For years the ice bound lands of the Great Northern Wilderness were quiet. The once mighty Elven Empire had watched over the vast forests for centuries until the ten thousand year long war with the Dwarven Kingdom erupted and chaos raged across the whole of the Palladium Fantasy world. At the end of the war, both powerful races were so devastated that neither would even regain enough power to even lay claim to a small city, much less rebuild what they once held. Humans moved to become the dominant race, and the Age of Man began. Yet, the powerful magic energies released in the terrible Elf Dwarf War has brought about some fearsome changes to the world. Take the northlands, for instance. Freely roaming these lost lands are entire races of bipedal canines. Not only are they able to walk erect like the other human like races of the world, but they are much larger than most humans, stronger, faster, and in many cases, smarter! The Wolfen have been created and entering this savage land quickly becomes Adventures in the Northern Wilderness!
More than a decade since the release of the Palladium Fantasy game by Kevin Siembieda, Kevin joins forces with his good friends Erick Wujcik, Kevin Long (co-creator of Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles) and Jeffery Gomez, among others. For years, the players of the game have wondered what the Wolfen are, how the Wolfen Empire came into being, why this strange race likes the Elves so and generally how they live as a civilization. At last, we are given the answers that have been hinted at during the first three volumes of this Role Playing Game.
Perhaps the most valuable information in this volume is the details about the weather and living conditions in the Great Northern Wilderness. Think of this North America sized landmass as Canada with an attitude. Then multiply that by around one hundred and you will have a vague idea of how bad things can get in the winter. It was directly due to one of these “killing winters” that the Wolfen Empire was formed.
The creative minds of Palladium go into great depth when describing the twelve major tribes of the Wolfen, the government of the Empire, its people (well, at least they are intelligent if not human) and the way the military is organized. The book also spends a little time on the economics and the education system. They even give the reader some examples of Wolfen writing and speech.
The secret of the Elves relation is alluded to during some of the six fully developed adventures that take up the bulk of this book. Most other gaming companies would have continued to give the customer tons of background information with only a few pages of real adventures to have fun with. Not so with Palladium. Of this 100-page volume, a mere 18 are devoted to background. The rest is all ready to play adventures and art for the pure enjoyment of the players. You can’t beat that with a stick!
About the only drawback of this book, when compared to the previous three, is that there isn’t any new classes or skills. There are new magic items, spells, weapons, and lots of development for the game world called Palladium Fantasy, though. Since most of this is in the form of adventures (something that had been sorely lacking from the game system until this release) that more than makes up for the other. One other thing is the fact that although Palladium Books has completely revised the Fantasy Game and re-released the first three books as a “2nd Edition” product, this one seems to have been overlooked, as have the next three. Palladium keeps saying that they are going to get around to upgrading these, but until that time, it makes it really hard to use much of this information with the current game system.
Recommended:
