This is the long awaited (at least for some) world book for Mystic Eye Press's setting of Gothos. They haven't put out a huge amount of products before this, but have put out several that seem to have a love it or hate it reaction from d20 gamers (for the most part). It's a softcover book, 144 pages, and priced very reasonably at $19.95 (and that's what I paid for it at my not so local game store). The side margins are fairly small at 1 1/4" (though they look smaller than they actually are), the top about 3/4", and the bottom about 1/2". The typeface is smallish, and there is very little artwork, so this book is packed with text. Despite the fact there is so little artwork (about 30 pieces, mostly 1/4 of the page), it's a very attractive book, printed in 2-color ink. The charts and such are especially nice looking.
Unfortunately, like most of their previous efforts, it combines great ideas with average writing and an extremely awful grasp of the d20 mechanics and design philosophy.
The first 12 pages are an introduction to the world of Gothos. It's a very interesting world, actually. It's sort of a reflection of Earth, or rather, a reflection of Earth's dreams. This section does a pretty good job of explaining it, and it's connection to Earth, though some of the terminology is confusing. For instance, the '1000 year Dream Rift', only lasts a few years. The '1000 year' part describes it's frequency (it happens every 1000 years), not how long it lasts. Like a 100 year flood. But that wasn't obvious to me at first, and caused me some confusion. It also doesn't help that that timeline has some huge holes in it, making it hard to see how it's structured.
Besides an introduction to the world, this chapter introduces rules for how dreamers on Earth can influence characters on Gothos. It's a point based system, basically during the game players can spend dream points to help their PCs. Not a new concept in terms of game mechanics, but the premise behind it is pretty new.
Next is a short chapter on Magic in Gothos (in fact, that's the name of the title). It uses regular d20 magic for the most part, but there are lots of possible variation. For instance, elemental affinities for arcane spellcasters. Also, blood and blight magic, in which blood or the lifeforce of nature is used to fuel magical spells.
The next chapter is 15 pages and is on the gods and religion of Gothos. This is an interesting aspect - there is something of a universal church, called The Pantheon. Beyond that, there are heretical gods, and the old, nature gods. You can see a pretty clear parallel between the Roman Church and the various pagan gods of real life earth.
The next 45 pages are devoted to describing the main countries of Gothos. Gothos is actually sort of a water world, apparently, as there is not one main continent or landmass, but 4 Australia sized islands (or slightly bigger than that. It's hard to tell the scale, because there is not really a key given. There's a little box saying x miles, but it's hard to tell what they mean by it). As mentioned, Gothos is something of a reflection of Earth, so all the countries are more or less like Earth countries.
Dunreth is something of a British Isles style country, before the Normans invaded. Not just Celtic, it seems to also have something of a Saxon feel. The King is named 'Wulf', which I think is a Saxon name.
Gildor is a French-Iberrian style country. Freeport (from Green Ronin) is set on an Island near here, somewhat oddly IMHO. It's not odd that they'd use it, just where they put it, so close to a country. It's ruled by a Queen. In a twist, she's like the Dali Lama - after the Queen dies, they find her next incarnation and bring her back.
Ithganin is an interesting mix. Sort of a combination Japanese-Middle Eastern. And it's ruled by a demon.
Kirkland is like Germany. Germany when it was in it's medieval stage. Bluffside, from Thunderhead games, is placed here. Kind of an unfortunate name, because it's going to lead to dozens of William Shatner jokes (and Hasselhoffland would have been more apropriate).
Mirak is an odd country. I guess it's like Revolutionary-era France, or communist Russia. It's basically a fascist totalitarian state. They hate elves, and most non-human races.
Nord is like the various Nordic (duh!) or Viking countries. However, it's not united, and there is a major villain here, the Ice Queen.
Romanus is like the Roman Empire (again, duh!). Only this has an unusual twist - it's people are human, but as a result of a curse, they have Drow-ish features. That is, dark skin, pale hair, and wildly colored eyes.
Rylonia is like North America, or rather, the plains area of pre-columbian North America. There are 5 tribes of American Indian like people. This actually makes their free module, Rite of Passage (which I didn't like) make sense.
Sheena is a country of pirates. It's a lot like Freeport (from Green Ronin), if it were actually a pirate city and not a Disney-esque monstrosity. Odd name for a pirate country.
Warkistan is a Persian-Middle Eastern style country.
The next chapter is on new classes, and contains several new core classes as well as some prestige classes. I like how they introduce several new core classes. I'm a person who likes new core classes. However, while the concepts behind the new classes are generally pretty solid, the design of them is nothing short of terrible. Which unfortunately makes most of them completely unusable, at least without overhauling them.
The Centurion- This is class exclusive to the Romanus Empire. Basically, it's like a Fighter, but more powerful and better at combat. There is a design rule mentioned in the DMG that while variant fighting classes are okay, the Fighter should be the best overall combatant. How is it better? Well, same HD, same skill points, but the Base Attack Bonus starts out at +2. They also get Weapon Specialization at 3rd level. They get several bonus feats - a total of 9, compared to a fighters total of 11. But beyond that, they also get free feats. Weapon Specialization at 3rd, 2 weapon fighting at 9th, a special ability that lets them fight together with another Centurion for various attack and AC bonuses. So it's better than a Fighter is almost all regards. And in some sample combats between an equal Centurion & Fighter, it indeed is better than a Fighter. And 2 Centurions vs. 2 Fighters the difference is even more glaring.
The Merchant - This is an okay concept, though not great. Still, again, it's not done very well. Basically, it's Rogue in terms of Base Attack Bonus and skill points (8). It's got a screwed up save progression for 2 of the categories, slightly worse than the best. It'a also got a number of special abilities, mostly involving being a merchant.
The weird thing, is that it's a spell casting class. And a lot of spells. A first level Merchant can cast three 0th Level spells, and two 1st level spells. And they are not sucky spells, either. The first level spell list for the Merchant includes Magic Missile, Cure Light Wounds, and Charm Person. The number of spells tops out pretty lowly, ending up like the spells for a Paladin or Ranger.
So, given the large number of skill points, the good attack progression, the good saves, the decent hit dice, the large number of special abilities (plus 4 bonus feats), this class is not well balanced. Would easily replace a Rogue in everything but combat ability (at least with regards to special attacks)
The Samurai - This is something that could have been very useful, because not everyone (including me) has OA, and having a Samurai class would be pretty cool (especially one that is open content.). However, the rules for this one are both terrible and confusing.
Again, much like the Centurion, this one starts off with a Base Attack Bonus of +2 (and tops out at +21). It gets 2 skill points per level (like a fighter) and has saving throws like a fighter. And again, like the Centurion, it's overpowered. For one, at first level, the Samurai gets 3 feats. 1 is conditional (2 weapon fighting - only works with the Katana and Wakizashi), but they also get Unarmed Strike and Stunning Attack for free at first level. (Why, I'm not sure.
The confusing part is the "Extra Shot" ability. It's not clear to me just what it does - if it gives an extra attack (or maybe two, the second time) at the Samurai's Base Attack Bonus or something else. All in all, this is somewhat more balanced than Centurion, but still is not very good. It's not really useable. Obviously you can use it, but expect to hear griping from other players and your game getting out of balance. They actually admit this, but say it's mostly aimed at NPCs, to make them tougher. But that's silly. If you want tougher NPCs, simply raise their level by 1.
The Shaman - This is actually the best (in terms of rules) class in the book. It's geared to simulate an American Indian style Shaman. It's kinda like a Druid, and casts spells as such (has to prepare ahead). It gets a d8, 4 skill points per level, average attack bonus progression, and great saves for Fort. & Will. The spells per day is like a Cleric. There are a few special powers, but nothing overwhelming. Not a terribly unique class, even with the totemic powers, but perhaps because of this, this is the most balanced core class in the book.
The White Witch/Warlock - This is one of the main reasons I bought the book - I really like witches, and have been looking for a good witch class. Though 3 books have been announced that would provide a new core witch class, none have actually come out yet.
This is actually not a bad class at all, but it has an annoying rule quirk. The base attack bonus progression is even worse than a Wizards. Which is something you really shouldn't do (See the DMG for why). I also don't like the spelling of 'Atheme', while apparently it's used, generally it's spelled 'Athame'. But that's pretty nitpicky.
Anyway, the Witch casts spells like a Cleric (have to prepare), only no domain bonus. Rather than providing a complete spell list, it includes a base spell list and then mentions they can also cast divination, enchanment, illusion and necromatic arcane spells. Which works well enough, especially as you can use spells from other sources.
There are also a number of special abilities, all of which are very witchy. There's also a short section on "Witch Wards", which are basically members of the opposite sex that serve the witch. Kinda like in the Wheel of Time series, IIRC.
All in all, this is a pretty good witch class. I would personally alter the BAB progression so that it's that of the wizard. Having it top out at +9 is just silly.
The Prestige Classes are generally better, with one exception of a misprint/gaffe. The Prestige classes include:
Enforcer - a class for Mirak, basically it's a spy or secret police. Good enough, but as it's something of a rogue class, it should specify whether or not the abilities it shares with rogues stack with the rogues abilities (like Sneak Attack) or not.
Inquisitor of the Pantheon - This is a clerical prestige class. As it sounds, it's an Inquisitor, and is as nasty as that name implies. IMHO, it should be LE, but D&D seems to take the tack that it's okay to do evil things and still be LN (or CN) as long as you don't enjoy the evil acts.
Knight of the Rose - This is a chivalrous knight found in Gildor.
Lorindwar Bard - This is a bardic prestige class (duh) of Dunreth. Tries to emulate the Celtic Bard.
Officer - This is a somewhat pointless class used to implent a rank system for military officers. Personally, I think a rank should just be outside of game terms, or just be a feat (an extra one or free one or not), like in Fading Suns d20 or Weird Wars d20.
Road Warden - This is sort of like a ranger prestige class. Unfortunately, this class has the wrong info for it on the class info chart. There's also a mistake on the requirements for it. There is some errata for it on their web site, though if you didn't have internet access, you'd be screwed.
The Seeker is a pretty odd prestige class that basically seeks things. It's got very easy requirements (a 2nd level character could take it), and has some rules problems. In the description, it says it gains spells as if it had gone up in their arcane class, yet the level chart contradicts that statement, giving additional levels sporadically with no real pattern.
The Strictor is another clerical prestige class. It's like an Inquisitor, only for the Church itself.
Lastly there is the Swashbuckler, which is something of a pirate style class. This is a bit confusing, because it's somewhat aimed at Rogues, yet it has some Rogue abilities . It's not clear if they stack with the Rogues abilities if they already have them (Uncanny Dodge) or what. So, like the Enforcer, you need to decide yourself how it works.
The next 12 or so pages detail the races and cultures of Gothos from a game mechanic standpoint. The various bonuses and penalties to stats, extra feats, powers, etc.
After that comes 8 pages or so of new feats. Many of the feats are cultural, and can only be taken by characters from a given country, or who have lived there for a certain length of time. That's a pretty cool idea, though I don't think it's original, exactly. There are also feats for the "Children of the Waking Dream", which is something of a secret society that fights evil, and are bonded to dreamers on Earth.
For the most part, these feats are fairly well done. Some are too powerful, I think. For instance, the 'Master Archer' feat gives a +2 to hit with bows, as well as +1 damage. That's like Weapon Focus (only better, since it's +2, and applies to all bows) and a weakish form of Weapon specialization). Another example is 'Battle Hardened', which gives an extra hp per character level. That's not a big deal for lower levels, but at 20th level, that would be 20 extra hit points.
The last 8 pages are some appendixes which offer some tips on style, ads for other d20 books, a small excerpt from Mongooses ship book, the OGL license (done correctly), the d20 license (which isn't needed, actually), and a pretty decent index. I love indexes.
Also, there is at least one free download for this on their website. A 12 or so page PDF that describes the country of Dunreth in greater detail, including descriptions for everything on the map. Really adds to the already good value of this book.
Still, while I do really like this book for a lot of reasons, I hate how they screwed up the game mechanics part of it. The setting is great, I think, if not brilliant. It's one of the few earth-like fantasy worlds that actually has a reason for having earth-like cultures. But the game mechanics are terrible in places. Most of the core classes are flawed, and some of the prestige classes are poorly explained (especially the one with the bad table), which make them hard to use.
There are also numerous editing problems with the books. No NPCs really have complete stats per se, but their class and levels are often given. However, many of them are given classes that either don't exist (the Noble class) or aren't eligible for (in the case of prestige class). 'Rouge' instead of 'Rogue' is also used at least once (easy type, but somewhat dreaded). But most of that is pretty minor, and there is already errata.
If not for the rules problems, this gets a pretty solid A (or 5). But since they are pretty major, I would have give this a B- (which translates to a 4 here).
