Over the last several months, Onyx Path Publishing has been releasing the rantings of a mad man, though some call him a sage. Even fewer are those who dub him “the Wise,” yet even those who scoff at the strange mage who lives alone in a strange tower, deep in the heart of the Fouled Forest, admit that he has a mind like no other. Yugman’s words carry weight, and now those words have been collected in Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad, available on DriveThru RPG.
Yugman the Sage calls the Scarred Lands campaign setting home, and stories of his existence reach back to the 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons guides released by Swords & Sorcery. Think of him as the Gandalf of the setting, or the Good Magician Humfrey, the Fizban. Beyond showing up in various campaign guides to spout off his opinion, he is the MacGuffin-wielder that a Dungeon Master can use to send adventurers on any number of quests. When Onyx Path Publishing, the current owners of the Scarred Lands property, decided to expand their 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons offerings, a guide penned by the quirky wizard was an obvious choice.
While some of the 5E Scarred Lands materials have been funded via Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns, others were released in a new, intriguing method using DriveThru RPG, where many of Onyx Path’s materials can be found. Rather than attempting to fund a full-length book amid many other ongoing projects (of which Onyx Path usually has many), Travis Legge, the line developer for the Scarred Lands, chose to release Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad in pieces spread out throughout 2020, releasing every other month. This gave Legge the opportunity to refine the offerings that appeared in these smaller bites, so that when it came time, Onyx Path could put all those pieces together for the Collected Volume. This method has also been their release plan for another series, Vigil Watch, which builds on lore for various locations across the continent of Ghelspad which the Scarred Lands Player’s Guide introduced, though was shallow on details. For those who purchased at least four chapters of the Yugman’s series, the Collected Volume was placed in their DriveThru RPG library at no extra cost. Furthermore, Onyx Path is continuing to collect play test feedback from the public prior to finalizing the text for a print-on-demand offering.
So, what does Yugman share with the curious readers of his Guide? Lots. There are player options such as newly available races to class archetypes, spells, and a large collection of backgrounds. For the Dungeon Master, new societies that make their mark on the setting, as well as many new magical items to use as treasure, wait within the pages. The book culminates in a chapter that breaks down Peoples and Heritages, a new offering for players who wish to shrug off the stereotypical views of a “player race.”
Social Backgrounds
The Scarred Lands Player’s Guide differs from the Player’s Handbook for character background options. In the Scarred Lands, players have the choice of giving their characters both a Social and a Regional background, creating a great deal of diversity even among those who may choose similar histories for their characters. While Regional backgrounds grant characters knowledge and skills based on where they grew up, Social backgrounds do so by building on the people they were around and the activities they took part in during those years.
Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad not only provides 21 new backgrounds, but each is built on a society unique to the Scarred Lands setting, fleshing out lore for those societies for both the players and Dungeon Master. Now characters can have direct ties to secret societies such as the Cult of the Ancients, an organization of assassins that can be found in almost every city across the world, or they may hail from Hollowfaust, city of necromancers, where the undead are an everyday experience and knowledge of the dead is as common as that of the living. A mercenary may be a part of the highly respected Legion of Ash, while a warmage may have attended Glamerhill, a war college in Darakeene. These new social backgrounds help to flesh out interesting and integral histories for characters, giving them more life tied to the rich lore of the setting.
Classes
Every class from the Player’s Handbook gets attention by Yugman, who has included 24 archetypes for players to choose from. Rangers and rogues get the heavier share of that number, with five archetypes each, while most of the other classes include only one new option.
Races
This chapter introduces seven options for characters, though two may seem quite familiar to those who play D&D in the Forgotten Realms. The Scarred Lands Player’s Guide made no mention of how half-elves and half-orcs fit into the setting, though they were referred to many times in the older edition lore. This reintroduction separates the two half-breeds from their Player’s Handbook versions, allowing players to choose traits from their parental lineages and not glomming all of them into half-breed traits.
Another race that has made an appearance before is the hollow legionnaire, which appeared for the first time in the Scarred Lands Player’s Guide. The optional rules that are in Yugman’s Guide give an alternate view of how this spirit-in-a-construct-body can be played.
A new subrace of dwarves, the Broadreach or Wood dwarves, is updated from their 3rd Edition origin for today’s 5th Edition players. Though their numbers dwindled to almost nothing, these hearty dwarves are still found fighting for survival in Ghelspad.
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The minotaurs are reimagined from their Monster Manual version as creations of the Earthmother, Denev. They are a race of healers, set forth to preserve life and mend the broken earth. A new city, Dromyas, is mentioned as their home high in the Titanshome Mountains.
The scrag are massive sea trolls created by one of the fallen titans. With the defeat of their creator, however, they are diminished in size and power, and struggle to hold on to what territories they once ruled over. Many have simply given up on their fallen empire, and now wander the waves of the world seeking something more, some new meaning to their existence.
The tritons are the funhouse mirror to the scrag, a race of sea dwelling humanoids that were created by the god Corean to be his force under the surface of the vast oceans of Scarn. They were instrumental in defeating the Titanspawn armies that rose up from the waters during the Divine War, and now control much of the territories once lorded over by the scrag and other, worse creations of the Titans. Unfortunately, many of the tritons who dwelled in what is now known as the Blood Sea have been tainted, twisted in mind and form by the terrible corruption that bleeds into the waters there. The triton entry in Yugman’s Guide has two subraces, giving players the option of choosing between clearwater or blood-tainted.
Equipment and Magical Items
The guide gives players and Dungeon Masters access to 20 new items, some mundane and many magical. Some are updated, taken from the prior edition lore, while some are new creations.
Spells
Introducing an impressive 63 spells to the 5th Edition setting, this section updates many spells from 3rd Edition, but also offers some new creations as well. Most notably, many of the spells for the new Venom Domain are unique offerings. And what caster is complete without goodies such as Mormo’s Serpent Hands or Armor of Undeath (formerly known as corpse armor). No child’s party is over until the wizard turns his hands into writhing snakes while wearing Grandpa as armor. Now now, just because Grandpa died three weeks ago is no reason to scream.
In addition to typical spells, Yugman’s Guide included a dozen new true rituals, intricate spells that require more than one caster to complete.
Families and Heritages
Probably my favorite section of Yugman’s Guide, Peoples of the Scarred Lands introduces to the setting the idea that it is not only who your parents are, but the people who were around as you grew that shape your abilities. While genetics play a hefty part of what a character is capable of, the culture around them may have trained them in ways different than what may be assumed is typical. A dwarf raised by elves, for example, may know more about magic and the use of a bow than if they had been raised by dwarves. This section does well in expressing the hows and whys of abilities and knowledge, whether they be genetic or learned. It includes all races from the Scarred Lands Player’s Guide, as well as those introduced throughout Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad.
Final Thoughts
As a Scarred Lands fan, I am extremely excited about this book and the offerings it has for players. While Onyx Path Publishing has officially only produced two books for the 5th Edition version so far (the Scarred Lands Player’s Guide and the Scarred Lands Creature Collection), there is a lot of lore that came about during the 3rd Edition days, and it is awesome to see more of that being updated for the present game. The new additions are refreshing and give players even more to use in their campaigns. Furthermore, the book carries on a tradition from the older edition, giving up sections of dialogue from Yugman himself, as well as Zarra, a traveler of the land who has her own insights into the workings of the world and the people that make each day an adventure.
Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad is available in PDF and Print-On-Demand on DriveThru RPG.