Speaking of Barsaive, here is the Barsaive box set (1993), a welcome treatment of the lands players will live in and explore in most Earthdawn campaigns. Of the box sets, it’s probably the most needed but also in some ways the least interesting.
Inside: two books, one for GMs, one an in-world document for use by players (cute that the designers thought players would read 120+ of setting material). I have several sheets of reference cards and a couple pieces of an incomplete cardboard sextant, but I am missing the map. My box set has the screen and the Gamemastering Earthdawn booklet jammed in there, though, so probably a wash, all things considered.
I find the player book doesn’t hold my attention. It’s not a snoozefest like a Forgotten Realms region sourcebook — there are tons of cool/scary/goopy ideas here. But the player-facing nature of the text makes it all squishy for me. None of this is necessarily true, you know? As GM, I can accept and subvert that as I wish. I mean, I can do that with the GM material, too, but that text has some weight and intention to it that I often find missing in ’90s player stuff. The GM book is annoyingly brief. The tastiest bit is the long section on NPCs of the region, which gives lots of usable details for scenarios. The secret societies chapter comes in second.
As ever, the art is what keeps me coming back. A lot of very scary Earl Geier in here. He would take the prize except I can’t stop looking at Laubenstein’s character portraits. Also inside are Joel Biske, Steve Bryant, Liz Danforth, Jim Nelson, Robert Nelson, Mike Nielson and Tony Szczudlo. Blas Gallego did the cover and I think it nicely captures the ruined overlands and the creeping menace of what I presume is a cracked Kaer settlement or pre-Horrors structure.
