The opening piece is an in-character description of the Northern Hinterlands, which is excellent. Bill has always had a flair for in-character descriptions, and I personally think it is the highlight of the book, giving you a good overview of how the area works without overburdening it with unnecessary details. From there, the two begin the out of character perspective on the Northern Hinterlands. This is where things begin to feel misplaced; while they write the overview on page 14, the actual in-depth descriptions of these areas doesn’t begin until page 136. By the time one reaches the actual information on the human and political geography of the Hinterlands, the overview is no longer fresh in the mind, crowded out by other information. Also, the longest section of the overview is little more than a teaser for the upcoming “Land of the Damned” series of books; nice to whet ones appetite for damnation, but it really comes off like simply filling space.

Between the overview and world description, however, comes a truly excellent section of the book, dealing with life and the people in the Northern Hinterlands. First they cover the long winter (almost six months in the Hinterlands) and the effects of frostbite and hypothermia in-game, snow blindness, speed modifiers, and other weather and season related effects. This information is highly detailed (and more or less accurate, though I have heard complaints about the strength of the winter due to geography), and should be very useful if your players wind up doing stupid things in a harsh winter. They can be carried too far, going from fun and dramatic to a roaring pain in the butt, but that’s a GM problem, not the rules themselves.

For some reason, this is immediately followed by a description of “Hearth and Homes”, which basically amount to six-month communes designed to make withstanding the winters easier. It’s a wonderful section, but quite oddly placed. A detailed section immediately follows it on the races of the Hinterlands. This is information that needs to be in the book, but might have been more appropriately placed immediately before the world overview, and certainly not before the section on Manifest destiny and the growing ideals of a Human "Golden Age." To make things simple, I’m going to stop mentioning every place I feel the layout is wrong. It would take a long time and so let it simply suffice to say that I was not a fan of the layout of this book.

There is an excellent discussion of why there are people in this wilderness; namely, the ways you can make money off the land if you’re a normal person. Wood harvest, rare minerals, and not so rare but still valuable minerals abound, and Bill and Kevin do an excellent job coming up with rare woods and minerals that people will actually want, without overpowering them (though Grantrium is pushing it… no matter how rare, a mineral that lets you cut the PPE cost of spells in half is something to be rabidly sought out.)

Magic and critters comprise the next three sections. Perhaps my largest gripe is the history of the item “Eye of Eelemore”, which mentions an assassinated Wolfen Rune smith and psi-mystic who lived sometime in the past few years (since the Wolfen Empire is only 50 some years old, he must have). The secrets of rune magic should have remained lost and, though its an interesting, plot hook filled story, it simply feels wrong that a) Rune magic has come back in the past 50 years, only to be completely lost and b) that the magic would be in the hands of a psi-mystic, meaning it might be available for other psi-mystics who put their minds to it. A dangerous precedent to set, since it puts the most powerful form of magic yet mentioned within the reach of characters.

With the spells, I found it somewhat annoying that none of them were rated for their level as Fire Warlock spells. Fire Warlocks already have several spells having to do with cold (no doubt in fire's capacity as a temperature control), but none of these spells (notably, Cure Frostbite, Dig Through Snow, Shield from Light and Orb of Cold) are rated as fire spells, which seems like an oversight.

The creatures in this book are interesting, but not amazing. Bearmen, Bug Bears, and Kankoran are all simple reprints with bare rewrites; they provide a little bit more information on the races, but not enough to make the reprint worthwhile. Some will argue that those races are important enough to reprint, but by that rationale Cyclops and Harpies (the second whose write-up is bigger than that of the Kankoran or Bearmen) should have also been reprinted. What really did impress me was the additional information about centaurs, a race that seems to be often overlooked. I also liked the idea behind the Chig (though I don't know if I'll use the gradual insanity) and the fact that Giant Scuttle Crabs are listed for their value as food. With all these weird animals in the world, its good to see that at least some of them are edible.

Next comes a section on a group of demi-gods known as the Wild Lords, apparently heroes of the Chaos War. I rather like this pantheon of gods; they have a deep-seated tension within them, due to the betrayal during the Chaos War. Kuldun, the Lord of Illusion, seems a somewhat stereotypical evil trickster god; I'm looking for a trickster god who uses their tricks to teach, or simply enlighten others life, rather than just because they like to stir up shit. Aside from my slight problems there, this is a great group of gods. Gainim, the Lord of Autumn, and Lashgan have great built-in plot hooks, while devotees of Eternus can make great story-starters. The fact that they're mortal, and live on Palladium, also makes them far more accessible as NPCs and not just forces from beyond.

Now, we reach the world information, starting with the Shadow Coast; Byzantium's colonies in the Northern Wilderness. The inspiration for these colonies and their story is obvious to anyone who has studied American (and, to an extent, Irish and Scottish) history, especially with regards to England. The thirteen Shadow Colonies are unfairly taxed, afflicted with cruel bosses by their mother country, and have nobles raiding their landscape for raw materials desperately needed in the home Isles. I don't fault Bill and Kevin for using this story, though, because it fits with the world and is a compelling one to work with, especially for Americans, who tend to be enamored with the rebellious spirit. This section provides the essence of each colony, and some ideas to go on, which is enough for a GM to go on.

This story does, however, compound a somewhat anti-nobility thread that seems prevalent in Palladium's books, especially in Bill's own. Timiro is having massive problems due to its nobility, mentioned several times in this book. The Western Empire is corrupt, and the Land of the South Winds has a weak nobility that can't do what its trying to do. The only reasonably well-presented monarchy that I recall from Bill was Sunder Blackrock's in Mount Nimro; which is ironic, since its an evil giant presiding over other evil creatures. The difference might be that of hereditary vs. meritorious monarchies… Sunder forged his monarchy by his own actions, while even Itomas had his position given to him. I could conceivably be making too much of this, but surely, somewhere, there is a sane, reasonably well-run hereditary monarchy in the world?

Additionally, this section is pretty short, running only about thirty pages. It’s a good section, with a good bit of the humor and cultural references that usually show up in Palladium books (the Ghostbusters and "Fish Heads" references were nice to stumble across), and none of the tedious detail that some of Palladium's other books go into. (Yes, I do realize the inherent conflict between asking for a longer section and applauding less tedious detail… I'm picky). I look forward to seeing how this will develop.

Immediately following the Shadow Coast is a section on common OCCs in the Northern Hinterlands, including several new Optional OCCs. I would have preferred to see many of the new skills introduced as being more freely available (especially Appraise Goods and the two Metalworking skills). Neither of these is tied directly to an innate ability, and so introducing them as new Technical skills would have been wonderful; indeed, I would have also liked to have seen a more general "Artisan" skill to cover other basic crafts, like pottery, stonemasonry, and leatherworking. Its an oversight that I think Palladium has long had. I also would have liked to have seen the Fletcher OCC of having the option of learning to use the Longbow… even if it was an expensive skill to pick up. They're not going to match a real longbowman, or even most rangers, and he idea of archery is so integral to the class that I think that, too, is an oversight. A longbow is not difficult to use competently, which is what a Weapon Proficiency represents. Letting others use one doesn't infringe upon a Longbowman's area of expertise anymore than letting others use a staff infringes upon a Warrior-Monk's. Lastly, the Miner OCC ignores the two other races noted for their underground skills in the main book, gnomes and troglodytes. While neither is particularly likely to become a miner, acknowledging that they might be seems to be a core concept in Palladium's general policy of opening most OCCs to most races.

Next comes a series on the Kiridin, a group of Barbarians who inhabit the land just to the east of the Shadow Colonies. The Barbarian Warrior OCC is listed first, and is better balanced than I originally gave it credit for; I missed the notation that only 3 of the 8 abilities were available to any given Barbarian Warrior. In the rest of the section, however, things seem to be forgotten. It is mentioned on page 182 that natural magical powers are not trusted by the Kiridin, but it is also noted that some 20% of the Kiridin are Orc or Goblin, and some of those Goblins will likely be born with Cobbler abilities. How are they regarded? The Rat King of the Murdigan is listed as being a Wereshaman (an OCC from Mount Nimro), but with the parenthetical note of (Werewolf). Does this mean that his primary totem is Canine? What about secondary totems? Or does this mean that he's also a werewolf? Lastly, the "Three Furies" of the Ogenheim supposedly won't adopt individual identities, they are listed by three different names, which certainly seems like an element of individual identity. These questions beg to be answered, since they are rather integral to the politics of the region and proper playing of someone from Kiridin.

The last section covers the landmarks of the Ophid's Grasslands, including giving some long-awaited information about the often mentioned, but seldom described, "Palladium of Desires" and "Devils Mark." These sections are solid, and really there wasn't much more that could have been done with them… how much more detail can you put into leagues and leagues of grass, without mapping out the two strongholds mentioned in the text? The information on the Devil's Mark was intriguing, and vague enough to go any way you want, without being so vague that its completely useless information.

Overall, I give this book a seven out of ten, the grade of a book that, while it had the potential to be good, was marred by oversights, poor layout, and some genuinely bad ideas (Wolfen Psi-Mystic cum Rune Master being one of the bigger ones).

Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.