I thoguht I would list my review here first instead of a new thread but feel free to move it.
MDC
Disclaimer: I do not know anyone at Final Redoubt Press except for their occasional post on the Iron Crown Forums and the occasional personal email I have received in answer to a question or about a product.
Final Redoubt Press has released its third installment; The Lost Kingdome of the Dwarves sourcebook and On Corrupt Ground an accompanying adventure for the Echoes of Heaven Campaign Setting. This installment is just like the first two products in that it provides a setting book and linked adventure. The adventure can be used as part of the ongoing series or can be played as a one shot adventure. The Lost Kingdome sourcebook can be used in any home brewed game world with a few modifications. They both are well worth the buyer?s money and a game masters time.
The Lost Kingdom of the Dwarves is broken up into four sections, Dwarves, Orc?s, The Land and Game System Rules. The Dwarf and Orc sections talk about each races sociology, traditions, their involvement in Echoes of Heaven secret organizations, wealth and military aspects. One thing that is different from your everyday RPG is that Orcs are corrupted Dwarves. I will leave it to the setting book to tell you exactly how this happens and its game world ramifications. We all know Dwarven player characters are going to be sweating the fact that they might be corrupted by something and change into an Orc. The Land section deals with the topography, travel and climate of the Lost Kingdom. All very important subjects for the game master. The last section is specific to which version of the product you bought and it will be a D20, Harp, Rolemaster, Hero or an Open Gaming version and provide game information for your system. For example the Rolemaster version had a Dwarven Rune Priest profession, Dwarven Rune casting rules, Orc Shaman rules and two training packages.
On Corrupt Ground continues Final Redoubt Press?s adventure series set in the Echoes of Heaven Campaign setting. The adventure is set for around four player characters of at least 9th level and can be scaled to more player characters or higher levels as necessary. I would not recommend the adventure if you have fewer than three player characters or if they are drastically lower than 9th level as there are encounters that can overwhelm a lower level party. The scope of the adventure is fairly epic in nature and has far reaching global game world consequences.
All in all I greatly enjoyed The Lost Kingdome of the Dwarves and the adventure On Corrupt Ground and it is an important sourcebook for the Echoes of Heaven Campaign Setting. The strength of the product lies in its ability to be adaptable to almost any system, which is evident by the four different release versions. In the first two products I was very impressed by the scope of the material and its presentation, but I did not get that impression in this installment. Also after reading the sourcebook I felt like their should have been more material presented in various areas, more specific rules and rulings for Rolemaster and the book a rushed feel to me. Do not get me wrong as I feel the material is important to the Echoes of Heaven setting but the material just did not live up to the standards that the first two products set. If I had to grade the Kingdome of the Dwarves it would get a C+ or a B- but the first two in the series would get an A- to an A.
Mark D Carlson