I am not the kind who jumps for every new kid on the block and extols their virtues to the ends of the earth and declares that the age of sliced bread is over, hail the new sliced bread.
However, Fantasy Craft is product that makes me do just that. When I first read the new rules for 4th Edition and that I quickly saw the game was moving in a direction away from what I wanted, I immediately started looking around for the game people would be adopting in its place. I found Pathfinder just at the beginning of the beta test and I was pleasantly surprised at their changes.
When the final release came out and the changes had scaled back dramatically to accommodate some of the backwards compatibility that had been a part of the core goals, I was still supportive. Then, after playing the game for a year, I realized the game still had some of the same issues that 3rd Edition D&D had and that there wasn't enough of a divergence back to the style of play that I loved.
Now enter Crafty Games. These guys have approached the fantasy genre not from the D&D 3rd Edition formula, but from their own work on SpyCraft 1st and 2nd Edition. The changes they have brought to the d20 System are refreshing and overwhelming positive in my opinion. There are plenty of other reviews out there that will give you a blow by blow of the contents of this book. I'm giving you my opinion as a longtime D&D fan who found the game moving away from narrative and towards action-combat.
Fantasy Craft restores a lot of that while not giving up the cinematic action that people love. It's an amazing, excellent achievement in the development of the d20 System.
This adventure is simply stunning. Al-Qadim was good. Desert of Desolation was good. This adventure takes everything that made those products great and blows it away.
I've played this a couple of times, and I really enjoy the components and the game style. However, the game usually ends up with a very odd outcome or someone vastly outdoes the other person. Maybe with experienced players this isn't the case.
Unfortunately, I have to give this a less than stellar review. The main problems for me are the map that comes with the book not following some of the maps in the book (shapes of the landscape change dramatically?).
Also, in a couple of places, place names are spelled differently.
The writing quality is definitely there, but the cartography really needs a review.
Books of this quality do not come along very often. The writing and art is top notch, as well as the breadth and depth of material for DMs to use when running the adventure.
The characters vis-a-vis the setting may seem unnatural at times, but I suspect this is a Paizo convention to highlight the flavor of the campaign world.
I thought this was an awesome product. For $13 bucks you get a LOT of flavor of the world of Golarion and get an extensive history to boot!
It also REALLY feels like an epic D&D world. The designers really put a lot of thought into the world to design it as realistic as possible while still being a D&D themepark. Great stuff!
The main complaint is the most important one: Dungeons & Dragons is more than just a rules system. D&D has a personality and for the most part, that personality has been shredded in this new edition.
Gone are the days when you felt like you were building a character. The new version of the game emphasizes mechanics and rules over story and roleplaying. In this version is more important to build an effective combat character than an interesting character.
This is sadly, not what D&D is supposed to be about. On its own, it's not a bad game, it's just not D&D.
