Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Some of the reviewers here have complained about the ideological axe-grinding indulged by the creators of this book. To be sure, it does somewhat chafe, and I myself consider the authors to be quite naïve about what constitutes society among human beings, or even fantastic sapient creatures. This is not to mention the fact that this scenario posits the existence of an interplanar multi-cultural utopia where every micro-aggression has been banished by deus-ex-machina. The writers seem naïve and lacking in experience with things like sociology, anthropology, economics, history -- the things that make for realism or at least consistency when designing cultures and worlds. Honestly, "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood of Make-believe" or "Sesame Street" are grittier, and more vibrant instances of sapient interaction than the center-piece setting and many of the satellite cultures. Much of that is a matter of one's own taste and world-view though. If a GM and players have a similar outlook, the book and its adventures might be agreeable, given the stories presented. That said, unfortunately, the book is an extremely poor exercise in world-building. For a start, it is sketchy. This is not a fantasy world ready for play, unless one's playing style is completely gonzo, whimsical, off-the-cuff and ad-lib and doesn't mind the confusing inconsistencies in play that presents. There's just no substance here. Too many questions have not been asked and not enough design and development has been done to make any of the settings stand up for people who want any kind of consistency and thought. What is written is sparse, confusing, and full of self-contradictions and omissions. One small example: the citadel itself was supposedly founded as a trade and embassy nexus for 27 cooperating planar traveling civilizations. The citadel, at some point in its history, was overcome by some sort of catastrophe and abandoned. Eventually, it was reclaimed, discovered anew by heroes from one or more of the original civilizations whose ancestors founded it. Apparently, much or all of the history is forgotten, and the citadel is only in contact with 15 of the 27 civilizations that built it. Nobody knows who, where, or what the missing civilizations are. OK. That makes for lots of mystery, but if that is the case, how does anyone know that civilizations are missing, or that there were 27 I the first place? If anybody other than the DM is supposed to know that, who knows it and how and why isn't it common knowledge? The takeaway here is that basic, fundamental, consistency questions were not asked at all. The thing reads like it was constructed in a dorm-room bull session and the person keeping notes was drunk and only half paying attention. It's all about color, scene, emotion, and tone, and it goes together into a world, or nexus of worlds, that do not really work, as presented. The work is full of ooh-wow imagery, color, and feels, but there is no design. If you want the place to make sense and you want it to be useable and playable by players and a gamemaster who expect some consistency, the game master is going to have to do, generously, three or four times as much creative work as went into the whole book. This seems to be a recurring problem for Wizards of the Coast. Where are the adults? Kobold Press does not have the advantage of owning all of the IP for Dungeons and Dragons, and yet for the same money I spent on this book, I could buy their Midgard world book with about three times the number of pages and loads more maps and details and careful design. The campaign world works culturally, historically (in other words, internally consistent with its own documented history) economically, sociologically, ecologically and geographically…the list is endless and the contrast is damning. If Midgard can sell and make a profit for Kobold Press, why can't Wizards at least do as well? Heck, they cannot claim even that they lack creative material. Ed Greenwood and collaborators over two decades have left them with an over-abundance of material to reference and use that would at least equal the Kobold material in scope. The same holds true for worlds like Greyhawk's Oerth, or Eberon, or Dark Sun. Why can't Wizards give one of these settings the Midgard treatment and produce a playable, updated 5E world rich in consistency and good design, and full of good gaming material? Instead, we get scenarios like this one and Ravnica. These may have their fans, but as workable gaming worlds, they leave disappointingly much to be desired.