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Oathbound
Birds? Birds? A place ruled by birds? Ick.
That was pretty much my first impression of Oathbound (a d20
campaign setting from Bastion
Press), because the world of Oathbound (the
"Forge") is ruled by 7 feathery beings called the
"Feathered Fowl" or the "Flock".
But rather than actual birds, they seem to be angels. At least,
they have the same names as angels (with names changed just a
bit), and they formerly served an all-powerful (or close to it)
god. Israfel,
Barbelo, Orifel, Nemamiah, etc, while not household names, are
generally considered to be important angels, usually archangels
or better.
In some cases, there is something of a connection between the
angel and the figure here - Hailael was the chief angel of holy
beasts - here, Haiel is the former "Defender of
Nature". Colopatiron had something to do with opening
prisons - in Oathbound, Colopitiron is the "King of
Thieves". But in many cases, they're quite different, the
Orifel in Oathbound has nothing to do with toothache relief.
As mentioned, these 7 were chief servants of a very powerful and
somewhat mysterious god. Angry and jealous at his/her power, the
rest of the gods of the multiverse fought with him, and
imprisoned him, as they couldn't kill him. They made the 7 into
guardians of the prison. (This is where the name of the setting,
"Oathbound", came from), but in many ways, they are
also prisoners.
Call me crazy, but a world ruled by 7 former angels (or similar
to them) is far more interesting than a world ruled by 7 bird
people. So once I realized that, I liked the setting a lot more
than I thought I would from reading the back of the book.
Anyway, The Oath that binds the 7 rulers to the prison has
something of a loophole - they can be replaced by a more powerful
being. So these rulers bring in people from other planes and
worlds, and try to test them, in the hopes that someone will
eventually replace them. This is why the world is called
"The Forge"
The world of Oathbound, the Forge, is something of a roach motel
- you can enter, but leaving is somewhat difficult. Not
impossible, or even that hard, but it does require some extra
effort.
It's a fairly original, interesting world. There are 7 pretty
distinct regions (1 for each ruler), and the setting allows for
just about any style of play - combat heavy, politics,
exploration, etc. It seems to be mostly set around Penance, which
is a large and ancient city. So old, it's built on the rubble of
itself, and rises into the sky.
Other regions include The Arena, which is a desert full of gold
that people fight over (which apparently explains the high prices
in the book - inflation); The Kiln, a giant semi-dormant volcano;
The Anvil, a mountain range full of skytop castles and hidden
valleys full of jolly green giants (er, not so jolly and green,
but giants and giant beasts, over 100 feet tall. Kaiju, or close
to it.); Wildwood, a tangle of forests; Eclipse, which is inside
a giant crater at the top of the world, for those that hate
sunlight; and the Vault, which is a wasteland full of undead and
lawyers.
The downside is, it's quite alien. Of the 10 or so new races
introduced in the book, all are pretty weird. 4 of them are
lizards or reptiles. One looks an awful lot like an upright giant
rooster, like that Foghorn Leghorn
character. One is a floating Jellyfish. There's also a dog race,
and a cat race. The cat race is almost literally like housecats,
only they walk upright. Rounding out the selection is a goat race
(not like Satyrs, they're literally like goats that walk upright,
though the picture of them makes them look more like Elk), and
something that looks somewhat like a demon, but not a very
attractive one. A bit more gargoyle-ish.
If you're sick of elves, dwarves, etc, then this is a good thing.
But I found them to be very unattractive and uninteresting, too
close to real world animals than something truly original.
Compare them to say, the aliens of Star Wars. Sure, some are just
people in a fur suit (Wookiees, Ewoks, Ed Asner*), but there are
a lot of aliens that aren't like real world animals, but really
alien. Rodians, Ithorians, Bith, Sullustians, whatever the heck
Yoda is, etc.
For a d20 book, there's really not all that much new rules
material. There are stats for most of the major NPCs, the new
races (most of them), and some new monsters, but there are only a
handful of new prestige classes and only a couple new feats.
Something of a refreshing change, as those are generally things
that are overdone.
The biggest difference from this and regular D&D/d20 is
"prestige races" and gifts.
Prestige Races are somewhat similar to prestige classes, in they
are better than normal races, but they're just more evolved.
Basically, by spending XP, you get special abilities. In most
cases, I don't think these things are worth the experience points
they cost. They work somewhat like a chain or even class, you
have to buy the first change, then the second, and so, they get
better (and more expensive) the further up you go.
Gifts are what they sound like - gifts to characters. Because the
god imprisoned in the forge is so powerful, some of his divine
energy leaks out, giving people special abilities (a similar
thing happens at Graceland).
Characters get one gift when they enter the Forge. These gifts
are relatively minor - about twice as much as a feat - for
instance, an ability boost of 2 points, or a skill can get a +6
bonus.
Characters can earn more, but there doesn't seem to be any hard
and fast rules for this. Earned gifts are somewhat more powerful
(say 50% more powerful). Gifts of either type are lost when a
character leave the Forge to go to another world/plane (the
prestige races abilities stay).
Generally speaking, for d20 games, I don't like mechanisms like
this, because they make it difficult for the GM to gauge how
powerful a character is. Pretty much the whole purpose of having
a level system is so you know what you can and can't throw at
your PCs and have them survive.
The prestige races in particular, seem to be perfectly suited for
classes. As they are all chained together, and they cost xp, it
seems more or less what a prestige class is for. The only benefit
of doing it this way is that it allows characters to improve once
they hit 20th level (at the time Oathbound was originally
released, the Epic Advancement rules weren't released as open
content). So I can at least understand it, but it's hard to
figure out the proper CR for characters with lots of gifts and
prestige race improvements. Especially as not all the gifts or
evolutionary improvements are combat orientated - someone with a
+5 bonus to STR is better at fighting than someone with a +5 CHA
or a +10 bonus to Craft(Basketweaving).
It's a remarkably complete book, probably the single most
complete d20 setting book I own (which is quite a few, actually).
Pretty much the whole world is given fairly detailed atlas style
description, and one section, "Penance", is given a
very detailed description, about on par with most dedicated
location sourcebooks. So the GM has pretty much all the info
needed to run a game in Penance, and enough to handle visits to
other areas of the world.
The level of detail of the world is quite impressive, as is the
complex relationships between the inhabitants. This goes a long
way towards making the world feel real. Which I consider to be
the litmus test when using a setting for an RPG, for me there
really has to be a suspension of disbelief.
There's also a long (64 page or so) adventure. While the
adventure is well done, I think it highlights another potential
problem of Oathbound. The PCs in it are servants of a much more
powerful lord (a "Bloodlord", one of the rulers of part
of the city of Penance).
Basically, the PCs are given one task after another by the
Bloodlord to do. These tasks vary greatly, from working as tour
guides to exploring dungeons to diplomatic missions.
Do you want to be the main characters, or the supporting cast?
Most players would prefer to be the main characters. Going
through a lot of effort for the glory and enrichment of others is
not much fun (too much like paying taxes).
While some of that is probably just because the adventure was
meant to be an introduction to the world, it's also just a really
high powered world, and until the PCs reach 20th level or so,
they won't be powerful enough to challenge any of the existing
Bloodlords of Pennace, or even survive against them.
By contrast, in most settings, a 10th or so level character can
pretty much set their own agenda, maybe start a castle or
stronghold someplace. That doesn't seem possible in The Forge
At least in the main area of the world, Penance, you can't become
a leader unless you have 1000 people living in an area already.
Why? Whim, apparently. The main ruler of Penance, Israfel, has a
rule about ordering people around if you have less than 1000
people in an area. So you can't work up your way gradually. You
either have to gather up a whole lot of people, then colonize a
place all at once, or depose another leader.
(Actually, the Penance area of the Forge would be ripe for
something of a miniature version of Birthright or even Diplomacy
- rules for creating and expanding your territory, maybe with
troupe style play)
Physically, it's a nice looking book. Sturdy, well laid out, with
both a nice table of contents and index. The outer margins also
list the chapter, so finding something is a breeze. There's also
a handy glossary
The art didn't do much for me. There were some nice pieces, but
most of it was drawn in a very abstract sort of style - bodies
aren't proportioned properly, they have all these lines on them,
like you're seeing muscles without the skin (but it's skin
toned). Very very creepy, I think, though at the same time, it
makes me hungry for fried chicken (especially the foghorn leghorn
illo).
The sticker price is pretty high, but pretty reasonable for a
full color book this size (352 pages), and the amount of info in
it (lots!). You can also get it on Ebay for pretty cheap - I got
mine there for about 1/3 cover price. It's definitely worth that.
I personally am not going to use it as my campaign setting, but I
have used it as a place to visit (I have something of a
plane-travelling campaign) and it seemed to go over well enough.
B+. More if you like alien settings, it was a
bit too much for me in places. The new races, anyway - I'm just
not into hermaphrodite lizards (even if they buy me dinner).
Also as a note, they have a free
introductory adventure (around 20 pages) on their downloads
section of their website, and they've supported the setting
pretty well. I think 4 or 5 supplements for it (in about a year)
and most of their other d20 supplements have some tie in with the
setting. Also apparently they have novels coming out.
* He's in "Knights of the Old Republic".
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