Waiting for shadizar

Kirth Gersen

Mongoose
*SIGH* I was waiting for amazon.com to ship my copy of shadizar and yesterday I got an email saying that they are shipping "The Free Companies", but Shadizar will be shipped in the future...

...waiting resume... :(
 
One member of this forum located in Greece claims that he has the box for more than 2 weeks. He gave somewhere there a brief review so I guess he has received it.
But why is he the only one to receive it puzzles me a bit.
 
The King said:
One member of this forum located in Greece claims that he has the box for more than 2 weeks. He gave somewhere there a brief review so I guess he has received it.
But why is he the only one to receive it puzzles me a bit.

Probably preordered from Mongoose themselves - maybe one of the few proof copies that arrive in advance of the main order, for example.
 
Got my copy in the mail today! :D

A few observations from my first brief read-through follow. Note that I've only skimmed the text of the books, so I may have to reconsider my findings later.

1. Boxed sets are nice! Opening this box brings back memories of the Greyhawk "From the Ashes" boxed set (actually, the two boxes have kinda the same dark red color). The box itself is sturdy cardboard.

2. Production values are high. I haven't seen any particularly glaring typos yet. However, only the first book is in color, the other two are black-and-white. I don't mind the adventure book (book 3) being b&w, but I'd prefer the second book (NPCs, feats and monsters) to be in color, as well.

3. The cover painting is nice and evocative.

4. There are a dozen full-color NPC cards, with a picture on the front and stats on the back; as well as perhaps 50-60 (full-color) counters to use along with mini "battlemats" (tavern rooms, temples, etc.). Nice!

5. The city map is a huge poster, quite nice but skimpy on details (only 6 locations are named on the map, excepting the city gates)...

6. There are a lot of pre-made NPCs in books 1 & 2, just like Across Thunder River had for Picts, only this time it's thieves, slavers, assassins, merchants, prostitutes, etc. I like this a lot, as I save a ton of work preparing adventures.

7. I didn't like the paintings of the NPCs in Book 1. They're done in a special style that just looks weird. Give us more art by Quilliams!

8. I had high hopes for the adventure in Book 3, hoping it would be a mini-campaign that could last for several adventures. Turns out it is a rather short adventure that I envision will only last for a few sessions. The plot also seems pretty linear (based on my brief reading of the adventure summary). This was a bit of a disappointment. That said, the DM should be able to make plenty of his own adventures in Shadizar with the info in Books 1 and 2.

9. The Bestiary contains quite a bland collection of creatures. Nothing really memorable, IMHO.

10. There are a lot of new feats. With each book in the Conan RPG line adding 20-30 feats, things are perhaps getting a bit complicated to keep track of for the poor DM... but options are always nice.

In sum, although I have a few gripes, the goodies (Book 1 & 2, the NPCs, the counters, and the maps) make this a good product for city-based campaigns.

More later... back to reading...

- thulsa
 
well, im still waiting myself, yeterday i went to my local game shop, they told me they'll call me as soon as it arrives but still i dont see any light,
Tulsa: could you say a bit about the kezarkian hillmen? what are te racial modifiers? favorate class? etc, any info would be apreciated
how about the adventure? for what level is it set for?

thanks
 
Belkregos said:
could you say a bit about the kezarkian hillmen? what are te racial modifiers? favorate class? etc, any info would be apreciated
how about the adventure? for what level is it set for?

Here you go...

Kezankian Hillman: +2 circumstance bonus to Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Survival and Spot checks made in any hills and mountains. +1 racial bonus to Hide and Move Silently checks. Gains Toughness as bonus feat at level 1. Favored Class: Barbarian.

I don't want to reveal too much about the adventure in case players are reading this. Also, it does not really state what levels it is for, but says that the DM should adjust the number of opponents to suit his group. Most NPCs are in the level range from 5th to 10th or so.

- thulsa
 
Belkregos said:
are they a subset of Zamorans?
can they take fighting madness?

They appear to be their own race, not a subset of Zamorans.

Doesn't say anything about fighting madness, so it's your call, but it seems appropriate as they are described as savage tribesmen who continually feud with rival clans.

- thulsa
 
10. There are a lot of new feats. With each book in the Conan RPG line adding 20-30 feats, things are perhaps getting a bit complicated to keep track of for the poor DM... but options are always nice.

I too, am getting concerned about this. Soon, Mongoose is gonna need to issue a PDF page to have on hand explaining which sourcebook contains which feats.

I'd prefer for new feats to *only* show up in the upcoming class books. Seeing as I'm buying all the Conan source stuff (I'm the DM) I don't need all these Feats, and I'm relucatant to just hand over my Copy of Across the Thunder River (example) to the players.

Give me background, fluff, and adventures, let my players buy the feats in the player books.
 
VincentDarlage said:
But what if I have a great idea for a feat for one of the sourcebooks AFTER I finish the player class books?

Go for S&P (and hopefully the S&P Conan annual ;) ).
 
VincentDarlage said:
But what if I have a great idea for a feat for one of the sourcebooks AFTER I finish the player class books?

keep them feats coming!!!

btw i really enjoyed your last article in S/P :D
 
7. I didn't like the paintings of the NPCs in Book 1. They're done in a special style that just looks weird. Give us more art by Quilliams!


Unfortunately two things prevent this. Chris is a very busy artist and we need to prioritise him for covers. Secondly, if I authorised Rich Neale to commission Chris for all the internal work you'd be waiting another 3 months. On the plus side, that would give you time to save up the extra bucks that you'd need to cover the price increase... :wink:
 
I remember well the days of "Greyhawk" and still own most of my original stuff....boxes included. I got my copy yesterday, thanks Mongoose! I'm still waiting patiently on the other stuff I won off S&P #13 survey, but I expect it'll arrive soon. Shadizar looks great and will definitely make my Throne of Blood campaign more detailed now. Love the map of Zamoria on the inside cover and all the details. Great work!

I'm going to make plenty of use of this boxed set.

Expecting to run Chapter 2 of my game at Dragon*Con 2005 this year too btw.
 
Got my Shadizar-box yesterday.

First impressions (in no particular order):

_*_Huge friggin' box! Why? It's like 20% bigger than it has to be... ah well. The box is so huge I have trouble fitting it into the shelf where I have the rest of my conan stuff... The cover is nice though.

_*_First look inside... okay... three books one fat one, two diminishingly thin all of them dull, boring ugly covers... Some maps... not much prettier either, the city map itself is, well... forgive me but I might have to draw my own here. The predrawn "adventure" maps are a really nice touch, smart and usefull, but do they have to look so... bland? The counters and NPC cards look great and will get used. =)

_*_Flicking through the books. The fat one is all colour. Yes! =) nice... I'm not at all worried about the actual text here since it is Vincent. I have to agree with previous poster; Nice Zamore map on the inside cover! If you are reading this Vincent, you won my heart with the Thunder River book, I trust you have made just as good a job with this. Respect. The other two books (the thin ones) are b&w.

Comments:

I love the idea of this adventure set (to have source material and adventure in one) though it could have been executed with more finesse. And the adventure could have been... well, longer. Personally I would have preffered an all colour, harcover book like the Thunder River, cause I really don't see the point of this huge box, the maps could have been "pull-outs" at the back as could the counter sheets and stuff. But I know that once I start reading Vincent will make me forget the ugliness of it all. =)

I give it a 4 out of 5.

/Wolf
 
GhostWolf69 said:
Got my Shadizar-box yesterday.

_*_Huge friggin' box! Why? It's like 20% bigger than it has to be... ah well. The box is so huge I have trouble fitting it into the shelf where I have the rest of my conan stuff... The cover is nice though.
...
/Wolf
:shock:
What are the dimensions of the boxes? (what shall I do if it doesn't fit in my shelf?).
 
I don't have the box with me here at the office... :shock:

But it is something like 1,5" higher than the Core Rulebook.

It is also thicker... the content itself is no thicker than say the Road of Kings book, but the box is like twice the Core book.

(all Aproximations from memory, I'll check it when I get home...)

/wolf
 
Back
Top