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Most d20 products would be what I would call "glory projects". You can identify them by the word "new" in their description: New campaigns, new magic items, new prestige classes, new races, new monsters, new spells, new NPCs, new mechanics... Basically the sexy stuff that not-so-coincidentally contributes to the "d20 glut".
But actual GM aids? Those are the supplements helping the GM populate his world with the necessary and the mundane: Boring villages. Everyday folks. Plants.
Plants? Yes, as campaigns become more sophisticated, the GM must make his worlds more real. Ironically, it's this realism that's both the most difficult part of the world to create, and the least appreciated. Sure, you've created this exotic plant the party must find to make a particular potion. But where does it grow? Why does it grow there? When does it bloom? How do you prepare it? Who cares???
The plant is just a plot device for your next adventure, but the players want to know everything possible about that plant. Most of us GMs have better things to do then remember the Good King Phillip mneumonic. But players want realism, and you want a GM aid to provide it: Those difficult, least appreciated touches with their low suspension of disbelief. Rockslides in the mountains. Sinkholes in the deserts. Bogs in the swamps.
And those d*mn plants.
Wilderness & Wasteland: Scarred Lands Encounters
I've felt that campaign books were a poor way of conveying the atmosphere and mood of a particular setting. They're necessarily broad, ending up as dry textbooks, rather than vivid descriptions. Perhaps this need not be so, but this is the current conventional way.
In contrast, W&W conveys the unique and deadly dangers of the Scarred Lands setting through vivid detail of its unique encounters: The Sorceror's Rose of the badlands. The Sand Vortices of the desert. The Serpent Root of the forest. The Pricket Poison plant of the mountains. The Bog Mummies of the swamp. I'd go so far as to recommend it being one's first purchase of a Scarred Lands product. W&W also has "normal" terrain encounters, like rock slides, sand traps, forest fires, avalanches, and quick sand, easily used in generic d20 settings.
The introduction covers making your own encounter charts. Chapters one through five cover badlands, deserts, forests, mountains, and swamps. Each chapter includes a short encounter. The supplement ends with an appendix of encounter charts for each terrain.
The art deserves a special mention. There's a certain continuity in the pictures when the same party of heroes (a different group each chapter) encounters a hazard mentioned in the accompanying text. The facial expressions and body postures convey a sense of exploration, determination, fear -- and you're sure if they'll survive the encounter! Much better than the standard static portrait-style rpg art. Being something of a bad guy GM, I thoroughly enjoyed it. (:
Introduction
The Introduction first outlines the format of the chapters (terrain, creatures, encounter (a side adventure), then describes how the GM can create his own encounter charts, based on an area's CR. (Four pages)
Chapters One through Five: Badlands to Swamps
Each of these chapters covers a terrain: badlands, deserts, forests, mountains, and swamps. Each chapter is divided into terrain, creatures, and a short encounter. Terrain topics are: plants, weather, terrain hazards, animal hazards, and notes on surviving in the terrain. Creatures topics are: animals, monsters, and humanoids. Discussions include both general overviews, and detailed individual encounters. (Six pages in each chapter, total thirty pages)
Each chapter also has a short encounter, with suggestions for scaling the CR for different party levels. In the badlands, the players outrace a canyon storm. The desert has a maze of collapsing ant tunnels. In the mountains, the party discovers who -- or what -- has been kidnapping town children. The swamp has a very evil -- and very deadly -- recluse. (Three pages in each chapter)
Appendix: Encounter Charts of Ghelspad
This section contains the rank-and-file creature encounter charts for the most important wilderness areas of Ghelspad. The charts principally utilizes the Creature Collection, Creature Collection 2, and Monster Manual books. A few monsters come from the Divine and Defeated and Warrens of the Ratmen books. (Twelve pages)
Conclusion
I don't have any problems recommending this supplement to anyone running a Scarred Lands campaign. Even GMs running a different world "slowly being corrupted by evil" will find W&W helpful in setting the appropriate mood. GMs with generic D&D worlds might find some useful terrain encounters, but may only get as far as using the book as a model for his own encounters.
I guess they don't call it the Scarred Lands for nothing...!
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