Lost Isles 1 and 2 by Sceaptune

[Host of Angels]

Are these any good?

Now this may be a daft question - since Halfbat is such a regular poster I'm sure he will add his own ha'peth. But I have a few questions about them...

They are pitched as solo scenarios, a noble tradition from the annals of RPG history - but how well do they play with a single player? What sort of character is required for solo play?

I take it they are not set in Glorantha, but can they be jigged into a Gloranthan setting? Are there Gloranthan coversion notes?

And possibly most important - can they be run with a duck PC? It just has to be...

 

[soltakss]

Lost Isles 1 - Exile has a lot of background, based on the Lost Isles, surprisingly enough. It has descriptions of the Havens, Wardens, Cults, New Spells, New Legendary Abilities, New Runes, New Creatures all taking up 35 pages, which is pretty good as they could be used in any setting. Then there is a 20 page scenario which looks OK, but I haven't run it and have just skimmed through it. Following that are 10 pages of NPC stats, including some tasty dragons and 10 pages of player handouts.

Lost Isles 2 - Dryhaven has a lot of background, but some of it is duplicated from Lost Isles 1. Ther are new creatures, spells, legendary abilities and so on, all usable elsewhere. Darkhaven is described in a lot of detail, with some interesting scenario hooks and some other Havens are described in less detail. There are cults, a long scenario, some NPCs and handouts with some nice maps.

So, all in all, they are pretty good. They are not too generic and have a lot of flavour, but could be fairly easily slotted in to many campaign settings. They are a bit on the pricey side, especially when compared to the Plain Wrap supplements from Seraphim Guard, but I'd say they were worth buying.

 

[Rurik]

I really liked Lost Isles 1. I haven't used it and so haven't bought Lost Isles 2, though plan on it when the stars (read finances) are right.

It plays best with 1-2 players though could be scaled up. The setting is unique enough to have character but can still fit into other campaign worlds (the island nature of the setting goes a long way towards making it easily portable to most settings, though maybe not to Dune). I honestly can't say it feels like a good fit to Glorantha for me, but it could be done.

Personally, I like the mixed source/scenario format - it reminds me a lot of the classic RQ supplements of old. I don't mind paying for high quality supplements, and this fits the bill with nice art and all.

 

[Halfbat]

I'll leave others to give their opinions, but I'll try and answer your other points:

1. I have heard of people putting the Lost Isles into other campaign worlds without any real problem. The main difference will probably be the cults and cosmology.

2. We've tried to keep the amount duplicated from one volume to another to a minimum so as to try and bypass the oft-hated "but you need xxxx supplement" to play this. Unfortunately, to give some coherency to the background, it can't be helped.

3. Duck PCs - of course! There's one supplied and when I run it at cons with 4-6 players I regularly get players picking up the Duck (and there have been some hilarious moments).

As for being more expensive that the plain wrap supplements - there's a lot more to them! :lol: