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In Short

The Explorer's Handbook advertises itself as being a book for, well, exploration for both DMs and players. When I first purchased it I was expecting a well written discussion on travel and adventure in Eberron, perhaps similar to a wilderness guide discussing all the fantastic inbetween places in Eberron. What I got was disappointment.

This book is, by far, a DM oriented book that describes a number of locations you may wish to insert into an Eberron game. The locations tend to be focused on the mid to extremely high levels. The Prestige Classes are the only part of the book I would consider being oriented towards players, and there are only three of them. The writing, on the whole, is sub par.

To be absolutely clear, this is not an impartial review of the product. I love Eberron and have written several reviews of other Eberron products. I do not like this product, however, so expect criticism throughout the review.

The Physical Thing

This is a 160 page full color hardcover that shows off high quality production values. The art is typically of Good quality and shows off interesting and fantastic scenes very in genre for Eberron. Different formating is used for side sections throughout the book, which include interesting tidbits like “How to Survive an Airship Crash”. On the whole the book isn't quite as nice as some of the other recent Eberron books. The stat blocks often make no sense (why do I need the stats for an owl familiar?) and there is more than a little bit of material that feels like it exists solely to take up space.

The Ideas

The book advertises itself as having two aspects, one for players and DMs. Players are supposed to get interesting travel information, travel tips (“How to Survive a Volcano”), and organizations to join. DMs are supposed to get interesting locations for play, split between starting places, mid points, and end points.

The book doesn't deliver for players. The travel information is simplistic, and most of it is more appropriate for DMs anyway. Knowing how many miles and how long it takes a train to run between two locations could be useful information when designing an adventure, but what's a player going to do with it? The tips are cute but provide no actual use. The organizations are alright.

DMs can expect to find a few interesting nuggets here and there, largely in the second chapter. The big problem with most of these locations is that they're either so bland and basic that the book isn't saving a DM any time or they're so specific and/or epic that its unlikely many campaigns would ever even progress to a point where they could be brought in.

Bad writing and a sudden jump in power are the two biggest problems with this product.

Under the Cover

Chapter 1 Travel 14 pages.

This chapter deals with the basics of traveling. Why travel? Why not just teleport everywhere? What sorts of adventures might involve what sorts of travel? These discussions are a little generic, but do include some useful suggestions.

The list of lightning rail destinations, how long it takes the lightning rail to get there, distances between stops, and other such information could be useful as a quick reference for those DMs wanting to run adventures on the rail or where time is a factor.

This chapter also begins with what is almost a theme in this book: NPC stat blocks of questionable use. One of my largest problems with the product is that many of the entries just don't seem useful to anyone. For example, how useful are the stats for a Typical Lyrandar Travel Official? Such an official has Profession (bookkeeper) +5, just so you know.

Chapter 2 Tools of the Trade 52 pages.

This is the heart of the book. It begins with a discussion of airships, naval ships, elemental binding, and the lightning rail. Deck plans, lightning car plans, and other generally useful information is provided. General information on these vessels is useful, and a few uncommon questions are answered (“What happens if Dominate Monster is cast on a bound elemental?”)

A blurb on International Travel is provided. Basically, borders are guarded. Those guards look at travel papers. If you'd like to know the stats for an average Hawk Familiar, you can find those in this section as well.

Five paragraphs are also set aside for the idea of Explorer Marks. These are an internationally recognized pictographic language for travelers to leave behind informing others that come along of what can be found in the area. Its a neat idea for traveling adventurers, and I would have liked more information on it.

Organizations are presented next, and while the book suggests on the outside that there are a bunch of these there are only two. Two which have been previously discussed in the core book actually. The Wayfinder Foundation, a group dedicated to adventure, and The Twelve's Acquisition's Directorate which is the exploration arm of The Twelve are both presented. They're alright, if a little bland. A solid amount of information is presented on how to play members of these organizations, how to join, what the benefits of membership are, and other useful information. I was still disappointed at what was actually delivered.

Three Prestige Classes are introduced in this section as well. The Cataclysm Mage studies prophecy the world over and gives up a level of arcane spellcasting for a diverse group of minor benefits. I found the class to be weak conceptually, it just doesn't fill me with the excitement that some other prestige classes do. The group's study of prophecy seems haphazard as well, though that is probably meant to reflect their far reaching travel. Mechanically the class is somewhat unappealing as spellcasting advancement is sacrificed for a group of generally mild perks. For example, one ability gives a +1 to the DC of Enchantment (Charm) spells cast.

The Thunder Guide is meant to be the pulp adventurer out on expedition. They get a variety of useful bonuses including extra languages, but they also get a number of almost worthless abilities. At a minimum of a total of 12th level they receive 1,000gp per point of Charisma modifier for the rights to their story to the Korranberg Chronicle as a special ability. This is just bad in a number of ways. Do you have to have a special power to get featured prominently in the papers? Is a few thousand gold really a worthwhile special ability at 12th level? Most of the other powers are so regionally specific there's every reason to believe they will never come into play. One ability a character may choose allows them to trade with the Seren Barbarians as if they possessed a Dragonmark. Ultimately a player wanting to have this concept would do better just being a Ranger with a dash of Bard.

Finally, the Windwright Captain is presented. They make any ship they pilot badass. Conceptually its a neat class, the Half Elves who bear the Mark of Storm are supposed to be outstanding pilots so this class makes great sense. Mechanically it does exactly what you'd hope and expect, giving a variety of interesting abilities related to ships. The only downside is that that is all it does. If a campaign heavily focuses on shipboard activities, such as one where the PCs have their own airship, then this class might be worth it for the player who wants to take charge and do nifty things with said ship. However, it does give spellcasting advancement and seems to assume anyone taking the class will come from a Bard background. While that isn't required, i'd rather have had this class been a three level class more easily available to anyone who wanted to be a master pilot.

Why so much discussion of these three prestige classes? They take up 17 pages.

Chapter 3 Points of Origin 16 pages.

Chapter 4 Midpoints 16 pages.

Chapter 5 Destinations 40 pages.

These three chapters are so linked conceptually that i'm going to tackle them together. They present a variety of interesting places to set adventures, from the start to the middle to the finish. A map presented at the beginning of the book has dots across the world showing where this locations are, which is a really nice touch. Unfortunately, the locations themselves aren't very useful.

That's not to say there aren't cool locations here. Take the Glitterdust nightclub, my favorite. A little under two pages of information is presented, giving a general overview of the club. Its rich and flashy, big game hunters ask people to fight the critters they bring back, and the band always has room for a guest musician. Pretty solid stuff, written with adventurers in mind.

Then there is another “Point of Origin”, the Crimson Ship. Basically its a darkly magical ship that can travel anywhere in the world in a few minutes. The cost of admission is to agree to fight any single battle the Captain wants you to. The writer brags, saying “In design terms, it is that rarest of beasts: a chance to get wherever you need to go at great speed with exactly one good fight along the way.” While I don't run fantasy RPGs because I want everything to “make sense” I expect a certain degree of internal consistency in the world. The Captain of this ship is so badass he could instantly destroy almost any encounter in the world (except the others in this book). I appreciate that the writer believes that an ultra-magical teleporting ship that spawns random monster battles is a cool idea, but for me it not only destroys the feel Eberron is going for it also smacks of bad gameplay. The author might as well recommend pulling the monster manual off the shelf and sending the characters to a zoo to slay the monsters in order from A to Z.

Most of the adversaries presented in these mini adventures range from CR 13 to the early 20s. That alone kills a lot of the usefulness for those interested in lower to mid level adventures. The product could have been greatly improved by presenting more variety in scenarios and adversaries at different stages of advancement. Most of the locations themselves could be interesting adventure locations, at their most basic level, for any level of characters.

Those entries that are more general in nature often present cool ideas but left me feeling as if they were too unrealized. Its like saying “Hey, here's a neat idea for an adventure! Now why don't you go build it?” If you want a bunch of unconnected half page adventure ideas, some of these aren't bad. They could certainly stimulate a DM who is looking for interesting adventure ideas, but there are already plenty of other products out there that do a much better job of this.

There are random monster encounter tables here for those that want them, but they feel like just more wasted space. The stats on an Iron Golem are listed. Identical to the Monster Manual entry, they seem to be provided for the convenience of the DM. How convenient is it really, though, to have the adventure idea followed by a single monster entry from another book? Don't most DMs need to pull out the ole' Monster Manual anyway for these types of adventures? Long stat blocks listing Lichs and Dragons with the spells they have memorized and the like could be useful for folk who want to drop them into a current campaign. Not that there are too many campaigns that need a CR 23 Fiendish Black Dragon dropped in.

On the whole many of the locales are interesting and may be worth dropping into a campaign. I may even use one or two of them in my current Eberron game. However, the writing is still below average and these sections contain a large amount of wasted space.

Appendix 8 pages.

A collection of items a person might find in ancient tombs and the like. Some of it is great, such as a magical banner tied into Eberron's history. Some of it isn't so hot, like a table that lists mundane jewelry and the like that a person might find in an ancient tomb. On the whole there are several nifty bits in this section.

My Take

I felt a little betrayed reading through the book. When I ordered it I expected something different, a book that more fully embraced global travel and exploration. More wilderness focus, more focus on regions of Eberron and what a person might encounter there. Frankly, something similar to what has now appeared in the Player's Guide to Eberron. What I got was primarily a string of page filler combined with moderately to poorly written adventure locales.

Nonetheless, there is still some useful information here. The travel times are helpful, some of the general discussion of travel is nice, and some of the locations could be fun. Unfortunately, the book doesn't save me time as a DM, none of my players found anything of interest in it, and the locations don't do enough of the work for me considering the amount of space they take up. My advice is to avoid this one and pick up one of the other excellent Eberron sourcebooks out there. Die hard fans should pick this up last.