Borderlands of Tear by Robert J. Schwalb is a role playing game supplement published by Schwalb Entertainment for use with Shadow of the Demon Lord. The supplement is part of the Lands in Shadow series that details parts of the Urth setting.
This is a 12 page PDF that is available from RPGNow for $3.49 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. Around a quarter of a page is the Credits; the vast majority is content.
The first page has an illustration and a paragraph on the Borderlands, which are the last place to be conquered by the Empire.
Written in Blood gives an overview of how the Borderlands came to be; Horus, the youngest son of the then-emperor, was exiled to the region and told to conquer it by his father, a region that had proved too dangerous to settle and no nation had ever successfully laid claim to it. Horus, wanting to get back to the capital Caecras and his indolent lifestyle, bent himself to successfully pacifying the region and exceeded anyone’s expectations. No longer wanting to return to the capital, he is now the governor. Horus is now the last heir to the Empire’s throne.
Scars of War covers the geography of the region and various points of interest and has a map of it. This takes up the largest amount of the supplement.
Tearans covers the types of people who live in the area, by profession rather than by race. Unlike many provinces, the different races live together far more harmoniously, although refugees from the recent turmoil are putting a strain on things.
Government and Politics covers several important NPCs; Horus, the governor, Eris, his advisor, Marshall Crellan Baslan, the commander of the armies and Bishop Mazen, the representative of the Cult of the New God, the official religion of the region, a bargain Horus made in exchange for troops.
Culture of War, Economy, Law and Order, Defense and Warcraft and Religion briefly cover these different areas. The Cult of the New God has more power than Horus would like, thanks to the deal he made with the Kingdom of God for troops in the beginning.
Adventures in Tear has a number of different adventure ideas, from ones that are mostly local to those that involve the greater political situation, such as tensions with the Grand Duchy of the West.
Finally, Tearan Characters gives the professions and ancestries available to such as well as a d20 background table that can replace one on the core rulebook.
Borderlands of Tear in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, although it is quite short, there are enough different sections that these would have been useful. The text maintains a full colour two column format and appeared almost error free. There are a number of full colour illustrations, up to about half a page in size, all of which may be custom. Presentation is excellent.
At 12 pages, this does not fully cover any site in the Borderlands in any great detail. Overviews are given of various places as well as points of interest and important NPCs that can be found there. There are plenty of potential adventure hooks scattered throughout the text, but any GM planning to really use Tear is going to have to develop some of the places in far more detail. In addition, although it is intended for Shadow of the Demon Lord, there are no game stats in the supplement at all – the closest is the background table – making it essentially system-neutral. The supplement does flesh out the Borderlands region in more detail than the core rulebook did, but there is plenty more that could be added. Borderlands of Tear is a nice, albeit short, regional supplement for Urth and it can be found by clicking here.
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