Beggars Review & Bargain Hovel: Unexplored Wilderness?
We all know about the 18 plus Wilderlands Campaign Maps and the various campaign/adventure books that come with various Judges Guild Modules and City State Sets:
First Fantasy Campaign, City State of the Invincible Overlord, City State of the World Emperor, Thunderhold/Sunstone, Ravenscrag, and the basic Wilderlands Sets; Fantastic Wilderlands Beyonde {67}, Wilderlands of High Fantasy {48}, Wilderlands of the Fantastic Reaches {300}, and Wilderlands of the Magic Realm {52}). There are others of course, smaller adventure sets that might or might not include separate maps.
The Wilderlands and City State sets listed above offer many adventures, enough to keep any group of adventures and judges busy for years and years… but what if the players (or the Judge) want to do something different, go somewhere else? What if the Players Characters suddenly decide to wonder off from the City States and the other better-known areas of the Wilderlands seeking adventures in the relatively unknown parts of the Wilderlands; what if the Characters decide to carve out a kingdom, or a New City State of their own making?
Well, you (The Judge) are in luck, as there are more Judges Guild books that offer you so much more information about the areas covered by those huge Campaign maps. The five books listed below include detailed locations related to specific areas that coincide with and greatly enhance the information provided in those larger campaign sets of the Wilderlands. And yes, the Hex systems for the maps inside the books do match the Wilderlands maps.
The Five Wilderness Supplement books for the Judges Guild Fantasy (D&D related) Wilderlands Campaign detail additional parts of the hex grids for the 18 Wilderlands campaign maps and add more information to the main Wilderlands sets (See first paragraph above). The Five Wilderness Supplements listed below include small area hex maps (all inside the books), with grid systems and numbering that match the larger campaign maps. As a combined group; these very helpful Campaign books include hundreds of pages of information on NPC's, towns, villages, lairs, caverns, resource information, ports (for Island, sea and river adventures), and so much more. They also include at least one adventure in each book, with scenarios and adventure hooks for many others.
I have listed the Five Wilderlands Supplement Books below with the Judges Guild Acaeum's page linked. I have also included the following information to (hopefully) ease your search efforts a bit: Wilderlands campaign book number, the title of the book, the Judges Guild Product Number, number of pages.
Wilderness Book One: Mines of Custalcon (111), 48 Pages.
http://www.acaeum.com/jg/Item0111.html
Wilderness Book Two: Spies of Lightelf (270), 48 pages.
http://www.acaeum.com/jg/Item0270.html
Wilderness Book Three: Shield Maidens of Sea Rune (1010), 80 pages.
http://www.acaeum.com/jg/Item1010.html
Wilderness Book Four: Pirates of Hagrost (1020), 48 pages.
http://www.acaeum.com/jg/Item1030.html
Wilderness Book Five: Witches Court Marshes (1090), 80 pages.
http://www.acaeum.com/jg/Item1090.html
Some of you might be thinking, "I have the
D20 Wilderlands of High Fantasy Box Set the hardbound CSIO book and the soft bound Players handbook, So what do I need this cheap old stuff for?"
Well my friend, even though the
D20 Box Set, the
D20 CSIO Book, and
D20 Wilderlands Player's handbook have gobs of updated information, none of them have even close to the detailed information to be found in the Five Wilderlands Supplements. At best the
D20 tomes offer a paragraph or two for each area (or town). Those places are described in much greater detail in the five Wilderlands Supplements and there are far more places that those
D20 offerings do not even mention at all. The
D20 tomes do not detail the featured NPCs, or buildings in the towns and other places either.
The best thing about all of the Five Wilderness Supplements above is that NONE of them are hard to find on E-Bay and elsewhere. They are also complete with just the book (no loose maps to go missing), and none of them are high priced (Except for some big sellers who place a high price on almost anything). ALL of them can be found for $10 or less on E-Bay, most times in the original shrink-wrap.
I went on a treasure hunt hoping to obtain at least one copy of each of the supplemental Wilderlands Books above and I recently finished the search. I spent less than $6 per book total, counting all the different shipping charges! That comes to over 300 pages of fun for around a nickel (US 0.05) per page!
Now that is what I call a Beggars Bargain!
