Now that was a vacation. The annual family car trip to Maryland for a week of cabin camping with a ton of friends was a big success this year. I really got a chance to relax, drink, eat, talk, drink. I spent one rainy day drawing maps and writing RPG-related stuff. The rest of the vacation was a break even from that, which I've been rather obsessed with lately.
I bought The Majestic Wilderlands by Rob Conley in softcover, and it arrived before I left. I almost took it with me, but decided not to risk it with the near certainty of rain and a 24-hour car trip on each end. Now I'm back and already digging into the book.
This book is a perfect example of how to build a campaign book. I'm not very far in, but I'm already impressed with the character classes. You can choose to be a generic fighter, cleric, or magic user, or you can pick a more specialized subclass. For fighters, there are Berserkers, Knights, Soldiers, Paladins of Mitra, and Myrmidons of Set, each having a different focus and advantages. For magic users, there are Mages, Artificers, Wizards, Rune-casters, and Theurgists. Clerics are customized by deity with weapon and armor restrictions and spell differences. Rogues have Burglar, Thug, Mountebank, The Claws of Kalis, and Merchant Adventurer subclasses. Several non-adventurer classes are described as well: Craftsman, Hedge Mage, Priest, and Scholars.
Some of these classes are generic enough to use anywhere, and some are deeply steeped in the setting, including all the religious classes (Paladins, Myrmidons, Theurgists, Clerics, and The Claws of Kalis). But even the setting-specific subclasses are easily modifiable.
One of my long-term goals is to translate the yummy goodness of Chivalry and Sorcery into an easy to use form like S&W or LL, and this wonderful book is giving me the inspiration on how to do it. I can already see how Cabalists from C&S would map onto Rune-Casters, and the Paladins and Myrmidons give a great example of how to do religious fighting orders.
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