Review of Monte Cook\'s Arcana Unearthed: The Diamond Throne (PDF Version)
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.
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.
