When I backed the Kickstarter for "The Dungeon Delver's Guide", I also took the opportunity to pick up the setting book for Zeitgeist. This was used in an Adventure Path that I have neither run nor read - it is well-regarded, but I didn't have an immediate use and so I skipped it.
Zeitgeist posits a semi-industrial world, with firearms and steam trains, printing presses and even photography. Some of this is magical, some technological. In that regard, it was somewhat reminiscent of Eberron, and indeed much of the sensibility of the world was similar, which is no bad thing.
The material was presented well, and covered all the subjects that might be expected - peoples, nations, history, running the campaign, and so on and so forth. And it was interesting enough. Except...
As I read the book, I did find myself thinking this was all nice, but what should we do with it? And while that was somewhat solved when I got to the final chapter (dealing with campaign styles), I did find myself left with more questions than answers. Which is a shame - this is a setting I could see myself really enjoying, but no campaign ideas leapt out at me.
That said, there's a whole bunch of material in there that I do fully intend to extract for my own use, notably the rules for firearms, and some of the new mechanical options. So that's good - certainly, I don't feel that I wasted my money.
So, can I recommend? Honestly, I'm not sure. I liked the style, but...
Make of that what you will.
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