Preface
Okay, at the end of my review for Arcana
Unearthed, I expressed my hope that Diamond Throne would give me
something to complain about. Something to really feel good about
tearing into. Did it succeed? Well, not really. What
it had was all very entertaining and a good backdrop for roleplaying,
and my main complaint is that there wasn't more of it, which isn't
really a complaint at all.
I purchased and downloaded the PDF version of the book, and since I
work for a printing company, it was a small matter to get a very nice
bound copy printed out. Considering that all of the internal art
is black and white, the copy I have could be fairly considered a
perfect representation of what the published version will be when
released in November. While it is possible that changes will be
made before its print run, I rather doubt it.
Appearance
The book is surprisingly small, only 94 pages,
which may not sit well with some when the cover price is taken into
account. As with the main AU book, it is laid out in a
fairly tightly-packed font, with black and white artwork and
maps. While Diamond Throne isn't overly generous with
illustrations, I am happy to say that they are all of good quality;
none were displeasing to my eye and several were downright cool.
Layout
My copy has no index, a step down from AU, forcing
the reader to rely on the table of contents. While the contents
are pretty descriptive and thorough, an index would have been very
welcome. That may simply be a foible of the PDF version, however,
since Acrobat can search the file, hopefully the print version will
have an index to aid those wishing to find a specific locale in short
order. Otherwise, Diamond Throne is pretty much identical to AU
in the layout category.
Content
As with the main book, Diamond Throne is less about
presentation and more about dishing a heaping helping of tasty
information. However, while AU did a spectacular job of warming
up the audience, Diamond Throne did a poor job of following up with a
punchline.
Introduction
A simple little rundown of what the book provides, what
books are useful to have when playing in the setting, and some crib
notes on what the world is all about, for anyone in the audience who
didn't pick up on the themes from AU. The bone of contention that
I have with this book is also touched upon when Monte writes, in
essence, that it allows for a free, more open-ended setting when the
sourcebooks only brush the surface and leave the bulk of it up to the
DM. While I have, in fact, made snide remarks about Forgotten
Realms to the tune of them having statted out every flea living in the
bed of Farmer Bollinbrook along with a 1:10 scale map of his house, I
think that Diamond Throne swung too far in the other direction and gave
vagaries where substance would have served better. But, more on
that when we get there.
Chapter
One: People and Places
I have the same love-hate relationship with this (big)
chapter as I do with an excellent short story that deserved to be a
novel but never saw the fulfillment of its potential. Comprising
the bulk of the book, it describes the geography of the world (or
rather, the one continent of the mostly-unexplored world where all
these folks are living), the general cultural lay of the land, the
races, governments, landmarks, customs, religions.... Just about
every aspect that relates to the place as a setting is bundled into
this one chapter.
It opens very encouragingly, the first dozen and a half pages are chock
full of goodness. On top of a rundown of historical events, it
includes such tasty gems as special holidays, common religions, common
ceremonies (usually the non-feat variety), games and leisure
activities, general attitudes of the races, common figures of speech,
and how various regions of the land differ in prevailing attitudes.
It's right after the soaring heights of this wonderful start that the
momentum comes crashing to the earth with the section on
geography. With everything going so well, it's easy to overlook
the fact that nearly a quarter of the book is gone, and before it dawns
on the mind to ask the question, 'But how will he fit so much
information in so few pages without stripping it to the bones?", the
answer is dealt in a disappointingly brief skimming of several
wonderful locales. The section reads like being on a tour bus in
a tropical paradise where the driver has floored the accelerator and
refuses to slow down and let you look at anything. Take, for
example, the following:
'The Crystal Fields
The Crystal Fields lie just north of the largest concentration of
dramojh ruins, but they are far older. In this apparently natural
expanse, mile after mile of crystal "growth" thrusts up from beneath
the surface of the earth. Occasionally miners and collectors come
here to gather valuable crystal, but navigating the fields is extremely
treacherous; getting around in this sharp, jagged terrain is difficult,
and the brittle crystal has been known to give way beneath explorers.'
That is the entirety of the information provided on that
particular geographic feature. The idea is awesome, but the
information was crushed into a paragraph when it deserved a page.
What lives in there? What kind of crystals are there? What
are they worth? If there's so many crystals just laying around,
why aren't all the local people (those who haven't plunged to their
death yet) living in houses made of money? Those questions and
more sprang instantly into my mind, and I searched in vain for answers
before finding out that there were none to be had. The
descriptions of cities were somewhat less sparse, including notable
local NPCs and a general idea of the local population breakdown.
In all, however, this chapter left me feeling unfulfilled.
Contrasting the 'we give you freedom to do your own thing' theme, this
chapter has a goodly number of adventure ideas scattered around
it. Some people may find them valuable, though I've never really
cared about canned plot hooks, especially ones in books that the
players are likely to have read and remembered any 'surprise twists'
contained within.
Chapter
Two: Prestige Classes
I have never been a tremendous fan of prestige classes,
as the fact that you can't swing a stick without hitting one makes them
feel a little... un-prestigious? I am in the minority on that
opinion, it seems, and those of you who love the prestige classes
should be happy with the offerings here. None of them really
match the basic AU classes for pure coolness factor, unfortunately, and
markedly absent was a prestige class for Mojh. The scaley l'il
dragon-fanboys are so bent on all things dragon that I'd expected a
Dragon Disciple-esque prestige class tailored to fit in with that race,
and was somewhat surprised to find no such thing. Ah well.
Anyways, for all you at home, here's the rundown:
Beast Reaver - Professional
monster tamers, this five-level class is about mounted combat and
barbarian-style rages.
Crystal Warrior - Warriors who
can mystically create crystal, strengthen items with it, makes walls
with it, and so on.
Darkbond - The opposites of the
life-mage Greenbonds, here's your evil Necromancer class in one tidy
package.
Giant Paragon - For when being
large just isn't good enough, going through these five levels makes a
giant Huge.
Mage Priest - Spellcasters who
have signed up with various gods or entities in exchange for a boost in
power, a very strong class.
Ollamh Lorekeeper - A Faen (and
Spryte) prestige class, essentially a bard without the spells but with
much more interesting abilities.
Rune Lord - A class for
Runechildren and Runethanes who give up some variety in what runes they
can use in exchange for some very handy tricks.
Somnamancer - A spellcaster
dealing in sleep and dreams. Very interesting concept, but also
pretty short on power, best kept to NPCs or very creative players.
This section also lists applicable prestige classes from the DMG, The
Book of Eldritch Might (One and Two), and Relics and Rituals (One and
Two), along with any changes that need to be made to fit them into AU,
a little more than doubling the base prestige classes by throwing ten
more into the mix. Handy, if you actually own the books that it
refers to. The Beast Reaver and Crystal Warrior both struck me as
bland, the Darkbond as more fodder for the big evil bad guy NPCs than
something a sane DM would let players run around with, and the
Somnamancer as too subtle to fit in well with the 'kick the door down,
blow up any threats' style of any of the adventuring parties I've ever
seen (but excellent for suitably sneaky players who can work well with
long-term plans). That leaves the other four classes as the ones
that I think will see common use in games.
Chapter
Three: Magic Items
If you were hoping for a section to rival the DMG's catalogue of 'phat
lewt', this chapter is not for you, I'm afraid. On its own, it
presents only a very humble, miserly selection of unique items.
For the most part, this is understandable; the setting is very light on
permanent magic items laying around, focusing more on single-shot items
that are more readily accessible to all. Also, general guidelines
are provided for what items are suitable for borrowing from the DMG,
giving a respectable pool of items to draw from. However, one
thing that I found somewhat disappointing was that there were no items
tailored to individual races, only class-dependant items. Some
nice class-dependant items, mind you, especially some that offer a very
pleasant boost to the Runethanes' utility, but by and large it's slim
pickings.
Chapter
Four: Creatures
The creatures listed in this chapter are interesting enough, but fall in
the same boat as the magic items. Nothing truly stellar and amazing, and
very little content. However, redemption is snatched from the jaws of
defeat right at the very end of this chapter with the very helpful
inclusion of a big list of monsters from other monster books that can be
found in the setting. Brief notes are included for specific monsters if
any tweaking of their description is necessary to make them fit with the
setting's themes. The Monster Manual and Tome of Horrors books get the
most monsters ported over to DT, with the two Creature Collections also
receiving some mentions.
Opinions
Well, this one boils down to just how much you like Arcana Unearthed.
If,like me, you're gung-ho about the game in general, then you'll find
Diamond Throne worth your while. If you're only so-so about AU (shame on
you!), then Diamond Throne will be a waste of your money. This book does
not stand on its own at all, winding up vague or just plain lacking in
several places, and a bunch of neat, vague ideas aren't worth the cover
price, period. As any writer could tell you, cool ideas are a dime a
dozen, the reason that novelists get paid is that the work is in
fleshing those ideas out. Diamond Throne did no fleshing, and hinted
that selling DMs a completely bare-bones setting was giving them freedom.
The DMs I've seen can make their own cool ideas for free, and on that
count I'm sad to say that Diamond Throne falls utterly flat. Considering
Monte's work on the exemplary Planescape setting, not to mention Arcana
Unearthed itself, I find that to be all the more disappointing.
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Name: Monte Cook\'s Arcana Unearthed: The Diamond Throne (PDF Version)
Publisher: Malhavoc Press
Line: Arcana Unearthed
Author: Monte Cook
Category: RPG (virtual)
Cost: 9.00
Pages: 94
Year: 2003 SKU: NA (PDF)
View [ Printable Review ] |
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Capsule Review
George Jackson
September 10, 2003
Style: 4 (Classy & Well Done)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)
The setting followup for Arcana Unearthed simply doesn't fill its parent's shoes, sadly.
George Jackson has written 10 reviews, with average style of 3.40 and average substance of 3.50. The reviewer's previous review was of Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed. This review has been read 2959 times. |
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