Scarred Lands Campaign Setting: Ghelspad is a role playing game supplement published by Onyx Path Publishing for use with Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is a setting book for the Scarred Lands.
The supplement is available as a 258-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $12.99 and is also available in printed form from sites such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed although it was purchased at a reduced price during a sale. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one the front matter, one the Table of Contents, one the Open Game License and five are ads.
The single page Introduction explains that Ghelspad has greatly influenced the history of the Scarred Lands, giving some details, and explains what the supplement contains.
Chapter One: History of Ghelspad starts with the Titanic Epochs, which covers the different epochs, each associated with a different titan. This is written as if by a follower of the titans, accompanied by some text from another. Next is a sidebar covering the different calendars of Ghelspad, months, days and holidays. Another sidebar covers the moons, only one of which is given a name. The other is referred to but it is considered to be a symbol of ill omen and catastrophe. Next are the Ancient Empires which are covered in different levels of detail; more recent empires are covered in more detail, with one having all of its provinces covered. After this is The Titanswar, the battle between the gods and the titans, including what seem to be in-character accounts from various beings caught up in it, followed by the post-war nations where the gods are now supreme as well as certain events. This is followed by several current events and the languages of Ghelspad.
Chapter Two: The Gods of Ghelspad describes the current gods. This starts with a list of the gods, demigods and titans, together with alignment and domains for the gods and demigods and typical worshippers for all three. Serving the gods and other magic, accompanied by a sidebar on invocation, is followed by the gods covered in more detail, giving their names, descriptions, alignment, domains, holy symbols, favoured weapon and invocation benefits. After the gods, the titans are covered, giving their names, a description and how they were killed, something that may not be permanent, and their symbol.
Chapter 3: Nations of Ghelspad covers the various nations of the continent and takes up a substantial portion of the supplement. The nations are laid out in alphabetical order and each is described in a similar way. Each description begins with various stats; name, population, including its makeup, government, ruler, capital, including population, major cities, also including population, language, religion, currency, resources, allies and enemies. Next is the nation’s history, geography, including geographical features of interest, flora and fauna, people, culture, crime & punishment, religion, armed forces and cities. Cities may be just given an overview, or be mapped with various locations described.
Chapter Four: City-States of Ghelspad is similar to the previous chapter, and most city-states are laid out in the same way as the nations, starting with a stat block and continuing with the other details as seen for nations, except for one location, which is not an actual city-state. These city-states are covered in a similar level of depth to nations.
Chapter Five: Important Locations in Ghelspad covers other areas that are sparsely populated. Though in general they are covered in a similar way to the nations and city-states, they have less detail. Only a handful have the stat blocks and some of the other details are not covered, if they are not relevant. This section primarily covers geographical locations; mountains, woods, plains etc.
Chapter Six: Other Places of Note in Ghelspad covers a number of primarily geographical features in a few paragraphs or so for each.
Appendix: Prestige Classes has a number of these, all set out in a standard way. The aerial cavalier is a combatant skilled at fighting from an aerial mount. The Brotherhood of the Scarred Hand practice a special sort of healing. The forgemasters of Gleaming Valley are skilled weapon crafters. Gold Knights are paladins of Corean. Iron Knights also follow Corean and are skilled crafters and fighters. The Keepers of the Eternal Flame aid others. The Knights of the Moring Sky eradicate disease and destroy undead. Renewers seek to restore the land from the ravages of the war.
Finally, there is a two-page map of Ghelspad.
Scarred Lands Campaign Setting: Ghelspad in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks, probably because of its origin as a scanned document, and is long enough that these are really needed. The Table of Contents covers the major and major subsidiary sections. Navigation is poor. The text maintains a two-column black and white format and appeared to be mostly free of error. There are a variety of black and white illustrations, many of which, if not most, are custom. Presentation is decent.
This is a setting book for the Scarred Lands and, though originally written for D&D 3E, is still useful today. Most of the setting remains unchanged – there are apparently some minor tweaks – which means most of this supplement is still useful, where it be used with the 5E or Pathfinder version of the setting. Something like 90% of the book is setting detail, with most of the game stats being the prestige classes at the back, which could probably still be used with Pathfinder, with some tweaks.
The rest of the material only occasionally refers to game stats, which is generally no more than class and level of an NPC, some of which refer to other supplements for full details on the NPCs. Combined, this make Ghelspad still a useful supplement to obtain for anyone wanting to play in the Scarred Lands. Having a campaign book that is still viable for a setting close to two decades after its original release is unusual, and definitely useful. This supplement contains a wealth of background information for the setting, and is recommended as such for anyone planning to play in it, though it doesn’t contain much in the way of stats, if that’s what is wanted. Scarred Lands Campaign Setting: Ghelspad can be found by clicking here.
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