Hullo, folks,

Just thought I would drop everyone a line, and let folks know that my package from GMD (specifically Jamie) arrived in yesterday's snail mail post. The package included a t-shirt, a button, Style chips, and Desolation: Survivors. Thank you, thank you so much!

What follows are my first thoughts on the book, so bear with me. (Jamie asked that I post this up to the forums, so here it is. Hopefully folks will comment on this post, discuss this post, or post their own thoughts on the new book.)

I had a chance to peruse Desolation: Survivors last night (bad back, lying on the couch, what am I going to do, right?), and have to say I really like the book at first glance.

First off, my first thought is that I like the amount of detail provided on the three Oruskan races, and have to say that they are quite dangerous as player characters, let alone NPCs! Liked the attention paid to their religions too. I was worried that there wouldn't be enough detail to play an orc, kobold, or goblin, and it's good to see that each race got the same type of space devoted to the dwarves, elves, etc. from the main book here. Some nice stuff in there, and definitely food for thought.

I am rather fond of some of the additions and changes to the Skills material, and the new Talents and Flaws are very nice (especially since many of them pertain to the Oruskan races, though there's some nice stuff for the Gnomes here as well). I need to look over this stuff in a bit more detail, but one of my Friday night players will be pleased at the Merchant skill, and likely will want that one. He's playing a Rover merchant, after all!

The two new types of Magic are quite...unique. Rather like them. Just out of curiosity, what happened with Chaos Magic, that was mentioned in the original blurb about the book contents here on the mailing list?

The Equipment chapter adds a new detailing to the issue of items and goods, and scavenging for them, but I think that players will be a bit intimidated by it if they read it or know too much about it. All the Difficulty mods and stuff are best left in the GMs hands. There's some real food for thought in the chapter, as some of the items mentioned here give one a good feel for what's left in the world After.

The chapter on the Communities is what I've come to expect from you GMD guys, and there's some really lovely stuff here. I see that Stephen Herron's Cherry Falls/Cherry Hills/whatever it was called community from the scenarios didn't make it up here. Perhaps something to be posted on the forums or a file on the community for upload? There's a good number of communities in the book, with lots of different styles and feels, and this gives an excellent indication of what the world After is like. Add that to the one presented in the main rulebook, and there's a good sampling of stuff here.

The standard NPCs section is quite...long, but well worth perusing. This section stands out for me, because generic NPCs are always useful to have, and because they can provide some good ideas for players and how characters might look. Some good basic characters here, and I can see myself using quite a few of them to challenge players and all. Nice stuff.

The Bestiary material is simply superb! Hoarghasts!! Eek!! Combined Corpses? :shudder: Lovely stuff. I was kinda shocked and pleased to see the stats on Centaurs, Werewolves, and Gargoyles, and loved them. I've got a more natural take on the Centaurs for my own campaign, but can see myself using the Warp-weaved version as well. Don't need to talk about werewolves, given the scenario I wrote for last year's CanGames and the take on them there... Gotta say that the description of the Minotaur was very good, and the illo of the Minotaur turned me right off those creatures; that was one of the most disgusting images for a minotaur I've seen in ages, and it fit in so well well with the whole Weave-Warped nature of the beasties, but was unexpected when one thinks of these creatures in most fantasy rpgs. Ughh.

Quick question in regard to the beasties entries. I've noticed that with many if not most of them, even for the ones that are Size 1+, there is no Giant Talent listed for them. Why is this?

Just one additional thought here, Jamie, Matt, Stephen... There are a lot of useful tables here, tables that I don't want to have to keep flipping through the book to find, so... These tables should definitely go in the GM Screen. <hint, hint>

Terrific book, at first glance, guys. Love what I've seen of it so far. And I promised that I'm not going to raise the issue of the price of the book, guys.

Great review there, John!

I've gone through the book once already, and am going through again as I update the Character Generation Cheat Sheet (yes, I'm working on it).

I like the little flavor bits I find here and there, such as having familiar weapons listed with slightly different names (e.g. cutter instead of katar, mercygiver instead of misericorde); it makes the setting feel more self-consistent.

Oh, and while Cherry Falls may not have made it, I did notice Philean's Menagerie did, and I suspect Mother Ice to be the glacier found in the "A Cold Reality" adventure.

All in all, I agree, Survivors is a grand addition and a worthy expansion to the world of Desolation.

Hullo, Nestor,



Thanks, mate! I actually think of this as a mini-review more than anything else, and figure I will have more comments and thoughts on the book when I read a few things again.



Glad to hear it! I still want a DESOLATION GM Screen, though!



That was something I was going to do some research on, to be honest, since I thought the names were familiar, but you've saved me the effort of having to do so! I do like the self-consistency of the game world in that respect. And I'm glad that the equipment lists were not done in the style and to the depth and extent of the lists in HEX's SotSW. Different priorities and different approach to this, thank Goddess.



Hadn't thought about that. I suspect you may be right about Mother Ice.



No argument here.

I think the supplement adds enough new material to the game that it will keep GMs and players alike content enough to explore this whole new facet of the game world. And I rather like the new communities element of the book, simply because it gives one as a GM ideas for communities, as well as pre-generated places to send the player characters!

Chaos magic was too chaotic the way we envisioned it. It eventually turned into the Braiding Talent, which lets magic users learn two traditions ... for a price.



Cherry Falls will indeed be part of the scenarios that we plan to make available.



We made the call that the Giant Talent was for characters. We didn't think a huge creature should have to burn a Talent just to be huge.

Glad you like the book, John. We put a lot of work into it.

Hullo, Jamie,



Too chaotic? Hmm... While I like the Braiding Talent, I don't really see the price on learning two magic Traditions as being all that high. I can easily see some players taking this option, regardless of having to learn the Talents and all for Magic.



That is good news to hear. The material in the scenarios about Cherry Falls was interesting, and I was hoping it would be included in Survivors. Still, there are a lot of neat and interesting communities in the book. (And you've also got my Keveli community as well that can be posted up, with any revisions you might need.)



Hmm, sounds to me like that revision is a useful one. Still, one could just as easily say that it's a default or automatic Talent for any creature that requires it. Works just as well, and won't be confusing.



I know, Jamie...and I'm just glad the product turned out to be so good. I really hope there will be other DESOLATION game products in the pipeline, especially a GM Screen given some of what we talked about in personal e-mail. There are so many potential sourcebooks and other products for DESOLATION that it's scary, but I really want to see a GM Screen so as to sell the game a bit better at demos (instead of having to use the HEX GM Screen, and explaining that I'm not running HEX and there will be no dinosaurs in my DESOLATION game).