A small group of adventurers have wondered into a village that has made claims of greatness. While visiting, they get word of a powerful being who lives nearby. This person needs a service, and is willing to pay for it. All he wants is to get a message delivered to an old friend of his. All means of communication have failed for some reason, so he must rely on the more mundane methods of a message sent by hand. The job seems simple enough, ,but as the group travels to the deep reaches of the Old Kingdom Mountains they soon find themselves on a trip to the Island at the Edge of the World!
This is the sixth sourcebook for the Palladium Fantasy RPG, but unlike the others this one has a defined plot to the way the adventures flow. In the past, the various adventures were little more than outlines for the Game Master to tie together into an overall story line, or (as it happens in most cases) allows the GM to through a bunch of unrealated adventures at a group and leave them no over all plot to go on.
Island completely redefines the future of Palladium Fantasy by giving the GM a set in stone adventure series all in a single volume. By doing this, it leaves the GM little choice but to follow through with the full adventure once he commits his players to it.
The basic idea of the whole thing is to get the players to travel to this remote location (it is known how to get there) and find a certain mage who might be able to solve a problem that is going on further south. Except that seems to be the major problem. All manner of magic methods of sending a message have failed, as have most mundane sendings. Either the mage isn't getting the plea for help or he is unable to respond. Either way, a group of adventurers is needed to find him.
Find him they will, after several false starts, in a valley that has signs of predating the great Elf-Dwarf War. Many items of the lost forms of magic are still in use in this valley, to include a great artifact of immense power. But this isn't the adventure! All the players have to do here is get the mage and get out.
Then they all take a trip to a colony that this mage had established (this is where the real problem is) for the changling race that has long since been thought to have been wiped out. It is here that the book gets its name, because just beyond the island the edge of the world has started moving closer and threatens to consume the whole world if left unchecked. Now the players have to figure out why the edge is moving and stop it if possible.
This book sets up many cool things about the Palladium Fantasy world. Although it had been alluded to in previous volumes, this one firmly establishes that the world is FLAT! It has a defined edge and to attempt to pass through the wall of darkness that is that "edge" is instant death
The myth that Changlings are dead as a race has been compltely dispelled as well. Granted, many previous adventures would have the players either working with or fighting against one of these shape shifters, but the race as a whole had been considered destroyed in the great hunts long ago. Only a few escaped that dark period and they fear to reveal themselves.
We also get a look at one of the lost magics, Crystal Magic. Sad to say, the means of making the crystal magic items has been lost to time, but many of the artifacts remain and there are even some that the characters can take along with them. Not without a price, mind you.
Of course there is the fantastic campaign for the players to follow in this volume, but there is also at least a dozen non related adventures that the GM can send them off on as well. The magic items are a nice bonus to any game, but there is a slight drawback about this volume of the game books.
That downfall is the fact that it was only printed in a single format, pre 2ND Edition format. If a GM wants to run the games in this volume he would have to either have a 1st Edition game or avoid the really cool "edge of the world" and "crystal valley" adventures since those just don't translate into 2nd Edition rules very well.
Even so, the bulk of the book is an excelent source of ideas and there are even about a dozen adventures that the GM would be able to update to 2nd Edition rules without very much effort. I recently heard that the fourth and fifth books are about to be combined into an all new volume for 2nd Edition rules, so I suspect that this volume will be next after that.
Even if you never have the chance to run any of the adventures as a GM, I would have to sugest getting one of these books for the mere bacground info and the non player characters. Most of this stuff will be easy to update to the current games, but I also think it would be best to await the 2nd Edition update (I can see this coming next year or even before the end of this year) before allowing your players to go too far in this one.
This is a great book, but I would have to advise those who only play to stay out of this one. Much of the adventure would be spoiled if you actually take time to read the volume
Recommended:
