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It is a soft-cover book of 144 pages divided into four chapters and numerous appendices. Each chapter covers a specific region in the Dragon Sands: No Man's Land (a rocky badland area on the northern border), The Granite Kingdom (a region of the western mountains ruled by dwarves), Burning Sands (the desert to the south of No-Man's Land), and the Dragori Empire (a magically sustained region of dragon-like humanoids). The appendices cover everything else - there are twelve of them! All the crunchy mechanics are present in the appendices. All the NPC stats are collected there. The rules for the hazards of the desert are listed in Appendix II and III. New classes, spells, feats, and skills are listed. There are new creatures, equipment, and magic items. There is even a short glossary of the language used - which looks to be very close to or indistinguishable from Arabic, though I don't know enough of the language to be sure.
As a Supplement
This product is a supplement to the Bluffside setting. Some elements and especially NPCs are not described in the product. I don't own the Bluffside setting, so I can't be sure of the ins and outs of steam gnomes and Nevae. These elements seem fairly rare, and I don't think it is actually too difficult to replace them with your own choices. Also, this area seems fairly remote, both physically and culturally from the core of the setting, so it does not seem to depend overly on the Bluffside setting. In that vein, I am mainly going to review this as an independent product detailing a region and not worry overly about its connection to other Bluffside products.
First Look
The book has a high text density and the organization is good. There is both a detailed table of contents and an index. In the chapters, all game references are set out in shaded sections for easy reference to the appendix with NPC stats. The editing is passable but not amazing.
The interior illustrations are all in black and white and vary in quality. I liked many of the site illustrations very much. Some of the dragori illustrations seemed a little too anime-influenced for the tone of the material.
The maps are horrible. There are essentially two maps, one covering the entire area discussed, and one of the Dragon Empire capitol, Endikarr. The maps are in grey-scale and are sometimes hard to read. There is very little indication of terrain. Mountains are mountains, No Man's Land is uniformly broken, and the desert is sand. Locations are marked on the map, but no indication of trails or roads is shown, and the Dragori Empire has four locations marked on it: Endikarr, Dune Worm Bredding Farm, Castle of the Zaari, and Doohaba. That's it - four locations for a huge empire. In addition, in a sourcebook on a region, it's criminal to have only two maps. For example, there is no map of the Granite Kingdom, even though many locations are described in the text.
No Man's Land
No Man's Land is a sparsely populated area with no real controlling authority. It is essentially an ignored border-zone between the other great powers. The main industries are mining, some small trade, and banditry. Many ill people come to soak in the mineral waters. The usual collections of ne-er-do-wells are presented, as well as some interesting other inhabitants, like a cult of eco-terrorists. The idea is interesting, but I don't really understand their motivations. In addition, there is a project to build a magical railroad running through this region.
No Man's Land seems designed to be an entry point for characters from the north to enter the desert. Here people can pick up supplies, get treasure maps, get robbed, etc. It seems to fulfill that objective adequately, though there isn't a lot of detail
The Granite Kingdom
The dwarves in the mountains are migrants to the area. All dwarves once lived in a single unified kingdom, but now they are scattered. The dwarves in the Granite Kingdom have always been outnumbered and learned to breathe life into clay soldiers to bolster their numbers. They are the protectors of a human settlement (The Clay Fortress), which is a pale imitation of their great city, carved into a granite cliff. There is a fair amount of political ferment in the city, because the dwarves are unaligned and both the dragori and Bluffside wish to win their friendship and the secrets of ceramics the dwarves hold.
A much smaller settlement, the Clay Fortress, is a human dwelling built in imitation of the Granite Kingdom after the dwarves saved them from the dragori.
I'm not entirely sure what the characters are supposed to do in the Granite Kingdom. The dwarves do not dispense their knowledge lightly.
Burning Sands
This region of desert was once part of the dragori empire. The native humans were conquered by the dragori and in retaliation summoned genies to turn it into a desert. Now no one wants the land, and the only inhabitants are nomadic humans who eke out an existence in the harsh desert. There are many ruins from the old dragori empire here that attract treasure hunters.
There are a number of oases, and there is some conflict here as the dragori attempt to expand trade with other nations through the Burning Sands. They have set up several bases to push their influence north and hook up with the wealthy north. The native tribes are naturally resentful of this situation. There are many interesting touches here, like the halfling giant tortoise riders, and the secret graveyard of the giant tortoises. It isn't terribly developed however.
Dragori Empire
The dragori empire is a powerful state shielded from the magical heat that created the Burning Sands by a magical wall. It is threatened by a religious schism over dragon-like dune wyrms, which some claim are an abomination that must be destroyed and others believe are merely tragically reduced dragons that must be aided by the dragori.
The leader has recently opened the empire to trade, and some traditionalists wish to change that policy. Tension is running high in the area, but it isn't as clear how to use this in a campaign. In addition, there appear to be only two distinct cities in the whole empire, which seems ridiculous to me.
Appendices
The appendices are all about crunch. Every NPC with full stats, including their racial powers (which are repeated about 50 times throughout this section for the dragori) is listed here alphabetically. I liked this setup. It is easy to find NPCs, both by location and by name. For some reason, the decision was made to make the Dragori Arabs, presumably because they hold sway over a desert and river valley.
Appendix II and II give descriptions and rules for environmental factors in the desert and arid regions. Dehydration, flash floods, geysers, sandstorms, and tainted water are some of the hazards described in these 6 pages.
Appendix III covers the new classes, of which there are two, the Bisaakir Zaari (essentially the sha'ir from Al Qadim) and another Shaman class who works with spirits and has slightly less powerful spellcasting. There is also a slave class usable for NPC slaves. In addition, there are many prestige classes:
Badlands Bandit: outlaw of No Man's Land that gains ambush and sneak attack bonuses.
Claws of the Emperor: elite warriors who develop unarmed abilities to defend the Dragori Emperor, using their natural claws and even their sharpened scales.
Digger: Indiana Jones type who specializes in exploring ancient ruins and disarming traps and deciphering inscriptions.
Halfling Caravan Runner: trained scout who travel ahead of the huge halfling caravans to determine dangerous situations ahead of time. He gains improved movement, dodge, and danger sense abilities
Nevae Wanderer: Allows one to avoid attention, move quickly, and avoid detection. Nevae rely on avoiding unwanted attention to survive.
Priest of the Eternal Dragon: Gains dragon abilities like breath weapon and natural armor as he communes with their draconic ancestry.
Prophet of the Sands: Insane wanderers who gain the ability to see the future and avoid illusions
Sand Dancer: scout and spy for the nomadic desert tribes who can travel unnoticed and spy out details in the desert others miss.
Sand Rider: Mounted warrior of the nomadic desert tribes who gains desert survival and riding bonuses
Serpent Warden: Protectors of the sacred rivers who gain water and serpent control abilities.
The Wise: Revered elders who can resist charms, see past illusions, and see what others cannot and have some spellcasting ability.
Wyrmrider: Those who ride desert wyrms can develop a special bond with their mount.
Appendix 5 gives a few creatures, like the clay soldiers of the dwarves, sand elementals, help genies for the bisaakir zaari, and various giant animal denizens of the desert. There are also several templates, like sand creature (artificial beings made of sand), spirit, and true mummy.
Appendix 6 gives some mundane equipment, like water testing kits and some unique weapons.
Appendix 7 is feats, most of which are related to the innate powers of the dragori, but some are generally useful, like Ki-Skin, which lets a monk exchange a stunning attack for DR 1/- for 3 rounds plus Wisdom bonus.
Appendix 8 is a glossary of terms, which looks like it was lifted directly from Arabic.
Appendix 9 lists a few local magic items, like the clay masks of the Clay Fortress which give magical bonuses to skill checks, and the Dragon Throne of the Dragori.
Appendix 10 gives details on the dragori and their three sub-races, the large and powerful but emotionless dragori-nen, the quick and slight dragori-fehr, and the charismatic but weak dragori-sah. In addition a strange humanoid jackal race called the hukhamet and modeled on the ancient Egyptians is presented who live on an isolated plateau in the middle of the empire.
Appendix 11 gives a number of spells dealing with the desert.
Appendix 12 discusses two new skills: Craft (ceramics) and Craft (embalming) and discusses how one uses Alchemy to embalm.
Conclusions
There is a lot of material in this book, but some of the presentation is lacking. I wasn't really sure how to use some of this information, and it seemed like Interlude: Sands of Pain (an adventure sourcebook set in this area) was really needed to make full use of the project. The adventure hooks and maps in the supplement seemed inadequate, though there was an impressive amount of crunch in the book. I especially liked that the author took some time to devise rules for numerous environmental factors in the desert. The book feels somewhat incomplete, especially with the missing maps. I suppose in the end I wanted a little more motivation and discussion and maybe a little less crunchy rules bits.
