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The Wilderlands of High Fantasy is a compilation and update of several campaign books published by Judges Guild in the late 70s and early 80s. It uses the V3.5 D&D rules set, but is easily converted to other d20 systems, earlier editions of D&D or to Castles and Crusades.
The boxed set consists of 18 maps on 9 sheets and two 200+ page softbound books. The box itself is sturdy and attractive, featuring a classic Frank Frazetta painting. The thick books and stack of maps fill the box. This is a hefty product.
The map sheets are double-sided 17" x 22", glossy black and white. Each of the 18 regional maps details an area of roughly 170 miles by 260 miles using 5-mile hexes. The maps are bland and uninspiring, with little texture. The best that can be said is they are cleanly drawn and functional.
The covers of the books feature the same Frazetta painting found on the cover. For some reason the two books aren't identified on their covers, only on their spines, so you have to pick them up to see which is book one and which is book two. They're sturdy, professionaly laid out and easy to read. An index would have been very useful in a product this size, but indexes seem to be beyond the capability of most RPG publishers. The black and white artwork varies in quality from excellent to amateurish. While the best of the illustrations succeed in evoking the rich atmosphere of the Wilderlands, the worst are generic filler. However, the overall design of the books is crisp and professional.
You can run a campaign using only the boxed set, but the Player's Guide to the Wilderlands is an indispensible supplement. It includes a fold-out colour map of the Wilderlands (which would have been nice to include in the boxed set), information on deities, and stats for the races, classes feats, and monsters unique to the Wilderlands. The City State of the Invincible Overlord can be the centrepiece for a Wilderlands campaign, but you can also get by without it.
The books in the boxed set have little in the way of new rules or 'crunch'. The Wilderlands is a setting, not a rules toolbox. Book one has sections in overland and sea travel, and generating random encounters and ruins. Other sections detail the history of the Wilderlands and outline the current factions and power centres. Then we get to the map chapters, which take up most of book one and the entirety of book two. This is where the product shines.
Each of the 18 map chapters includes an overview of the geography, climate and politics, followed by detailed entries for geographic features and specific locations. There are hundreds of entries for each chapter, providing an astonishing array of settings and encounters. The Wilderlands has always been a bottom-up setting. That is, locations and encounters are presented at the level in which player characters are likely to interact with them. So the struggles of cities, races, and powerful factions are kept in the background, while the adversaries, obstacles, and opportunies for enrichment that a band of adventurers are like to find on the dusty road are presented in abundance.
Here are some random examples of map entries:
Giant's Bog (Moor/Swamp): A footprint-shaped marsh of terrible reputation. Hill giants from the surrounding are sometimes make their home here, but the main inhabitants are feral humans. Encounters: hill giants, feral humans.
3823 Lair of the Green Dragon (EL 12): The plains of Thrinakia Island is the home to Gysserus, an adult green dragon (CR 12; hp 230). She makes her lair deep underground in a huge dungeon complex hidden underneath the mountains. An enemy of Meldor the Ancient (3822), she constantly hatches schemes of assassination. Stored within her chamber are 2,000 gp, 1,000 sp, and a ring of the whirling dervish (summons 10-60 War3s who are fanatically loyal to the possesor; 5 charges).
2125 Flint (Village): Conventional; AL N; TL 3; 200 gp limit; Assets 7,300 gp; Population 1,168 (Able bodied 292); Mixed (human 79% [Mostly Tharbrian, some Alryan and Altanian], dwarf 9%, halfling 5%, elf 3%, others 4%); Resources: Marble. Authority Figure: Disbad, male Tharbrian LE Ftr 12. Important Characters: Pox, male Tharbrian CN Exp4/War2 (leader of the largest mining gangs, high natural charisma despite hideous disfigurement); Hoxar, male half-orc, N Exp6 (leader of the second largest mining gang). Most of the marble in the City State comes from Flint. This town has little but the quarries. The miners live in barracks and there is little else other than an assortment of taverns. Gang warfare is rife in the town with rival gangs of miners engaging in bloody battles nearly every night. Lord Disbad is high in the Hellbridge Temple and has been brought in to restore order to the town.
Each map chapter has hundreds of such entries, making for thousands in total. Some are simple encounters with lone monsters or descriptions of geography, while others sketch the outline of major dungeons or political schemes. The sheer number of encounters and adventure hooks is staggering. It's fair to say on every one of the 400+ pages of map entries, there is enough raw material for weeks of adventuring. You could easily run a campaign for years without leaving the map you start in.
The entries are not exhaustive. Rather, they provide a skeleton for the DM to flesh out. Some will like this level of detail, others won't. What the Wilderlands provides better than any other campaign supplement I've seen is a setting for players to explore in a totally freestyle manner. Almost every 5-mile hex has an entry of some sort. A DM who is comfortable with ad-libbing is given enough information to handle a spontaneous voyage to the legendary Isle of Ponkratil or an expedition across the Majestic Mountains.
I've seen the Wilderlands described as generic. That's far from the case. The Wilderlands is a throwback to the early days of D&D and was influenced heavily by Sword and Sorcery. That means lots of weird cults, decadent cities and trackless wastes. You aren't presented with established nations or struggles between good and evil. Most of the land is lawless wilderness. The ruins of ancient civilations lie underfoot in forest, plains and even under the waves. Many communities are built on the bones of much older ones. Villages are small and beleagured, surrounded by great swathes of perilous wilds. The cities attract races of all types, including humanoids, who vie in their mean streets.
With its tremendous variety of locations and only roughly-drawn political big picture, the Wilderlands is a flexible setting. You can run all sorts of camaigns, from wilderness exploration to dungeon delving to political intrigue. The variety may seem chaotic, but each map region has its own atmosphere and many of the entries are linked with threads of schemes, rumours and rivalry. While the Wilderlands as a whole doesn't have a cohesive theme (beyond the perilous wilds and ubiquitous ruins), there is enough regional texture to give a campaign set in the Wilderlands a distinct feel.
Not everyone will like this product. It doesn't have the rules supplements so many players today expect. In tone, the Wilderlands is a throwback to the origins of D&D, which gamers raised on more recent fare may not appreciate. And the sheer size and variety of the campaign setting makes it hard to come to grips with.
However, for those who enjoy a free-wheeling style of play in a Sword and Sorcery setting, the Wilderlands has no peer. Pick a map region, draw up some random encounter tables, develop a few of the entries in the chapter and you're ready to launch a campaign that could last a lifetime. Or use the Wilderlands as a 400 page catalogue of encounters, villages and adventure hooks to incorporate into your own setting. Heck, there's so much inspiring content in the Wilderlands that it's good value simply as a read.
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