Oathbound: The Plains of Penance

[Ghostwind]

Beyond the most populous city on the Forge lies a vast, uncontrolled expanse of rolling grasslands, scattered crags, and light woods. In strong contrast to the rest of the world, where nature stands in opposition to intelligent life, the bountiful land here provides a lush wealth of resources upon which the great cities have come to depend. Powerful forces vie for control over this abundant domain, as ruthless bloodlords of the cities clash against the deep-rooted druids of the wilds, hardened armies from the west, and even mysterious visitors from the depths of the northern oceans.

Despite the constant conflicts, the vast plains hide much from the attentions of those in power and provide a breeding ground for petty tyrants, outlaws, rogue villains, and hordes of roving monsters. Far from empty, the plains are as ancient as the cities that spring up among them and even the wilderness contains a wealth of lost history, culture, and knowledge.

What lies beneath and beyond the towering cliffs of the Pedestal, and what is Israfel’s design for this ponderous landscape? Find out in The Plains of Penance.

 

[GameWyrd]

The Plains of Penance is a worthy follow up and addition to Bastion Press’ spectacular Oathbound: Domains of the Forge. Oathbound gave us a vibrant world; chock full of races, cultures and magic. The name "Oathbound" comes from the powerful oaths that bind Seven Feathered Foul to the Forge. It’s these Seven who have created the Forge from a divine prison, forging the land to their will and forming seven domains. Penance is the domain of Queen Israfel and the city in the middle of Penance, known as Penance, gets a whole wad of pages in the core Oathbound book. The chances are very high that if you’re playing Oathbound or want to play Oathbound then you’re interested in Penance. The Plains of Penance is a comprehensive tour of everywhere else in Penance: the plains, the forests, the rivers and even the ocean shelf. There’s more than just new monsters and new player races here, there’s a new type of magic, spotlights onto the ecology, prestige races, the history and diplomatic relations between the cities on the Plains.

The Plains of Penance is a full colour, 160-paged book. US$29.95 isn’t an expensive price for it if you consider Bastion Press’ own Allies & Adversaries is about US$15 for 32 pages. The illustration styles are unmistakably Oathbound. This is both a boon and a bane. Some of the artwork is worthy of poster status, it’s no surprise that Bastion Press has a whole collection of art previews up on their Plains of Penance page. There are just a few illustrations that don’t work with the styles used. In particular some of the city scenes drawn in lines and blobby colour simply fail and failures stand out terribly so amongst so many strong successes.

The opening chapter is a walkthrough of the various parts of the Domain of Penance. Straight out of the box one of the meaty interests is tackled well. The dominant Queen Israfel, Penance’s Feathered Foul, enforces strict rules about how can claim leadership of an area and what sort of areas, known as Cantons, can be ruled. There needs to be enough people living in the area to begin with and out in the wilderness there are very few people. The book comes up with a believable enough system where the Bloodlords, those who do rule Cantons, are able to sell their protection (as a personal deal rather than a law) and their badge of support to the farms and homesteads in the wild. We’re first introduced to the politics and role of the Druids in the many forests in the domain here.

The second chapter increases the already teaming variety of races, prestige races and prestige classes in Oathbound. I think this is one to watch. Too many high fantasy campaign settings get ruined, become smothered in cheese, because the original feel and atmosphere becomes weighed down by successions of new races, monsters and magic that are brought in by supplements produced by companies trying to keep the cash flowing. Oathbound will not have this problem; the theme and feel can handle as many races, monsters, magics and classes that you can throw at it. The watch point seems to be on how many important different races and roles the GM can juggle at once and on that critical balance between tying supplements together and requiring would-be gaming groups to buy a library before they can play. The new magic system is called Channelling and works quite well in theory. The Forge is a prison of a trapped deity but this powerful god isn’t entirely stuck and so vast amounts of divine magic spill from the Forge itself. Channelling is the art of taking this raw divine magic and using it for something. This isn’t the same as cleric magic where the spell casters are granted spells by a deity, this type of magic as people using the deity’s own power. Channelling can be as creative or as destructive as you want and it only works on the Forge. I think it would be easy to arch eyebrows over the sort of power that Channelling puts in the hands of the players. I’m not so concerned with that, Oathbound is the sort of campaign setting where that really isn’t the problem. I’m more concerned that once the players begin to feel happy with their spell casting characters that this new and better system comes along just to taunt them. Channelling may upset your "mundane spellcasters".

Oathbound is likely to appeal to people taken by the prestige race system and by all the exotic player races. Chapter two will please them. There are five more (albeit short) prestige race ranges. New player races include dolphins, yes, dolphins, magically created and colourful Aurads, plant Thorns and others. These aren’t token offerings either; many of these new races are major movers and shakers in the Plains. The flying Hovara have a city all to their own, the dolphins are key allies to the Ceptu and the Thorns a significant force among the Druids and forest people.

The third chapter is one of the strong points in the book. I’m all for creating weird and wonderful plants and animals as well as new monsters and magics. I’m all against yet another fantasy campaign world where there seems to be plenty of leather armour but no cows. Oathbound does me proud. In the core rules there are new animals and plants and The Plains of Penance carries this torch well. Chapter three puts the spotlight on parts of the ecology in the domain. And so it should; Queen Israfel keeps people busy by pulling in new, interesting and possibly terribly destructive flora and fauna into her domain as well as monsters, heroes and villains. These ecological spotlights really do cover some ground; not only are their the native plants and animals but microorganisms and weather too. For example, a microorganism of note in the ocean region is the gillworm, a type of zooplankton which if used correctly can allow gilled creatures to breath out of the water for a while or if used incorrectly can damage the gills and cause permanent damage both Con and Cha.

In the city of Penance itself Druids are certainly at a bit of a loss, however, out in the wilderness and especially the many forests of the Plains they’re in their element. The fourth chapter of the book describes how logging was finally brought under control, how order is maintained in areas of the Domain where the Queen forbids law, how the local druids and thorns try and minimise damage to the environment when something new is pulled into the Domain by Israfel. Much of the chapter is a tour around the different woodland areas, each with their own name, societies and structure. Some forests are more xenophobic than others, other forests have quite strong ties to Bloodlords and some woods, like Winter, are just best left alone. The Watchers’ Guild is responsible for helping keeping an eye on the ecology of the plains and forests. The Watchers use the guild system introduced by Bastion’s Guildcraft where it is possible to pay XP to advance up the ranks and earn game mechanics benefits (such as extra spells) in exchange. Guildcraft was rather shaky at times, mainly because it turned a simple system into a book by throwing in lots of possible guilds. Here, in a specific setting, the guild system has a chance to shine and the Watchers work very well.

I’ve already said that one sure fire tactic to get me into a world setting is to have an engaging ecology, another way, and possibly a more understandable attraction, is to have an engaging set of tension and diplomacy between the nation states. The cities in the plains are all part of Penance but this doesn’t stop them shoving each other around and trying to come out top. The city of Illium, once powerful, is now a set of ruins thanks to a war with the city of Penance. Beacon was once an offshoot of Sentinel. Get this; at thirty thousand years old, Beacon is one of the youngest cities in Penance. Beacon now outshines Sentinel and its armies are restless, there’s trouble brewing between Beacon and the city of Penance itself. That’s a good chunk of what you get for cities: their history and current politics. Beacon, being a key player, gets a few pages all itself and smaller cities get less. In Penance the city’s vital stats are vital. We’re told how many Cantons each city has and who the Bloodlords are. One thing you’ll notice is the sheer number of Bloodlords who act as their own champion. The other thing you’ll notice is that very few of these people are less than twentieth level. Make no bones about it; Oathbound is a high level campaign setting and the powers in the Forge are very powerful. The catch is that is it can be quite hard to believe that these people have very many flaws. I try and tell myself that the level 20 Ranger Bloodlord of Harmony is scared of the Bloodlord who rules Beacon but it is hard to believe. It is also quite hard to believe that these cities have been pretty much the same as they are for tens of thousands of years. As noted, Beacon is thirty thousand years old but the description of the city comes across much more readily as the place being perhaps thirty generations old: 3,000 years perhaps. The status quo must be strongly rooted into the Domain.

Then there is the ocean. The boundaries of Queen Israfel’s Domain include a huge chunk of sea. The Forge is a magically constructed world and the seabed dives off drastically outside Penance and the resulting effect is that of giant underwater shelf in the Domain. There are plenty of aquatic races to play in Oathbound, the core rules introduce the political Ceptu and there is no shortage of ways to enable otherwise land bound races to get into the water. So it’s no surprise to see the ocean area of Penance with a chapter all of its own.

With so many cities, races, cultures, histories, troubles, politics and magic I had almost forgotten that The Plains of Penance are largely vast areas of wilderness. Chapter seven springs up to remind me. I’m going to hold this chapter deal for giving me a summary of travelling times; how far you can expect to cover on foot and how far you can expect to travel on horseback in any given day. The table is more comprehensive than that, throwing in other options such as wagon travel, flight or even magical flight and others. The whole chapter reinforces the hazards and insidious danger of travelling in the Plains. It has room for some interesting locales such as colossal skulls and giant clock faces set into the countryside.

Boo. Hiss. Chapter eight isn’t my friend. It’s a standard pre-written adventure. I just about accepted the pre-written adventure in Oathbound because some people might have appreciated the introduction to the setting. The time for introductions is over. The adventure, Ascension Day, is over 30 pages long. As I said at the start you can pay US$15 for a 30 or so paged colour supplement, how much would The Plains of Penance cost without Ascension Day? Well, fair enough, it certainly wouldn’t half in price. Still, if you’re a fan of pre-written adventures then you’ll not find anything to grumble about in Ascension Day.

The appendices combine to form a mini-book in their own right. It’s here that you’ll pick up stats and illustrations for new monsters, half a dozen pages of them, items, new spells and more.

If you’ve picked up Oathbound but haven’t yet found time to play it then The Plains of Penance will be that book to get you going. There’s so much in the 160 pages that glow with inspiration. It is such a pretty book too, the full colour, high quality illustrations and careful formatting is going to appeal to most people. The attention to detail, veritable plethora of new races, magic, monsters, history and bubbling politics is sure to include something useful to most players as well. I found the whole book (with the exception of Ascension Day) useful.

* This The Plains of Penance review was first posted at GameWyrd.

 

[Psion]

Plains of Penance

Plains of Penance is the first supplementary book for the Oathbound setting published by Bastion Press. The book details the areas of the domain of Penance outside of the city of Penance (which was covered in extensive detail in the core book), and includes details on politics, demographics, flora and fauna of the domain of Penance as well as new d20 System rules material.

Plains of Penance is written by Greg Dent with adventure design by Darrin Drader (who wrote the excellent epic romp Enigma of the Arcanexus.)

A First Look

Plains of Penance is a 160 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $29.95. This would be a bit pricey for a black-and-white softcover d20 System rules book of this size. However, Plains of Penance has a full color interior with glossy pages.

The cover art (by Jeremy Jarvis) depicts a bizarre creature against the backdrop of the plains.

The interior art is color, and features artists Jason Engle, Todd Morasch, Alex Leonard, C. Michael Erikson, Christopher Pickrell, Greg Dent, Ginger Kubic, and Michael Orwick. The art varies in quality from adequate to excellent. Engle (whose style you may recognize from the pages of Dungeon magazine) provides some excellent contributions to the book with his trademark ethereal-looking illustrations.

The interior body text is moderately dense, with a stylish yet readable and reasonably sized header font. The layout is attractive and readable, and the book delivers a fair value based on content for price if you factor in the color.

A Deeper Look

Plains of Penance is organized into 8 chapters and three appendices. Most of the rules material is in the second chapter (covering inhabitants of the plains) and the appendices.

The first chapter is an overview, the 3rd through 7th chapters discuss specific regions or other aspects of the plains, and the 8th chapter is an adventure.

The plains themselves fall under the rules of Israfel, the same immortal who rules over the city of Penance. Thus the same general rules apply there with respect to enforcing laws on others. Only bloodlords who rule over a specific size community can dare enforce laws, otherwise nobody is allowed to rule over anyone else. You would think that this would create a bandit haven on the plains where the population is too small to allow enforcement of laws.

The introductory chapter spends a good deal of time explaining why this is not quite the case, and some of the resulting consequences of this arrangements. Bloodlords cannot enforce laws, but nothing keeps them from entering agreements. In essence, the Bloodlords enter into contracts with the travelers for their protection instead of formally enforcing laws.

How Bloodlords deal with those who prey on travelers under their protection varies, but in practice, the result is not so different than a conventional fantasy world. However, it seems to me that such an arrangement would result in protection rackets and the like, a possibility that the book does not discuss but would make interesting fodder for an adventure.

The domain of Penance is primarily composed of plains (hence the name of this book), though there are many settlements on the plains. However, the domain includes forests and oceans. Many rivers flow between the mountains and the oceans, and rivers are one of the primary trade routes.

As with much of the Oathbound setting, there is a great cacophony of life forms in the plains. The main inhabitants are the goat-like valco, introduced in Oathbound, among other new races and traditional D20 System fantasy races. Several new races make an appearance here:

-Aurads: Aurads are tall humanoids with bright markings and have feathers on their scalps. Aurads are describes as mysterious and aloof but generous and creative.
-Dolphins: These are theoretically the same dolphins that exist in other worlds, just supposedly "better understood in the Forge." Part of Penance is ocean, but nonetheless, Oathbound is really not an aquatic campaign and there is very little to fit such a character into a more conventional campaign.
-Wild Frey: These are wild variants of the catlike race of Frey introduced in Oathbound.
-Hovara: Plains of Pennance the tradition of bizarre races begun in Oathbound with the Hovara, a race of flying stingray-like creatures. Hovara are a cruel race, and have some magical aptitude.
-Thorns: Another bizarre race, the thorns are sentient plant creatures. They are a generally peaceful race, and while mobile, continue to operate like plants in many ways. For instance, instead of eating, they must "root" for a certain amount of time each day.

There are two new prestige classes, both based on the so-called "channeling" system of magic. The basic concept is that there is still divine energy leaking from the core of the Forge, and channelers can take advantage of that energy and use it in different ways. The end result is somewhat similar to the 2e S&P magic of the same name: a point-pool based system that has the side effect of damaging the character if you expend your pool of power points and still wish to channel more.

As a side note (or pet peeve, if you will), the author displays a major misunderstanding of the d20 system by mentioning memorization as a step in spellcasting under the core rules. There is no memorization in the 3e/d20 magic system!

The two new prestige classes are the artificer and the disjoiner. The artificer can create or repair items, at higher level even merging items, even living beings. This allows the artificer to do things like add limbs to beings. On the other end of the spectrum, the dijoiner class is a purely destructive whose magical abilities are all geared to the destruction of objects, normal and magical.

The channeling system of magic is introduced through these two classes, but in the disjoiner it shows how unbalanced the system is. A channeling character gets a number of "power points" to spend on class abilities equal to their Con bonus times the prestige class level. At low level, this is not a problem, but at higher levels, it becomes clear that some abilities are very abusive if they are not given a spending cap much less than this. A mid level disjoiner could very easily destroy every magic (and normal) item carried by a party in a single round.

Plains of Penance includes a number of new prestige races. Prestige races are a mechanic introduces in the Oathbound core book. As my review for that book did not appear here, it is perhaps appropriate that a say a few words about it. Taking a prestige race requires a feat and the expenditure of xp. Prestige races come in several stages, each stage more costly than the list. In this, they somewhat resemble magic items.

In general, I do not like mechanics that bypass the class/level system. However, of all such systems to date, I object to the prestige race mechanic the least. The benefits have a very steep cost, and resemble permanent spells or magic items. However, like most such mechanics, it has the disadvantage of invalidating character level or wealth as a measure of power.

Prestige race sequences in Plains of Penance include Focus of the Claw (provides enhancement bonuses with natural weapons), focus of the enigma (provides stealth and related ability), Focus of the Huge, [/I]Focus of the Small[/I] (both providing size changes), and Focus of the Light (provides benefits within light.) Some of the mechanics left me cold. For example, one prestige race ability has a DC dependant upon level, which advances much faster than DC saves which typically only advance at ½ per level, making this ability potentially overpowering at higher levels.

The ecology chapter covers the flora, fauna, and microorganisms (diseases) of the various parts of the wilds of the domain of Penance. This includes game statistics for such things as the effects that some types of plants have on attempts to be stealthy therein. Animal types are described, though you are referred to the appendix for statistics.

The fourth chapter covers druids, which are the prevailing force in the forests of Penance. The "Druids" is actually a hunter-gatherer society that is controlled by a number of druids (in the D&D sense.) The chapter discusses the society and laws of the druids, which aside from the details about how the druids prevail under the laws of governance of Penance is pretty much what you would expect: the druids have laws about preserving nature and limiting the expansion of civilization.

The druids chapter also includes a section on the watcher's guild, a group of elite scouts and agents of the druid lords. The guild is expressed in terms set forth in Guildcraft. This is good in that the format covers many pertinent details, but as mentioned in my review of that product, I am not at all impressed with the mechanical approach. Guild members defined under the Guildcraft method gain classlike abilities in exchange for raw XP, which effectively bypasses the level methodology for multiclasses and regresses to the first and second edition level mechanics.

The fifth chapter covers the major settlements in Penance, aside from the city of Penance itself (which is covered in major detail in the Oathbound book. Some settlements have millions of inhabitants, which seems a bit of a reach, even if you do consider the unusual flora of the Forge. In addition to the salient details of each city, a few of the larger ones detail bloodlords.

The sixth chapter discusses the northern oceans, which fall into the domains of Penance. The oceans are teeming with intelligent species just as the land of the Forge is. The ceptu, an unusual jellyfish-like race first introduced in the Oathbound book, are a major force in the region. The chapter is brief and only discusses the ceptu nation, a few other races, and one settlement. Despite its relative brevity, it provides more adventure ideas than the previous (longer) chapters. However, there is no rules material on running aquatic campaign, so if you are interested in running a campaign in the northern oceans, a book such as FFG's Seafarer's Handbook might be in order.

The seventh chapter covers the wilderness and wilderness adventuring in the Plains of Penance. It provides GM advice for running adventures, a few rules on movement and getting lost, and a number of hazards and sites of interest as potential spots for adventuring. This is some of the most fertile material in the book, with a number of bizarre spots like a mysterious giant clock set into the ground that is said to be able to alter time and is protected by a mysterious cult, and a petrified forest that the druids fear.

The eighth chapter, Ascension Day, is an adventure set in the plains and incorporating political elements from the plains of Penance and the city of Penance. The players, when investigating an army stationed in a forest in Penance, discovers that a sliver bloodlord is pursuing a vial of blood that will help him achieve godhood. If they party is clever, they can work an exchange with the guardian of the vial of blood and might meet the mysterious Gray Stranger. The adventure is designed for characters of 8th-10th level.

The book has three appendices detailing new monsters (mostly beasts that one might run across in the region), new items, and new spells.

Conclusion

The Plains of Penance provides the deeper information for Oathbound GMs who want to expand their games into the plains. The wilderness section, though brief, provides some of the best material for adventure. The material on cities doesn't seem quite as fresh or intriguing as the material in the Oathbound setting book.

The rules on wilderness travel is somewhat sketchy but still useful, and the races and prestige race material is decent and along the same lines as the rules in the Oathbound book, I found the prestige classes and continued use of the substandard Guildcraft rules to be a wart on the book.

The presentation of the book is the best I have seen in a Bastion book since Spells & Magic. Jason Engle's ethereal-looking artwork lends a nice feel to the setting, and even the artwork of the much-maligned Bastion mainstay Todd Morasch is much improved over previous Bastion books.

Overall Grade: C+

- Alan D. Kohler

 

[Simon Collins]

Beware! This review contains spoilers (there is an adventure within the book).
This is not a playtest review.

Oathbound: Plains Of Penance, is a sourcebook covering the lands surrounding the city of Penance in Bastion Press' Oathbound campaign setting. Readers are advised to first read some of the reviews of Oathbound to get an idea of this complex and unusual setting.

Plains Of Penance is a 160-page full-colour softcover product costing $29.95. Font size is good, margins average and some white space at the end of most chapters. Eight different artists are used and this variety shows more than in most other d20 products, perhaps because of the colour. Beauty is of course in the eye of the beholder, but the art in Plains of Penance runs the gamut from appalling to superb, to my mind. I've stated before and I'll say it again - I don't like the insectoid, textureless creatures with unbalanced muscular structure that comprises about half of the art in the book or more, including the front cover. Two different artists did make their mark on me - the distinctive beauty of Jason Engle's full-page pieces particularly appeal, but another of the artists (not sure which one) uses colour in deep pastel shades glowing with inner light that reminds me slightly of the expressionist painter, Franz Marc. Maps are basic but clear, with scale and compass direction where appropriate, though scale varies between maps. The writing style is average to good; a bit clumsy at times - e.g. "The Wall in which the archway once was set has long crumbled away, leaving it freely standing". Editing is fairly good, with occasional if regular errors.

Chapter 1: Overview Of The Plains
Despite its title, the chapter actually takes a look at the forests, rivers, cities, and ocean surrounding Penance, as well as the plains which dominate much of the region. The chapter also takes a look at the politics of the region, particularly in terms of the influence of Queen Israfel and the local Bloodlords. It also deals with travel in the region, which takes place mostly along the rivers.

Chapter 2: Inhabitants Of The Plains
Begins by taking a look at the demographics of the area before introducing five new races:
* Aurads - Peacock-like humanoids, who can dazzle others with their fearhers, and whose favoured class is bard.
* Dolphins - yep, dolphins. With names like Flipper and Dancer, a +2 to Perform and Jump checks, and a favoured class of monk.
* Wild Frey - similar to the frey introduced in the core setting book, these are larger and more aggressive - somewhat like the difference between a leopard and a household cat. Wild Frey are forest dwellers on the whole, and their racial features reflect this.
* Hovara - evil flying manta rays with sorcerous powers, which it casts with its tail. Various racial features such as telekinesis to allow them to wield weapons, and magical blood that allow sorcerous spells to be cast with no verbal and material components.
* Thorns - animate intelligent plants who are grown and pruned by their elders to resemble the dominant species (in this case humans) on any world. Several plant-oriented racial features such as requiring nutrition from soil, some plant immunities, and ability to regrow.

The next section takes a look at channeling, a form of magic unique to Oathbound - channeling uses divine magic leaked by the imprisoned deity at the core of the Oathbound setting. Any being able to channel this divine magic gains a certain number of points dependent on level and Con, with which to fuel his powers. The channeler can also fuel further powers by taking physical damage. Channeling does not provoke an attack of opportunity. A channeler must focus on a very specific area, such as weather, creation, etc. Though there are more possibilities mentioned, two 10-level prestige classes who use channeling are detailed:
* Artificer - this prestige class focuses on creation and can create materials, objects, and even life, including grafting of flesh, and shaping plant life. The PrC seems to have very low prerequisites (possibly 3rd level, though I can't remember what level you have to be to gain the Evolve feat from the Oathbound core setting book), which wouldn't sit well with the suggested minimum 7th level entry point for the setting suggested in the core book).
* Disjoiners - opposite of artificers, this PrC is focused on destructive forces. A lot of the class features are centered around the concept of destructive magical bolts, but can also focus destructive forces into a weapon. They also have the ability to destroy magical items from 3rd level in the PrC.

The chapter ends by revisiting the popular concept of prestige races introduced in the Oathbound core book and also seen in Dragon magazine. Five new foci for these genetic changes are offered:
* Focus Of The Claw - improving creature's natural weaponry (using wild frey as an example) - 4 levels
* Focus Of The Enigma - improving hiding skills (using faust as an example) - 4 levels
* Focus Of The Huge - getting bigger (using a dwarf as an example) - 1 level
* Focus Of The Light - radiating light to varying degrees (using an aurad as an example) - 4 levels
* Focus Of The Small - getting smaller (using an asherake as an example) - 1 level

Chapter 3: Ecology Of The Plains
After a brief explanation of biodiversity and the food chain in the wilderness area surrounding Penance, this chapter looks at the four sub-sections of environment in the area - forest, ocean, plain, and river. Each sub-section is discussed in terms of native plants and animals, micro-organisms (i.e. disease), and weather (strong winds and heavy bursts of rain being the norm). Some of the plants and animals are covered in more detail and statted out in the appendix.

Chapter 4: The Druids
The most powerful group in the forests of Penance are the druids, who are a political and military force with strong ideals set out in a unified code of behaviour towards nature. They preserve and cultivate the forests that surround Penance. Their code, society, and laws are discussed in detail, as are their religion and politics (which include their own bloodlords). Eight bloodholds and their druidic bloodlords are covered. In order to maintain the sanctity of nature and nforce the law of the wilderness, there is a Watchers Guild that are based in watchtowers spread across the area, which can also be used as waystations by travellers. The details of the guild are discussed, along with membership benefits laid out in a similar way to guild benefits introduced in Bastion's 'Guildcraft' product. These benefits cost XP and therefore replaces the level progression of the core rules with a weaker rule-set, though there are some useful details on the advantages, disadvantages, and actions of membership. A map of the typical watchtower layout is given, along with some brief advice on running druidic campaigns.

Chapter 5: Cities Of The Plains
This chapter looks in detail at six major cities in the area other than Penance itself (covered in the main Oathbound setting book). It goes on to give an overview on the other twelve cities in the area, as well as a general overview of the towns, villages, farmland, and nomadic bloodholds of the area. The main cities are described in terms of number of cantons, population, major industries, the name and level of the bloodlord, history, as well as a general overview of notable locations. Some bloodlords are described in more detail. Some of these cities are highly populated - Beacon has over 3 million and Decree over a million inhabitants, not to mention the 40 million inhabitants of Penance. Others, like the ruined city Illium, have a comparatively tiny population.

Chapter 6: The Northern Oceans
This chapter looks at the ocean that lies to the north of the plains of Penance. It begins with a rundown of the main ocean peoples - ceptu (intelligent whales), dolphins, aquatic elves, aquatic humans, locathah, makkrus (shark-crab creatures), merfolk, sahuagin, and trusk (walrus-like mammals who are mainly against the rule of the ceptu). More detail is given on the ceptu nation and their underwater city of Attatal. The chapter also covers a brief overview of adventuring in the area, with a few sites of note, though there are no rules given for underwater adventuring here.

Chapter 7: The Wilderness
The chapter takes a look at adventuring in the wilderness beyond the cities, including travel times, getting lost, and wilderness hazards. It also has twelve wilderness locations to create adventures in - most of these are actually man-made structures located in the wilderness.

Chapter 8: Ascension Day
This is an adventure for 4 to 6 PCs of levels 8-10, with advice for scaling the adventure for higher level characters. The PCs are caught up in a war between two bloodlords. They come into possession of a powerful vial of blood taken from the mysterious ulatra in Illium. They must attempt to keep control of the vial and make a decision as to who to trust and what to do with it. The adventure hooks into several of the ideas presented in the book including the druids society, Illium, and one or two of the bloodlords mentioned in the 'Cities' chapter.

Appendix A: New Monsters
Seven new monsters are offered in this appendix - mainly magical beasts. They are Kytus (coyote-like predator), Mara (teleporting message-carrying birds), Merain (amphibious birds), Moab (gargantuan predatory whales), Rat Demon, Scavan (Thorn-eating large snakes), and Volt Polar (feline that emits blasts of mental energy). CRs range from 4 to 16, and sizes from fine to gargantuan.

Appendix B: Items
Rules on creating magical engines, and armour, weapons, chemicals, and materials made from or suited to creatures from the book. There are also a few magical items in the same vein.

Appendix C: New Spells
Ten new spells suited to solving problems in the location covered by the book, including 'mana' (powers magical engines) and 'antioxidation' (helps to maintain magical engines).

Conclusion:
This product gives a useful overview of the area surrounding Penance for those GMs running Oathbound campaign, who want to explore the nearby wilderness. The product has some strengths (the druid society and its politics, some locations with good adventuring potential, the prestige race foci) and some weaknesses (the guild advancements, weird new races, possibly over-powerful prestige classes). The art also has the same mix of good and bad. Overall these elements balance out to produce an average product.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By Brad Mix, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack

Sizing Up the Target
This review is for Oathbound: Plains of Penance. This 160-page book retails for $29.95 and written by Greg Dent and published by Bastion Press.

First Blood
Plains of Penance details one of the areas outside the main city in the Oathbound campaign setting. This campaign setting is very original and powerful. Heroes are kidnapped from their home world by one of seven mysterious beings and brought to the Forge, the world of Oathbound. Once in the Forge, players are granted special powers, but there is no escape from the world. The campaign world is a mix of high magic and broad science.

Chapter one gives a brief introduction to the area and introduces the Queen of the domain, local politics and a few of the more powerful organizations. A nice color map of the entire domain is offered and includes other cities and landmarks. Nearly all travel is done on one of the six rivers that go through the area. While the fastest way to travel it certainly isn’t the cheapest.

Inhabitants of the Plains is the next chapter, which takes a look at the natives. Five new races, two new forms of magic, and 5 new prestige classes are detailed. See Critical Hits for more information about the Prestige classes. The new races are Aurads, Dolphins (yes the cute swimming mammal), Hovara, Wild Fey, and Thorns.

The Aurads are tall psychedelic looking wanders of the land. They love the outdoors and are rarely found in the city. Next comes the Dolphin. They are given a complete write up including Religion, Relations, Names, and Racial Traits. The biggest racial trait that would exclude picking this race as a PC is Dolphins suffer 1 hit point of damage every round they are on land. Dolphins do make great Monks and Sorcerers however.

Wild Fey are more feral breed of Fey that inhabit other worlds. They tend to be loners but will tear you up if you get to close. They remind me of an intelligent walking tiger.

The Hovara are the second most unusual race found in this supplement. A cruel race of sorcerous slave traders whose brains are hard wired to derive joy from the suffering of others. These beasts look like manta rays that fly in the air instead of swim in the water. With such a predisposition for cruelty this is better suited as a villain or NPC. We all know GM’s are cruel and delight in the cruelty of their players.

The winner for the most unusual race is the Thorn. The Thorn are intelligent plant life that have evolved from basic plants. Thorns are not like the typical humanoid. They have legs and arms but they are shaped that way and are not the natural appearance. To “eat” they stick their roots in the ground and suck up nutrients.

A unique form of magic known as Channeling exists and emanates from the Forge’s core. This energy is Divine in nature and allows the certain casters to cast spells without memorizing them ahead of time. There are two classes that use this unlimited energy, Artificers and Disjoiners. The Artificer uses the power of the Forge to create. They can create their own food, water, money, and weapons. The only limitation is the imagination of the Artificer. Special rules are given for this unusual type of spell casting. Disjoiners are ferocious warriors that have learned to tap into the innate magic of the Forge to become a destructive force. The first Disjoiner was the aptly named Pandora. Disjoiners do not learn form others but learn as they go. Constitution is the most important ability and they will go out of their way to acquire magic that will boost their constitution.

Chapter 3 is all about the ecology of the Plains. Native animals, plants and microorganisms are detailed. Kind of boring but it gives an important feel to the land.

The Druids and their culture is the next chapter. Druids are not just a class but a political force. The laws, religion and politics are discussed and give a good understanding of how the Druid thinks and acts.

The other major cities are each given a few paragraphs in chapter 5 and detail some of the unique information for each city. City size, notable NPC’s, important industries, and anything different is included. Just to give you the size and scale of the world, the city of Penance has a population of 40 million. Chapters 6 and 7 detail the northern ocean and wilderness areas the same way as the cities.

Chapter 8 is a 34-page adventure designed for 4 to 6 characters of 8t to 10th level. Players in this world are advised not to read the adventure included. I won’t give away any spoilers but this adventure does a good job of mixing action and roleplaying.

We are still not done with this book. Appendix A details 7 new monsters and appendix B offers several new items, including some magical. Even a couple of Dolphin weapons are included. Finally appendix C offers 10 new spells.

Critical Hits
The new way Prestige classes are addressed is original. The concept of taking on a different class is gone. Instead it is replaced with a life altering choice called a prestige race. Taking a prestige race changes the genetic code of the character. Forethought and research are required to take the prestige race along with some serious experience points. Take Focus of the Claw for example. This focus expands and enhances the characters natural weaponry. This is also good for monks who do not rely on weapons. Once the Evolve feat is taken and the minimum level is reached the character can take the prestige race. The first one is the Focus of the Claw is Edged Creature. The cost is 3,500 XP and the character gains a +1 to all attacks and damage rolls. This also allows the character to damage creatures with +1 damage reduction. These enhancements build on each other when the fourth and final one is reach. Lethal Creature requires an additional 11,500 XP cost. This allows +5 bonuses to all attacks and damage, Can damage creatures with +5 damage reduction, Gains Improved Multi-attack feat, No natural weapon is ever considered secondary, and all attacks are at the full attack bonus and full damage. The total XP cost to gain these fantastic bonuses is 31, 500. Quite a heavy price but well worth it for the advantages. Others Focuses include, Force of the Enigma that allows the character to become ethereal and untraceable. Focus of the Huge makes characters larger and stronger. Focus of the Small is just the opposite and Focus of Light allows the character to become light.

Critical Misses
The only thing I can criticize this book for is the inclusion of Dolphin as a playable race. While it makes sense to have this in an underwater campaign, it doesn’t add much to this book. The few magic items included for the Dolphin, including Dolphin Spike and Dolphin Exoskeleton could have been removed and those items replaced with something for the other races. But if that is all I can find wrong with the book, then you know it’s a pretty good supplement.

Coup de Grace
This is a must have for anyone either playing the Oathbound campaign. If your not playing in this world you should be looking for a way to get your players there. The amount of good information included is great. The book is laid out well and white space is very small. All of the artwork is in color and helps set the tone of this unusual world. If (when) you plan to play in this world do not read chapter 8, as this will ruin the adventure.

To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.

 

[JoeGKushner]

So what does Plains of Penance bring to the game table?

Broken up into eight chapters with three appendixes, Plains of Penance details a massive setting and provides the crunch to customize it.

Take Chapter One, an Overview of the Plains. The information provided in these eleven pages is brief but provides all the information that a GM or players needs to start developing ideas. The map on page 7 is an up close look at the Domain of Penance with all the major cities, ruins, and woods mapped out.

Of more interest to most would be the Inhabitants of the Plains in chapter two. Several PC races are introduced including the Aurads, Dolphins, Wild Frey, Hovara, and Thorns. The mix is almost comic in that it includes dolphins, but after playing Rifts for years, nothing surprises me and this setting shares some of Rifts elements. For example, brining in all manner of races and magic to the setting. The wild frey make a good counter to their civilized cousins as these cat like humanoids are larger and more powerful versions while the thorns, sentient plants, expand the players range of options.

For those who want a unique type of magic, channeling is made available. This allow a caster to draw forth the divine energy the pulses from the Forge's core and use it to overcome SR but limits it to the Forge. This variant ability uses power points and is fully detailed in the prestige classes that follow which uses this channeling ability to fuel their powers.

The PrCs include Artificer and Disjoiner, each using the channeling ability in different ways. The former to craft not only metals but transform flesh and bone. It's an interesting take on a life shaper or a mutating ability that GMs will have to watch to insure that their campaign isn't overbalanced as several of the abilities deal with power for experience points. The disjoiner on the other hand destroy things by using their channeling powers to add energy attacks to their arsenal. For example, a 2nd level disjoiner can craft explosive bolts.

New Prestige Races are also introduced including the Focus of the Claw, Enigma, Huge, Light and Small. Each one comes complete with name of the ability, example, costs, minimum level, prerequisite, unavailable to listing, details and game effects. This allows a reader to quickly see how and when they'll be able to take one of these abilities and what it does in exchange for the experience points. For example, under Focus of the Enigma, the Cloaked Creature ability requires 9,000 XP, 10th level, and the Masked ability. It provides the user with the ability to lie without being detected by Sense Motive Checks and the Inconspicuousness ability that makes the user not stand out at all.

The little details, like what type of plans and animals are native to this environment are covered in Chapter Three, the Environment. It provides the GM a quick way to make the Plains unique with plants like the woody shrub carrion or the fungi sugar loaf. The material covers forests, oceans, rivers, and the plains with information for each section; plants, animals, microorganisms.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, druids are good elements for a campaign. They can act as mentors, advisors, wise men or even madmen. Chapter Four, the Druids, covers the organization of druids in great detail, providing their laws, scouts, and guild. The guild is listed in a manner similar to Bastion's Guildcraft book where a PC can spend experience points in order to gain special abilities like bonus skill points and spells. The forest regions are mapped out with population, racial breakdown, bloodlord and an overview.

Cities of the Plains provides a similar overview to the cities. It includes information on how many cantons, population, major industries, bloodlord, and history. One of the largest is Beacon, a city specializing in crafting manna engines and ruled by the dangerous Mecham Pandarus GMs with a lot of drive can craft each individual city into its own mini-campaign setting but at the cost of a lot of work.

Those more interested in an exotic setting may want to review Chapter Six, the Northern Oceans. The different races, like the ceptu, dolphins, aquatic elves, humans, locathah, makkrus, merfolk, sahuagin, and trusk all have details about how they fit into this part of the campaign setting and some, like the ceptu, have their own section with laws and culture notes.

Wilderness adventuring is covered in Chapter Seven. Need to know what the effects are of getting lost or what hazards you'll face on the Plains? How about where the old ruins and dungeons are like the Eden Asylum or the ancient city of Bale?

Some may ask, how do you use all of this information? Chapter 8, Ascension Day, provides the GM with a fleshed out adventure for 8th to 10th level characters. It includes a fair bit of dungeon crawling and interacting with NPCs as the players have to gain a special vial of blood and determine who best deserves the vial. It pushes the party along a little bit and the plot line revolves around only one person, the Grey Stranger, being able to open it, limits it somewhat, but most GMs will be able to pick up and run this within a single reading.

The new monsters, items, and spells are collected at the back of the book in the three appendixes. Some of the material should fit into any campaign like contraception, a 2nd level druid spell that makes the target sterile for the duration of the spell or greater spectral hand, that allows the caster to use up to eighth level spells.

Internal art varies from fair to fantastic. For example, Jason Engle, the artists for the Talisman line of books from Bastion, does several illustrations that are cover worthy. Chapter breaks are represented with full page illustrations. Some might complain that there is too much art as full page illustrations occur in the book without any apparent reason in addition to chapter breaks. Layout is two columns with good use of white space. Editing is fair but the book is a little wordy. The price, $29.95, may seem high, but the higher page count and full color content on slick paper warrants it.

One failure of the book is an index. In a volume of this size, an index should be mandatory. Another failing point is maps. With so many cities named, a few sample maps on how the cities are organized is another point that should be mandatory. There are the pretty, but useless maps that give an overhead of the city but those are of no practical use. The full color illustrations are nice, but take a few of them out and put in some maps. Another thing I personally disliked was the full color advertisements for the website and Minions in the book. More space that could've went to direct material in this book.

Plains of Penance does what it sets out to. It provides the reader with new game options, a setting and an adventure to get started. Despite new spells, magic items and prestige classes, the bulk of this book is Oathbound specific. It'd take a lot of work to add to a general campaign. If you're Oathbound campaign has stalled and needs more ideas, then Plains is for you.