This article originally appeared in d20 Weekly
The Bloody Sands of Sicaris
Published by Paradigm Concepts
Written by Scott Charlton
32 b&w pages; $9.99
After establishing its Arcanis: the World of Shattered Empires campaign setting with the Canceri Chronicles trilogy, publisher Paradigm Concepts return with a second trilogy, the Coryani Chronicles. The first part of this trilogy is The Bloody Sands of Sicaris, a d20 system adventure designed for a party of four to six characters of 6th through 8th levels.
Paradigm Concepts made huge strides in the appearance and layout of its books during the latter stages of the Canceri Chronicles, and this continues with The Bloody Sands of Sicaris. Gone are the attractive-but-irrelevant Brom covers, replaced by a more workman-like (but relevant) depiction of a gladiatorial arena fight. Inside, the layout is clear and the art is (again) reasonable, though the thumbnail portraits accompanying each NPC are actually rather nice. After the hideous excuse for maps seen in The Spear of the Lohgin (the first of the Canceri Chronicles trilogy), the four in this adventure are a huge improvement. As in The Spear of Lohgin, Campaign Cartographer 2 is used to generate these maps . . . but here this program is used with competency. Yet they are still far from perfect. They do look good and can be read, but they are far too small for the amount of information they are trying to convey.
[SPOILER ALERT!]
The Bloody Sands of Sicaris involves the players in the politics of the Coryani Empire, when they are asked . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: August 21, 2002
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