70 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Sourcebook. Lots of information., November 17, 2005
This review is from: GURPS Banestorm (GURPS 4th Edition Roleplaying) (Hardcover)
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Introduction
Fantasy has to walk a fine line. You need enough strangeness to make it clear that this is not our world (or at least, not as we know it), but you have to retain some similarities to our own mundane reality to give the roleplayers a frame of reference. To far one way and you're in a historical setting. Too far the other and you've got confused players trying to digest bizarre cultures and races while the GM struggles to compose a decent adventure.
GURPS Banestorm walks the line well.
The basic concept is straightforward, and covered well in Chapter One, "History". A few thousand years ago, Yrth (the "hey, it could've been named worse" world of Banestorm) was home to elves, dwarves (and their gnome cousins), and orcs (and their ogre cousins), all of whom conform to familiar descriptions. Around the 11th century, one group of particularly intolerant elves decided that they'd rid the world of orcs at any cost, and spent their eternal lives researching and then performing the granddaddy of all spells, that which would summon the bane of the orcs to Yrth.
It backfired, horribly. Or maybe it didn't. What it did do is form a great multidimensional storm (soon christened the Banestorm) which came and went, and brought beings from other worlds into Yrth whenever it manifested. From Gabrook, world of sands, it brought goblins and their hobgoblin cousins, kobolds, trolls, and reptile men. From Loren'dil, the green world, it brought centaurs, giants, halflings, sphinxes, and minotaurs. From Olokun, world of water, it brought merfolk, sharkmen, and dolphins (really intelligent ones). And from Earth, world of the Crusades and, eventually, Reality TV, it brought humans. Lots of humans.
Within a millenium, the humans had pretty much taken over. They outbred the elder races, out-thought the less educated races, and out-warred pretty much everyone else -- even the orcs. (So, the renegade elves sort of got their wish, eh?) The humans brought their own religion, of course, and soon Ytarria (the main continent on Yrth and the focus of Banestorm was roughly divided into the Christian kingdoms and the Muslim lands.
About the time the Crusades were dying out on Earth, the Banestorm started to subside. It spiked again a century later, just long enough to populate Araterre (see below), but then dropped off. Nowadays, it's possible for a modern person to walk down a dark, foggy street and find himself in a medieval village, but it's fairly rare. And the few Connecticut Yankees who find themselves in the King's court quickly end up being thoroughly debriefed by the local authorities or wizards, and then magically mindwiped of any "dangerous" knowledge. The wizards of Yrth realize what threat certain technologies (especially gunpowder) are to their monopoly on flashy effects and battle magic, and the various rulers agree that such things are better kept out of peasant hands. So this unofficial conspiracy (an admitted plot contrivance, but a very useful one) keeps Yrth at a manageably medieval technology level, with a few anachronisms that either slipped through or were ruled harmless, such as clockwork and basic germ theory. Chapter Two, "Life in Ytarria", goes into detail on which ways magic has (and has failed to) supplant technology, along with the basic feudalistic, Islamic, and tribalistic forms of government that prevail here.
With this background, Banestorm portrays a world ruled by humans but populated with familiar fantasy races. (The goblins are of the Elizabethan template, wily and cunning but usually too impulsive to amount to much, living comfortably amongst the humans in every major city.) History has repeated itself, with wars not only between the two major religions, but also within them, splintering each faith into multiple nations
Religion
It's hard to overstate just how much "realism" is brought to the table by the treatment of religion. Yrth is not the first fantasy world to feature real faiths, but it uses them well. Instead of just assuming that what happened on Earth would happen on Yrth, the religions evolved in their own ways instead, as covered in Chapter Three, "Religion".
There was no Protestant Reform, though being cut off from the Pope meant that the various Archbishops eventually had to form the Curia, a high conclave responsible for setting precedent and religious law amongst the Christian lands. Protestantism began leaking into Yrth (via the newcomers of Araterre), but was driven underground after ruthless suppression. Magic was accepted as a gift from the Lord, especially after it proved so useful in dominating and converting (often at swordpoint) one's neighbors.
The split between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims led to the formation of rival nations, especially when the more practical Sunni Muslims eventually came to define "sorcery" (taboo in Islam) as different from the natural magic which Yrth provided, while the Shi'ites continued to disdain it. This does require some suspension of disbelief from any scholar of Islam, but is reasonably justified in the text -- magic on Yrth is not a mysterious force, but something that people use every day, with consistent effects... practically a science. Combined with the need to defend themselves against the Christian battle-mages of Megalos (below), some religious divergence is natural.
Judaism and Paganism are common as well, though no great communities of either were brought over. The Nomad Lands (below) practice various forms of Paganism, making them the largest nation to follow any "third-party" belief. The Jews were spread evenly throughout the lands, and have formed communities within Christian and Muslim lands alike. Their treatment ranges from respect (as "fellow followers of the Book") to outright persecution.
The Lands of Ytarria
Chapter 4, "Lands of Yrth" is the meat of Banestorm, taking up almost half the book. For those who want more detail than the map above, SJG has put up detailed maps of Yrth on their site. Every named fiefdom (or the equivalent) on the detailed nation maps has a writeup in the book; I have no room to cover each one here, of course. It's worth noting that only Ytarria is explored within, intentionally. In olden times, lands beyond the oceans were myths and rumors and "HEER BE DRAGONNES"... anything goes. Naval technology is such that it's unthinkable that anyone on Ytarria has ever seen such lands and returned.
I was very impressed with this chapter. I've come to expect a setting book to not only describe the land to me, but what to do with it. Banestorm is one of the few books to not only meet but far exceed my expectations there. Each sub-chapter describes not only the land and the important people within the land, but also the authors' intent as to what this nation represents and how it can be used. These lands were intentionally designed for gaming; each nation has a very different feel and offers significantly different adventures, though none of them feel at all contrived.
Each section (heck, every page) is laden with plot-hooks and adventure opportunities, ranging from larger-than-life plots (the Caithness civil war) to opportunies for even the lowest peasant (outfoxing Wazifi slavers). I don't have to wonder what to do with this setting, only which adventure I want to run first.
Megalos
Megalos ("the great dragon") is the Roman Empire, the America, the Anglo-Sino Alliance of Yrth. The only nation worthy of the term "empire", Megalos is the mighty Christian nation, famous for its armies, battle-mages, and willingness to use both. The area of the Capital (the little dragon on the map) is famed for its sprawling cities in which world-shaking policies are made but going down the wrong alley means a quick and painful death. It is less of a threat than it used to be, however, after losing Caithness and Cardiel and failing to gain any real territory in the last several wars.
Two cities are singled out for a detailed treatment. The city of Megalos, the Imperial Capital, gets a 4-page treatment, including a box on the dark secrets of the Emperor and the plots within plots going on throughout the city. Offering a different perspective, Yibyorak is the "goblin city" -- once part of the goblin nation (until they were absorbed by Megalos), now a thriving merchant city where anything can be had for a price.
Megalos serves multiple functions. It's the perfect nation for players straight out of D&D to game in, with its emphasis on magic, its diversity of setting (from cosmopolitan cities to treacherous forests and badlands), and its understanding of less-than-ethical choices. At the same time, it serves as a great foil, the epitome of the "dark, corrupt empire, being eaten away from within". The contrast between the large number of good, wholesome folks (especially away from the Capital) and the depravity, greed, and warmongering of the Emperor and his Vassals make for some fine gaming opportunities. Of course, things are set up perfectly for it to be both at once -- eventually, any intelligent townsman will realize all the things that are wrong with his land, and the PCs might just be the ones to set it right....
Araterre
Not a nation per se, the Megalan province of Araterre was uncolonized until the 16th century when the Banestorm flared up again and imported thousands of humans, mostly from Renaissance France. Once Megalos realized this, wizards were sent to steal and suppress technology (and Protestantism, once they realized what it was), though they never did manage to eradicate the advanced naval technology that they brought with them. Araterre makes the finest ships in the world,...
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