By Bruce Boughner (repost from d20zines.com), January 16, 2003.
Sizing Up the Target
Maelstrom is a 150-page online accessory published by DarkFuries. The author
is Brian Moseley. The cover is done by Jim Lassiter and is available in PDF
format for $10.00.
First Blood
The world of Roil is a world torn by the wrath of gods. Mists raised by the
unleashed fury of chaos fuels magic and sorcery. Once before the mists appeared
wreaking great changes across the seven continents, six oceans and nine seas,
now the chaos goddess comes again to usher in the end of the Second Age. All
of this has the hallmarks of high fantasy in a Tolkien vein.
I happened onto this world setting quite by accident a few weeks ago and made
contact with the author. Needless to say, I have been very impressed. Brian
Moseley had done some work prior to this on Gary Gygax’ Lejendary Adventures
(much like myself) and has been developing this world since 1982. The richness
of the entries is proof of the time spent in assembling this world.
This is the dawn of the Third Age, the mists of chaos have receded, revealing
sweeping changes. Civilizations have crumbled; whole peoples have been wiped
from existence. The mists have shrunk but the stuff of chaos still boils across
the planet in pockets, causing fantastic effects. The world stands ready for
powerful figures to tame it. This really puts me more in mind of Conan or Kull,
but with more ready magicks.
A true D&D world, nearly all of the familiar races of human, demi-human and
humanoid exist on Roil. Dwarves, gnomes and halflings have their own continent.
Though it suffered greatly on the surface during the chaos storm. The underground
races recovered more swiftly than other areas. The elves also have a continent,
largely untouched by the chaos storm with a history stretching back eons of 37
elvish kings and queens.
The main continent of Kaladia is the melting pot of the world. All races can be
found here and the continent itself; spans all climate zones from the frozen
tundra to the tropical southern shores. Of all the continents it suffered the
least change, but many civilizations were lost, others rose to prominence but
the land itself is largely untamed.
Several continents of human cultures have fallen into savagery or disappeared
altogether, a southern polar continent boasts large amount of life warmed by
volcanic activity and a northern continent over the polar icecap rounds out
the world. The oceans are more like large salt rivers flowing in currents
around the continents and chaos mists and the seas are channels connecting the
oceans through the mists.
The usual assortment of races populate this world, both for character races
and also non-human and humanoids. Faerie, giants, trolls, ogres, orcs and the
like, exotic mixes of races are also described.
A history of Roil follows with the story of the First Age, the War of the Winds,
the Time of Rains and the New Age. The powers and mysteries of the Mists are
also given, rounding out the first chapter.
Chapter Two is a gazetteer of the geographical regions of Roil. The calendars of
the different races and chronological comparative histories of the regions are
then outlined. Languages and currencies are then compared and in one of the coolest
things I’ve seen, actual color drawings of all the different coinage!
The next chapter goes into the various countries in more detail, replete with full
color heraldry for each country. Chapter Four is about 50 pages of beautifully
detailed maps and a glossary.
Critical Hits
This book has been gestating in the mind of the author for 20 years and it shows!
The richness of detail in all aspects of this world shows how much effort went into
its creation. Worlds like this are rare;
Greyhawk ™, the
Forgotten
Realms ™ and
Dragonlance ™ are comparable to the detail in here.
[ -- edit: Greyhawk ™, the
Forgotten Realms ™ and
Dragonlance ™ are Trademarks and/or Registered Trademarks owned by
Wizards of the Coast, Inc. ®. Their mention is not intended to constitute
any challenge to product identity owned by Wizards of the Coast.
-- ]
The artwork of the book is great, the color work on the heraldry is superb and the
coinage was outstanding.
Critical Misses
Even more detail. I grant that this is an online PDF file and size restrictions are
necessary evils here. I hope that before this book goes to a hard cover or soft cover
printing that Brian will combine this with some of the other richly detailed products
on
Maelstrom I’ve seen.
Coup de Grace
As I said, I found this quite by accident and what a happy accident it was. It flows
with the same energy and feelings you get from the trailers of
The Two Towers.
This is the kind of magic-charged, hyperborean world I like to play in.
The Critic's Rating: (maximum 5 pts for each category)
- Amount of Open Game Content: 3.0
- d20 Compliance: 5.0
- Originality: 5.0
- Playability: 4.5
- Value for the dollar: 4.5
- Overall Rating: 4.25
- Final Grade: A
The original post can be found
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