The Inside Scoop on Gaming

First, some background on the Jakandor series is probably in order. The subject of this review, Isle of Destiny, is the second book of three. It examines one of the two warring cultures on the island of Jakandor, the Charonti. The first book, Isle of War, examines the other culture, the Knorr, and the third is a DM's guide to the setting, Land of Legend. In other words, instead of getting a shallow look at a complete setting, this product gives you a very deep and intricate look at half the setting. This is not to say that Isle of Destiny is an inferior product, it is merely much different in scope than the average setting. Not only is the focus of Isle of Destiny much different, the concept behind it is different. Jakandor, the island setting, is not a complete world, but a location that can be placed in any AD&D world or campaign. This modular design makes it easy to use in any game.

And now for something completely different: the review, which will be organized by chapter.

Chapter One

Isle of Destiny opens with a history of the Charonti, the native people of Jakandor. Once a mighty and benevolent race, they were nearly wiped out by a magical plague and now use undead to attempt to bring their once-great civilization back to life. This is a rich and mythic history, and never becomes that most dreaded of documents: the timeline. Chapter One reads more like a story than a textbook, something that must be applauded.

Chapter Two

This chapter concerns itself with the social structure and culture of the Charonti. How do they feel about undead? Why? How are they educated? Who rules? Questions like this are answered in a concise but unhurried manner. Like Chapter One, Chapter Two avoids the boredom of most "culture" supplements. The Charonti, the chapter explains, are a society based on magic. Most of their devices are magically based, magic is valued above all else, and magical knowledge is common. Unfortunately, since the plague was spread by magic, most of their arcane arts have been lost. This provides a nice goal for PC's: find the ancient spells in the ruins of the ancient Charonti cities. These ruins also provide the most logical explanation for dungeons I've ever heard. I've always wondered why exactly there are about three million booby-trapped dungeons in the AD&D worlds, and why heroes risk their lives to go in for a few measly GP. Now, however, there's a purpose, and, while you're at it, an ea! sy plot seed for a whole campaign.

Chapter Three

This is the section detailing the art of Charonti character creation. The strongest chapter of the book, it includes caste determination, basic traits, and kits for real Charonti. Unfortunately, because of the magical bent of Charonti society, most of the kits and rules are for wizards. Charonti tend to be specialists, so there are 9 different wizard kits, one for each school of magic. Although this sounds boring, each kit is distinctive and has a place in the Charonti society. My favorites are the Artificers, enchanters who create intricate magical devices and can have a clockwork familiar, and the Galvanists, who focus on electromancy and act as human lightning rods.

The other classes, as I said, do not fare as well. Rogues and Clerics each get five kits, while the Warrior gets only one, due to the pacifistic streak in the average Charonti. The upshot of this is that any group of diverse players will not enjoy playing Charonti characters much, due to a lack of choices, although Isle of Destiny stretches AD&D's restrictive class system as far as it can in order to represent a full culture.

This actually exposes the fact that this book's greatest flaw has nothing to do with this book: it has to do with the system it was written for. AD&D does not do a very good job with representing actual civilizations, and although Isle of Destiny tries to place the many roles of its deeply realized society into Thief, Wizard, Warrior, and Priest classes, it might have been a better idea to simply write up a Citizen class for this setting: a class that represents those heroes that do not necessarily rely on their magic, their muscles, their gods, or their lockpicks, but instead come from all walks of life, and are therefore less restrained than the regular classes.

As it is, this chapter can be one of the most confusing and most promising in the book, and provides a strong argument for conversion of Jakandor to a class-less system like GURPS or Dragonlance 5th Age.

Chapter 4

Chapter Four gives the typical reactions of each character class within each caste to every other caste. This does not make a particularly interesting read, but I don't think it's meant to. This chapter is meant mainly as roleplaying advice. Although good in concept, I don't think it's advice that will be followed, especially in multi-caste parties.

Chapter Four also covers more interesting topics, like experience point restrictions for expeditions, the various expedition types, Charonti reactions toward undead, and other topics. This information will probably prove much more useful to a Charonti player.

Chapter 5

New equipment and rules are always welcome, but in this case I was left hoping for a little more. Although some distinctive technology is introduced, there wasn't an awful lot for a culture that in theory boasts more magical time-saving equipment than a chrono-staff convention. It seems like this chapter could have used some work in the rules section, as well. There's a couple new proficiencies, and a big explanation on the magical plague (called the Wasting Plague), but nothing major or earth-shattering. I was disappointed, for the most part.

Chapter 6

Chapter Six covers magic of the Charonti, and like Chapter Five, proved a disappointment. Although the spells were appropriate to the culture, due to the lost nature of much Charonti magic, none of them venture above fifth level and some are only modified versions of existing spells. Only six magical items are covered, and only two or three are very interesting. Again, for a magical culture, even a lost one, this is a very small section, and feels tacked-on.

The real losers of this chapter, however, are again the priests. They only get two spells, and both are lame divination spells. Although this is (once again) in keeping with the culture presented in the rest of the book, it still will disappoint any cleric of either Charonti or foreign origin.

The Lorebook

The DM's Lorebook is, for the most part, a well designed volume. It provides a starting adventure that will take the player characters up to 3rd level (important since they'll all probably be wizards). It also gives information on the Knorr, thus making it unnecessary to buy Isle of War for the information, although the DM may still want the extra information in that book. Finally, it gives adventure seeds and more information on the Wasting Plague that could come in handy, plus ways to limit over-powerful characters. Not bad. It does, however have a serious problem: pages 4 and 5 have been swapped, making the first section a little odd to read.

Evaluation of Style

At first glance, Isle of Destiny looks like a well designed book. After you really start reading it, however, you realize that the line art used throughout the book consists of only 35 pieces or so, recycled and recombined to give the impression of massive amounts of art. This is a startlingly bad move in a 112-page book with at least one or two illustrations on each page. It looks like TSR hired only one artist so the art would be consistent, but that artist couldn't furnish as much art as they wanted. Bad move, guys. I would have much preferred lots of art in different styles than the same art every five pages.

Also, the columns are cropped in an odd fashion around the illustrations, making some sections of the book tough to read. Finally, a few spelling and capitalization mistakes appear. Surely, now that it has the vast resources of Wizards of the Coast behind it, TSR can afford better proofreading and more art!

Final Call

Jakandor, Isle of Destiny is a stunning book... for what it does, which is examine half a setting in exhaustive detail. It presents a well-thought out culture and the resources needed to play it, but keep in mind that due to the focus on magic, the wrong system, and the unbalanced kits, spells, and equipment, this game isn't for everyone.

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Jakandor, Isle of Destiny
Author: Kirk Botula, Dale Donovan, and Kim Mohan Category: game Company/Publisher: TSR Cost: $21.95 Page count: 144 ISBN: 0-7869-1245-6 Playtest Review by Thomas Wilburn on 07/25/98. Genre tags: none	First, some background on the Jakandor series is probably in order. The subject of this review, Isle of Destiny, is the second book of three. It examines one of the two warring cultures on the island of Jakandor, the Charonti. The first book, Isle of War, examines the other culture, the Knorr, and the third is a DM's guide to the setting, Land of Legend. In other words, instead of getting a shallow look at a complete setting, this product gives you a very deep and intricate look at half the setting. This is not to say that Isle of Destiny is an inferior product, it is merely much different in scope than the average setting. Not only is the focus of Isle of Destiny much different, the concept behind it is different. Jakandor, the island setting, is not a complete world, but a location that can be placed in any AD&D world or campaign. This modular design makes it easy to use in any game. And now for something completely different: the review, which will be organized by chapter. Chapter One Isle of Destiny opens with a history of the Charonti, the native people of Jakandor. Once a mighty and benevolent race, they were nearly wiped out by a magical plague and now use undead to attempt to bring their once-great civilization back to life. This is a rich and mythic history, and never becomes that most dreaded of documents: the timeline. Chapter One reads more like a story than a textbook, something that must be applauded. Chapter Two This chapter concerns itself with the social structure and culture of the Charonti. How do they feel about undead? Why? How are they educated? Who rules? Questions like this are answered in a concise but unhurried manner. Like Chapter One, Chapter Two avoids the boredom of most "culture" supplements. The Charonti, the chapter explains, are a society based on magic. Most of their devices are magically based, magic is valued above all else, and magical knowledge is common. Unfortunately, since the plague was spread by magic, most of their arcane arts have been lost. This provides a nice goal for PC's: find the ancient spells in the ruins of the ancient Charonti cities. These ruins also provide the most logical explanation for dungeons I've ever heard. I've always wondered why exactly there are about three million booby-trapped dungeons in the AD&D worlds, and why heroes risk their lives to go in for a few measly GP. Now, however, there's a purpose, and, while you're at it, an ea! sy plot seed for a whole campaign. Chapter Three This is the section detailing the art of Charonti character creation. The strongest chapter of the book, it includes caste determination, basic traits, and kits for real Charonti. Unfortunately, because of the magical bent of Charonti society, most of the kits and rules are for wizards. Charonti tend to be specialists, so there are 9 different wizard kits, one for each school of magic. Although this sounds boring, each kit is distinctive and has a place in the Charonti society. My favorites are the Artificers, enchanters who create intricate magical devices and can have a clockwork familiar, and the Galvanists, who focus on electromancy and act as human lightning rods. The other classes, as I said, do not fare as well. Rogues and Clerics each get five kits, while the Warrior gets only one, due to the pacifistic streak in the average Charonti. The upshot of this is that any group of diverse players will not enjoy playing Charonti characters much, due to a lack of choices, although Isle of Destiny stretches AD&D's restrictive class system as far as it can in order to represent a full culture. This actually exposes the fact that this book's greatest flaw has nothing to do with this book: it has to do with the system it was written for. AD&D does not do a very good job with representing actual civilizations, and although Isle of Destiny tries to place the many roles of its deeply realized society into Thief, Wizard, Warrior, and Priest classes, it might have been a better idea to simply write up a Citizen class for this setting: a class that represents those heroes that do not necessarily rely on their magic, their muscles, their gods, or their lockpicks, but instead come from all walks of life, and are therefore less restrained than the regular classes. As it is, this chapter can be one of the most confusing and most promising in the book, and provides a strong argument for conversion of Jakandor to a class-less system like GURPS or Dragonlance 5th Age. Chapter 4 Chapter Four gives the typical reactions of each character class within each caste to every other caste. This does not make a particularly interesting read, but I don't think it's meant to. This chapter is meant mainly as roleplaying advice. Although good in concept, I don't think it's advice that will be followed, especially in multi-caste parties. Chapter Four also covers more interesting topics, like experience point restrictions for expeditions, the various expedition types, Charonti reactions toward undead, and other topics. This information will probably prove much more useful to a Charonti player. Chapter 5 New equipment and rules are always welcome, but in this case I was left hoping for a little more. Although some distinctive technology is introduced, there wasn't an awful lot for a culture that in theory boasts more magical time-saving equipment than a chrono-staff convention. It seems like this chapter could have used some work in the rules section, as well. There's a couple new proficiencies, and a big explanation on the magical plague (called the Wasting Plague), but nothing major or earth-shattering. I was disappointed, for the most part. Chapter 6 Chapter Six covers magic of the Charonti, and like Chapter Five, proved a disappointment. Although the spells were appropriate to the culture, due to the lost nature of much Charonti magic, none of them venture above fifth level and some are only modified versions of existing spells. Only six magical items are covered, and only two or three are very interesting. Again, for a magical culture, even a lost one, this is a very small section, and feels tacked-on. The real losers of this chapter, however, are again the priests. They only get two spells, and both are lame divination spells. Although this is (once again) in keeping with the culture presented in the rest of the book, it still will disappoint any cleric of either Charonti or foreign origin. The Lorebook The DM's Lorebook is, for the most part, a well designed volume. It provides a starting adventure that will take the player characters up to 3rd level (important since they'll all probably be wizards). It also gives information on the Knorr, thus making it unnecessary to buy Isle of War for the information, although the DM may still want the extra information in that book. Finally, it gives adventure seeds and more information on the Wasting Plague that could come in handy, plus ways to limit over-powerful characters. Not bad. It does, however have a serious problem: pages 4 and 5 have been swapped, making the first section a little odd to read. Evaluation of Style At first glance, Isle of Destiny looks like a well designed book. After you really start reading it, however, you realize that the line art used throughout the book consists of only 35 pieces or so, recycled and recombined to give the impression of massive amounts of art. This is a startlingly bad move in a 112-page book with at least one or two illustrations on each page. It looks like TSR hired only one artist so the art would be consistent, but that artist couldn't furnish as much art as they wanted. Bad move, guys. I would have much preferred lots of art in different styles than the same art every five pages. Also, the columns are cropped in an odd fashion around the illustrations, making some sections of the book tough to read. Finally, a few spelling and capitalization mistakes appear. Surely, now that it has the vast resources of Wizards of the Coast behind it, TSR can afford better proofreading and more art! Final Call Jakandor, Isle of Destiny is a stunning book... for what it does, which is examine half a setting in exhaustive detail. It presents a well-thought out culture and the resources needed to play it, but keep in mind that due to the focus on magic, the wrong system, and the unbalanced kits, spells, and equipment, this game isn't for everyone. Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 4 (Meaty)