Post by geoffrey on Feb 15, 2022 10:05:42 GMT -6
Isle of Eldisor Hexcrawl Campaign Cyclopedia & Gazetteer
by James Mishler and Jodi Moran-Mishler
a Labyrinth Lord compatible product (which of course means that you can easily use it with any set of old-school A/D&D rules)
Copyright 2022
$15 for a 76-page (plus loads of full-color maps) PDF
available here:
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/384497/Isle-of-Eldisor-Hexcrawl-Campaign-Cyclopedia--Gazetteer?term=eldisor
Short Version of This Review: I never review things that I dislike, for the prosaic reason that I am too bored to write about things I don't like. The very fact that this review exists illustrates that I like this book. James Mishler is one of my favorite active RPG authors. He really understands 1970s A/D&D. Eldisor is the child of the Wilderlands and of the Known World / Mystara. I am confident that most old-schoolers will feel they got their money's worth with Eldisor, whether they use Eldisor for a few casual games or as the basis of a complex, long-term campaign.
Here goes...
The first thing I noticed was the always evocative Century Gothic font, plus a stylish font used throughout for section headings, a sort of woodsy-and-clear-and-honest font right out of Middle-earth. I love it. This book is one of the nicest-looking and most pleasant to read of RPG books. Which reminds me: There is no art in this book, and I didn't even realize it until I was on something like page 56. I didn't miss it...at all. I never once thought to myself, "This book would be better with art."
We start with a blessedly-short one-page historical backgroud. Basically: Serious, grim, blood-and-thunder fantasy Viking lands get wrecked into "a hoar-frost hell" by the apocalypse, Viking-style--Fimbul Winter, the War of the Giants, the King of Hel(l), and a vast horde of giants, dragons, trolls, ogres, etc.
Now, about 400 years after Fimbul Winter, some nations have partially-rebuilt, detailed on page 5.
Pages 6-10: I count 28 geographic features that are detailed here, such as the Plain of Burning Frost, Muckmarsh, Myrkvald, Ormvald, etc. Each includes its own encounter table. Thank you, James! A good encounter table can tell you more about a place than all the purple prose in the world.
Pages 11-12: Here we have notes on the five groups of post-apocalyptic men. You can tell from their names that there has been a lot of regression: cavemen, the Gray Folk, morlocks, tribesmen, and the Kruski (berserkers).
Pages 13-23: Eleven pages describing the gods is about ten pages more than suits me, but I know that I am in a minority on that. You get 13 deities (or groups of deities) with lots of information (but not combat stats such as AC or hp) on what the gods and their followers are like. I am pleased to note that the Old Ones of this product are (with only a single exception) the weirdos who lurk in the bowels of Mt. Voormithadreth in my favorite Clark Ashton Smith story, "The Seven Geases": Atlach-Nacha, Tsathoggua, and the most D&Dable god of all time: Abhoth.
Pages 24-27: Three dozen myths, legends, and rumors of Eldisor. Very detailed, very flavorful, very cool.
Then we get a few pages with miscellaneous campaign notes (coins, languages, demi-humans, etc.), a one-page weather system, and a very valuable two-page set of instructions on how to conduct a hexcrawl exploration.
And now, the very best part: Pages 34-59 give you 156 (if I counted correctly) hex encounters of rich variety and deep fantasy. These 26 pages alone are worth the price of admission. The deep-twisted-Russ Nicholson-flavorful (I'm looking for the right word here and not quite finding it) Viking theme is thick enough to cut with a knife. I like how layered the book is: On the one hand, a beer-and-pretzels group could use it after the DM gave it a quick read, and just skate along the surface and have a blast. On the other hand, it could be the basis for a complex, long-lasting campaign, with ever more nuggets of information and inspirational fantasy found with each new reading. How about:
a magically-twisted cannibal troll standing 48' tall with dozens of gibbering troll faces on its body
4-armed albino apes
unique magical artifacts
twisted and evil dwarves
twisted and evil elves (svartalfar, dokkalfar, etc.) fighting wars amongst themselves (think Anderson's The Broken Sword for these elves)
a mastodon graveyard
a nameless city of mummified serpent-men and technological artifacts
morlock temples of the Old Ones
Best of all, there are a great many monstrous magical experiments/cross-breeds, the nasty work of Ringulreith the Chaos-Lich: ochre ogres, stonescavengers (carrion crawler-medusa cross-breeds), hellgriffs, bumblebears, frog-squids, pyrowyverns, wereworms, etc.
Etc.
cool names: Kruski Rimebeard, Duergodelve, Gomdgrotta, Ilskatorn, Myrkgaard, Ringulreith, Jarla Bjorna Bjorn's-Daughter, etc.
Pages 60-63 detail new monsters: mammoths (dwarf and steppe), northern titans (mountain, cave, glacier, volcano, sky, and sea--up to 36 HD and 50' tall!), and trolls (giant and multi-headed--up to 5 heads).
Page 64 features James's own Appendix N of inspirational reading for Eldisor. Several titles and authors overlap with Gary's Appendix N, plus some unique to this list: Elizabeth Boyer's "World of Alfar" series and "Wizard's War" series, Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead, H. Rider Haggard's The Saga of Eric Brighteyes, Snorri Sturlson, Thomas Swann, etc.
Finally we have 9 pages of full-color hex maps (at 6 miles per hex) done in the general style of the Known World / Mystara. The first shows the entire area described in the book. Each of the other 8 maps is a zoomed-in section of the first map, each with 15 columns of 18 hexes. The maps are clear and thoroughly labeled. They would be very, very easy to use in a game: 'Let's see, the party just wandered into hex 4623. It's labeled "Tower of the Wraith-King" on the map. The book must have something about it...OMG! The party is screwed!'
The last page is a list of the FORTY-ONE products that James has available. I'm jealous. I thought I was doing well with 13. Ha! I'd need to triple that to even get close to what James has achieved. He has unostentatiously plugged-away for years creating D&D stuff that ranges from good to great, and the Isle of Eldisor is his latest and greatest thing.
Excelsior!
by James Mishler and Jodi Moran-Mishler
a Labyrinth Lord compatible product (which of course means that you can easily use it with any set of old-school A/D&D rules)
Copyright 2022
$15 for a 76-page (plus loads of full-color maps) PDF
available here:
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/384497/Isle-of-Eldisor-Hexcrawl-Campaign-Cyclopedia--Gazetteer?term=eldisor
Short Version of This Review: I never review things that I dislike, for the prosaic reason that I am too bored to write about things I don't like. The very fact that this review exists illustrates that I like this book. James Mishler is one of my favorite active RPG authors. He really understands 1970s A/D&D. Eldisor is the child of the Wilderlands and of the Known World / Mystara. I am confident that most old-schoolers will feel they got their money's worth with Eldisor, whether they use Eldisor for a few casual games or as the basis of a complex, long-term campaign.
Here goes...
The first thing I noticed was the always evocative Century Gothic font, plus a stylish font used throughout for section headings, a sort of woodsy-and-clear-and-honest font right out of Middle-earth. I love it. This book is one of the nicest-looking and most pleasant to read of RPG books. Which reminds me: There is no art in this book, and I didn't even realize it until I was on something like page 56. I didn't miss it...at all. I never once thought to myself, "This book would be better with art."
We start with a blessedly-short one-page historical backgroud. Basically: Serious, grim, blood-and-thunder fantasy Viking lands get wrecked into "a hoar-frost hell" by the apocalypse, Viking-style--Fimbul Winter, the War of the Giants, the King of Hel(l), and a vast horde of giants, dragons, trolls, ogres, etc.
Now, about 400 years after Fimbul Winter, some nations have partially-rebuilt, detailed on page 5.
Pages 6-10: I count 28 geographic features that are detailed here, such as the Plain of Burning Frost, Muckmarsh, Myrkvald, Ormvald, etc. Each includes its own encounter table. Thank you, James! A good encounter table can tell you more about a place than all the purple prose in the world.
Pages 11-12: Here we have notes on the five groups of post-apocalyptic men. You can tell from their names that there has been a lot of regression: cavemen, the Gray Folk, morlocks, tribesmen, and the Kruski (berserkers).
Pages 13-23: Eleven pages describing the gods is about ten pages more than suits me, but I know that I am in a minority on that. You get 13 deities (or groups of deities) with lots of information (but not combat stats such as AC or hp) on what the gods and their followers are like. I am pleased to note that the Old Ones of this product are (with only a single exception) the weirdos who lurk in the bowels of Mt. Voormithadreth in my favorite Clark Ashton Smith story, "The Seven Geases": Atlach-Nacha, Tsathoggua, and the most D&Dable god of all time: Abhoth.
Pages 24-27: Three dozen myths, legends, and rumors of Eldisor. Very detailed, very flavorful, very cool.
Then we get a few pages with miscellaneous campaign notes (coins, languages, demi-humans, etc.), a one-page weather system, and a very valuable two-page set of instructions on how to conduct a hexcrawl exploration.
And now, the very best part: Pages 34-59 give you 156 (if I counted correctly) hex encounters of rich variety and deep fantasy. These 26 pages alone are worth the price of admission. The deep-twisted-Russ Nicholson-flavorful (I'm looking for the right word here and not quite finding it) Viking theme is thick enough to cut with a knife. I like how layered the book is: On the one hand, a beer-and-pretzels group could use it after the DM gave it a quick read, and just skate along the surface and have a blast. On the other hand, it could be the basis for a complex, long-lasting campaign, with ever more nuggets of information and inspirational fantasy found with each new reading. How about:
a magically-twisted cannibal troll standing 48' tall with dozens of gibbering troll faces on its body
4-armed albino apes
unique magical artifacts
twisted and evil dwarves
twisted and evil elves (svartalfar, dokkalfar, etc.) fighting wars amongst themselves (think Anderson's The Broken Sword for these elves)
a mastodon graveyard
a nameless city of mummified serpent-men and technological artifacts
morlock temples of the Old Ones
Best of all, there are a great many monstrous magical experiments/cross-breeds, the nasty work of Ringulreith the Chaos-Lich: ochre ogres, stonescavengers (carrion crawler-medusa cross-breeds), hellgriffs, bumblebears, frog-squids, pyrowyverns, wereworms, etc.
Etc.
cool names: Kruski Rimebeard, Duergodelve, Gomdgrotta, Ilskatorn, Myrkgaard, Ringulreith, Jarla Bjorna Bjorn's-Daughter, etc.
Pages 60-63 detail new monsters: mammoths (dwarf and steppe), northern titans (mountain, cave, glacier, volcano, sky, and sea--up to 36 HD and 50' tall!), and trolls (giant and multi-headed--up to 5 heads).
Page 64 features James's own Appendix N of inspirational reading for Eldisor. Several titles and authors overlap with Gary's Appendix N, plus some unique to this list: Elizabeth Boyer's "World of Alfar" series and "Wizard's War" series, Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead, H. Rider Haggard's The Saga of Eric Brighteyes, Snorri Sturlson, Thomas Swann, etc.
Finally we have 9 pages of full-color hex maps (at 6 miles per hex) done in the general style of the Known World / Mystara. The first shows the entire area described in the book. Each of the other 8 maps is a zoomed-in section of the first map, each with 15 columns of 18 hexes. The maps are clear and thoroughly labeled. They would be very, very easy to use in a game: 'Let's see, the party just wandered into hex 4623. It's labeled "Tower of the Wraith-King" on the map. The book must have something about it...OMG! The party is screwed!'
The last page is a list of the FORTY-ONE products that James has available. I'm jealous. I thought I was doing well with 13. Ha! I'd need to triple that to even get close to what James has achieved. He has unostentatiously plugged-away for years creating D&D stuff that ranges from good to great, and the Isle of Eldisor is his latest and greatest thing.
Excelsior!