In my experience, the highest quality most detailed gaming products consistently come from Columbia Games', Harn series. Brant Guillory has achieved the same with his own unique twist and World of Esaene fantasy rpg. In fact, if I had just had someone read it to me, I would have easily mistaken The Pellinen Islands as a Harn product, with the obvious exception of game stats. What this supplement remembers, is that every person and place it covers has a history and an ambition. All of the current states of all affairs are detailed with a historical lead and a forward-looking set of goals and possible futures.
Perfect bound, the book is just larger than digest sized at 8.5"x7". The line art is original and professional with few exceptions. Maps are provided in gray scale and one with color within the text, a three page pull-out contains more, mostly color, maps. The pullout's maps provide language, trade, resource and political boundary details. The text reads professionally and effortlessly. Sidebar type information and game stats are provided in separate boxes of text that only becomes confused with the main text the few times those boxes reach a full page. Even then, the background provided adds depth and color to the surrounding information. A one-page set of "Quick Rules" is provided for those uninitiated in the World of Esaene rpg system.
The islands themselves are really a subcontinent, surrounded by some smaller islands, easily dropped into any campaign. Non-humans exist in isolated communities and include several distinct tribes of elves and giants, as well as goblins, orcs dwarves, faeries and gnomes. Who the original human inhabitants is a subject of cultural debate but there are wandering gypsies, two kingdoms, 3 duchies and 11 baronies. One of the kingdoms is planning to expand through invasion and, one of the dukes aspires to make his lands a kingdom and legitimize himself a king. Several of the baronies are struggling to maintain independence or even to maintain civilization. With each page, the resources, history, culture and politics of the region concerned are detailed.
An older, now underground, religion spawned a society of knights who still maintain order throughout all of the realms with only a very few exceptions. The current dominant religion has a big secret, it's founding Saint, who is credited with driving back orc invaders and starting the aforementioned knightly order, was raised under the old religion in a gypsy tribe. Some even believed he returned to his people at the end of his life and may never have given up on his old faith. And so, the politics of the land is further complicated by rival religions, non-politically affiliated order of knights, as well as a secret society of co-conspirators who have taken it upon themselves to protect the interests of humanity and the ways of all the islands' human inhabitants. A few other guild type organizations round out the realistic picture of the races of the Pellinen Islands.
A great number of plot hooks and adventure seeds are provided in the final chapters of the book, as well as a short adventure that leaves most of the details to the GM. All things considered, you would be hard pressed to find another such supplement at this price, or even a more complete product at a higher price. Even if you never use the World of Esaene rpg rules, this product is worth more than it's cost to any fantasy rpg GM looking to add a new location to his gaming world. Check out their web page or look for an article on it in an upcoming issue of Games Unplugged (as I was informed by Bayonet Games). I give it an A+.
http://games.bayonetgear.com
Review Summary