Customer Reviews

Frost & Fur: The Explorer's Guide to the Frozen Lands (d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying)

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

 

 

The polarity of two other reviews intrigued me: 1-Star? 5-Stars?

I think the 5-Star review is more accurate. I'm wondering if "Gawaine," the one-star reviewer, got an early, uncorrected printing... Yes, introductory narratives are set in a tacky font, but they're short for the most part. I have not read this book cover-to-cover, but I've found NO glaring typos so far. While the index isn't excellent (the "Norse pantheon" entry is off by TWO pages in my copy, not six), the Table of Contents appears incredibly detailed.

The art is B&W, not color, but seriously, how much color do you need in a Snow White climate??? I found the amount of interior art to be ample, and the quality was for the most part good to excellent. Then there is the cover art by William O'Conner (Google him). This guy is in his own league when it comes to fantasy dragons!

The lack of a Bibliography IS unfortunate. But, one quickly gets the feeling that the author is not only very well read on the subject, but passionate about it.

For the most part, a very good book!

Sometimes a product is best reviewed by stating what it is not. Frost and Fur is not WoTC's Frostburn. MonkeyGod Enterprises has given us what WoTC's Frostburn didn't; an excellent guide to campaigns or adventures in extreme cold.

Frost and Fur starts by providing an excellent overview of cold climates, what differentiates them, and why they exist. It provides excellent rules for adjudicating cold weather effects from hypothermia to frostbite, dehydration to tainted water. The rules are well done. They are not "new rules" but simply provide a systematic way to apply OGL rules to simulate the effect desired. It's the way OGL is supposed to work, and here it works very well.

The conceit of Frost and Fur, however, is to approach the world of cold climes through three cultures; Slavic, Inuit, and Ice Age Savage. All of these are done through a fantasy prism, however, so myths are real, as are mythical creatures, mythical weapons, etc. There are new races, or new takes on standard races, as well as new classes, prestige classes, and the like. Also, new spells, new feats, new skills, and new monsters round out the 237 pages.

But where it all comes together is that, by using historical research, each cultural package "works." That is, each new part relates well to other new parts because they come from a well-established cultural milieu; the sum of the parts actually creates a whole.