Customer Reviews

Creatures of Barsaive: An Earthdawn Sourcebook

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The story of how Barsaive is described through the mind of a dragon retold and 'published' by a dwarf is amazing. I think it's a great book, and very creative. The true story behind the unicorn is startling. I am glad I read this book.

A great sourcebook, one of the best I have read, the book shines in the descriptions of the creatures as well as side comments by a great dragon and his dwarf counterpart.

"Creatures of Barsaive" is a very entertaining book with a lot of small storyhooks told from the point of view of a dragon. But the information inside is not that essential because of the rules for creature - generation system presented in the Earthdawn Compendium. Nevertheless the creatures are well balanced and an inventive gamemaster can use them for high suspense and some entertainig hours.

I am a current GM for the Earthdawn system, and I really enjoyed reading this book. The narrative about each critter is interesting, which is not what I expected. It is narrated by a dragon who describes the creatures as "not that big, about the size of my forearm" only later to quantify that as "about 4 feet long". Most entries have at least one sentence on what it tastes like.
However, it is also an incredibly valuable resource from the perspective of game ideas. It offers unique and fun ideas for how to use each in a campaign, and my very next session seamlessly included one of them. While not the most important sourcebook to get, it is a good one to add to your library eventually. Of importance in the game notes are the creature specific abilities and attack methods that are spelled out clearly, as well as a useful procedure for your own creations. Did you know that 2 dog sized, or 3 rat sized creatures can fill each of the 6 zones around a PC? I had no idea.

When i recieved this book i read it all that night. I am usually not much of a reader, but with this book i could not put it down. The best aspect of the book was the conversation that took place between the dwarf scribe and the great dragon Vasjendous. These converations gave you a wonderful insight on how dragons think and act. It was a very useful tool in implementing a dragon into my game.