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[COMPLETE] Looking back at the limited series: Player's Option, Monstrous Arcana, Odyssey, and more!
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<blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8641700" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p>And now, to close out the Odyssey line in general and Jakandor in particular, we come to <em><s>Jakandor 3: This Time It's Personal</s></em> <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/204202/Jakandor-Land-of-Legend-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Jakandor, Land of Legend</em></a>. Here is where the material of the first two books is put into a practical context, overviewing the nature of a Jakandor campaign and presenting several adventures in that regard.</p><p></p><p>Needless to say, the whole thing's a bit of a mess.</p><p></p><p>Okay, no, that's a bit unfair on my part. It's just that this book seems content to review the premises inherent to Jakandor as a setting, rather than showing how to truly build on them. After two prior books with a combined page-count of almost two hundred-fifty pages, I suppose I was expecting more out of a one hundred forty-four adventure book. I mean, I thought this would be the Jakandor equivalent of <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/12405/The-Great-Pendragon-Campaign?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>The Great Pendragon Campaign</em></a> or something like that. Instead, it seems more like Jakandor's version of how the <em>Clue</em> movie ended, offering different possibilities of varying plausibility.</p><p></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]SRd55I46th8[/MEDIA]</p><p></p><p>I mean, an adventure where foreign characters arrive on Jakandor? Doesn't that necessarily imply that there's a wider world beyond the island, running completely counter to the deep-dives that the previous two products did on the internal politics that drove the Knorr and Charonti into conflict to begin with, which were predicated on both sides not realizing that there was a wider world beyond the sea?</p><p></p><p>More notable than that, however, is this book's frank admission that a peaceful resolution between the Knorr and the Charonti is most likely impossible. While it has an adventure with a group of Knorr and Charonti outcasts living together in an old temple, that seems to be designed as the exception that proves the rule. The text here openly points out that, while the two civilizations are more similar than they might seem at first (both are ethnocentric societies whose values staunchly reject assimilating/incorporating other cultures into their own), their values run completely counter to one another, and so the thought of making peace with the other side is literally beyond the conception of most of their respective peoples. The back cover talks about how the campaign will "either unite the two nations or destroy them," but the latter seems far and away more likely than the former.</p><p></p><p>And here I thought this was supposed to be a fantasy game, rather than a hot-take on America today. <em>rimshot</em></p><p></p><p>Now, there's some cool stuff here in terms of fleshing out the island itself (new sites and random encounter tables, which I like despite Shannon Appelcline's snarky take on it over on the book's sales page on DriveThruRPG), and the rules for sending the Knorr "mechs" against the Charonti's necromantic creations. It even has a couple of new monsters, so it's not like there's nothing useful here, but if the previous books were bags full of groceries, this is a recipe book for a list of side dishes more than a primer on how to cook a four-course meal.</p><p></p><p>I mentioned before how Jeff Grubb conceived of Jakandor as being the setting for a campaign of modest length, one that you played over the summer before it reached its natural conclusion and your group moved on to something else. To that end, I really thought that this book would chart out a fairly clear campaign structure, providing a roadmap for the sort of buildup-climax-resolution you'd expect to see in a scenario where two differing nations sat on the brink of war.</p><p></p><p>But in many ways, this book follows Jakandor's style of subverting typical tropes, in this case refusing to provide any sort of simple (or "right") answer about which side is justified. A <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DebateAndSwitch" target="_blank">debate and switch</a> this is not, but at the same time it leans heavily away from wanting PCs of either culture to resolve things peacefully; certainly, a mixed party of Knorr and Charonti characters (the aforementioned mutual exiles notwithstanding) seems self-evidently off the proverbial table. The end result is that the players are likely going to recognize that their own side is being somewhat hypocritical, even as the book seemingly wants them to just go with it anyway and try to wipe the other guys out. Somehow I see more than a few groups not being entirely okay with that.</p><p></p><p>Ultimately, Jakandor is an interesting experiment, but if the players want to walk the tightrope to get the "best ending" (i.e. peace between the Knorr and Charonti), the DM is going to have to thread that needle on their own.</p><p></p><p><em>Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 8641700, member: 8461"] And now, to close out the Odyssey line in general and Jakandor in particular, we come to [I][S]Jakandor 3: This Time It's Personal[/S][/I] [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/204202/Jakandor-Land-of-Legend-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Jakandor, Land of Legend[/I][/URL]. Here is where the material of the first two books is put into a practical context, overviewing the nature of a Jakandor campaign and presenting several adventures in that regard. Needless to say, the whole thing's a bit of a mess. Okay, no, that's a bit unfair on my part. It's just that this book seems content to review the premises inherent to Jakandor as a setting, rather than showing how to truly build on them. After two prior books with a combined page-count of almost two hundred-fifty pages, I suppose I was expecting more out of a one hundred forty-four adventure book. I mean, I thought this would be the Jakandor equivalent of [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/12405/The-Great-Pendragon-Campaign?affiliate_id=820'][I]The Great Pendragon Campaign[/I][/URL] or something like that. Instead, it seems more like Jakandor's version of how the [I]Clue[/I] movie ended, offering different possibilities of varying plausibility. [MEDIA=youtube]SRd55I46th8[/MEDIA] I mean, an adventure where foreign characters arrive on Jakandor? Doesn't that necessarily imply that there's a wider world beyond the island, running completely counter to the deep-dives that the previous two products did on the internal politics that drove the Knorr and Charonti into conflict to begin with, which were predicated on both sides not realizing that there was a wider world beyond the sea? More notable than that, however, is this book's frank admission that a peaceful resolution between the Knorr and the Charonti is most likely impossible. While it has an adventure with a group of Knorr and Charonti outcasts living together in an old temple, that seems to be designed as the exception that proves the rule. The text here openly points out that, while the two civilizations are more similar than they might seem at first (both are ethnocentric societies whose values staunchly reject assimilating/incorporating other cultures into their own), their values run completely counter to one another, and so the thought of making peace with the other side is literally beyond the conception of most of their respective peoples. The back cover talks about how the campaign will "either unite the two nations or destroy them," but the latter seems far and away more likely than the former. And here I thought this was supposed to be a fantasy game, rather than a hot-take on America today. [I]rimshot[/I] Now, there's some cool stuff here in terms of fleshing out the island itself (new sites and random encounter tables, which I like despite Shannon Appelcline's snarky take on it over on the book's sales page on DriveThruRPG), and the rules for sending the Knorr "mechs" against the Charonti's necromantic creations. It even has a couple of new monsters, so it's not like there's nothing useful here, but if the previous books were bags full of groceries, this is a recipe book for a list of side dishes more than a primer on how to cook a four-course meal. I mentioned before how Jeff Grubb conceived of Jakandor as being the setting for a campaign of modest length, one that you played over the summer before it reached its natural conclusion and your group moved on to something else. To that end, I really thought that this book would chart out a fairly clear campaign structure, providing a roadmap for the sort of buildup-climax-resolution you'd expect to see in a scenario where two differing nations sat on the brink of war. But in many ways, this book follows Jakandor's style of subverting typical tropes, in this case refusing to provide any sort of simple (or "right") answer about which side is justified. A [URL='https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DebateAndSwitch']debate and switch[/URL] this is not, but at the same time it leans heavily away from wanting PCs of either culture to resolve things peacefully; certainly, a mixed party of Knorr and Charonti characters (the aforementioned mutual exiles notwithstanding) seems self-evidently off the proverbial table. The end result is that the players are likely going to recognize that their own side is being somewhat hypocritical, even as the book seemingly wants them to just go with it anyway and try to wipe the other guys out. Somehow I see more than a few groups not being entirely okay with that. Ultimately, Jakandor is an interesting experiment, but if the players want to walk the tightrope to get the "best ending" (i.e. peace between the Knorr and Charonti), the DM is going to have to thread that needle on their own. [I]Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.[/I] [/QUOTE]
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