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✧ REALMSPACE ✧ Traveler's Guide - ToC and Introduction (OLD VERSION)

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✧ REALMSPACE ✧    Traveler\'s Guide - ToC and Introduction (OLD VERSION)
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✧ REALMSPACE ✧ Traveler's Guide - ToC and Introduction (OLD VERSION)
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Leland S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/18/2016 13:07:21

So, it's Spelljammer! Which immediately earns it a $1 to give it a read. The product offers the beginnings of a line of product that hints at some of the magic beyond the world of Toril in the heavens. The art is black and white with a feel of a sketchbook and homey. The rest of the content gives a brief look at the Crystal Sphere and the happenings that have occurred in the intervening years. A frustration is that there are several blocks of text that are duplicated which bloats the page count up by one.

It has some great ideas but suffers from layout.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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✧ REALMSPACE ✧ Traveler's Guide - ToC and Introduction (OLD VERSION)
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Andrew W. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/20/2016 19:47:12

It's a decent start - I'd love it if you could create stats for the Ordell guy, in case people want to try using him as NPC material.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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✧ REALMSPACE ✧ Traveler's Guide - ToC and Introduction (OLD VERSION)
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by John C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/18/2016 11:57:17

I went into this expecting to not like it, and I was pleasantly surprised.

I have mixed feelings about Spelljammer. I think some of the concepts that are core to the setting are great. Others...not so much. So anything that plays around with the idea of Spelljamming is likely going to be hit or miss with me.

This was more hit than I expected. That's probably because it focused so much on being fluff as opposed to crunch. Not trying to establish rules for all the ins and outs of D&D space travel was a wise idea. Johnny Tek instead focused on some general ideas, and an update to Realmspace based on recent happenings in the Forgotten Realms lore (i.e. the Spellplague and the Sundering).

As an introduction, this was solid. I think it could have been trimmed a bit, but all in all it was good. The artwork needs some improvement. I'm assuming these were done by Johnny Tek himself, or someone he knows, and although a couple are passable, there is the one of the narrator seated at a desk with a starry night seen through a window....and it's just not good enough to be included. It distracts from the work rather than adding to it.

Overall, I'm interested in what I assume will be follow up segments detailing the different parts of Realmspace. I hope that future installments improve a bit in quality, and I hope that they continue to avoid actual space faring rules. I think to even try to open that can of worms would take away from what made this first part so solid.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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✧ REALMSPACE ✧ Traveler's Guide - ToC and Introduction (OLD VERSION)
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Lucus P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/18/2016 08:37:10

I had wondered how long it would take for someone to release a "technically it's Forgotten Realms, but sorta not really" product, and I see that it was "a few days."

I loved Spelljammer back-in-the-day, and was sad it never got full support during either the 3rd or 4th editions era (though at least the Beyond the Moons website offered official unofficial 3rd ed rules: http://www.spelljammer.org/) and then there was a Polyhedron magazine article for Shadow of the Spider Moon that was pretty good (http://www.andycollins.net/Projects/Spelljammer/Spelljammer.htm).

Now, original Realmspace book for Spelljammer this is not (available online though: http://www.dndclassics.com/product/17259/SJR2-Realmspace-2e?it=1&filters=0_0_44701) Not that that was "the best" Spelljammer book or anything, but the production quality was pretty solid at least on that book and compared to this. If I understand the DMsGuild's rules though, you might be able to even pull some materials from that old text and use it freely in a new book like this one.

And while Spelljammer.org did have a section on Realmspace (http://www.spelljammer.org/worlds/Realmspace/) they didn't "update" the timeline which is something THIS book does do.

I'd need to compare the specifics of the text to all the various texts of Realmspace (in the original book and others, etc.) but it seems like the author, Johnny Tek, has good ideas but not the greatest execution.

I paid a $1 for the book, and in support of his ideas, I'm fine with that. His ideas and even the simple sketches and illustrations (I'm guessing they are his own) are clean and neat, though they lack much impact. His layout and graphic design leave much to be desired, as the actual text is badly spaced and spread out and even the use of the page layout seems to be something like landscape, two column, with LOTS of white space (no background, etc.). At a guess, he used Word to do the set up or at least it feels like it.

The text was also 100% fluff. It seems pretty good fluff, for that matter, but I'd love to see at least an attempt at rules for Spelljamming, even just handwave level "how to handle it" in 5th edition.

I really hope this is just "first attempt" by Johnny Tek, and I hope you'll consider doing follow up work. If you can, get a simple background/template/layout from either DMsGuild or popover to RPGNow.com/DriveThurRPG and pick up some kind of ready made cover, interiors, and maybe some stock art and then consider adding some mechancis for things-related-to-spelljamming.

Nice appetizer, but I want a meal.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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