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Disclaimer
I: I have seen in reviews that the content had "spoiler"
ascribed to it. I feel that if you are reading a review, you invite
that upon yourself. If you don't want "spoilers," why would
you read a review of a product you do not own? I will not use the phrase
of "Contains Spoilers" in my reviews, if you want a non-biased
review that doesn't reveal content-look elsewhere.
Disclaimer
II: The majority of this review is opinion; your actual enjoyment
of this product should vary accordingly.
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WARNING
SHOT:
Settings, ironically, take a back seat in most game books. Books like the Dungeons & Dragons core rules,
or Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed, use a setting as a backdrop more than an extension of the rules.
That leaves most settings either painted with a too fine of a brush in covering the details,
or they’re drowning in a psychedelic color scheme.
Does the Diamond Throne suffer from this, yes. Are all books weakened by a vague palette, sometimes.
Does the Diamond Throne come across weaker but its light brush strokes, yes and no.
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The Diamond Throne is a campaign reference
using the
d20 system and the Arcana Unearthed
adaption of that system’s reference document. While geared for the Arcana Unearthed faction more than the d20 system
fans, the Diamond Throne won’t present more than alignments as an challenge in adapting it to regular d20 use.
The is simple in the execution, presenting a gazetteer for the Lands of Diamond Throne that is the Arcana Unearthed
backdrop.
The book consists of a few chapters dedicated to the “new-ness” of the world, prestige classes, magic items,
artifacts and monsters, with the largest chapter in the book that details the world. Or presents a portion of the
world, as most gaming gazetteers are designed to be topical more than fully detailed, that and it’s hard to sell
more “campaign settings” if the gazetteers are chock full of details.
The world of the Diamond Throne presents a large vaguely colored canvas which aspiring Bob Rosses–er, referees,
can paint their own epic picture of how the world where dragons ruled is seen today. That is, the picture after
the dragon’s legacies have been vanquished by the giants (humans being a numerous race, just not dominate), the humans
liberated, and with faen (little fey-folk for those not playing the home game) and the others added into
the palette. The world is covered in enough detail that a referee shouldn’t have a difficult time making use of the
setting, sadly a few more details (key npc stats, city or town stat blocks) would have added greatly to the book.
Core d20 system fans may find minor problems in taking the twelve monsters presented in the book over to their games,
as alignments are not an item found in Arcana Unearthed. Though a referee may infer from the descriptive text,
sometimes a description captures a tone and feel without really presented an alignment for the creature. Of those
monsters presented here, only the dream hunter sounds most original (sitting near a revised cyclops helps it). A
dream hunter is a sleep inflicting, nigh skinless (looking) hound that hunts dreaming foes. In a land where a
conqueror race (the dramohj, one of those legacies of the dragons) used magic to kidnap other creatures and items
(sometimes whole cities) from other planes, this creature fits.
Overall, this book is a handy tool for those referees dying for more information about the backdrop of Arcana
Unearthed. Also, this book may find good use in campaigns that hop several planes as a new land to explore. Referees
may also want to see how the vaguely detailed lands may fire their own imagination to writing more areas (if, in
broad strokes) of their personal campaigns. While some referees may want more key information, this book doesn’t
try to satisfy every answer that it raises, to do so would ruin the wonder that the book tries to capture.
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