The Book of Dragons: Revised and Expanded
An Earthdawn Sourcebook
Published by Living Room Games
www.lrgames.com
It was my intention that this month I would review not only this nifty book, but also Barsaive in Chaos. Unfortunately, I wanted to test out some of the adventure frameworks in that book before reviewing it, and between finals and holiday travel plans and work, getting my little Earthdawn group together proved to be quite the task. As December draws to a close, we've only managed to get together for one game.
December turned into such a busy month for me that I barely managed to find time to read The Book of Dragons, but I'm glad I did. Nothing warms the cockles of a GM's heart like a book chock-full of dangerous creatures and devious plots. I find myself very glad that the I have this book instead of our main Earthdawn GM, Dylan! He's scary enough with just the Horrors book. But I digress.
Once upon a time, there was a Dragons book for Earthdawn floating around in PDF format. I don't think that the book was ever actually published, because I haven't seen it for sale anywhere. I never read that document, as I wasn't as much of an Earthdawn fanatic back then (hard to believe, I know). By the time I got hooked, the document was long-gone from our computers, or at least hidden in some forgotten sub-directory.
I believe that the first part of this new book - dictated by the late great dragon Vasdenjas, Master of Secrets - was part of the original book. Although some of Vasdenjas's information is purposefully incomplete or misleading, this section of the book is still at once informative and entertaining. I've always enjoyed Earthdawn books supposedly authored by Vasdenjas because of his attitude and way of speaking, and I was sorry to learn that this great character was killed off recently.
The second part of the book, however, is replete with mentions of recent events in Barsaive, showing that it's either entirely new material, or greatly updated. I'm pretty certain (from having looked over my husband's shoulder) that some of these dragons were covered in the old PDF, but I can't say for sure. Anyway, the second part is a collection of documents collected by Denairastas, the Outcast, draconic forefather of the human clan of the same name. The Denairastas clan is out to rule the world, so their progenitor thoughtfully provided them with dossiers of the most influential dragons in Barsaive to help them out.
Not only do we get to see the facts that the Outcast gathered, and his opinions of these other dragons, but since the great dragon Mountainshadow got ahold of a copy of this document, we get to see his opinions on the matter, too. All very interesting stuff, especially if you're a big time Earthdawn or dragon-junkie like myself.
After all this in-character style information, there's a large game information section as well. Everything you need to include dragons and dragon-like creatures in your campaign is held in these chapters! Statistics on hatchling, adult, and great dragons and related creatures, such as drakes (shape-changing servants of the dragons) and hydras, information on customizing dragons, detailed information on draconic abilities, etc. Some of this information is available in other books, but having it all in one place is pretty handy, especially since some of those books (The Blood Wood, Creatures of Barsaive) are out of print and hard to find.
In addition, there's a number of "adventure frameworks" (kind of like modules, but sketchier on the details) for working dragons into your campaign. Given that dragons - especially the great dragons which the book mainly covers - are extremely powerful creatures, you might think that only powerful Earthdawn characters could be in a campaign that involves dragons. You'd be quite wrong! Although even the most experienced Adepts would have a hard time taking on a great dragon, Adepts of all levels can find themselves wittingly or unwittingly embroiled in a dragon's plottings. Many dragons hire adventurers to do tasks for them, and many dragons are involved in plots that an adventurer can stumble across. While there is one adventure recommended only for very powerful characters, most of the rest could easily be adjusted for just about any power-level.
I do have a few complaints about the book, however. There are a couple of inconsistencies, such as one great dragon who holds lesser races in utter disdain, and yet is believed to have given them the knowledge of very helpful magic that allows them to power captured ships without the use of slaves. Since he practically hates those people, and refuses any audience, why would he help them out? How did they get the knowledge from him in the first place?
Also, a large chunk of the book is authored by the Outcast, but we're given no idea of his abilities. We know what his goals are - help his descendants take over the world, get back at the other dragons - we know that he's an outcast and why - it's forbidden to mate with the lesser races and he did it anyway - but we don't know exactly what being outcast entails. Given how involved he is in the goings-on of Barsaive, through his family, it's pretty likely that adventurers could find themselves embroiled in one of his plots. I suppose that information on the Outcast and the Denairastas might be in one of the books I don't own, but if so, you think there'd be a reference to it in this manual.
While we're on the subject of books I don't own, this book does make reference to many other Earthdawn sourcebooks, several of which are out of prints. Although I've been collecting Earthdawn books for a couple of years, I still don't have all of them. Such books can be hard to find if you don't know where to look. Any fellow Earthdawn fans out there who purchase this book and wonder where they can find the other books referenced therein can feel free to e-mail me, I'll be glad to share my sources!
I do hope, from reading about the dragons of Cathay and the feathered dragons of Araucania, that Living Room Games has plans to publish new books expanding our knowledge of the geography of the Earthdawn world (which, as much as I hate to admit it, is some magical pre-historic Earth. Damn you, map of Thera!). There are many exotic parts of the world merely hinted at in the books I own, and I'm sure such far-off lands would offer exciting new vistas for experienced players bored with the usual Barsaive.
Overall, The Book of Dragons is an entertaining and potentially very useful sourcebook. While players might find their knowledge of Barsaive enriched by reading this book, it is mainly geared towards gamemasters. A particularly generous GM might consider letting his or her players play drakes or dragonkin, especially in a very small group, but these are not races generally open to players. There are no new Disciplines, Talents, or Skills contained in this book.
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