This article originally appeared in d20 Weekly

Review of Wise and the Wicked

The Wise and the Wicked

Published by Sword and Sorcery

Developed by Anthony Pryor and Stewart Wieck

128 b&w pages; $17.95

The Wise and the Wicked introduces dozens of interesting NPCs -- heroes and villains alike -- for the uniquely atmospheric Scarred Lands game setting. The contributing writers are not (for the most part) household names, but demonstrate a refreshing ability to merge technical writing with entertaining prose, making the book both a valuable sourcebook and an entertaining read.

The design team has done their utmost to live up to the excellence displayed by the writers. The end result is a gorgeous book, boasting a beautiful cover, excellent layout, and almost universally impressive interior artwork. As with the writers, the artists are not exactly living legends, but their work suggests considerable talent. In a few spots there seems to be significant blank spaces, and on occasion a magic item or two is used as filler to cover an empty page, so Sword and Sorcery may have cheated a bit in padding the book out to its 128-page format. Personally, I felt I received more than my money's worth, and I was willing to overlook this on the basis of the sourcebooks redeeming qualities.

There are 47 characters detailed within, and most are relatively powerful; they are, after-all, "movers and shakers" (as the back cover points out). All have thoroughly detailed backgrounds that place them in the context of the Scarred Lands, a setting each figure has had a hand in shaping in their . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.



Article publication date: July 24, 2002

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