ve got your rampaging hordes, and you’ve got your ham-fisted plot device all in one. And hey! You’ve even got an excuse to dump your PCs into the middle of the aforementioned Shadowlands!
Chapter 2: The East
The East approaches the Elemental Pole of Wood (no jokes, please), where the trees eventually grow infinitely tall with neither roots nor tops.
Sijan
A nation obsessed with death and funerary rites -- so much so that funeral services and burials are the country’s main source of income. It’s an interesting place, but there’s not much to do here adventure-wise. Well, not unless the PCs want to do a little tomb raiding, which could be wildly profitable but is definitely a very bad idea -- the tombs are well protected by both the living and the dead.
The Republic of Chaya
An idyllic town full of peaceful, friendly people... except for when the fire trees bloom every summer, driving the natives into passionate, violent excesses of every kind. Cute, but a bit of a one-trick pony.
The Linowan and The Haltan Republic
These are actually two separate sections, but I’m dealing with them as one due to their Endless War.
One of the stereotypes of fantasy gaming is that of the “tree-hugging” race -- the elfin types living in harmony with their environment. Nice and peaceful and idyllic, right? Ah, but what happens when the environments of two such races are in direct conflict? The two races go to war, of course, doing their best to advance their respective environments. In this case, it’s a conflict between the Linowan, who dwell in deciduous forests and meadows, and the people of the Haltan Republic, who thrive in the progressively more massive coniferous forests closer to the Elemental Pole. The people of Linowan continually hack down the encroaching redwood forests, while the Haltan spread redwood seedlings into the forests and meadows of Linowan.
Rathess
A lost First Age city, mostly built underground, filled with hidden treasures, once ruled by advanced lizard men, now overrun by jungle, killer plants, and monsters, including the lizard men's degenerate descendants. (Sleestak, anyone?) In other words, another ideal dungeon crawl. Of course, there are no stats provided for any of the creatures said to dwell in the ruins, so you're on your own in that regard.
The Forest People
Nifty arboreal and semi-arboreal peoples ranging from fully to barely human, living in the deepest forests of the East. Notable for their production of...
Deep-Forest Drugs
Helpful descriptions of the wonder drugs of the East, complete with stats. Which is more than I can say for...
Eastern Wildlife
Well, the woodland monsters described here certainly sound cool... Now if only I had their stats, so that I could actually use them...
Chapter 3: The South
The South is a land of progressively more blistering heat as one draws ever closer to the Elemental Pole of Fire. Normally, I find desert settings to be rather boring. These are anything but.
Gem
A city literally built into the side of an extinct volcano with an economy centered on (surprise!) the gem trade. The main point of interest for Solar Exalted PCs is the fact that as war threatens with the Realm-aligned Paragon, the ruler of Gem is seeking to add powerful foes of the Realm to the ranks of his already powerful mercenary army. Also, on the "cool toy" front, the soldiers of Gem carry one-shot breech-loading flamethrowers called "firewands" that look like 18th-century muskets, right down to the bayonets.
Paragon
An extremely orderly but rather boring city whose ruler owns a First Age artifact that renders him immortal and enables him to enforce oaths of absolute obedience from his subjects. About the only use I can see for this place is as a source of adversaries, especially if the PCs hire on with Gem (see above).
Chiaroscuro
Here the author again demonstrates his flair imagining and describing First Age wonders. The people of this city dwell in and around the mostly shattered ruins of miraculous First Age buildings built entirely of impossibly strong glass. A powerful benevolent spirit who can offer prophecies and other information in exchange for valuable items or services protects one of the city's districts -- a great source of adventure hooks.
The rulers of the city are the Arab-like Delzahn Nomads. On an interesting note, although the roles of the sexes in Delhzan culture are extremely rigid, men and women have the right to don the clothing of the other sex and a gray sash (for men) or a gray veil (for women). The Delzahn officially recognize such individuals, known as Dereth, as members of the other sex.
The Varang City-States
Insanely rigid societies in which heredity and highly advanced astrology determine a person's mandatory station in life, complete with a complex dress code to proclaim that station to other citizens. This could be a place for some fun interaction, since some Varang consider outsiders, with their lack of obvious stations, to be chance personified and/or ideal tools for cross-caste skullduggery. The city-states' close ties to the Realm make it an unpleasant choice for long stays by Solar Exalted, however.
Harborhead
A city notable for its extensive use of captured enemies as slaves whose children must be freed if they swear fealty to Harborhead, and for the Royal Guard, an elite all-female, all-virgin fighting force. The former could make for a nice PC backstory, while the latter is ideal for those of you aching to play beautiful Dawn Caste lesbian amazons. (You know who you are.)
Chapter 4: The West
The people of the West dwell on the islands -- and stranger things -- that dot an ocean that grows increasingly vast as it approaches the Elemental Pole of Water.
The Wavecrest Archipelago
The requisite island paradise -- or in this case, paradises. Adding spice to an otherwise tranquil environment are the oddly synchronized volcanoes found in the archipelago and the Wyld areas that surround them. (And the occasional sacrifices used to appease them...)
The Coral Archipelago
Every setting needs a Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy. Scavenger Sons has several, of which this is one of the best. In many ways the opposite of its Wavecrest enemy, the Coral Archipelago is a chain of generally unpleasant islands populated by generally unpleasant people. Piracy is the national pastime, so this is the place for your players yearning to do some serious swashbuckling. (Or, at least, for a source of enemies for said swashbuckling, wherever in the West it occurs.)
The Lintha Family
Something between a seagoing Mafia and a Cthulhu cult, these rather scary criminals make their headquarters in a floating island and the derelict ships that surround it, the whole thing adrift in a vast maze of Sargasso weed. They use a freakish array of First Age ships, tamed sea monsters, and gilled pirates to devastating effect against merchant vessels and coastal towns alike. A great choice for an ongoing major enemy... or, if the PCs are daring and unscrupulous, for a particularly dangerous patron.
The Skullstone Archipelago
Another Shadowland, this one interesting in the sense that it isn’t overtly hostile. A nice stopover if you want to creep out your PCs without actually threatening them. The matter-of-fact use of zombies for everything from manual labor to stage actors to prostitutes (yech!!) is a nice touch.
The Denzik Merchants
Like something out of Water World or Blue Planet, the Denzik merchant company built a floating city out of over 100 large sailing barges. The annual trade circuit the city-ship sails makes it an ideal mobile base of operations for PCs, although the annual stop in the Realm could make that risky for Solars. (How the Denzik Merchants themselves feel about Solars isn't discussed.)
The Tya
A society of women who choose to live as men, giving up both the benefits and the drawbacks of womanhood in the West's island cultures, most to become sailors on the society's fleet. (Hmmm... The Royal Guard, the Dereth, the Tya... I guess the North is the only Threshold region without an official transsexual organization.)
Chapter 5: The Scavenger Lands
The Scavenger Lands consist of the nations to the east of the Realm and across the Inner Sea -- a chaotic place mostly independent of the Realm.
History of the River Province
This section describes the tumultuous past of the Scavenger Lands, which were once known as the River Province, heartland of the Realm. Initially severed from the Realm by the Great Contagion and refusing to recognize the Scarlet Empress as the Realm's rightful heir, the Scavenger Lands have since faced a long series of wars: three invasions by the Realm, one by barbarian hordes, one by the Fair Folk, and one by the Realm's puppet kingdom of Thorns, not counting the occasional struggles between the various Scavenger Lands themselves.
The Scavenger Lands Today
Here the book describes the Confederation of Rivers, the name of both the document nominally binding the countries of the Scavenger Lands together and the region's official name given by its inhabitants. The section does an admirable job of covering a variety of subjects, including the region's politics, armies, navies, and trade policies. Also discussed are the Indiana Jones-like Scavenger Lords, who recover First Age relics in the Scavenger Lands. Finally, the section describes the status of Solar Exalted in the Scavenger Lands: basically, they're understandably seen as dangerous, but given the region's varied supernatural population, they aren't overly noteworthy. The fact that the Wyld Hunt cannot operate openly in the Scavenger Lands further makes the region attractive to Solar PCs.
Lookshy
The most powerful of the Scavenger Lands, this military city-state boasts an armory of the finest First Age artillery ever to be described in some other supplement. This place is pretty much Dawn Caste Nirvana. Just don't expect to run a siege of the place with the information given here.
Great Forks
A city of tolerance, art, education, and endless festivals. The tolerant natures of the trio of ruling spirits, along with the high percentage of supernatural beings in the population, could make this an interesting home for Solars.
Sijan
Already covered earlier in the book, this chapter returns to Sijan to detail its layout (including the Plains of the Dead, the city's vast cemeteries), the Mortician's Order, the military (or lack thereof -- as the book points out, who'd be crazy enough to attack the City of the Dead?), and foreign affairs.
Greyfalls
The last bastion of the Realm in the Scavenger Lands. This makes it a good place for a dust-up with Realm forces while allowing plenty of places to beat a strategic retreat.
The Nuri clan that rules the city -- like the Endless War of the Linowan and The Haltan Republic -- presents a bit of a political-correctness-defying quandary. On the one hand, they were a group of refugees fleeing Wyld barbarians who were enslaved by the city's inhabitants. On the other, they were freed by the invading Realm and now oppress their former oppressors.
The Marukan Alliance
A country of freedom-loving horse breeders, like a more flamboyant version of the Riders of Rohan. A sidebar gives stats for six breeds of their horses. Oddly, despite the importance of the Marukan Cavalry, the suggested professions for a Marukan Dawn Caste Solar Exalted are "Infantry Soldier" and "Herd Guard."
The Hundred Kingdoms
A kind of catchall area politically, consisting (as the name implies) of many tiny kingdoms of every sort. From a PC standpoint, the kingdoms are noteworthy for their practice of hiring champions to fight their wars for them -- a nice way for a Solar to make a buck, if scruples aren't a big issue.
Farhold
Here again, the book laudably refuses to take the easy politically correct route. Lumber is the main industry of this region, and the kingdom's lumberjacks see themselves as shepherds of the forest. Elder Oak, the Grandfather Tree that guards the forest, agrees, blessing their responsible logging practices, but many of the barbarians native to the area seek to destroy the newcomers in order to become Elder Oak's favorites once more.
Denandsor
A First Age city abandoned under mysterious circumstances, its treasures guarded by giant slumbering automatons (stats included) and, more importantly, by an enchantment that instills a steadily growing fear in visitors. The adventure possibilities here should be obvious.
Calin
A place of Japanese-style court intrigues into which unwary PCs might stumble -- otherwise, not particularly remarkable.
Mount Metagalapa
Part mystical Gilligan's Island, part magical Death Star, Mount Metagalapa was ripped from the ground and left hovering several hundred feet in the air during the Great Contagion. The humans who found themselves stranded there cast aside their differences to survive. (And in some cases these differences were considerable, with the aerial castaways including a legion out of Lookshy and the bandits they were chasing.) Taming some of the savage birdmen on the mountain and breeding the large hawks and condors living there into giant warhawks and great rocs, they at last swooped down on the surrounding countryside for raiding and trading. Looks like a great source of adversaries and an interesting place to visit. The section includes stats for the warhawks, rocs, and birdmen.
Chapter 6: Nexus
In this review, I've mentioned several places in the Threshold that would make great bases for Solar PCs. Nexus, however, tops them all.
The figurative and literal center of the Scavenger Lands, Nexus is an almost-anarchic city playing host to citizens and visitors from all corners of Creation. Its “rulers” are the Council of Entities, a group of powerful and mysterious leaders ruling via extremely strong suggestions rather than laws, and the Guild, which maintains economic order out of pure self-interest. The result is a centrally located swirling mass of exotic chaos that is an ideal cover and home for Solars. (In fact, the titles and duties of five of the nine members of Council of Entities seem remarkably reminiscent of Solar castes: Dawn Sergeant, Midday Husband, Evening Master, Midnight Queen, and August Councilor of the Eclipse. Hiding in plain sight, perhaps...?)
That being the case, it’s not surprising that the book spends as much space on Nexus as it does on other entire regions. Rather than double the size of this already sizeable review, I'll just hit some of the high points. These include descriptions of the various districts and social classes that make up the city, the decidedly creepy Solar tombs (including their formidable defenses), and the ways in which the citizens have woven clever practicality (such as a pulley-car mass transit system) in among First Age wonders (such as the massive dams in the river). The effect of the latter might be best imagined as a fantasy version of Escape from New York's Manhattan.
Appendix One: Groups and Organizations in the Threshold
The Guild
Part super-union, part megacorporation, the Guild is Business incarnate. Much of the functioning of the Guild is covered under the Nexus chapter, but their Creation-wide activities are covered here. Especially helpful are the descriptions of the Guild’s business in the four corners of Creation and the listing of possible careers of Guild-affiliated Solars.
The Children of the Wyld
Better known as the "Ravagers," these are humans who have succumbed to the lure of the Fey and have become their willing slaves, setting out to "recruit" more humans into the fold. In major cities, where they must be more circumspect, they could be the objects of a spy-hunt. In the country, where groups of them may take over small villages, they could be ideal targets of Solars looking to defend the common folk.
Appendix Two: The Fair Folk
Since the Exalted rulebook covered the wild faeries of the wilderness, Scavenger Sons focuses on the Fair Folk who live among humanity. Topics include their types (warriors, workers, entertainers, diplomats, and nobles), associated elements (water, air, wood, fire, and earth), and powers (glamour, including permanent glamour, beguilement, and glamour sorcery; shapeshifting; and elemental control).
Stats for four Fair Folk who are more likely to interact with humans than kill them outright round out the chapter.
STYLE
Before discussing the artwork in this book, I must admit to a couple of biases. The first is that I don't generally like anime artwork. The second is that even though I can appreciate some anime artwork, I don't think that even the best of it suits the setting of Exalted. I know, I know, it was inspired in part by anime, but the imagery just doesn’t work for me.
Now, with that out of the way, you can take my words with a grain of salt when I say that I found the artwork in this book to be, for the most part, really, really ugly. It starts with the cover, which looks like a screen shot from the most juvenile style of anime, and continues with sketchy images that totally fail to capture the feel of the setting. The best artwork in the book comes in the form of the more sedate and elegant city- and landscapes.
The writing, by contrast, masterfully evokes the wondrous sights that the art mostly fails to convey. The few and scattered typos aren't too distracting, although I noticed a couple of outright errors in the Fair Folk chapter: We’re told that faeries can and cannot summon elementals in the space of two pages and that the Carnival Barker NPC is a fire and an earth faerie on the same page. Also, those with delicate sensibilities should be warned that there’s more than a little gratuitous vulgarity in the text, especially in the Nexus chapter.
The layout is fairly crisp, although the section headers could use some more differentiation -- it was often difficult for me to tell the levels of subheads apart. That, combined with the lack of an index and an inadequate table of contents, made quickly looking up information difficult. Considering the amount of information contained in the book, I can see that becoming a big problem.
CONCLUSION
Scavenger Sons does an excellent job of covering the setting of the Threshold. However, the seemingly arbitrary decisions on where to include stats limit its usefulness in many places for those without the time or inclination to do the work themselves. Nevertheless, the sheer volume and quality of the information make the book a worthwhile purchase for any Exalted GM, do-it-yourselfer or not.
Now, as part of my quixotic quest to create the Ultimate Review, I’m going to try out a new ratings system. Please bear with me here...
SUBSTANCE:
- Rules
- Quality = 4.0
- Quantity = 2.5
The Fair Folk powers are very nice and the creature stats look good. There simply aren’t enough of the latter.
STYLE:
- Artwork = 2.5
There are a few minor gems, but I doubt even a hardcore anime fan would like most of it.
- Layout/Readability = 3.5
Pretty good overall, but the lack of an index and more clearly differentiated headers hurts the score.
- Writing = 5.0
Clear, evocative, and simply excellent.
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