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[COMPLETE] Looking back at the leatherette series: PHBR, DMGR, HR and more!
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<blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8385267" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p><em>This is the way the series ends.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>This is the way the series ends.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>This is the way the series ends.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Not with a bang, but with a "meh."</em></p><p></p><p>Okay, that's kind of a downer opening to look back at the final leatherette book, <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16793/FOR12-Demihumans-of-the-Realms-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>FOR12 Demihumans of the Realms</em></a>, but it's unfortunately not an inaccurate one. While this book wasn't one that I found bad by any stretch of the imagination, it was the weakest of the three Forgotten Realms-focused leatherettes.</p><p></p><p>As with its predecessors, this is a kit book. But whereas those were focused on geography - for the most part, with the last half of the second book focusing on various religions instead - this one lacks that particular focus. While some of these kits are tied to specific places (such as "Gladiator, Fugitive Hillsfar"), there's no real unifying theme beyond these being specific to elves, dwarves, gnomes, and halflings. They're not even broken up by racial grouping (which to be fair, wouldn't make sense anyway, since more than a few of these can be taken by multiple demihuman races), but simply listed alphabetically from start to finish.</p><p></p><p>Another way that this book doesn't quite fill the metaphorical shoes of its predecessor volumes is page-count. Whereas the previous two books were one hundred twenty-eight pages in length, FOR12 is only three quarters as long, clocking in at ninety-six pages. Whether or not that was part of the plan from the beginning or if there wasn't enough content for another thirty-two pages will probably never be known. However, there is a joke to be made here about how that missing quarter is due to only three of the class groups getting kits for them: while you'll find Warrior, Wizard, and Rogue kits in this book, there are none for Priests (though I should mention that there's only one for Wizards, so they're only barely here either).</p><p></p><p>That's by design, of course; the book is very upfront in pointing out that if you want demihuman-specific material with regards to deities in the Forgotten Realms, you should check out <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17534/Demihuman-Deities-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Demihuman Deities</em></a> instead. Personally, I think that makes sense; the change in focus for this book would have made new Priest material rather awkward to introduce compared to what was in <em>Warriors and Priests of the Realms</em>.</p><p></p><p>Oh, and it's also worth mentioning that there's no new base class here either, in another departure from the format laid down by the previous books.</p><p></p><p>As for the kits themselves, there's a bit of a notation that needs to be made. We're told in the introduction that some of the kits here are updated/tweaked (and, in some cases, made Realms-specific) versions of kits we saw in the demihuman volumes of the kits found in previous books, mostly the PHBR series from what I can tell. While I haven't done any sort of research as to which kits were updated in this manner or where they're from, this is something I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, no one likes buying the same material again, on the other hand there were a <em>lot</em> of kits I didn't care for in the previous books, so having them edited into something worthwhile is definitely a good thing. I just wish there'd been a table of which kits from which books were given this treatment.</p><p></p><p>The kits themselves were...alright, I guess. While the mechanics are fairly tight, typically adding a number of small bonuses and penalties to various things rather than introducing anything truly revolutionary, my problem was that there was no real sense of what makes most of these specifically demihuman in nature. What is it that makes an elf, half-elf, dwarf, gnome, or halfling qualified to take the cat burglar kit (which they all can) when a human can't? There's plenty of information about how they have minor non-magical devices that can do incredible things, or how they have no Pick Pockets thief ability because they consider that beneath them, but nothing about what sets this kit apart from humanity?</p><p></p><p>Ironically, there are a few kits where the book actually manages to go too far in the other direction. A couple of kits are focused not only on a particular demihuman race, but on a particular sub-race, with their coverage sort of making it seem like demihumans of that particular sub-race <em>need</em> to take this kit if they take its parent class, such as the Winged Elf Explorer kit. Obviously, only avariels (winged elves) can take it (if they're fighters, which they need not be), but the description makes it sound like the various advantages and disadvantages of the kit are little different from those of the avariel sub-race itself. It's a tad confusing.</p><p></p><p>Having said that, the best part of the book (at least for me) was the overview of the various demihuman sub-races that it gives at the beginning of the book. Eschewing presenting the basic information (e.g. ability score adjustments) it instead gives the homelands of each sub-race in the Realms, their allowed classes, allowed multiclass combinations, initial languages they can choose at character creation, the major deities of that particular sub-race, and a list of other AD&D products that present that sub-race in greater detail. It's a very handy reference chart to have, and I can see a lot of players looking it over when deciding if they want to play a demihuman or not.</p><p></p><p>And that's it. While I wish there'd been more to it, this book is a decent-enough supplement that I can't say it's not worth picking up. But neither is it one I'd particularly recommend, save for the aforementioned list of sub-races. It's a very middle of the road supplement; it'll add some flavor to a demihuman character in the Realms, but only some.</p><p></p><p>For the last book in this overview, it could have been worse, though it could have been a lot better also.</p><p></p><p><em>Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 8385267, member: 8461"] [I]This is the way the series ends. This is the way the series ends. This is the way the series ends. Not with a bang, but with a "meh."[/I] Okay, that's kind of a downer opening to look back at the final leatherette book, [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16793/FOR12-Demihumans-of-the-Realms-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]FOR12 Demihumans of the Realms[/I][/URL], but it's unfortunately not an inaccurate one. While this book wasn't one that I found bad by any stretch of the imagination, it was the weakest of the three Forgotten Realms-focused leatherettes. As with its predecessors, this is a kit book. But whereas those were focused on geography - for the most part, with the last half of the second book focusing on various religions instead - this one lacks that particular focus. While some of these kits are tied to specific places (such as "Gladiator, Fugitive Hillsfar"), there's no real unifying theme beyond these being specific to elves, dwarves, gnomes, and halflings. They're not even broken up by racial grouping (which to be fair, wouldn't make sense anyway, since more than a few of these can be taken by multiple demihuman races), but simply listed alphabetically from start to finish. Another way that this book doesn't quite fill the metaphorical shoes of its predecessor volumes is page-count. Whereas the previous two books were one hundred twenty-eight pages in length, FOR12 is only three quarters as long, clocking in at ninety-six pages. Whether or not that was part of the plan from the beginning or if there wasn't enough content for another thirty-two pages will probably never be known. However, there is a joke to be made here about how that missing quarter is due to only three of the class groups getting kits for them: while you'll find Warrior, Wizard, and Rogue kits in this book, there are none for Priests (though I should mention that there's only one for Wizards, so they're only barely here either). That's by design, of course; the book is very upfront in pointing out that if you want demihuman-specific material with regards to deities in the Forgotten Realms, you should check out [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17534/Demihuman-Deities-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Demihuman Deities[/I][/URL] instead. Personally, I think that makes sense; the change in focus for this book would have made new Priest material rather awkward to introduce compared to what was in [I]Warriors and Priests of the Realms[/I]. Oh, and it's also worth mentioning that there's no new base class here either, in another departure from the format laid down by the previous books. As for the kits themselves, there's a bit of a notation that needs to be made. We're told in the introduction that some of the kits here are updated/tweaked (and, in some cases, made Realms-specific) versions of kits we saw in the demihuman volumes of the kits found in previous books, mostly the PHBR series from what I can tell. While I haven't done any sort of research as to which kits were updated in this manner or where they're from, this is something I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, no one likes buying the same material again, on the other hand there were a [I]lot[/I] of kits I didn't care for in the previous books, so having them edited into something worthwhile is definitely a good thing. I just wish there'd been a table of which kits from which books were given this treatment. The kits themselves were...alright, I guess. While the mechanics are fairly tight, typically adding a number of small bonuses and penalties to various things rather than introducing anything truly revolutionary, my problem was that there was no real sense of what makes most of these specifically demihuman in nature. What is it that makes an elf, half-elf, dwarf, gnome, or halfling qualified to take the cat burglar kit (which they all can) when a human can't? There's plenty of information about how they have minor non-magical devices that can do incredible things, or how they have no Pick Pockets thief ability because they consider that beneath them, but nothing about what sets this kit apart from humanity? Ironically, there are a few kits where the book actually manages to go too far in the other direction. A couple of kits are focused not only on a particular demihuman race, but on a particular sub-race, with their coverage sort of making it seem like demihumans of that particular sub-race [I]need[/I] to take this kit if they take its parent class, such as the Winged Elf Explorer kit. Obviously, only avariels (winged elves) can take it (if they're fighters, which they need not be), but the description makes it sound like the various advantages and disadvantages of the kit are little different from those of the avariel sub-race itself. It's a tad confusing. Having said that, the best part of the book (at least for me) was the overview of the various demihuman sub-races that it gives at the beginning of the book. Eschewing presenting the basic information (e.g. ability score adjustments) it instead gives the homelands of each sub-race in the Realms, their allowed classes, allowed multiclass combinations, initial languages they can choose at character creation, the major deities of that particular sub-race, and a list of other AD&D products that present that sub-race in greater detail. It's a very handy reference chart to have, and I can see a lot of players looking it over when deciding if they want to play a demihuman or not. And that's it. While I wish there'd been more to it, this book is a decent-enough supplement that I can't say it's not worth picking up. But neither is it one I'd particularly recommend, save for the aforementioned list of sub-races. It's a very middle of the road supplement; it'll add some flavor to a demihuman character in the Realms, but only some. For the last book in this overview, it could have been worse, though it could have been a lot better also. [I]Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.[/I] [/QUOTE]
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[COMPLETE] Looking back at the leatherette series: PHBR, DMGR, HR and more!
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